Buenas!!!
How are you all doing?! I hope you are all doing fantastic, because I sure am. I am so blessed to be here. Man, I love this.
Thank you for the update, and the nice pictures of the siblings. It sure is fun to see pictures of the family. Heather looks a lot older, so does Jake. Josh still looks like a fatty–in a good way though. haha
Hopefully the first day of school went well for everyone!! Can’t believe Joshy is taking 4 AP classes! What a stud!! Glad he’s finally living up to his potential. I always knew he’d turn out to be a smart kid. I mean, he loved plants!
WAY TO GO HEAD! Way to make the volleyball team! Man, I have a talented family. I sure am blessed! Well done, Slytherin! (Harry Potter fans will relate...)
HAHAH the Hmong kids at the hotel made me laugh, good one, dad!! I am very glad you went to his homecoming. I was thinking about you all day. I am glad you made it safely. And only a little jealous that you got to hug him. No big deal, I’ll get over it. :)
PLEASE GO OUT TO EAT WITH THE B's!! I LOVE MY COMP, AND IT WOULD BE SO FUN FOR US IF YOU GUYS WENT OUT (preferably before transfers... who knows what is going to happen.) I think that if I keep telling president how well we work together, then it is more likely that we’ll stay together, haha. But seriously, they sound like fun, happy people.
Mom, to answer your questions. — No, we stopped teaching B. He’s kinda a jerk. That’s what happens when you investigate a church for your girlfriend and then she dumps you. We were dumped as well, and he’s just gone downhill. He wears a lip ring. Gross. He’ll come around sometime though.
We actually got the fridge fixed TODAY! So we went 4 weeks or so without one. It’s nice to be able to eat cheese and meat and yogurt again. Man, you really don’t realize how lucky you have it until you don’t have it!
And... our temple trip went very well. We were able to do a session, since it was with the mission, and not only with the ward. So that was fantastic. I had a nice time just chilling in the air conditioned temple. Felt all sorts of chills, haha.
Thanks for your words at the end of the email, mom. You are super great. I just love you so stinkin much. Dad, too, but he didn’t write anything, except I did laugh about his poor dentist trip. (He loves the dentist visits -- NOT!) Speaking of dentist trips, I don’t feel like I have any cavities yet, I am taking good care of my teeth. :) yay!!
Ok, now I have a few things to tell you about this week. Not too much, but it sufficeth me. Hahah, sometimes I think in scripture; makes me feel special. haha
Ok for reals. — So I am sorry that I cannot send pictures, my computer is a super old one, and it doesn’t want to read my card, so they will have to wait; although I have some super epic ones. Man this week was a good one. All adventures that really need pictures. Oh well, get over it– haha
The temple trip was this week, and I am so glad that we live close to the temple. It is such a blessing. I just love it. I love being on the outside, just about as much as the inside, except the inside has air conditioning, like mentioned above. We went as missionaries, and all was well. Not much to say about that, except that I didn’t get to see anything new. The film was the same, darn. But I did find out that A and E are actually married in real life. One of the missionaries knows them. haha – Apparently E had a missionary and she waited for him, and then met A and broke the engagement off. Imagine how awkward it is for the poor missionary to go to the temple!!! Poor guy.
So my black shoes have taken a beating here. They pretty much fell apart. But I couldn’t just throw them out, so I decided to sew them up!!! and they are working all good again. Man, I sure am cheap!
Hahaha–so the other day, me and Herm B thought it would be a good idea to pack a lunch and not come home to eat. So we had it all planned out. We made pasta, and put it in a bag, and then grabbed a banana and an apple. We went out at 10:30 like usual, and taught some lessons. Then we went contacting, and decided that it was time to eat. Since we’re on an island, we decided to go to the cliff side to eat. We found this really nice spot, with a lot of shade, but the only problem was that there were already 2 men sitting close by. They appeared to live there. They had their little hut, they had no shirt, and they carried around sticks with hooks on the end to get the coconuts off the trees... but we were desperate, so we sat down. I prayed for safety and we started eating our food. That didn’t last long, because we realized that our pasta was DISGUSTING! Apparently, our sauce that we used was moldy, due to the lack of fridge. It also tasted like banana, but at least we had our banana. WRONG! It was black and mushy, and wet. GROSS! We ate it anyways, seeing how we didn’t want to die from the pasta, nor from starvation. My apple was decent, but it was gone in 4 bites, just a tiny one :(but after realizing that we were probably going to starve, (also, we were out of money, so we couldn’t buy food.) one of these indigenous men walks next to us with this hook stick thing, and knocks two coconuts off the tree and grunts, and then gives then to us... how nice. WE’D LIVE AFTER ALL. One problem, they were not opened, neither of us had a machete; darn. We decided to just chill and watch the ocean. And then we look over to the hut, and this same indigenous man is holding up an OPENED coco! So he comes over and trades us – 2 for 2. He was seriously the nicest indigenous man I have ever met. Could be the only one, too!! But as we were sitting there, this random man who had been watching us from other cliffs, comes up to us and asks us if he can take a picture of us... um... yes? So we smiled and that was that; super awkward. Then he went on his merry way. huh. He’ll probably sell that picture. I mean, we’re white girls. He could make bank. Hahah, kidding. Anyways, we tried to drink the coco, but then realized it tasted like pee, so we stopped and pretended. We sat for another half hour and then headed out. But as we were leaving, we look over to the shirtless men. the one who gave us the cocos, looks at us, and holds up something in his hand, and then grunts again. So we walk over to him. He is holding some sort of nut, apparently from the coconut trees. They looked like elongated almonds and tasted like nothing, but we took them, and in exchange, gave him a nice picture of Jesus. He saved our life, we might as well save his, right? :) But yeah, that was sure an island adventure! Hopefully it made sense – good times. We’ll always be friends with that homeless man...
So A IS awesome. We love her way too much. She wants to get her patriarchal blessing, so... after her baptism she will. :) She’ll be baptized this week :) yahoo!!!
Um.... not much else happened. We worked hard, teaching people about the gospel, and got sunburned. I feel like I look super old now. It could be because I look homely, but people say the mission ages people. Man, that’s too bad. At least I’ll look great when I get resurrected!!!
But that is pretty much all. I hope you are all having a blast, and getting a lot of things done in your time. I love you all and think of you enough. Thank you for being such a support and a joy. I love telling people about you and telling my comp all about the fam bam. I love you guys!!! Keep being great!
Peace and blessings,
Hermana Erickson 1
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
#37 [Independencia - 9] Aug. 19th, 2013
Hello my dear family!!! How are you all doing? I hope you are all doing so well. I am doing very well here. We had a couple of pretty crazy adventures, and I am excited to tell you all about them :)
But dad, thank you for the usual update. I am glad that Jeff shaved his beard, as are all of the sister missionaries that live with me. They all saw pictures and had some pretty bad comments. I tried to tell them that he is usually an attractive man. haha
The camera is alright. I miss my old one. Oh well!!!! When it’s time to change, it’s time to re-arrange! haha... oh Brady Bunch. I had to add that in because dad added it in :) haha
Okay, so for one of the personal progress things, I decided to memorize the Living Christ. It reminds me of mom, when we were trying to memorize the family proclamation. I am doing it in Spanish, and I like it. I have quoted it many times already to investigators. It’s convenient. I am about half way done. Feeling pretty accomplished.
Another thing that I feel very accomplished about is that I ALTERED 2 skirts!!!!!! I felt so happy. We had this girl who needed skirts, and so we looked through the old gross ones that missionaries leave behind. The girl is super skinny, and the missionaries were... not. So, I took a good gander at her body (in a not weird way like it sounds.) and I took my needle at home, and I sewed them up, and they fit PERFECTLY. Let’s just say that grandma would be proud. :) I don’t think I will be altering any of my skirts anytime soon... so that’s unfortunate. Maybe if I have to add material.. ugh. But no, I am not getting too fat. No worries. :)
So the other day, we were in a super crazy lesson. We had these 2 guys who live on a busy street, and we teach outside because they are men. So we’re teaching, and their 2 friends come up and join. They’re about 40. They think we are the coolest people in the world, so it’s cool. Whatever. But anyways, we’re teaching, and all of the sudden amidst the noise and all that, a truck pulls up. It has chickens in it. They are momentarily alive. So, this 18 year old kids grabs one, holds it by the feet, and then whacks its back and then it’s head, and then–it stopped moving. I had witnessed a homicide, so brutal. It was super gross. I will still eat chicken, but that sure was a brutal way! But the story gets better – they put the chicken in boiling water, and pull it out. They start plucking out the feathers and then, THE HEAD FALLS OFF! and the neck insides start pouring out - like the veins and throat. Yeah, not super appealing, kinda gross. We couldn’t keep up with the excitement, and so we ended with a prayer and left. Oh the things in this country. I sure love it here. As mom would say, "it’s a cultural experience." haha
We also met a nice man the other day. He stopped us and asked our names, because he knew the men were called Elders, and didn’t think the sisters were called that. Anyways, we go to ask if we can stop by his house one day, and this is his line: (I thought it was super funny.) "No thank you. By the grace of God, I am atheist." hahahahah, super ironic. Thought you might think it was funny too. So yeah, the people here... He did though, give us a reference to his wife. She was rude and didn’t answer the door. Too bad, cuz we have a pretty great message. :)
Another thing happened this week–yesterday actually. So we were invited to a house with 3 members. They were men, and they planned on giving a priesthood blessing to a lady who was going to go in for surgery. Her son was one of the members, he just got baptized. Ok, like 8 months ago. But they had us there and had us share a bit about the priesthood, and then they gave a blessing, and MAN! I LOVE THE PRIESTHOOD!!!! wow. I am so happy to be in this church. And to be able to live in a family where my dad and brothers hold the priesthood, and that I get to marry a worthy priesthood holder! ah! I just love the priesthood. That’s all. Thanks for being worthy – dad, Jeff, Josh, and anyone else who reads this. Thank you. I love you all.
So one more thing happened this week that was weird. So N.came to church, and she was super excited about her baptism. We had it all planned, and we had gone to her house; the skirts I altered were for her. It was planned for Saturday, and she had her interview and felt super ready and excited! Ah, we were super happy for her. So Saturday, we were running around filling up the font, trying to teach some people in between, and all that fun stuff. We decided to stop by one of her friend’s house, since she asked him to pray or something, but he wasn’t home. His friend was though, and told us that the baptism had been cancelled! This was 45 minutes before the baptism should’ve started... yeah. So we were a little confused, so we went and talked to her. She came out of her room, and we like, "I am in pain." As they say it here, "SHE HAD THE MOON" which is a super funny way of saying she had started her period, and didn’t want to get baptized. Ugh! I want to believe it, but she didn’t even seem sad, or upset, or like she even cared, so we don’t know if she’ll get baptized... I was SUPER disappointed. I mean, GET OVER IT! – but whatever. We had planned for a lot of people coming, and a lot of investigators of the elders were going to come, and yeah. Lots of people were planning on this. SO, we get out our phone, AND IT’S DEAD! Yep, no batteries, so that was pretty unfortunate. So we sprinted in our skirts. I was in a pencil skirt, and it probably looked pretty ridiculous running. We ran for about 10 minutes, feeling all sorts of emotion, and then we just started laughing because we were "living the missionary life" haha. Gotta love it. :) But we get to the church, because the font was still running, and we didn’t want it to overflow... haha. So we ran there, and the other herms were there, and they told us that they had been trying to call us. Apparently, everyone in the mission was also trying to call us...oops. But yeah, we called some people, and some people were upset, but ... she had the moon. Hahahah, clever saying. Totally taking that home. But we stayed at the church, making sure no one else came. I played the piano, and it made me feel pretty happy, but sad, because I am losing my skills...... :( Anyways, that was probably the most exciting thing that happened. We got baptism bailed half an hour before the event. Too bad, but such is life.
Another thing, KELTON COMES HOME IN 2 DAYS! that is all.
But the picture is of us, right after getting bailed. We decided to put our feet in the water and use it to cool off our bodies. The picture isn’t all that good, but you get it. I think we captured how we felt pretty good, haha.
But anyways, I should go. I love you all. Thank you for your love and support. I love you more and more every single say. It’s wonderful. I love this gospel. I love being a missionary. I am so lucky!!! I am having a lot of great experiences, and learning a lot about the gospel and myself and the Savior, ah, it’s great.
With all of the love in the eternities,
Hermana Erickson
Also, congrats to Camille :) ooh!!
But dad, thank you for the usual update. I am glad that Jeff shaved his beard, as are all of the sister missionaries that live with me. They all saw pictures and had some pretty bad comments. I tried to tell them that he is usually an attractive man. haha
The camera is alright. I miss my old one. Oh well!!!! When it’s time to change, it’s time to re-arrange! haha... oh Brady Bunch. I had to add that in because dad added it in :) haha
Okay, so for one of the personal progress things, I decided to memorize the Living Christ. It reminds me of mom, when we were trying to memorize the family proclamation. I am doing it in Spanish, and I like it. I have quoted it many times already to investigators. It’s convenient. I am about half way done. Feeling pretty accomplished.
Another thing that I feel very accomplished about is that I ALTERED 2 skirts!!!!!! I felt so happy. We had this girl who needed skirts, and so we looked through the old gross ones that missionaries leave behind. The girl is super skinny, and the missionaries were... not. So, I took a good gander at her body (in a not weird way like it sounds.) and I took my needle at home, and I sewed them up, and they fit PERFECTLY. Let’s just say that grandma would be proud. :) I don’t think I will be altering any of my skirts anytime soon... so that’s unfortunate. Maybe if I have to add material.. ugh. But no, I am not getting too fat. No worries. :)
So the other day, we were in a super crazy lesson. We had these 2 guys who live on a busy street, and we teach outside because they are men. So we’re teaching, and their 2 friends come up and join. They’re about 40. They think we are the coolest people in the world, so it’s cool. Whatever. But anyways, we’re teaching, and all of the sudden amidst the noise and all that, a truck pulls up. It has chickens in it. They are momentarily alive. So, this 18 year old kids grabs one, holds it by the feet, and then whacks its back and then it’s head, and then–it stopped moving. I had witnessed a homicide, so brutal. It was super gross. I will still eat chicken, but that sure was a brutal way! But the story gets better – they put the chicken in boiling water, and pull it out. They start plucking out the feathers and then, THE HEAD FALLS OFF! and the neck insides start pouring out - like the veins and throat. Yeah, not super appealing, kinda gross. We couldn’t keep up with the excitement, and so we ended with a prayer and left. Oh the things in this country. I sure love it here. As mom would say, "it’s a cultural experience." haha
We also met a nice man the other day. He stopped us and asked our names, because he knew the men were called Elders, and didn’t think the sisters were called that. Anyways, we go to ask if we can stop by his house one day, and this is his line: (I thought it was super funny.) "No thank you. By the grace of God, I am atheist." hahahahah, super ironic. Thought you might think it was funny too. So yeah, the people here... He did though, give us a reference to his wife. She was rude and didn’t answer the door. Too bad, cuz we have a pretty great message. :)
Another thing happened this week–yesterday actually. So we were invited to a house with 3 members. They were men, and they planned on giving a priesthood blessing to a lady who was going to go in for surgery. Her son was one of the members, he just got baptized. Ok, like 8 months ago. But they had us there and had us share a bit about the priesthood, and then they gave a blessing, and MAN! I LOVE THE PRIESTHOOD!!!! wow. I am so happy to be in this church. And to be able to live in a family where my dad and brothers hold the priesthood, and that I get to marry a worthy priesthood holder! ah! I just love the priesthood. That’s all. Thanks for being worthy – dad, Jeff, Josh, and anyone else who reads this. Thank you. I love you all.
So one more thing happened this week that was weird. So N.came to church, and she was super excited about her baptism. We had it all planned, and we had gone to her house; the skirts I altered were for her. It was planned for Saturday, and she had her interview and felt super ready and excited! Ah, we were super happy for her. So Saturday, we were running around filling up the font, trying to teach some people in between, and all that fun stuff. We decided to stop by one of her friend’s house, since she asked him to pray or something, but he wasn’t home. His friend was though, and told us that the baptism had been cancelled! This was 45 minutes before the baptism should’ve started... yeah. So we were a little confused, so we went and talked to her. She came out of her room, and we like, "I am in pain." As they say it here, "SHE HAD THE MOON" which is a super funny way of saying she had started her period, and didn’t want to get baptized. Ugh! I want to believe it, but she didn’t even seem sad, or upset, or like she even cared, so we don’t know if she’ll get baptized... I was SUPER disappointed. I mean, GET OVER IT! – but whatever. We had planned for a lot of people coming, and a lot of investigators of the elders were going to come, and yeah. Lots of people were planning on this. SO, we get out our phone, AND IT’S DEAD! Yep, no batteries, so that was pretty unfortunate. So we sprinted in our skirts. I was in a pencil skirt, and it probably looked pretty ridiculous running. We ran for about 10 minutes, feeling all sorts of emotion, and then we just started laughing because we were "living the missionary life" haha. Gotta love it. :) But we get to the church, because the font was still running, and we didn’t want it to overflow... haha. So we ran there, and the other herms were there, and they told us that they had been trying to call us. Apparently, everyone in the mission was also trying to call us...oops. But yeah, we called some people, and some people were upset, but ... she had the moon. Hahahah, clever saying. Totally taking that home. But we stayed at the church, making sure no one else came. I played the piano, and it made me feel pretty happy, but sad, because I am losing my skills...... :( Anyways, that was probably the most exciting thing that happened. We got baptism bailed half an hour before the event. Too bad, but such is life.
Another thing, KELTON COMES HOME IN 2 DAYS! that is all.
But the picture is of us, right after getting bailed. We decided to put our feet in the water and use it to cool off our bodies. The picture isn’t all that good, but you get it. I think we captured how we felt pretty good, haha.But anyways, I should go. I love you all. Thank you for your love and support. I love you more and more every single say. It’s wonderful. I love this gospel. I love being a missionary. I am so lucky!!! I am having a lot of great experiences, and learning a lot about the gospel and myself and the Savior, ah, it’s great.
With all of the love in the eternities,
Hermana Erickson
Also, congrats to Camille :) ooh!!
Monday, August 12, 2013
#36 [Independencia - 8] Aug. 12th, 2013
HELLO!!!! Thank you for the wonderful update, “dod”!! You’re great, but you know that already.
Thank you for sending on Camille’s wedding announcement. Congrats to her for the thousandth time!!! yay weddings!!! eternal families!!!!!!!!! What a blessing!!!! yayayaya!!!!
I have not seen the TGIfridays here, but I have heard of it... never been, don’t care to go.
AH!!! E. Abbott gets home is 9 days!!!!!! I am happy that you are going to his homecoming. Tell that family hello for me.
YES! I got a new camera today. It isn’t the one that I would normally get, but they were very limited on their selection. They had like, 2. So I got one of them. At first, my card wasn’t working, and so I had to go and take out the money from a cajero, and so I carried around some cash. I hate spending money. If I didn’t take so many pictures, I wouldn’t have bought it, but whatever. Thank you for putting the money into my account. Also, I didn’t have time to take my 8 month marker picture, so I will send that next week. Sorry to disappoint.
Wow, I have a hard time believing that I have 8 months. It’s especially weird because I have pretty much been with Hermana G the whole time, or for at least... 6 months of it. It’s crazy. I guess I am supposed to be super close with her :), which I don’t mind. She’s funny.
Mom, thank you for the recipe. I am glad you attached it to this email. Man, we’re gonna be making that real soon. I actually was thinking about those the other day. Ah, I love your cookies, good stuff.
Also, I read that talk from E. Holland. -- Good man. I enjoyed it. Thank you for that link :) (Jan. 15th - MTC devotional talk about missionaries investing in the work.)
And also, I have heard about them, only from Brent. He told me that his cousin is one of the pilot missions and has them. Have you heard anything about us getting them? Why not Riss's mission? I hope we don’t get them. It seems unnecessary. Buy more copies of The BOOK OF MORMON instead. We’re always short on those here. Those change people's lives, not iPads. Feel free to send that sentence to the prophet ;) haha
• What was your best thing you ate this week? Well...... we’ve been limited on food this week. I will tell you the story in a bit, but we did have some ice cream that was super good. Also, I have been on a yogurt and oatmeal kind of diet. Just because I love them both so much. I love them. OH!!!! We had come fresh cookies, and those were really great. I loved them. Also, this nice lady always makes us fresh juice. Yum!!!! I love the juice here, it’s so fresh and delicious. ONE MORE THING! There are these candies here called trululus, and I love them! I am eating them, as we speak. They are like peach-ios, but strawberries, they are so addicting. I eat them a lot, kinda – I would eat them more if I could and wasn’t so worried about cavities. Those things are packed full of sugar, but so great. Love those. Maybe I will send some home for you to try.
• What was the worst thing you ate? Well... I would have to say yogurt, or oatmeal. The yogurt that I had was warm, and the oatmeal was flavored gross. We tried to flavor it with syrup and cinnamon, not super great, but we were on short supply of items to flavor oatmeal with...
• Have you tried something new on your mission that we don't have back home? Yeah, we eat this type of rice, and I really like it. I will for sure make it for you when we get home. Also, we have fried plantains. I do love those!! One thing that we don’t have back home (thank goodness) is Habituelas con dulce, or sweet beans. Super gross. But we do eat beans a lot, and I don’t like those. You can’t be picky yourself. I have to just suck it up and be a man.
• Did you like it? The beans were NASTY!. Never eating those again, so gross. I think mom would even hate it.
But yeah!!! I am going to tell you about my week now. Not much happened, but whatever. :)
Ok, so last Sunday, our ice box froze over big time. It was super icy, and annoying because we couldn’t use it. Super annoying. So, Herm B. decided to knock off the ice from the box, and in doing so, she ruptured one of the valve things. All of a sudden, a lot of smoke and stuff came from the freezer... but hey, the ice was gone! Anyways, we kept the food in the fridge because we figured that the piece of gum would stop the leak from the freezer. Not true, by the end of Monday, the fridge was warm. Uh oh. We told the elders and went to bed. We cooked all of our chicken, so it wouldn’t go bad, and we worked on eating our yogurt that we had just bought. Turns out that our fridge was broken. We would buy ice and put it in for the stuff that needed to be cold, but ice only lasts so long on an island. The fridge started to smell really bad. There were already flies getting in, and making it their home. We just kept things covered, next to the bags of ice. It worked for a bit, but then one day, I think it was Friday morning, I go to the fridge to eat a piece of left over pizza. I open the fridge, and I see little tiny worms all over. NOPE! They were not worms, they were MAGGOTS! All over in our fridge that already smelled like poop. Yuck. Kinda grossed me out a bit. Not super a lot, because our house is already pretty unsanitary (but no worries, I have not gotten sick-- yet!) and so Herm B. cleaned it out, and the house still smells pretty bad. We still had a bit of food left. We threw a lot of our original food away, but there were a few things that we couldn’t part with, like the yogurt. So, we bought another bag of ice, cleaned out the metal sink, and made our own little fridge. It was nice.
We still don’t have a fridge. So....... I guess we’ll have to not buy stuff for the fridge. That’s too bad, cuz I really love yogurt. And it’s not normal yogurt. It’s all drinkable stuff. Ah, I like it.
The other night our district leader called us. The other 2 herms in the house had been having really bad numbers. Like, 3 lessons a week-type of bad numbers. And he didn’t know why. So we told him H. G. was sick, and she hurts a lot, and all that stuff. Then, he goes on to tell us that we are really great missionaries. That "All of the other herms in the zone have really been struggling," but we’ve been doing really well. So that made us feel happy. We really are having a lot of success, and a lot of fun. I love it, because I didn’t think a mission would be this fun. Can’t complain. I have a great companion. I really love Herm B. But next week, we are going to try to get a lot a lessons in, it’ll be our "week of excellence" where we DOMINATE! I am excited. You know how I love to dominate at everything. :) I will let you know how it goes. Next week, I guess...
I HAVE EIGHT MONTHS ON A MISSION! Time flies. So sad.
So A is really progressing. I love her so much. We have a FHE with her tonight, and we’re excited about that. She’s getting excited to get baptized. She told us that she wanted to come to Utah when we get back, so we could introduce her to the prophet. I will have to take some pictures tonight with my new camera, so you can "meet her" and see how adorable she is.
Also, there is the menos activa in our area named E. She’s the best. The only reason that she is MA is because she had surgery on her mouth - so half of her mouth is gone, and she’s not allowed to leave her house. So we talked with her, and I love her. She’s the funniest Dominican lady I have ever met. She has such a zeal for life, or a zest as mom would probably say. Ah, so much love for that lady.
So we dropped this lady a while ago because she wasn’t showing much interest. Then, her sister comes up to us the other day, and chews us out, so we decided to go back. We go to N's house, and she is there, so we climb up to her small house, on some really steep and thin stairs. I honestly don’t know how these old ladies climb, especially when they are overweight. It’s a talent for sure. Anywho, we go into her house and she asks us if we can help her paint her nails. SERVICE! So we did. We chat for a bit, and laugh and talk about life. Then, we had a really spiritual lesson about the Book of Mormon. It was super filled with the spirit. No tears, but the spirit was there. She opened up to us and told us about her difficult life, and all that stuff. We told her the BOM could help her, and just yeah, great lesson! She had 2 of her daughters (probably granddaughters) on their small bed, and one of them was super restless, but they were sleeping, and all of the sudden, the big girl, who is restless, mutters, "quiero refresco"- which translates, "I want a soda" and then lets a HUGE FART out! It lasted about 5 seconds. It was by far the BIGGEST fart I have ever heard coming from a 5 year old. We all looked at each other, and then just laughed for a long time. I think that really bonded us. We kept talking about the power of her gas... and then we’d bring it back to the spirit, but it’s hard to focus and not crack a smile when it repeats in your head a gazillion times. :) hhhhahhhahah. I love the mission. And potty humor. Definitely get that from dad :)
We also MIGHT have a baptism this week. I say might because this girl, N., has had a date before, and she failed, so... we’ll see. I think she will, but she could back out. She backed out the day of-last time, when I wasn’t here. So... we’ll see! She is 16 and neighbors with the ward mission leader.
My personal progress is progressing. I am chugging along, and I am for sure going to finish on time. I will not quit. I am excited. Hopefully I can get a medallion. If not, I am going to buy one from the temple. They are like, 40 pesos. :) It’s not really cheating, right?
Other than that, my week has been pretty normal. I am loving it here. It rained the other day, and then one day, it was just thundering all the day long, with not much rain. I love this country. I love it so much. Not enough to live here when I am older, but I will definitely come back. I love it. I feel so attached to it. I love that I can serve God and have these cool experiences all at the same time.
The other day, at district meeting, the DL told me, "Hey Hermana Erickson, I really like your get up today." I was wearing that coral blouse you and Jake picked out. And the DL is pretty stylish, so when he compliments you, he means it ahah. Well done.
Well, that is all for now. Thank you for all that you do. I love you more than I love yogurt, and we all know that is a lot. Thank you for your help with personal progress and everything else. I am very lucky to have a great family. Thank you :)
I love you all. I will write you next week! I hope you have a happy, healthy, safe, productive, relaxing, eventful, spiritual week!!!
With demasiado love and appreciation,
Hermana Erickson 1. aka, RACHEL!
Ps, sorry if my emails sounds immature for a missionary. I am the worst at writing things down and expressing my thoughts well, BYE!
Thank you for sending on Camille’s wedding announcement. Congrats to her for the thousandth time!!! yay weddings!!! eternal families!!!!!!!!! What a blessing!!!! yayayaya!!!!
I have not seen the TGIfridays here, but I have heard of it... never been, don’t care to go.
AH!!! E. Abbott gets home is 9 days!!!!!! I am happy that you are going to his homecoming. Tell that family hello for me.
YES! I got a new camera today. It isn’t the one that I would normally get, but they were very limited on their selection. They had like, 2. So I got one of them. At first, my card wasn’t working, and so I had to go and take out the money from a cajero, and so I carried around some cash. I hate spending money. If I didn’t take so many pictures, I wouldn’t have bought it, but whatever. Thank you for putting the money into my account. Also, I didn’t have time to take my 8 month marker picture, so I will send that next week. Sorry to disappoint.
Wow, I have a hard time believing that I have 8 months. It’s especially weird because I have pretty much been with Hermana G the whole time, or for at least... 6 months of it. It’s crazy. I guess I am supposed to be super close with her :), which I don’t mind. She’s funny.
Mom, thank you for the recipe. I am glad you attached it to this email. Man, we’re gonna be making that real soon. I actually was thinking about those the other day. Ah, I love your cookies, good stuff.
Also, I read that talk from E. Holland. -- Good man. I enjoyed it. Thank you for that link :) (Jan. 15th - MTC devotional talk about missionaries investing in the work.)
And also, I have heard about them, only from Brent. He told me that his cousin is one of the pilot missions and has them. Have you heard anything about us getting them? Why not Riss's mission? I hope we don’t get them. It seems unnecessary. Buy more copies of The BOOK OF MORMON instead. We’re always short on those here. Those change people's lives, not iPads. Feel free to send that sentence to the prophet ;) haha
• What was your best thing you ate this week? Well...... we’ve been limited on food this week. I will tell you the story in a bit, but we did have some ice cream that was super good. Also, I have been on a yogurt and oatmeal kind of diet. Just because I love them both so much. I love them. OH!!!! We had come fresh cookies, and those were really great. I loved them. Also, this nice lady always makes us fresh juice. Yum!!!! I love the juice here, it’s so fresh and delicious. ONE MORE THING! There are these candies here called trululus, and I love them! I am eating them, as we speak. They are like peach-ios, but strawberries, they are so addicting. I eat them a lot, kinda – I would eat them more if I could and wasn’t so worried about cavities. Those things are packed full of sugar, but so great. Love those. Maybe I will send some home for you to try.
• What was the worst thing you ate? Well... I would have to say yogurt, or oatmeal. The yogurt that I had was warm, and the oatmeal was flavored gross. We tried to flavor it with syrup and cinnamon, not super great, but we were on short supply of items to flavor oatmeal with...
• Have you tried something new on your mission that we don't have back home? Yeah, we eat this type of rice, and I really like it. I will for sure make it for you when we get home. Also, we have fried plantains. I do love those!! One thing that we don’t have back home (thank goodness) is Habituelas con dulce, or sweet beans. Super gross. But we do eat beans a lot, and I don’t like those. You can’t be picky yourself. I have to just suck it up and be a man.
• Did you like it? The beans were NASTY!. Never eating those again, so gross. I think mom would even hate it.
But yeah!!! I am going to tell you about my week now. Not much happened, but whatever. :)
Ok, so last Sunday, our ice box froze over big time. It was super icy, and annoying because we couldn’t use it. Super annoying. So, Herm B. decided to knock off the ice from the box, and in doing so, she ruptured one of the valve things. All of a sudden, a lot of smoke and stuff came from the freezer... but hey, the ice was gone! Anyways, we kept the food in the fridge because we figured that the piece of gum would stop the leak from the freezer. Not true, by the end of Monday, the fridge was warm. Uh oh. We told the elders and went to bed. We cooked all of our chicken, so it wouldn’t go bad, and we worked on eating our yogurt that we had just bought. Turns out that our fridge was broken. We would buy ice and put it in for the stuff that needed to be cold, but ice only lasts so long on an island. The fridge started to smell really bad. There were already flies getting in, and making it their home. We just kept things covered, next to the bags of ice. It worked for a bit, but then one day, I think it was Friday morning, I go to the fridge to eat a piece of left over pizza. I open the fridge, and I see little tiny worms all over. NOPE! They were not worms, they were MAGGOTS! All over in our fridge that already smelled like poop. Yuck. Kinda grossed me out a bit. Not super a lot, because our house is already pretty unsanitary (but no worries, I have not gotten sick-- yet!) and so Herm B. cleaned it out, and the house still smells pretty bad. We still had a bit of food left. We threw a lot of our original food away, but there were a few things that we couldn’t part with, like the yogurt. So, we bought another bag of ice, cleaned out the metal sink, and made our own little fridge. It was nice.
We still don’t have a fridge. So....... I guess we’ll have to not buy stuff for the fridge. That’s too bad, cuz I really love yogurt. And it’s not normal yogurt. It’s all drinkable stuff. Ah, I like it.
The other night our district leader called us. The other 2 herms in the house had been having really bad numbers. Like, 3 lessons a week-type of bad numbers. And he didn’t know why. So we told him H. G. was sick, and she hurts a lot, and all that stuff. Then, he goes on to tell us that we are really great missionaries. That "All of the other herms in the zone have really been struggling," but we’ve been doing really well. So that made us feel happy. We really are having a lot of success, and a lot of fun. I love it, because I didn’t think a mission would be this fun. Can’t complain. I have a great companion. I really love Herm B. But next week, we are going to try to get a lot a lessons in, it’ll be our "week of excellence" where we DOMINATE! I am excited. You know how I love to dominate at everything. :) I will let you know how it goes. Next week, I guess...
I HAVE EIGHT MONTHS ON A MISSION! Time flies. So sad.
So A is really progressing. I love her so much. We have a FHE with her tonight, and we’re excited about that. She’s getting excited to get baptized. She told us that she wanted to come to Utah when we get back, so we could introduce her to the prophet. I will have to take some pictures tonight with my new camera, so you can "meet her" and see how adorable she is.
Also, there is the menos activa in our area named E. She’s the best. The only reason that she is MA is because she had surgery on her mouth - so half of her mouth is gone, and she’s not allowed to leave her house. So we talked with her, and I love her. She’s the funniest Dominican lady I have ever met. She has such a zeal for life, or a zest as mom would probably say. Ah, so much love for that lady.
So we dropped this lady a while ago because she wasn’t showing much interest. Then, her sister comes up to us the other day, and chews us out, so we decided to go back. We go to N's house, and she is there, so we climb up to her small house, on some really steep and thin stairs. I honestly don’t know how these old ladies climb, especially when they are overweight. It’s a talent for sure. Anywho, we go into her house and she asks us if we can help her paint her nails. SERVICE! So we did. We chat for a bit, and laugh and talk about life. Then, we had a really spiritual lesson about the Book of Mormon. It was super filled with the spirit. No tears, but the spirit was there. She opened up to us and told us about her difficult life, and all that stuff. We told her the BOM could help her, and just yeah, great lesson! She had 2 of her daughters (probably granddaughters) on their small bed, and one of them was super restless, but they were sleeping, and all of the sudden, the big girl, who is restless, mutters, "quiero refresco"- which translates, "I want a soda" and then lets a HUGE FART out! It lasted about 5 seconds. It was by far the BIGGEST fart I have ever heard coming from a 5 year old. We all looked at each other, and then just laughed for a long time. I think that really bonded us. We kept talking about the power of her gas... and then we’d bring it back to the spirit, but it’s hard to focus and not crack a smile when it repeats in your head a gazillion times. :) hhhhahhhahah. I love the mission. And potty humor. Definitely get that from dad :)
We also MIGHT have a baptism this week. I say might because this girl, N., has had a date before, and she failed, so... we’ll see. I think she will, but she could back out. She backed out the day of-last time, when I wasn’t here. So... we’ll see! She is 16 and neighbors with the ward mission leader.
My personal progress is progressing. I am chugging along, and I am for sure going to finish on time. I will not quit. I am excited. Hopefully I can get a medallion. If not, I am going to buy one from the temple. They are like, 40 pesos. :) It’s not really cheating, right?
Other than that, my week has been pretty normal. I am loving it here. It rained the other day, and then one day, it was just thundering all the day long, with not much rain. I love this country. I love it so much. Not enough to live here when I am older, but I will definitely come back. I love it. I feel so attached to it. I love that I can serve God and have these cool experiences all at the same time.
The other day, at district meeting, the DL told me, "Hey Hermana Erickson, I really like your get up today." I was wearing that coral blouse you and Jake picked out. And the DL is pretty stylish, so when he compliments you, he means it ahah. Well done.
Well, that is all for now. Thank you for all that you do. I love you more than I love yogurt, and we all know that is a lot. Thank you for your help with personal progress and everything else. I am very lucky to have a great family. Thank you :)
I love you all. I will write you next week! I hope you have a happy, healthy, safe, productive, relaxing, eventful, spiritual week!!!
With demasiado love and appreciation,
Hermana Erickson 1. aka, RACHEL!
Ps, sorry if my emails sounds immature for a missionary. I am the worst at writing things down and expressing my thoughts well, BYE!
Monday, August 5, 2013
#35 [Independencia - 7] August 5th, 2013
Love you
MUCHO grande, too!! good one, mom! You sure are improving on your
Spanish skills. Dad, have you learned more Spanish? or still working
with "David el autobus?" haha.
But I am glad to hear that the funeral went well and that the house was still standing when you returned.
Gross... I can’t believe Madeline is married now... and that Camille is getting married. I have still not seen any pictures of her, but whatever. Madeline looks pretty. Weird that she’s old enough to get married.... ick. I’d rather not think about that...
HAHAHAHA the purpose of the photos with my Book of Mormon is EXACTLY that, dad!! – To motivate you to read the Book of Mormon and perish not, haha. kidding. I don’t know why I take them. I think they are funny, and it’s interesting to find all of the dead things here on the island. The other day, we found a dead dog in the road, but the cool thing about that one was that it was on fire – smelled like a bbq – and looked super gross. Didn’t put my Book of Mormon next to that one, but Herm. B. took a picture. Interesting culture here, but I love it.
But that about covers it for your email that to sent to me, so will talk about ME!
Ok, so dad, me and my companion talk about our families all the time, and she pretty much knows all about everyone - and I know about her family, too. It sounds like you and her dad would really get along. You should find him and hang out with him... haha. But every time she talks about him, I think of you, haha – anyways...
So my camera is broken. Absolutely broken. It won’t shut, nor turn on and it’s sad because I have not taken any pictures for a long time. So I will buy a new one I guess, nothing else I can really do. People tell me that they will rip me off if I try to get it repaired, so I will probably buy a new one. So sad, that camera has so many new memories, but yeah. If I have a big charge from my card, that is why. I don’t know how expensive it will be.
Things with Herm. G. have actually been great. Herm. B. is like a new person! Wow, God knows best when it comes to companions. I have a testimony of that one.
If you ever feel like writing a normal letter, you could do that and include a wallet sized pic of the family, that would be cool. Sorry, I feel like I ask a lot from you guys. It’s just a convenience.
Another thing that I realized earlier this week is that I am super blessed. I have mentioned this before, but my mission seems too easy. I feel like I have not had too many downs. When it comes to how long I have been serving and how many times I have been disappointed, it seems like an unusually small number. I just love it, and I am definitely not complaining that it’s too easy. It’s just easier than I expected, and it’s not that I am not invested in my people – I am. It’s a nice gift from God.
So there is this song that is always on. If you want to hear Dominican music, it’s called ̈El VIdä by Mark Anthony. Google it, or YouTube. It’s catchy.
We have our temple trip coming up1!!!! We are going to go August 23rd, I think. I am super excited. It has been too long. When was the last time you went to the temple?
So A. is our main person right now. We love her so much!!! She is so ready for this gospel. So she’s been to church 3 times, and the first two, she had a hard time recognizing the spirit. So this last week, we decided to talk to her about fasting, since it would be a fast Sunday. So we taught her, and she said she would fast. So on Sunday, she didn’t eat, and we talked about fasting twice -- once in the investigator’s class, and then in relief society. But in the investigator’s class, she asked if she could pay fast offerings. They said yes, so she did. Then, in relief society, she asked if she had to be a member to bear her testimony. NOPE! So during the last 10 minutes of RS, she got up!!! We felt like proud parents. She said that she had been fasting to feel the spirit, and then today, she felt it!!!! We were stoked. We are so excited for her. She’ll be baptized for sure without a doubt. Man, I love seeing people progress.
We actually have 11 fechas this week. That means 11 people have dates to be baptized. We’re hoping for them all! and working with them. We have a cute little family that is half Haitian and half Dominican, which is weird because the Dominicans hate the Haitians, but I like them both. Racism is not cool, but it’s funny.... umm... yep. But it’s wrong.
But yeah, that was the week. Kinda bummed out because my camera broke, but such is life. Things happen. And then I have been doing personal progress – speaking of that, mom, or dad, or the family, I need your help!!! Can you write down my POSITIVE qualities? and either email them or write a letter or a dear elder? please!!!!? I need it for my personal progress... goodness, the things they have you do.
But yeah, that is my week in review. This upcoming week should be good.
Love,
Hermana Erickson 1
But I am glad to hear that the funeral went well and that the house was still standing when you returned.
Gross... I can’t believe Madeline is married now... and that Camille is getting married. I have still not seen any pictures of her, but whatever. Madeline looks pretty. Weird that she’s old enough to get married.... ick. I’d rather not think about that...
HAHAHAHA the purpose of the photos with my Book of Mormon is EXACTLY that, dad!! – To motivate you to read the Book of Mormon and perish not, haha. kidding. I don’t know why I take them. I think they are funny, and it’s interesting to find all of the dead things here on the island. The other day, we found a dead dog in the road, but the cool thing about that one was that it was on fire – smelled like a bbq – and looked super gross. Didn’t put my Book of Mormon next to that one, but Herm. B. took a picture. Interesting culture here, but I love it.
But that about covers it for your email that to sent to me, so will talk about ME!
Ok, so dad, me and my companion talk about our families all the time, and she pretty much knows all about everyone - and I know about her family, too. It sounds like you and her dad would really get along. You should find him and hang out with him... haha. But every time she talks about him, I think of you, haha – anyways...
So my camera is broken. Absolutely broken. It won’t shut, nor turn on and it’s sad because I have not taken any pictures for a long time. So I will buy a new one I guess, nothing else I can really do. People tell me that they will rip me off if I try to get it repaired, so I will probably buy a new one. So sad, that camera has so many new memories, but yeah. If I have a big charge from my card, that is why. I don’t know how expensive it will be.
Things with Herm. G. have actually been great. Herm. B. is like a new person! Wow, God knows best when it comes to companions. I have a testimony of that one.
If you ever feel like writing a normal letter, you could do that and include a wallet sized pic of the family, that would be cool. Sorry, I feel like I ask a lot from you guys. It’s just a convenience.
Another thing that I realized earlier this week is that I am super blessed. I have mentioned this before, but my mission seems too easy. I feel like I have not had too many downs. When it comes to how long I have been serving and how many times I have been disappointed, it seems like an unusually small number. I just love it, and I am definitely not complaining that it’s too easy. It’s just easier than I expected, and it’s not that I am not invested in my people – I am. It’s a nice gift from God.
So there is this song that is always on. If you want to hear Dominican music, it’s called ̈El VIdä by Mark Anthony. Google it, or YouTube. It’s catchy.
We have our temple trip coming up1!!!! We are going to go August 23rd, I think. I am super excited. It has been too long. When was the last time you went to the temple?
So A. is our main person right now. We love her so much!!! She is so ready for this gospel. So she’s been to church 3 times, and the first two, she had a hard time recognizing the spirit. So this last week, we decided to talk to her about fasting, since it would be a fast Sunday. So we taught her, and she said she would fast. So on Sunday, she didn’t eat, and we talked about fasting twice -- once in the investigator’s class, and then in relief society. But in the investigator’s class, she asked if she could pay fast offerings. They said yes, so she did. Then, in relief society, she asked if she had to be a member to bear her testimony. NOPE! So during the last 10 minutes of RS, she got up!!! We felt like proud parents. She said that she had been fasting to feel the spirit, and then today, she felt it!!!! We were stoked. We are so excited for her. She’ll be baptized for sure without a doubt. Man, I love seeing people progress.
We actually have 11 fechas this week. That means 11 people have dates to be baptized. We’re hoping for them all! and working with them. We have a cute little family that is half Haitian and half Dominican, which is weird because the Dominicans hate the Haitians, but I like them both. Racism is not cool, but it’s funny.... umm... yep. But it’s wrong.
But yeah, that was the week. Kinda bummed out because my camera broke, but such is life. Things happen. And then I have been doing personal progress – speaking of that, mom, or dad, or the family, I need your help!!! Can you write down my POSITIVE qualities? and either email them or write a letter or a dear elder? please!!!!? I need it for my personal progress... goodness, the things they have you do.
But yeah, that is my week in review. This upcoming week should be good.
Love,
Hermana Erickson 1
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