I just get thinking that my Spanish is coming along well, when we sit in a couple of Spanish-spoken-here meetings in one day. Oh, it makes my brain tired! Jill says she is listening to The Liahona after reading and studying the written articles, so I tried that today. I think this has potential! Ooooh, boy. That plus the hymns, primary songs, scriptures, all in Spanish, and a few daily lessons in Duolingo and Spanish for Dummies may get us there! I do love testimony meeting in Spanish.
We did not get to teach Hugo this week as he was in Houston and now in Guadalajara. We did go to District Meeting on Tuesday and drove some Elders to Hebbronville to teach a man who had ordered a Book of Mormon online and then requested to meet with the missionaries. Manuel is very prepared. He studies the Bible and Book of Mormon 2 ½ hours a day! We can see the Lord’s hand in strengthening Laredo to become a stake!
Thursday is always the highlight of our week as we teach the amazing young adults in Institute. Although they are almost all bilingual, Spanish is their first language, so they prefer (as any of us would) to speak and learn in español. They are patient with us! Seminary starts on Aug. 15—every school day at 6 AM. We will teach in the chapel closest to us, and we may be glad for that. The other teacher will be in the Hillside building. She is a native Spanish speaker with little teaching experience. She is lovely, though, and will be great. We will be teaching the Doctrine & Covenants.
As I have noted before, we are the only senior couple in Laredo (250,000+ people). The Shaws (in Zapata) told us that there is a real crisis with not enough missionary couples. They said that the Church is short 120 couples right now. Encourage those you know who can afford it to put in their papers! It may be that there are many, many opportunities to serve wherever we live without leaving home and family, BUT it is crucial to have couples in some of these places that are preparing to become wards and stakes and get ready for a temple. We love it here, despite the temperatures, and we know how badly we are needed.
The Sisters texted us yesterday morning to ask if we would feed them. Ha! (Even though they know our eating patterns!) We had a wonderful dinner with them, and said good-bye to Sister Paepke, who is one of our favorites. She is being transferred tomorrow. It is almost unbelievable how devoted, brilliant, talented, and faithful these very young missionaries are! Last week three more elders had to go into clinic because of heat exhaustion; however, they keep going. Y’all need to drink your water!
We did get to see Christopher Robin on Friday. It is nice to have a flexible schedule as a senior couple. We could never keep up with the young missionaries. We found out yesterday that we are not supposed to fast without water. That was a new one for me. I knew that I could not fast for long without my fluids, so next time I will drink my water and still fast.
I have picked up a 4th piano student—darling Sister Ruiz, a young mother and wife of one of our branch presidents (Spanish). She has been teaching herself and playing prelude music from the Simplified Hymns. I love being able to do this! All of my “students” are so determined to learn to play so they can serve and bring music into the church.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the saving grace of this woeful, chaotic world. We are blessed to be called as His emissaries in the Texas McAllen Mission! Pray for us that we will be healthy and protected in doing His work. We love you all.
I've been thinking a lot about you learning Spanish, and others learning to play the piano. I'm amazed at the blessings that are helping you all to accomplish such hard things! Makes me want to cry just thinking about trying to do that! 😘 Funny how much I miss you even though we never saw each other...❤️
ReplyDeleteI am so thankful for social media because I feel like I see you every day!
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