This week started off a bit rough...We had divisions for a day (divisions is when you switch companions and areas) and I was with the sister training leader Hermana Garcia! We taught some really awesome lessons at the beginning of the day, but I ate a funny kind of fruit salad with beets in it, and it made me WAY sick.
I started feeling pretty icky in the middle of a lesson and I came preeeettty close to vomiting on our investigators. I ran out of the lesson at the end and threw up in the street. Joy. Then we kept walking and went and taught more lessons. After each lesson I'd run out and throw up some more. My stomach killed and I felt AWFUL.
Eventually it got so bad that my temporary comp took me to a doctor...haha, oh geez, if you could only have been there to see me trying to communicate with the doctor! I don't speak Spanish. She didn't speak English. Our conversation consisted of a lot of pointing, acting out, and drawing of pictures. Not gonna lie it was pretty hilarious and pretty embarrassing.
We had to go back to the house an hour early and I felt SO BAD. I wanted to keep teaching, but I also didn't want to throw up on anyone. That night I woke up every 2 hours to throw up, but the next morning it was all out of my system and I felt much better! I'm totally fine now it was just a difficult day...
Haha... oh, and this week we didn't have water in our house for 5 days straight. And get this: I have no idea WHY, because I don't understand Spanish! From what I can understand, Oaxaca just doesn't have water sometimes, and no one really knows why. We made it work though, and don't worry mom. We had plenty of bottled water to drink! We just didn't have a whole lot of water to shower with...haha... oh dear. My life. After 2 days I was feeling pretty gross so I used 5 to 10 cups of water and took a mini shower. It was a miracle I was able to shower with such a small amount of water! It was like the loaves and the fishes miracle, but with shower water! God is looking out for me.
I had a goal this week "Hablar con todos" (talk with everyone) and I totally rocked it! I talked to everyone and anyone I could. I may not be able to speak Spanish very well, but that isn't gonna keep this one from blabbing on! No sireee. It takes courage and sometimes its hard to be bold because people sometimes shut me down pretty hard, but I'm doing it anyway because I know what I have to say can change lives for the better.
I'm the only white person for miles, and I have yet to see another. People always STARE when I walk by and I put on a big smile and wave. They either look confused, wave back, laugh, or all three. Sometimes people are mean about it. The other day a guy walked past us and shook his head at me, and mumbled "GÜERA" (white girl). Did it hurt my feelings? Yes. Did I let it get me down? NO! Because I am like a cork in a big bucket of water. You can try and push me down, but I'll always come popping back up. There's no keeping me down! Call me names, laugh at me, and don't let me ride in you taxi and I will still walk away smiling. Why? Because I'm Hermana Matesen and I've got the happiest message in the world to share with anyone and everyone who will listen. So there.
The mission is an amazing experience and is very unique. Sometimes it's hard because a lot of these people have real problems. Problems with alchol, abuse, and other serious stuff. The other day we taught a darling family and the 6 year old little girl reminded me SO much of me as a kid. She told me that sometimes she has a hard time paying attention is school because it's boring, and her teacher told her dad that she was distracted and her dad hit her for it. She showed me the big red mark on her tiny little cheek and my heart nearly broke in two.
How can I, little white Hermana Matesen possibly help these people? Me, with little to no life experience. Then it hit me. I don't know these people's problems. I don't know how to help them, but GOD DOES. And all I've got to do is listen and love and do all that I can to tell these people about CHRIST, about CHANGE, and about LOVE. Sometimes I feel like the grinch. Not grouchy and mean, but that my heart is growing two sizes larger everyday. I love these people and they're learning to love me too.
I love walking the streets and running into my friends or hearing my name called as I walk through the neighborhoods! I've made a lot of friends here.
I love being Hermana Matesen. This really is the experience of a life time.
LOVE YOU ALL,
Hermana Matesen
*bugging my comp while she calls the district leader,
and how I felt about that fat cockroach jumping out of my towel and onto my dress. I smashed it with a broom and then sprayed it with raid. Take that ugly cockroach!
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