May 18 at 1:02 PM
No,
not really, I just thought it would be a funny subject line. But
really, the rain really kept a tumbling down here! And we doubted! Oh us
of little faith... The dirt here has not seen moisture for many moons
and that being said, it either makes ice skating rinks or quicksand! No
joke. It's like a magic trick. Ok I'm rambling. But needless to say, my
Tom booties are now graced with the dark desert muds of El Centro
California. We also went out
running in it before it actually starting coming down too hard, and it
smelt amazing! And it has been a blessing because it has cooled us down
these last few days. Can't complain.
We've
been really busy doing nothing here ;) After last Monday's MTEs (where
yes, I stayed overnight in Brawley, and forgot to take a pillow and
blankie, so I used my wet bath towel. #missionarylife) We started
implementing our new teaching tactics. AKA shorter lessons, more
directed, using pamphlets, etc... But, we are still working on the
shorter lessons part. The Hispanic people love to talk. And the only
option in most cases is just to listen. Frustrating, but the only
option. It's definitely part of Satan's plan. We plan a lot of mini
lessons throughout the day and if we get stuck at the wrong house,
goodbye to the schedule. But Hey, we look for the silver linings all the
time.
We have been getting back to our house
really late each night and then we still have to start planning, we get
behind on the planning, I get behind on journal writing and just have
like little bullet points on all the pages, but otra vez,
#missionarylife.
One of the reasons we are
having such a problem here in the Valley getting the work to progress is
because we don't know who should teach who and where they should be
baptized and what ward they should go to. The way that they have
explained it to me is that there are three units: 1st Ward, 2nd Ward,
and the Spanish Branch. The Spanish branch is dependent on 1st Ward, so
the YW/YM classes are done through the 1st Ward in English because the
majority of the Youth speak both Spanish and English. And parents who
speak Spanish want their kids to learn English. English Sacrament is
first, followed by language classes of SS, then RS/EQ, and then Spanish
Sacrament is held. This work fine, and is ok. But now we bring in the
2nd Ward. There are Spanish speaking parents who live in 2nd ward
boundaries that want their kids to go to English wards. There is no
dependent branch to 2nd ward, so English speaking youth who have
Hispanic parents are supposed to come to 1st Ward so their parents can
attend the branch and so they can attend the ward in English. This takes
a blow on the Membership of the 2nd ward because as we try to build up
the Branch, we diminish the size or potential membership of the 2nd
ward, and increase the size of the 1st Ward and Branch. (This basically
gives the 2nd ward missionaries no purpose in their area aside from
giving us referrals... kind of awkward...)
First,
we got together as missionaries to try to work out the problem, and see
what would be the best solution, but really, what can we do? So
yesterday, we took all this and many more problems to the Stake
President. Together, we got a vision on how we want this to work out
now. Yes, the 2nd ward is going to take a blow, but we want to build up
the branch fast enough so that their will be enough members in the
branch to split it and then give 2nd ward a dependent branch of their
own.
We have kind of trampled the 2nd ward
Elders, but in order to get this work going, it's going to have to be
this way. Even though it was a tough thing to work out, we think we at
least now have a pretty good vision. President is going pray for some
more direction on His end, but it was super helpful for the
Missionaries.
So now, our goal is to focus on
and reactivate the Less Active members! And also get our investigators
too! The Spanish Elders worked way hard and put together a spreadsheet
with addresses and specific info. It's going to help us out so much.
That was another thing we spent most of our time this week doing, just
getting organized.
Haha, phew, now that I've
shared that exciting news, here's another: We're getting IPADS tomorrow!
So hopefully, we'll get to be even more organized! We are leaving
tomorrow morning at 5:15 to go to San Diego to a meeting where they are
going to train us on how to use the IPads and then probably some more
spiritual stuff, you know how that goes... ;) But I'm super grateful,
that will literally be a weight off my shoulders. Scriptures are heavy!!
;)
Well, Con amor a todos!
Hermanita Howell