Wow, was Grandma’s thing really a year ago? Whoa. I am really glad that passed. That was a scary time; that’s for sure. Glad she’s healthy. I love our family. Cool fact about Riss’s president, as well. Hopefully she gets special treatment - haha
Also, sorry about your cousin... you are probably at the funeral right now. I hope that is going well for you and the rest of the family. You can think about the falcon, too. He never got a funeral.
Thank you for taking those letters around. It means a lot to me.
CAN YOU SEND ME A WEDDING INVITATION FOR CAMILLE?!?!
:) I floss and wear my retainer on occasion – about twice a week for the retainer, and close to 5 times a week for the floss. Can’t go about letting my pearly whites get all cavity infested! Not me.
ANOTHER RAFTING TRIP FOR JEFF? I was unaware that he went on a first one!!! Have him email me! It’s been too long since I have heard from my pal.
Glad you celebrated national ice cream day. We had forgotten about it until Sunday, and it was too late to buy any, darn. So sad, but I don’t really like the ice cream here; makes me sick. So I might stop eating it. Probably not, but for now, yes.
Dad, thank you for the weekly report. I feel like these emails serve like a journal, and it’s great. So keep it up!
Mom, I am excited for you to speak. You can let everyone know that I love my mission, and I am doing well. Also, I love that talk. I feel like I have been blessed with peace in my life very much, which is actually one of the reasons I came on my mission, did you know that? I wanted a hard time, because I have not really had one, so I thought that a mission would be a good place to have some trials, but so far... it’s been going really well. I think trials have a lot to do with your attitude. But I really like this part of the talk: “The peace to which I am referring is not just a temporary tranquility. It is an abiding deep happiness and spiritual contentment.” That is how I feel. I felt that before the mission, but now, I feel it so much deeper. I am so grateful to be here, helping other people find this peace that is so valuable, and helping them have more tranquility in their crazy, Dominican lives. But you can just tell the ward that I am doing well, that my testimony is going well, and that I love the mission. and that I love my family, cuz I do ̈:) or just tell them whatever. If you want to crack a joke, you can in my name :) permission granted. haha
I am going to answer your questions :)
Strangest happening of the week? Haha, oh man. This didn’t happen to us, but to the other sisters, and for some reason, I think it’s hilarious. haha... Ok, so they have this investigator named O. She’s been investigating for over a year. She has wanted to get baptized super badly since the beginning, but she wasn’t married. So for the last year, they have been working on papers and all that jazz, since it’s hard to get married here in this country. Anyways, the sisters were setting a goal for her baptism, and she immediately said the 16th of July, and that day happened to be a Tuesday, but whatéer, so they set it for that day, hoping they could get the last of her marriage papers done before then. But things weren’t looking too good. No progress with that, so turns out that she didn’t get baptized on Tuesday. BUT, something crazy happened that made it so she can get baptized this Saturday – her husband died. Yep, and what day did he die on?, the 16th of July. Weird, huh? So technically, she could’ve been baptized on the date she picked so suddenly. Kinda creepy, but God works in mysterious ways. He’s a cool Guy. And her husband died of heart problems. He was not a member, nor did he ever want to accept the gospel. But yay, she’s getting baptized!!!
Highlight of the week? Well, I really enjoyed the package. But another thing happened that was pretty funny. Remember F., the Peruvian soccer player? Well, we had another lesson with him, and he is just the heaviest person I know. Heavy means super cool here, so he is SUPER HEAVY (jevy, but still.) We were talking to him about the church, and he was telling us of his doubts, and then his wife comes along, and is a part of the church that "feels the spirit" by jumping and shouting and rolling on the ground. Anywho, she comes along and is like, “Oh, you’re MORMONS. Honey, don’t listen to them, they don’t worship God, they worship MORMON.” So we explained it to her, and then her hubby was like, “I can do what I want, I like this church so far.” And so the wife was trying to get him to make us leave, and F. totally gave it to her in a loving, husband-wife type of way. And then he was like, “Every bell, has it’s own ring, and I am just looking for the one I like.” And that made her quiet, but then he goes off, and starts laughing, and is like, “One time, I went to her church, and I walked in, and they were all like rolling on the ground and screaming and jumping up and down, and twitching, and I thought to myself, THIS IS CRAZY, THIS IS NOT THE SPIRIT, and so I left. That was the worst experience of my life.” hahahah - he was just dissing his wife’s church right in front of her. It was SUPER funny. We were both trying to hold back tears of laughter. We laugh a lot in our companionship... but yeah, that was a nice highlight. And then to make it better, he came to church on Sunday for the first time. :)
Best teaching moment? We have these young men who we teach, and we brought along a ward girl the entire day to teach with us because she is going an a mission. So we go to their house, and the guy says “que lo que en toque” which apparently is a greeting, and the girl was like, “that’s a bad thing to say, don’t teach them that.” So they got into a fight, and the spirit was totally gone, which was so dumb. So we tried to bring it back around, and it was failing. Then we decided to read a chapter from the BOM and read 2 nefi 2, and it brought the spirit super strong. We talked about how this life is so short when compared to eternal life, and that if we make stupid decisions in this life, we’ll regret it in the next life. So we need to sacrifice some things in this life for a better life in the life to come. It was a neat experience because the spirit was way strong, and you could tell that people were touched. The young man we were talking to is in a band, and has lots of girlfriends, and drinks because of his work, so we talked about being an example, and all that stuff, and he talked about his life and all that. It was great. No tears, but that’s probably good. I laugh in awkward situations, and crying is DEFINITELY an awkward situation. But after the prayer, they started arguing again. I was just super happy that the scriptures brought so much spirit. Definitely fortalecio my testimony about that awesome book.
Also, I hope you enjoy my Book of Mormon comparisons. I sure do enjoy finding all sorts of dead animals here in the DR. Nothing more appetizing than a dead animal surrounded by fleas!!! Love it.
Also, we did an English class and this guy showed up. Pedro - nice fellow.
ALSO; THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR that SURPRISE PACKAGE!!! IT WAS SO GREAT. I got it on Friday from the elders. They were all anxious to see who it was from, since it didn’t have a return address. I could tell it was from you guys though, because of the florescent orange paper. :) I LOVE ALL OF THE CLOTHES. I AM NOT SURE IF THE SHOES WILL TOTALLY FIT, BUT I THINK THE ONES WITH BOWS WILL. THE OTHERS ARE A BIT TIGHT. BUT THANK YOU SO SO MUCH. I WILL WRITE A LETTER TO THE FAMILY THAT BROUGHT IT TO ME. THANK YOU. And thanks to Heather for the EFY cd. We have been listening to it non stop. It has some good stuff on it. They did well.
Another random thing, do you know where any pictures of my friends are? I kinda really wish I had a few of them. Like of me and Mel and Carm and Lou, and Michelle, and all of them. And Kasha. I should have one of Kasha. If you could find any, or print any out and send a yellow envelope here, I would be very happy, because I meant to grab a bunch before I left, but as you may recall, December 12 was a pretty hectic day.
Ok, so here are some highlights from my week –
I also saw a little boy playing Temple Run on Sunday during church. He didn’t do very good. I could’ve beaten him easily. I guess he was failing because it was Sunday, and you don’t do that kinda stuff on Sunday. Serves him right.
We had exchanges with the CCM missionaries on Friday. I was very excited. Then I got my companion, who is coming into the field this next transfer (this upcoming week), and I asked her how confident she was in Spanish, and she said not at all, and it seriously felt like I was all alone. AALOOOOOOOOOOOOONNE! (go Heart, haha) and I liked it, but it was annoying. She said about 7 words the entire day. I really can’t judge, because I was given the chance to learn Spanish in my youth, which rocks big time. I sound more native than some of the natives! yeah! Anyways, it made me laugh because she kept saying the ̈spiritu sanchez̈ for ̈espiritu santo.̈ bless her heart. I give her props for trying. I hope she learns before this next week. But let’s be real, I will probably end up training her...
Um... oh!!!! This morning was wonderful. We woke up, cleaned the house, and then had personal study. Then, me and Herm B. decided to go for a run, so we ran a lot, and we ran on the cliff side of the ocean, it was beautiful. And then we did a little yoga by the cliffs and then swam in the ocean and got all wet. Kidding. The last part obviously didn’t happen. We did get wet though. Sweat wet. And then we shubbed and cleaned off, and I have not felt cleaner in the last 7 months than I have felt today. I love it. I wish we could go running like that everyday. We ran for about 40 minutes, and I am super out of shape, but hey, I didn’t feel super fat... So we decided that if we stay together this next transfer, we are going to do this every p-day. We feel so great. :) I miss the simple things in life, like going running whenever I want to. Good times.
Wow, what a letter!! I apologize that it is super long! and might not make sense. I just get so excited to write, that my letters end up turning out like my brain threw up on the page – sorry. But thank you for your love and support. I love being here and think about you often. I love this work.
Have a wonderful week, don’t forget to read your scriptures.
love you all demasiado :)
peace out until next week (TRANSFERS!)
Hermana Erickson
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