HOLY COW only 1 More Pday
Hello hello there! :)
Well, this is it. My.last.week. in the mission. and it feels
super funny. but fyi--i do have ONE more pday after this one. So emails from
family are still appreciated for next week :) hint hint. thank you :)
Being my last week is a buttload of emotions...and it
honestly doesn't feel like that's all i have left. its just like im in this super
surreal bubble and yet it does. idk how to explain it but heres the best way i
can put it..........
So you know when you have a relative dying in the hospital?
Like they are super old and you know they are about to die. You know that that
honestly is gonna be the best thing for them to move on but, at the same time
you don't want them to go and you re like sad......well that's kind of how i feel.
I don't have any fears about coming home. Like I'm not afraid of it anymore. I
know that Ive served a great mission, that I have worked hard and that in order
for me to progress even more I have to move on and go home-otherwise I'm just running
away and that's not what the Lord intended missions to be. My mission has meant
everything to me. I have put all of me into it-i have had some of the best
times and also some of the worst times. My mission has pushed me to the
extremes physically, emotionally and spiritually. My heart is here. So much of
me is here that it hurts a bit feeling like I'm being torn from it. And yet I
know that God is going to take care of me. One of my mission friends put it
into awesome words yesterday: "You wont be left with nothing. Sometimes
the Lord challenges us and asks us to lay on the line more than we think we can
take. to put so much out there to be sacrificed that it looks like the only
possible outcome is disaster. But time would prove that when we have faith enough
to follow through that God wont leave us hanging, he not only fills that gap in
us but, expands us beyond our original preconceived capacity and abilities. As
much as it seems like you re leaving so much of you behind, you re really just
storing it up for the future." And that is so true. Things are going to be
great and I know it. God is just now giving me the opportunity to use all of
what I've learned here in the mission for my real life. and my vida normal
is gonna be great. :) Mom and DAD suuuuuure hope you re ready for this! :) I am
really looking forward to some family time hope you know that! :)
This week has been awesome and this one to come is going to
be EVEN better.
Biggest Miracle of the week: The Chavez family got their
Marriage License! :) We went over on Monday and talked to the Dad-Ernesto
about asking to leave work early one day so that we could go pick up the
license and pretexto after pretexto and finally he went and did. we went with
them to the office on Friday and guess who got to be the translator? yep. me.
oh. boy. that story will be in the lessons learned section of the letter :) But
good news is that I must have done somewhat of a decent job at it-cause we got
their license! :) So the plans for this week are wedding on Friday and Family
Baptism on Saturday! :)
The coolest thing happened with that yesterday--we had
correlation with the ward yesterday to go over the missionary work and stuff
and we told them how the familia chavez were gonna get married this week and I
am not gonna lie-I've been kind of stressing out about how to plan for a
wedding, 4 baptisms, pack my things, and say bye to everyone all within 8
days...not to mention that the familia chavez isn't really super expecting
anything great and wonderful for their wedding either. but we go in and
immediately all of the people in the meeting get super excited. the relief
society pres and the elders quorum pres immediately start talking about how
they'll be in charge of food and decorations and that the young men pres will
take care of the music and basically have the whole wedding planned out right
there within 5 minutes. President Vivas (EQP) turns to us and says--don't worry
about anything for the wedding. we've got it taken care of. Our ward is
seriously the best ward ever. and they have really just welcomed this family in
with open arms and been a HUGE stress reliever for us that I know that this
family is being taken care of waaaaaaay good. I am super excited!
Second biggest miracle of the week: I made it through my departing
testimony alive on thursday.
It was zone conference this week in Joliet and boy was it
great. it was my last one and it was everything i needed. I didn't eat too much
at lunch due to the amount of nerves that were in my body. its tradition in our
mission and I'm pretty sure everywhere else that when it is your last zone
conference meeting those who are leaving get up and bear their departing
testimonies. basically their last testimony in front of all their fellow
missionaries. and well guess who's turn it was? yep mine. there are six of us in
our zone that are leaving at the end of this next week with me. and i was asked
to bear my testimony last.....just to draaaaaag out the nausea for that much
longer. right? well i not only gave that. but i feel really good about what i
said. i followed the spirit and didn't even cry :) (i was the only sister not to
hahaha) Then I was also part of my last special musical number in the mission
and it was an awesome song and really fun to play. ill have to show it to you
when i get home. :)
As for lessons learned this week:
I do not have the Spanish vocabulary for legal talk.
So we get to the civil offices to pick up the marriage
license with the chavez familia. and we get there and their translator is on a
break and wont be back for a while. welllllllll we had Matilde (mom)
Ernesto(dad) Chu chin(the 2 yr old) and Pilar(the 4yr old) with us...let me
paint this picture of how odd we look here in this office.......this mexican
family, with Pilar jumping off the walls shes so hyper due to amount of candy
that Hna Alvey gave her, and 2 white girls in skirts trying to speak
spanish....needless to say it was a bit crazy. so the lady (who is super
intimidating) asks me if ill be the translator and then tells me that i have the
hardest job and gives me this whole huge legal spill about how i need to say
EXACTLY what she says in spanish to them and then repeat to her EXACTLY what
they say to her but shes talking so fast i cant remember all the instructions
shes giving me except of all the legal responsibilities i have and that if i
don't complete it the way she says then you can say---no marriage license. First
words to then come out of her mouth for what i need to translate: " do
you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the
truth." uhhhhhhhhhhhhh. first off. I don't know what the word for solemnly
is. second off the word swear? really? "well maybe we should just wait for
the translator." the lady then laughs and gets rid other intimidating
manner and says it'll be all good. so i do the best i can. but i seriously don't
have the vocab to do legal work. give me a gospel term and BAM i got it
covered. but law things....count me out.
If you see something on the ground that looks long and
skinny and that it shouldn't be there. don't wipe it away.
Here's what happened: Last week after emails we went to a
park and played basketball for a bit and then did some sidewalk chalking. well
I'm watching Alvey draw on the sidewalk and shes drawing this really cool
picture but then she stops...cause these long skinny things that shouldn't be on
the sidewalk are in her way. so what does she do? Yep starts brushing them
away. I'm so flabbergasted at what she is doing it takes me a while to get out
my words. I finally am able to muster out "ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm
thats.goose.poop." She stops. looks at her hand-as it then has goose feces
smeared allllllllllll over it. and all that comes out of her mouth:
"oh." I DIED laughing. ummmmmmmm thats goose poop. Come to find
out that she thought it was weird grass. but no. instead shes got crap smeared
all over her hand and it stinks. baaaaad.
When leaving your apartment its a good idea to make sure
that one of you have the keys.
This past Wednesday was seriously the most epic day ever.
From beginning to end. My email could be filled from lessons learned on this
day. Started at 8 am that morning..... Alvey and I are quietly doing our
studies for the day and then Alvey asks---wait-don't we have an appt for our car
this morning? I had totally forgotten that the day before i had scheduled an
appt with our car for wed morning (there was some safely recall on the car
that needed to be fixed) and immediately -oh shoot. yes. we do. Hna Alvey
starts busting out laughing and asks what time its at....me I'm not laughing at
all. i look at the clock-its 8am our appt is at 8:15. I look at her--we gotta
go. boom lets go. we are gonna make it. From PJ's to pros in a total of 5
minutes we are out the door. at the dealership for our appt on time. We are in
the waiting room for a good 2 hours while they fix it. studying and stuff. well
they come out and as good dealerships and mechanics do they then proceed to
tell me all the other things that are wrong with the car that we need to get
done....I call Elder Lines and he says just to get it all done. So we go BACK
to the dealer and are there for another 2 more hours......well because we have
zone conference on Thursday we made Wednesday our weekly planning day and did I
mention that the weather here has been insanely awesome?!! like in the 70s and
80s...record warm weather for Illinois in march. if its like this now boy oh
boy do i feel bad for those missionaries here in July.....they are going to be
swimming and it wont be in a pool of water...but in the pool of their sweat.
ill be in the pool of water :p anyways so we get going on our weekly planning
and finally get our car--there is still so much more left we need to plan so we
get home and decide that its been so nice outside---why don't we do weekly
planning outside?! cool. so out we go. well couple things happen in that
moment. 1. i still have yet to shower. 2. i have no shoes. 3. i have no money
4. alvey is in her PJ's 5. our keys are inside. locked safely in our apartment.
and 6. our landlord cant come unlock our door for at least another 1.5 hours.
so we are officially locked out of our apartment. completely stuck. and looking
rather homeless. but does that slow us down or make us stress out.oh heck no!
:) we finished our weekly planning, watched the clouds, completely decked out
our front porch in sidewalk chalk and played a game of basketball. Our landlord
showed up laughing at us and let us in and through all of that we were indeed
still able to teach five lessons that day! :) pretty sweet huh? hahaha don't
sweat the small stuff. :) Just enjoy it.
Other epic thing that happened this week-that actually
happened on our epic Wednesday was we got a phone call. from the stake
president. President Peterson. And he has a a quarterly meeting with all the
bishops and their counselors every quarter and asked us to go and speak for a
bit on what makes us successful missionaries and getting the bishops excited to
do missionary work. It was such a neat opportunity and the spirit was there
super strong. they then had a q and a with us after and it was pretty cool. We
have some awesome bishops and stake presidency here in Naperville. kind of
really surprised me-president Peterson knew when i was going home and where i
was from and it completely caught me off guard.
Then on Sunday the bishop asked me completely on the spot to
share what i had shared the other day at the meeting--but this time in spanish.
and oh man. this week i have had to do more on the spot public speaking in
front of leaders of the church than i have my whole mission. and its been
really neat to feel the spirit right there with me the whole time.
Well this email is getting super long and i feel like i have
sooooo much more i could share. but I love you tons and hope you have a great
week! make it a good one :) its your last one before the trouble maker timbo
maughan gets home and rocks your world! hahahaha
I love you all! take care
paz y amor,
Hermana Maughan
