I kind of left my last email in an abrupt
ending (cliff hanger hanging from a cliiiiff! And that's why he's called
cliff hanger! I hope some of you got that...) but it was understandable
because, hey I'm a mom now and it was kinda a surprise to me too. But I
will get on to the good stuff.
So approximately... 27 minutes after i
left ya'll hanging, I had quite the experience that I will add to the
book I am currently writing called "Mission Misfortunes that would ONLY
happen to Hermana Rust" (No I am not currently writing this, but it's
got a nice ring right?) So we were walking in the plaza waiting to go
eat because I was starvin marvin from fasting the day before (But I was
spiritually full!) but we were waiting fooooorreeeeevvveeer for these
other hermanas to print some pictures. I had just gotten the news that I
would be expecting soon (my comp) and I was all flustered and trying to
figure out how my name had even been suggested for this calling and my
mind was a mess and I think it caused my limbs to go a little... wonky.
You'll find out how so soon. So I was hanging on Hermana McMahon's arm
because I was just a tad faint from lack of food and understanding, and I
looked at her and whined (yes dad I still whine...) "Hermana McMahon
lets go eat I'm Hungry!!!" at the same time I swung my arm, rather
strongly, in the direction that I wanted to go. Well When I did that, I
felt my arm hit something, or mejor dicho, someone, and I heard a crack.
I whipped around and behind me I found with what, or who, my arm had
crashed. A poor tourist had walked up behind me at the same time that I
swung and I totally punched her in the nose! I was so embarrassed and so
worried that at first I didn't even know what language to speak because
I'm a white girl in Peru who punched a tourist in the face! Like what do
you do to that? So I spluttered out something like "Oh my gosh! I'm
so... Perdoname! Sorry! Ahhh!" And then I covered my tag because it's
like I don't want her to hate Mormons because of me! Well she didn't say
anything, just held her nose, and then walked away. It was bien
uncomfortable and I felt foolish all day. Because I totally punched a
tourist in the nose. The adventures and mortifying moments continue.
Well
there's that. Now I'll get onto the more important stuff. Like how I
have a daughter! First things first, her name is Hermana Rodriguez. She
is from Trujillo and she is 22 years old. My daughter is older than
me... awks. But she's really sweet, really quiet, but doesn't hesitate
to correct my Spanish. So she gets straight 10's from me! When I got to
Cusco to pick her up, I was soooo nervous. Like I wanted to cry. Before I
left, I had our zone leader give me a blessing and he told me in it
that sure, right now I didn't think I knew a lot, not sufficient to
train another person, but that I would find that I knew enough. And that
we would grow together. Well when I heard that, I was a little stubborn
and was like "Well yeah I know I don't now a lot! But how am I gonna
learn from someone that knows even less than me?!" but then, when we
were sitting in the chapel, waiting to know who our comps were going to
be, they brought in all the newbies and asked them what they expected
from their trainers. And one of the girls, not my comp but another, said
that she wanted someone who also expected to learn, not just to teach
and be in charge. And that really hit me. I was like, hey that's what my
blessing said, so you know, I can do this. I can teach someone and they
can teach me. That's how the gospel works right. We help each other in
the areas that we lack. So after that I felt a little better. And then I
felt a wave of relief when I found that she was Latina and could speak
and I wasn't left solo in that area. But yeah that was good. And she's
super into doing everything right, she wants to work hard, just walk
slow because she isn't quite used to how thin the air is here yet. Which
I totally get because it happened to me. But I reflected on how little
I knew when I got her almost 5 months ago (can you believe that?!) and
how I couldn't speak Spanish in any way shape or form and how much I
really have learned in this time. And now I can really see that it is a
miracle. That I can understand my companion and she can understand me,
that I can converse (is that a word) with the members here, how I can
challenge people to be baptized, how I can give our breve informe (I
don't know how to say that in ingles) every Sunday, how I know how to
set goals and work toward them, how I know how to get off the combi in
the right spot and I know where Jr. Carabaya is. Like its literally
incredible to me that I can do these things. And there my promise has
been fulfilled. That I know more than I thought I did. And I know it's
all through the grace of my Heavenly Father. I know that he is with me
through 100% of this. And its incredible. It really is something special
to recognize the miracles in your life. The miracles you have had for
bastante tiempo and just didn't notice hasta ahora. It's soooooo coool.
Well
that's all I have to say about that. And now I'm going to focus on
myself because IT WAS MY BIRTHDAY AND NOW I HAVE 20 YEAR AND I KNOW
THAT'S NOT RIGHT BUT WHO CARES!? My birthday was interesting. First ,
because It was the day after I got my hija and she didn't know it was
my birthday until Hermana Baker ran into my room Friday morning with
breakfast and screamed "Happy Cumpleanos!" So that was a little awkward,
but then she was really sweet all day. But Yeah Hermana Baker and
Tirrell made me breakfast, pancakes with chin chins (Peruvian equivalent
to m&ms) and mango! It was really good. And then later that day we
went to our pension, Hermana Eli, and she had a cake for me there and
they all sang to me and it was so sweet I love them so much. She like
taped balloons on the wall and bought me Inca Kola Because I crave that
stuff in the worse way and yeah it was super sweet. She just kept taking
pictures of me and yeah. And then they have you take a bite out of the
cake right? Well my comp shoved my face in the cake and I had it all up
my nose but it was fun! Theeeen that night we had our ward mission night
and that all went normally until the end. The Elders, Elder Bodily and
Elder Tucto, left before us and I ran after them because I needed to
give them a card that one of the Hermanas Left for a member. So I run
out and call out to them and I see this giant carton of eggs in their
hands. It's tradition here that when it's someones birthday, you just
attack them with eggs! So I saw the eggs, screamed "NO!!" and took off!
Someone grabbed me by my jacket, but I ripped it off and ran and in the
process one of my shoes fell off. I'm a regular ol Cinderella. But
instead of a prince delivering my shoe to me with an engagement ring in
tote, I had to run back and get my shoe and found that there was an egg
cracked in it. In my leather shoe!! Because I ran into the church,and
obviously the elders couldn't throw eggs in there, they decided it was
still fulfilling tradition to put an egg in my shoe. I wasn't amused.
But yeah those were the adventures of my birthday! Oh also today we had a
zone conference this morning and because the zone leaders and the
hermana Leaders were in Cusco on my birthday, they brought a cake to the
zone meeting, in which Hermana Baker shoved my face again. I'm going to
have such bad acne. Well that's all I got this week. IT was a fun week
and I'm looking forward to training and learning From Hermana Rodriguez
and all that jazz.
Thanks for the prayers and words of encouragement
from you guys! Because this email is so dang long, I'm not going to have
anytime to respond to people personally, but thank you for the birthday
wishes and I love you all and hope everyone is avoiding punching
tourists in the nose and eggs in their shoes. The Gospel is true, and
we're all gonna work real hard to share it to everyone right?! Right!
Well have a lovely week and remember who you are and what you stand for
and to make good choices and don't do anything Lauren wouldn't do (that's
for you Ansley!)
Con mucho amor,
Hermana Rust con 20 anos!
First dinner. I remember this moment in my own mission... es bien rarro.
Salchipapa. it's a staple here.
My Hija!!!
Us in the plaza de Armas in cusco!
This is the breakfast Baker and Tirrell made. I'm a hot mess, but hey... that's all I got.
En la casa de Hna Eli
Queremos que muerda la torta!
Oh quick explanation about this! Hermana Gonzalez knew that she wouldn't be here for my birthday, so she made this sign and then took it to Manchu Pichu and took a picture with it! Then that night the hermanas gave me the sign and this picture! How sweet is that!? Oh and that's Elder Zerillo. He also went home. He was my district leader.
This is Silvia! Last night we went to her Despedida! She has come with us in our citas since my first day here, and now she's leaving on her mission today! She's going to Guadalajara ( I have no idea how to spell that) in mexico!
This is a dog that the elders gave me for my birthday because a dog bit me all that time ago and they still think it's funny.
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