but we had to wait another week before we could share it, so enjoy (finally!):
Feliz Ano Nuevo!
Thank
you! I'm so excited for the new year. Hermana Jensen's mom sent us
Martinelli's and food, so we had a party last night too! In my mass
email I'll mention a movie called Ephraim's Rescue, and you guys HAVE to
see it! It's the best church movie I've seen.
I also will leave out of
the mass email (because it isn't official until Sunday) that Hermana
Jensen and I were asked to be Sister Training Leaders (Zone Leaders for
the sisters in our zone, because Elders are limited from counseling
sisters). Isn't that exciting? It's a new calling in the mission world
because there are so many sisters. So I'm technically a zone leader!
Lol, it's exciting.
Would
you be able to order prints to send to the MTC of the District
Christmas Eve photo (the one where we all match)? That would be
awesome!! Thanks! Talk to you more soon. I love you!
--
--
Sister Rubio
...and now, here's This weeks email received on Tuesday, January 12th:
Tuesday 1/5
--
Despite being a p-day,
this evening I felt more stressed here than I have since I was at
school at UCLA. Between preparing for a musical number (on flute, with
Elder Cluff on piano), 4 upcoming lessons to prepare for the next day,
some STL responsibilities, and Hermana Jensen and I leaving our laundry
in the dryers overnight because we ran out of time to get them after the
evening devotional, I felt a little overwhelmed. I got through it and
tried to just have faith (and remember to never leave my laundry again,
lol).
Wednesday 1/6
Heavenly
Father really won't give you anything you can't handle. I got to
practice difference music pieces with Elder Cluff and it was very
helpful. I forgot how comforting and stress-relieving it is to play
music, especially beautiful church music. We ended up only having 1
lesson instead of 4, so we were really grateful to be able to plan. Our
lesson with Mercedes went okay, but she is a difficult investigator.
Even though we were doing better with the language and could feel the
spirit, she seemed as if she couldn't and we got seemingly worse
results. This was hard on us, but we adjusted our prep for her lessons.
Our district always makes each other feel better, though. At lunch Elder
Fillmore made a chili dog with salsa and Cholula and called it the
"Rubio Roadkill," lol. In the evening we ran the new missionary
orientation for our new missionaries in the Zone and it went very well
and was a lot of fun. We taught them a lot of things we wished we knew
our first day. At the end we gave them a really funny activity to
collectively decide what animal each of the ZLs/STLs look like. The
Elderes decided that Elder Jensen looked like a meercat and Elder
Fillmore looked like a stag. The Sisters decided that Hermana Jensen
looked like a chameleon (specifically Pascal, from Disney's Tangled) and
that I looked like a chinchilla. Lol, now once in a while someone will
call me "Chinchilla Cholula".
Thursday 1/7
In
class with Hermano Croft, he asked us what we are willing to sacrifice
to be more than just obedient missionaries, but to be consecrated
missionaries. Hermana Jensen suggested that we try to only speak
Spanish. I didn't really like the idea because I would miss easily
sharing stories and joking around with others in our district. When I
expressed this to her, she responded that it wasn't for us. I was
annoyed, but I knew she was right. Going to our two member TRC lessons
(that we had about 20 minutes to prepare for because we didn't find out
about it until an hour before), I was praying to feel better about this,
and to be more willing to sacrifice. During our TRC's, I forgot about
my stress, all the things I had to do, and my fears with speaking the
language, and I was able to contribute unique ideas and feelings about
our topic (Sabbath Day observance) in good/okay Spanish. Coming out of
the lessons, feeling the spirit, I decided that my new goal would be to
only speak espanol hasta Domingo. Hermana Jensen was really excited.
Because of the new sacrifice, I was also able to more obediently finish
planning and go to sleep earlier.
Friday 1/8
So.
Much. Estudiando. (y hablando espanol)! I had a better and happier
attitude all day. Hermana Jensen and I interviewed some of our new
sisters before bed.
Saturday 1/9
Today
we learned progressivo, perfect and past, and commands in Spanish. Haber
is my new favorite word. It fills in the gaps of what words I didn't
know when reading el Libro de Mormon. We interviewed more sisters. One
asked me how to get through homesickness. I told her that here I spent
Christmas without my family, but that it was my only Christmas with my
special family here. Everyone here looks familiar because we knew each
other before, and we knew we would serve, and we planned to be here in the
MTC together. She really liked that idea.
Sunday 1/10
Our
special evening devotional speaker was also our speaking guest in
sacrament meeting combined with one other branch. I felt so blessed and
learned more and took more notes in his sacrament meeting talk than his
devotional talk. Nothing is a coincidence.
Monday 1/11
Busy and quick day. MUCH better lesson with Mercedes.
Tuesday 1/12
Today
entrances and some hallways in our main building are closed off because
6 out of the 12 apostles are here for some training thing. The rumor is
that one of them will speak at the devotional tonight! Either way I'm
really looking forward to it, and the district meeting after.
Two weeks from today I will be flying out to Massachusetts!
Con Amor,
Hermana Rubio
Hermana Rubio sent us just one photo this week.
Here she is with her MTC "Mom and Dad,"
President and Sister Price (they preside over her zone/branch).
No comments:
Post a Comment