Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Only English, por favor

Hey family,
This week was a ton better! Sorry my last letter was such a dud. I finally feel like I am getting the hang of missionary life and I am a lot happier! Do you like the title of my email? Its Spanglish, just like South Texas. I have noticed a lot this week that people don't want to speak Spanish to me. I try talking to someone in Spanish and this is how the conversation goes:
"Hola, como esta?"
"Good."
"Podemos compartir un mensaje?"
"Sure."
"Somos misioneras de la iglesia de Jesucristo de los santos de los ultimos dias."
"Great, I'm Catholic."
I literally try everything to get them to speak to me in Spanish and people answer me in English. I asked my companion if that happened with her other companion, and she said no! Her other companion was from Peru and everyone talked to them in Spanish. But now that they see a gringa missionary, they want to practice their English with me. I even sat down with a family and started teaching in Spanish and they cut me off mid-sentence and said, "No, no, no! We understand English! Teach in English." If people keep doing this to me, I am never going to learn Spanish!!
My companion encourages me to teach most of the lessons (when the person lets me speak Spanish to them), and I get so scared that they going to judge my Spanish. I was looking through some notes I took at church a while ago, and I found a super great quote: "Our Heavenly Father cares more about our growth than our comfort."
Ain't that the truth!
Speaking of growth and uncomfortable situations, the Bishop of the Spanish ward invited me to share my testimony in Sacrament meeting yesterday...I think the primary kids did better than me, but I just stated what I knew was true. It was a plain and simple testimony!
Anyways, that's all I got for you this week. I love the gospel more and more each day. I know that God puts us through hard things so that we can grow and improve. I love you all!
Love,
Hermana Angus