Cause I'm Almost There

Hola mi familia! 

I'm so glad to hear from all of you about your activities! 

Dad, Thanks for your advice with Enercy. Yeah, she didn't get baptized cause her parents think she's immature and not ready and that it's a big sin if she gets baptized then falls away from the church (which it kinda is, but they look at it like it's as bad as killing someone or something), and so she's not ready for that responsibility. But now she's kinda giving up and hasnt been to church in a while. We don't really know what to do. We're gonna keep visiting her and talking with her parents and helping her talk with her parents cause her mom said she doesn't know what Enercy does in the church. ... so yeah, we'll see. 

Okay, so questions to answer: I'm doing okay. We are moving houses this week (even though transfers are next week). We were supposed to move on Friday, so I had everything planned out what to do this week. Then we got a call literally at 2pm today saying that we are moving out tomorrow at 9am. Yeah ... So i'm really sorry if this email sounds like I'm stressed out ... cause I kinda am. Thus, the title of my email is from The Princess and the Frog 1) cause it was playing in 2 houses on tv the other day and 2) cause I'm almost to the end of the transfer. Then lots of questions will be resolved, hopefully haha. The weather here for some reason is sooooo humid. I thought it was supposed to cool down! But no. Yesterday, there was no electricity in the chapel until the last hour. So after walking to a less active's home and her not being there, then walking all the way to the hot chapel, I was quite literally swimming in my own sweat. It was nasty. But oh well. If there's one thing I've learned out in the field so far, it's to get over it. I won't go into details about that though lol. My wardrobe is all good, thank you mom :)  I'm not desperate for anything though. I'm all good! 

And dad, Maria and Ignacio are the couple that still need to get married. For them, it costs a lot more to get married cause they're from Haiti. Normally, it's 1,400 pesos to get married, plus 500 for every kid you already have. It's not a lot of US money, but here, it's a lot and the people here don't have that kind of money. So that's why the law of chastity is a problem; many can't afford to get married, so they just move in together and stay together. Divorce is even more expensive, so some don't even want to get married because there's that possibilty that divorce could happen. It's really sad. But it's not uncommon for people to have 7 siblings, 3 from their mom and 4 from their dad, etc. But yeah, so Maria and Ignacio are loved by the ward, but they don't exactly have the money to get baptized. And maria needs her papers still, so she's still looking for them. 

So we didn't have too much happen this past week. So I'll talk more about some stuff and people here. I have a friend named Johan Guzman who is in the ward.  Not sure if I talked about him yet. But he's leaving for Georgia on Thursday, if all goes well. He's like ... well, basically we're bffs. hahaha simply put. He's about 30 and has an adorable 7 year old son, no wife. But he does have a girlfriend! He's a recent convert of about 8 months I think and strong. he's so involved with everything and always is trying to help us out with missionary work. We (me and him) have like these jokes that go on between us and we're always laughing! I have a pic with him and I gave him a couple leis cause he's leaving (he was jealous he didn't get some at the baptisms). But I'm gonna miss him a lot.

I also have another friend, Diego. I think he's a recent convert of 4 months? He's 19 and when he told us that after he was baptized "people came up to me and asked me when I was going to serve a mission. Being baptized just isn't enough for you people is it?!" hahaha I love the guy! But yeah, we got jokes between us. He speaks pretty good english, so the other day I called him a crack-up (like a person who just cracks me up all the time, cause he seriously does!), but he didn't get it and so the closest word to that in spanish is "tonto." ... I don't think it's the best word to use, cause I think he got offended ... so I gots to fix things with that ... but he's so cool and he's like Johan; willing to come with us to anything. Oh and he's the YW 1st counselor. He's great! 

I live with 2 other hermanas in my house (well, until tomorrow). Hermana Cox and Hermana Chan. Hermana Cox is from Nebraska and is just awesome! They are the sister training leaders in our zone and are amazing! She's been here for a while in this area and is going home after the next transfer. But I've learned so much from her! She's literally someone you can be around and just feel that she's a great missionary. Then there's Hermana Chan who is just adorable! I believe she's from the city Chiuaua in Mexico. She doesn't speak much English, so I'm helping her with that and she's helping me with my Spanish. I wish I could talk to her about EVERYTHING cause we have so much in common! But I just don't have the vocab down yet lol. But she likes going to the beach, she likes dancing (bachata, merengue, salsa), she likes the color blue, and she loves to eat! Anything, pretty much. We're basically sisters. After all, we are a part of the Lamanite generation :)

I love my companion! I've learned so much from her these past months and I think I'm ready to face the future, whether or not we are companions next week. She's seriously amazing and has gone through so much, especially physically. But she is a great example to me in so many aspects. 

I've discovered a lot of the sisters here get sick or pains in their bodies, so I'm trying to do all I can to avoid that. I'm doing good so far, but please pray for me :) I'd rather be walking and melting in the hot sun than melting in the house, not being able to go out. 

We found 2 families this past week who could have a lot of potential. One is a family of 4 and the dad contacted us ... sort of. It's a long story how we met. It might have included his friend proposing to Hermana Flethcher and wanting to move to the states with her ... and so he was embarassed by his friend. But he waved us over a couple days later to talk to us and so we are going to work with him and see how that goes :) Another family, the dad happened to be at a recent convert's home when we came over and he had questions about life after death. So we visited his home another day and his wife also asked if her family that has passed will have a chance to hear the gospel. She's adventista (not sure what the english word for that religion is, sorry), but they have 4 kids and they said we could come back. So yeah!

That's about all for this week. Sorry that it's a little stressful sounding. But don't worry, I'm doing okay! Still smiling, still laughing, still learning spanish. And don't worry mom, I still can't really understand Frankelly still ... he's hard to understand. The language is getting easier. And the gift of tongues exists. It's kinda like medicine: just takes time and effort to kick in. But it's coming :) I understand a lot more than I did on day 1! Thanks for all your prayers, all your love and support. I think it really does help my days. Cause I don't know what it is that I'm doing, but the days are getting easier and somewhat faster. So thank you! Love you all and keep moving forward!! Talk to you guys next week :)

Love and aloha and saludos,

Hermana Ho