An Unusual Time



I was reminiscing today, and had to post this pic of Alaina leaving for her mission.  We couldn't tear ourselves away until she made it all the way through security.  I cant believe that was over a year ago!.- Alaina's Mom

 

            Hello world. 

 

This week, quite frankly, was extremely unusual. 

But I quite enjoy that aspect of the mission, weird things are always happening. Things you’d never expect. For example:

 

An earthquake Monday night at 10pm while you’re just trying to write in your journal for crying out loud.

 

Good thing my training from the 2nd grade came rushing back to me. I was perplexed for the first few moments, just like, why is it that my chair is shaking? Then I looked at my compa, and she was shaking too. And I was just like, of course, earthquake. We swiftly exited the room and stood under the nearest door ways. It lasted about 30 seconds in total. Overall, we remained fairly composed. It was pretty nuts to watch the walls of our cement house sway back and forth though. Things like that remind you how fragile our lives are. 

 

With the earthquake commenced the weirdest week of my mission life. The next day we were walking the streets on our way to visit someone and a lady walked past us chanting under her breath and calling us witches. okkkk. Nice to meet you to too! I love these people 

 

Then, a Halloween miracle. I have been showering in cold water for the past year. This has been a topic of frequent discussion among the missionaries because we just don’t really like it so much. Then, the day after the earthquake, Sis M got out of the shower and she said...hey....the water is hot! I didn’t believe her but I took my turn, and I repented for lacking faith. THE WATER WAS INDEED HOT. We can only ascribe this blessing to a Halloween miracle, because that is the nearest national holiday. But for true...since then...we have hot water. hahaha how in the world...

 

THEN. Things got weirder. A man stopped us on the street which always makes me suspicious. We normally do the stopping, only the crazies stop us. But he wasn’t crazy at all! He informed us that there were some Canadian doctors coming to help out the people here and do some basic procedures and that they needed...TRANSLATORS! Or, Mormon missionaries. So Saturday I had the opportunity to work with she Dr. Lee, who was actually a dentist. When I first got there she was in the middle of filling a tooth, and she said, ´tell him to open his mouth!!!´and it was high stress and she was super demanding. But when we finished the procedure, we got to small talking and Dr Lee and I were fast friends. We made a great team. To break the ice I told her my grandpa is a dentist, and I thought that might qualify me a little more. I think it worked, because before long, I was assisting in the procedures. hahaha. yes! The best part was when Dr Lee started freaking out because of a fire she saw outside of the window of where we were working. I told her, ´doctor lee, its ok! It’s just a woman cooking her tortillas! But I don’t think she believed me and she was super concerned about the fire. hahah but yeah...in other parts of the world people cook over open fires. fyi. 

 

And thennnnnn our super awesome ward mission leader Álvaro Merino, who is a man, thought it would be sooooo funny to give my companion a month’s head up for her talk (a talk is a 15-20 minute sermon given during sacrament meeting.  The LDS church does not have paid clergy so the members are given assignments to speak in church) in church yesterday so she could appropriately prepare, and told me nothing until....he announced my name over the pulpit. Do you KNOW how hard it is to fly by the seat of your pants in Spanish??!!!!!!! Hard. I’m still plotting revenge. 

 

But guys. Apart from this super freaky week, most fitting for the month of October, the work is blowing up here! The members are on our team! They give us people to teach, they do family home evenings with us! annnnddd Nelson, our investigator who has decided to get baptized this Saturday, bore his testimony of the Book of Mormon and it was so great. He said ´just as I read, I want more. I don’t want to put it down. And when I read...it stays with me´

 

If you want to be happy. Read the Book of Mormon. IT’S TRUEEEE

I love you guys. But really. I do. And I love this scripture.

 

11 And he hath power given unto him from the Father to redeem them from their sins because of repentance; therefore he hath^asent his angels to declare the tidings of the conditions of repentance, which bringeth unto the power of the Redeemer, unto the salvation of their souls.

 

 

If you want to feel god’s love, keep the commandments. If you want to change, have faith. If you want to have faith, repent.

Love

Sista Hirschi

 

PS I just want you all to know, that my English is suffering. So I’m sorry that some of these sentences are less stellar than they used to be. But there is just soo much Spanish. And I love it. LATINOS!