Monday, April 20, 2015

Positive Perspective

HERMANA MADSEN

Hermana Madsen is our mission president's wife.  Last week she sent us a text and told us she would love to come out and work with us one of these days when we have time!  We were more than thrilled.  We invited her to come with us on Tuesday.  We set up a time and a place to meet and she was stuck in traffic so we had a few minutes to spare.  Instead of wasting time just sitting around and starring off into the distance we decided to contact whoever was nearby. 

We found a guy sitting by a lamp post and holding a pineapple.  We struck up conversation and explained to him who we are and what we do.  He didn't seem too interested, but he was nice about it. I felt like we shouldn't give up so easy though, and I began explaining to him the Book of Mormon and other things that make our church unique.  He started to show more interest and we left him with just the right amount of pamphlets and books and headed off to find someone else to contact. 

When we turned around we found President Madsen and Hermana Madsen sitting in the car right behind us. They had been watching the whole time and Hermana Madsen was even taking paparazzi pictures from the car window.  

We hopped into the car and President took us to where we needed to go (SO nice to ride in an air conditioned, clean car, that has seat belts.) We ended up having a super busy and wonderful afternoon and evening.  We used up every last minute and we contacted EVERYONE in our path.  

It was a great feeling. We testified of CHRIST out the wazoo and were really able to help animate and connect with a lot of struggling people who really are trying to change their lives.  At the end of the night we got a big hug and a little praise from Hermana Madsen.  We all learned a lot from one another. 

ZONE CONFERENCES

So as Sister Training Leaders here in Oaxaca we are in charge of 2 zones worth of sister missionaries. Both of these zones decided to have their big zone conferences this week and they planned them back to back.  We were in charge of giving half of the training and presentations and coming up with what we were going to focus on and talk about.  It was a little stressful...but we pulled it off in the end. 

As part of both conferences, the focus was ATTITUDE.  We wanted to make it fun and interesting so we decided to do a skit to kick things off.  We were talking about attitude and how we can choose how we see the world and how we see our situations.  We decided that it was kind of like glasses.  So we made two pairs of cardboard glasses.  One pair was neon yellow and the other pair was dark blue. One represented a positive outlook on life and the other represented the negative. 

We set up signs saying which was which and then went through an average missionary day.  The skit went as follows, we were sleeping and the alarm went off.  I woke up and put on the negative glasses, my companion woke up and put the positive ones on.  We then did exercise, studied, contacted, and a bunch of other missionary stuff.  My companion reacted SUPER enthusiastically and positively to everything and I was extremely negative and dark cloudish about it all.  We made it relatable to a Oaxacan missionary and it brought a lot of laughs. 
We were overdramatic to make it fun and the missionaries really seemed to appreciate the humor. At the end of the skit we go to the "zone conference" and I decide to change my negative glasses out for some positive ones.  In the end it was a really fun activity and the missionaries got a kick out of something new for a change.  Being a leader is a great opportunity to touch lives and change perspectives.  It also helps you think outside the box and be more creative.  It was a good 2 conferences.

A WHOLE NEW WORLD

An appointment fell through the other day and we decided to get some contacting in.  We saw a random fish store (not the kind you eat, but the kind you put in a tank of water and keep as a pet) and struck up conversation with the owner's son.  The store was tiny and nothing special.  A few guppies and a beta fish or two.  It was the size of a small bedroom in all. 

He seemed to know an awful lot about fish and we had some interesting convo.  He then asked us if we would like to see even more fish.  We said why not.  He then opened up the backdoor and revealed a whole other WORLD.  His backyard was HUGE.  Tons of plants and vines growing and climbing up walls and the ceiling.  There were tons and tons of big buckets of water filled with all kinds of water plants and fish. 

There were also a million and one guinea pigs of different hair lengths and colors.  There were doves of different shapes and sizes and a giant PEACOCK.  Yes. I am being serious.  In the middle of nowhere dusty road Mexico.  It was crazy.  And super cool.  We ended up setting an appointment to come back another day and share our message with him, but it was really cool to get to see all that.  I wish a took picture, but I only took a video.  Oh well.  Next time.

P DAY PARTY

Lately, we've decided that we want to be better leaders and so in an effort to get to know our hermanitas a little better and establish a little more trust we had an activity!  We decided to have a P day party.  We watched a Pelicula (a movie), ate Pizza, Pepino (cucumber), Papaya, Piña (´pinapple), Popcorn, Pastel (cake), and broke a Piñata.  It was a good time.  Not very many hermanas showed up, but we ended up having a really wonderful time. Lots of laughs and good food.  I really love my hermanitas.

*All of our P foods. Popcorn, Papaya, Pinapple, Pepino (cucumber), Pastel (cake), Pizza....
*a little peek into my world. We were teaching them outside but it randomly started to pour rain so we ran inside for cover! The make shift metal house you see in the background is their kitchen/their dogs house.

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