Hola mí familia!!
I'm glad to know that you have been safe and that all is well! Like, no joke. And ok, Hawaii doesn't know humid. omygosh, i wake up in the middle of the night sweating and I only have a sheet to sleep with!! hahaha, jk, jk i wish i could've been there with you guys to enjoy the fun :) AND AMMON?! HAS A FACEBOOK?! AND DID THE ICE CHALLENGE AND POSTED IT?!?! hahaha that's so awesome though! I'm happy :) Tell him to add me as a friend!! :D And alliyah! That's awesome :) I'm so happy for her! And what ive learned on my mission so far is to not compare yourself to anyone. Yeah, there's always gonna be those popular people or smart people, or overly talented ones, but don't compare yourself to them. compare yourself to yourself. Are you a better person this week than you were last week? It's hard to not compare yourself to others, but it helps. And hey, you do what you can and the Lord will do the rest!
Alright, you ready for my week? so much has happened!
So, On Tuesday, we had an early start. Woke up at 4:45 and got ready, left the CCM at 6:30 and went to the mission house and met President and Hermana Corbit. They. Are. Amazing! I love president and he's great! His daughter in law is someone that I might know too! She's from Hawaii (idk where) and Im am90% sure that ive met her and her husband before. anyway, orientation was, then I got my new companion! Her name is Hermana Fletcher and she is super super quiet, but sweet. She's from Utah and has been out for 1 year. I love her! We then drove to our house. Oh, you guys are gonna love this!
As we were driving, the place is so ... filthy. There's really no nice way to put it. People learned from kid days that when you have trash, you just through it outside the house or in the street. There's literally no fresh air, it stinks or smells weird. But on the bright side, it's easier to pick out the good smells, like the pico pollo (fried chicken) or fresh pan (bread). Flies and mosquitos thrive here and ive been eaten alive this whole week! I'm surprised I still have blood in my system. Ok, So our house is the second story of someone elses. Electricity only comes on at certain times and thats when we can do our laundry, use the microwave, and have fans. The windows are all open, but it's sooooo humid that it's basically pointless to shower lol. oh, and the shower is just a hose in the wall, but the water is nice and cool! So that's awesome! The worse part is the drain ... it's literally a big black hole. so the game in the shower is to not stand over the big black hole ... you don't know what´s in it. And the best part is that we have bucket flushes!! So you use the bathroom, throw away the toilet paper (you can't flush it) and then throw water down as fast as you can and hope everything goes down. It's fun and I think I got the tecnique down lol. But some ares here don't have toilet seats, so at least we have that. Another area i heard doesn't have much water, so the hermanas there haven't showered for 2 weeks ... so I'm very grateful for my bathroom. VERY grateful.
The people here are amazing! Truly, they are. Everyone is so sweet and so understanding that I don't know spanish. And thanks for the advice dad. We are trying to meet everyone in the ward and get to know them. Oh, by the way, we are white'washing. So me and my companion are both new to the area. it's called Los Frailes, but my comp said that she heard that this place is a very humble place. So we'll see how that goes. Oh and everyone just dresses any kine here ... it's a no shame country, which is fine with me, but idk if i can teach someone in a towel ... (it's happened to one of the hermanas before).
Can't say I'm having the time of my life. This email title describes my feelings. Literally. haha, sometimes, I'm so high that I'm like Let's go go go!!!! Then there's times when I'm just like ... what the heck am I doing here?! I could be doing this this and this...!! Especially since me and my comp both don't know anyone here, it's rough. The people here are always willing to let us in and talk to us though. it's who they are. They don't refuse the word of God. The hard part is knowing who actually wants to know more. What's worse is that i don't understand much of what anyone is saying. Seriously. Like, there's spanish and my latino friends in Utah speak nice and clear. Then there's dominican spanish! Holy cow, they speak so fast! It's ridiculous! It's like that scene in "The Best Two Years" where he's like "Elder, what language was she speaking?" "That's dutch." and he's like "That's not what they taught me in the MTC!" Hahaha well, I just gotta get used to it. My comp is super helpful. I can't understand much, but I told her that I'm more than willing to teach if she just gives me a heads up on what to teach. Then I can say it. But not necessarily clearly or correctly, but i'm willing to teach. hahaha There's sooooooo much work to do on my spanish lol but I think the Lord is teaching me a hard core lesson on patience. Hard core. But, esta bien. it'll come. Who the Lord calls, He qualifies.
The ward here is very humble and willing to help. The converts here who stay in the church are sooo committed. This one guy, Johan, has been a member for about 8 months and is so involved in church activities and with the missionaries. There's Antonio, a cute 80 year old man, who was a recent convert too and when we went to go teach him, he pulled out his gospel principles book and taught us instead! When he was done, he was like "Is there anything you want to add?" He's super intelligent in the gospel ... at least, I think. idk i can't understand that well. There's a lot of kids who want to learn the gospel to. or maybe just like having us over. idk. but one girl, Kiara, is the only one in her home that we are teaching and she keeps progressing and asks questions. She's amazing!
Well folks, that's about all. Thank you for the prayers and love! I seriously miss you guys, but sorry, I'm committed to this work and don't plan on coming home until 2016 or so. Yeah, it's hard, and Sometimes I think wow, I have 16 months left and then theres times where I'm like I only have 16 months left? Nooo!!
All the advice I have is to count your blessings and be patient. All will happen in the Lord's own time. Love you all! Keep working hard in all you do! And talk to you next week!
Love and Aloha,
Hermana Ho
P.S. I got proposed to. by a 80 year old man. didn´t understand him, and my comp told me what he said later. He's like, do you have husbands and we said no and then he looked at me and said, Vamos! meaning, then let's go. Didn't know that, but it's a good thing I said no anyway haha
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