Hello! [Letter 36]

[From Dayna's Mom]
Hi Family,

I am sending you 2 e-mails from Dayna today.  The first one is my e-mail  but I thought you might enjoy hearing more about her birthday and her companion.


[Dayna]

MOMMY!!

For my birthday we made the yummy cake you sent. Hermana Torres loves american cake. It was fun to share it with her. We are getting along really well. The other night we seriously laughed until our abs hurt. It was the first time I´ve laughed in months. It felt so good. She is kind of a goof ball but is so much fun. We work hard but I don´t feel judged every minute of the day. Its nice just to relax and breathe a bit. She cooks the best Spanish food. Oh madre mia. and this week I am going to make her a real American hamburger. Well as close as I can. She has never had one before. Also she does a lot for my Spanish. She teaches me. Corrects me and even some days laughs at me. But it is what I need. I get so discouraged but she just keep pluggin along teaching. In the streets we only speak Spanish but in the piso  I speak English with her and she responds in Spanish. Also when we read the mission handbook, She reads in English and I read in Spanish. Both correcting pronunciation of the other. She says that she is impressed with my accent it isn´t as bad as other missionaries. That was nice of her. Anyway, I´m doing good. Working hard. At least trying to. Hope and Pray everyday that all is well at home. I´m sure the Lord is taking care of you.

LOVE YOU!! TE AMO!

Hermana Petru

Below is the e-mail for the family.


Well its been another wonderful week here in Almería. I apologize upfront if me sentences do not make sense or if my wording is funny. I have almost come to the point where I think in Spanish. It is a lot of fun. Well amazing things always happen during the week. Its the work of the Lord and the Bible Dictionary says that a miricle is the result of the presence of the Lord among men so claro there are miracles. Well with Hermana Torres we are pretty sure that she is going to be leaving Almería this next transfer because this is transfer 4 for her here. So by this time next week we have a goal to have me directing our movements through the city and knowing people and places. Now this is a lot harder then you think. We have a ward of about 160. That is a lot of people to know. Faces I´m good at. Names not so much. And then we have investigators and less actives. So this is kind of a lofty goal. Well we´re working on it. But its been alot of fun to learn a new area. Things that worked in Nerja don´t work here. I continue to grow.

This week we had a cita set up with a man that we met through contacting antiguos. We were pretty sure that he was going to fijar us but we went. And behold we found him in his house with his brother and a friend. One thing as I start. These men are from Ghana. Sooo... they don´t speak very good spanish. They understand and speak a little bit but not a lot. So they asked if we could teach in English. Hermana Torres looks at me and is like Yes. Well okay this means I have to teach. Because she understands English but doesn´t speak a lot. As we started to teach it was amazing. I realized that I really know more then I think. And almost everything I taught was translated from Spanish. The only difference was confidence. After the lesson we have 3 new investigators and they were asking for us to come back. The Lord truly is amazing. This little cita made me realize that I really can do this. I can teach. The Lord has called me to do so and He will not leave me hanging out to dry.

Well Later that day we had another cita. We decided that what were going to do is tell two stories from the Book of Mormon just as regular stories and then talk about why we have the Book of Mormon and share our testimonies. When Hermana Torres told me this my eyes about come out of my head. I can barely read the book of mormon in spanish and have been understand me let alone tell a story with out looking at the vocab in the book. She just smiled and was like I know you can. Just try. Well as I began I stubbled and was corrected by her and the family we were teaching but they understood the story and some even recognized it as coming from the Book of Mormon. I know at times that we think we can´t. But I know that if we trust in the Lord and just give it a try. He WILL bless you with His help. If our acts are righteous he will always be at our side helping us pull and carry the cross we have been called to bare. I LOVE YOU ALL. and I gotta go.


Love,
 Hermana Petru