Okay, enough with that.
It was so awesome to talk with you guys on Wednesday! I felt really happy to talk to you guys and I'm sure you guys shed tears for me. (I didn't cry. Of course not. I'm a GUY. They don't do that kind of a thing.)
Anyway, It was super great to talk with you guys and share a little bit of life here in good ol' TJ of BC of CM. (Tijuana of Baja California of the Country of Mexico).
I actually felt a little sad afterwards, because you guys talked to me about stuff that I currently couldn't do, and I felt a little... left out? Yeah. That's the only way to describe it. But yeah, it was still super awesome.
So, I just have a few points of interest that I want to cover in today's meeting.
1.) I feel super bad for my district leader. His name is Elder Mejiah. He's currently training 2 North Americans. Poor guy. The North Americans don't talk to him at ALL. They only talk to themselves in English. Their Spanish is actually not bad, but they just don't use it. Not only will they not learn Spanish that way, but they aren't actually going to learn to get along with people of a different culture. I'm gonna planch 'em the next district meeting we have.
2.) I finally can say I'm bilingual. Now let me explain this before you guys say "YOU ALWAYS SAY THAT"
I can finally qualify myself as bilingual because I have had every single native speaker that I know tell me that I know the two languages.
Previously, I said yeah, I know Spanish, but I still have a long way to go. And I always looked at other people here who speak the two languages and thought "that's what bilingual is". But now, everyone that I know (not even joking. Investigators, and members alike) has told me how lucky I am to be bilingual.
To be honest, I'm not even trying to bring it up. They ask me how much more time I have in Postal (4 weeks) and then they tell me how long I've been here and on the mission. The answer is always 5-6 months, and they tell me "YOU'RE ALREADY BILINGUAL? ARE YOU SERIOUS? UAU!" It's actually pretty neat sometimes to receive compliments like that. I feel like I'm actually able to speak freely with them.
Okay, enough with that.
3.) People here Christmas HARD, man. They just go hard all day. It's nuts. Look at this picture. Like, almost every single Nativity is like this here. Everyone's in a competition to Christmas harder than the other guy. It's nuts!
4.) I'm starting to grow complacent.
We are really good friends with the Hermanas. Elder Romero and I have talked with them almost every night just because they're super fun and all that. Anyway, we were talking with them at a Dairy Queen and Hermana Rivera talked about how long 6 months is in a sector.
She told me that she was in her 1st area for 6 months as well, and she said this that really made me think:
"After around 5 months, you start to think that you cannot offer more to this sector. You've already worked to your max, and you're unable to offer more assistance. As far as teaching goes, you don't really teach as effectively because you don't see how you can help them any more after you've been helping them for 6 months."
It got me thinking:
Am I doing that? After a bit of a review, I noticed that yes. I am not working as hard as I did when I got here.
I got here and I just did everything possible for these people. I went hard. But now, I'm starting to go on the downhill slope. I've baptized all the people I was here to baptize, and I feel as though I've already had all of the success possible. It made me reevaluate how I'm working, and I started again trying to go as hard as I could.
It was a great eye-opener.
Oh, and Savanna, I have a better mission story for you.
So, one night, we were REALLY far away from home. In fact, we were the farthest away from home we could possibly be. It was already 9:30 at night, and so we were SUPER late getting home.
I wanted to take a taxi, and the members that we were with offered to give us the money, but my companion insisted that we take the bus, and so we had to take 20 pesos only to pay for the bus, and not 60 to pay for a taxi.
We stood on a corner for around 20 minutes. No buses. Nothing. Not even a single bus. 2 taxis passed, but that was it. I began to grow very scared.
On the mission, we have to obey rules to receive the blessings. As missionaries, we are blessed to have protection of the Lord. Nothing can harm us as long as we obey Him. Well, we are to be in our house at 9:00 and we didn't comply with this rule, so we didn't have the protection of the Lord.
I was really scared. I felt very alone, very small, and VERY vulnerable. It was easy to identify me as a non-native, ESPECIALLY because I had my missionary clothes and name tag.
I prayed to Heavenly Father, and I said:
"I know we didn't obey the rule. But it was to give a blessing of health to one of your children. Please, we just need one bus. The last one of the night. Please."
I felt very strongly that the next car that would pass over the hill would be a way home. I looked and saw a taxi.
We only had 20 pesos. That's it. And a taxi.
My companion and I entered the taxi, and to our surprise, this man actually knew us and told us that he would give us a ride for 20 pesos!
Normally, taxis cost around 50-80 pesos to use, so for 20 pesos, basically that's just outrageous.
Not only did the Lord prepare someone to protect us, but he even guided this person to find us so that we could get home without walking, and without danger.
It was a great testimony builder to me that not only does the Lord watch over his missionaries, but he also knows HOW to watch over them, and he will prepare them from the beginning of their lives if he must, just so that his missionaries can help them one day.
Dunno if that's any better, but it was really cool to see that happen.
Okay, well, that's it for today. I'll write more on Wednesday!
Be safe, be happy, and READ THE BOOK OF MORMON. NOT JOKING THERE. GET IT READ. GEWD STUFF.
Love you all. Really.
Like, THIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS MUCH.
Elder Carter
