Week 31

Family!!! Ayyy! So this week was interesting. Let´s get to it:

Cambios: It all started on Tuesday, when we had zone meeting to announce changes. Our ZL (zone leader) gets everyone together, and then is like, "ok, imma split you up into two groups." And so one person from practically every companionship got put into a group on the other side of the room. And he was like, "Ok, all of you have changes!" WHAT (there´s no question mark on this keyboard, so i´ll just insert the literal words "question mark") ANYWAY, so I got changes! Well, actually I didn´t, but my comp did. It was crayzee. And so then he proceeded to tell everyone who their new comps were and stuff, and he left me and the other hermanas in my zone for last. Turns out, it was because my new comp was already in my zone! I´ll get to it in a second. So anyway, then the rest of the day we just passed by all the members for Hna Valdivia to say goodbye to everyone and then we headed out to Concepcion again so I could meet up with my new comp (Conci is only like an hour from Horqueta, so we didn´t have to go that far.)

The new comp: Ok, so my comp´s name is Hermana Aguilar, and she is from Ecuador. She´s tall, black, and has a really chill slash quiet personality. She´s pretty cool and doesn´t have a super dominant personality, and it´s been good to work with her so far. She´s actually literally almost the exact opposite of Hna. Valdivia in a lot of ways. Which is good slash bad. But yeah, she´s really focused on the work, cares a lot about the people, is kinda serious (but not like in a mean way) and doesn´t talk very much. I´m hoping we can become really good friends though, and it´s looking possible. I feel a lot better now than I did before, and I´m hoping it will just keep getting better. I feel like Hermana Aguilar will help me to focus a lot better on the mission and all the stuff we have to do this change, so that will help, I think. She´s a convert of three years in the church, and her testimony and desire to help the people are strong. Stoked for what the future could hold.

Progressions noted with the beginning of a new change: So something I´ve noticed this past week with Hna. Aguilar is that my abilities in the mish have really progressed more than I thought. I can teach better than I thought, my language skills have improved more than I thought (survey says I´m at an 8 now (according to my district and my new comp, so that´s chill)), and I am learning how to retake control of teaching situations in finding and working with investigators and of course, of conversos recientes and menos activos. It´s been good to finally note a little bit of my progress, and I´m hoping I´ll continue to be able to feel the hand of God leading and guiding me from the whole "weakness into strengths" thing. 

Other stuff: Sad day is that our district leader got changes too, which is a bummer, cause he was such a bomb teacher. Seriously, I learned a lot from him. Out new DL is Elder Mendoza from Riverton, UT, but he is pretty Latino on account of both his parents are from Bolivia and he knew Spanish for his whole life and stuff. He´s pretty chill and laidback overall. Other news is that we had our zone activity today in Concepcion. Our zone is like half new people on account of all the changes. But our zone is V small and there aren´t a whole ton of missionaries. Also, since Horqueta is the only part of the zone not in Concepcion, we actually don´t even have a lot of contact with anyone in our zone anyway. But yeah, the activity was fine. We played ultimate frisbee and introduced ourselves and stuff. Just the norms.

Well, for the fact that I had changes this week, I actually surprisingly don´t have much to say. This week was just pretty quiet and chill overall. I´ve been helping my comp get to know the area, we´ve been contacting more to try and find new people to teach, visiting the members of the rama, etc. We have divisions again this coming week though, so that´ll be something going down. Get hyped.

OH YEAH, and in the biggest news of all, GENERAL CONFERENCE IS THIS WEEKEND! I´m stoked as all get out. Really. We didn´t get to watch women´s conference, but I think we will this weekend as well. I´m so excited. All of you get your questions written out and your church shorts on and up, cause it´s gonna be a good time. Shout out to ColinBae "You watch conference, and I´ll watch conference, and we´ll be watching the same conference at the same time in different parts of the world." #sonearyetsofar

Love you long time,

Hermana Ross

p.s. "I am led to believe that our Heavenly Father loves us so much that the things that are important to us become important to Him, just because He loves us." WHAT MATTERS TO US MATTERS TO GOD. That´s real. He is in the details of our lives.

HORQUETA

Us with the sign

the alarm my district leader put on our phone for the next day to remind us he got changes haha

my agenda for this change (cambio 6 of 13, fyi)

The sun was looking sweeett after it rained

My companion with the cows!

Me with the cows

3 day old kittens

I was dying!