Leaving Liberty

 

I'm leaving Liberty. Sadly enough, my destiny is to leave our friends and this cute little area. I've been able to learn a lot thanks to a lot of assorted chaos, much of which involved the mission president. But that just makes it more fun because they have oatmeal cream pie cookies at their house which is conveniently in our area. 

But the highlights have been high for sure. Being reunited with the cutest little family I had taught a couple months ago and than had lost contact. Being in a trio, which is always fun and chaotic. Living further north of Kansas City than most latinos in the area, but miraculously still finding people to talk to and even more miraculously finding people who listen, like actually listen. Plus the members in the branch are just amazing, so that's an absolute win.

And so now I have moved back to Cameron Missouri, a cornfield away from the middle of nowhere. It's been a year since I've been back in this area, so it's been a little strange. But in some ways it's been a good reminder of the growth I've undergone. Especially in terms of confidence and my ability to communicate in Spanish. This all being said the Hispanic population in this area has hardly grown at all.

But certain people really have grown, my friend Humbero who I had taught when I was here a year ago actually got baptized this past February, and I had no idea. A cute little family consisting of a man, a woman, their little girl and two of the woman's brothers moved in and were all baptized. It's been sweet to see all these good changes. 

And despite the worry I feel about being able to effectively use our time and about being diligent and everything else, the members have made clear to us how much they had asked and prayed for there to be another set of missionaries.

At this point I'm sure you can tell, but I've been adding to this email for the past 2 or 3 weeks, so that's why it sounds just a little out of order. 

Anyway. 

After another week, my optimism has increased greatly. This week has honestly been an absolute joy. Even though it's hard to find Spanish speakers, we still manage to find some. Our efforts are consecrated and we have amazing members and especially amazing new members. 

Coming back to, well, literally Zion has taught me a lot. (Adam-ondi-ahman is actually in our area, so if you catch any Spanish speakers there you know who to call) Since my last time being here, I have learned so much Spanish. I have been really making friends and connecting with other people who only speak Spanish. And that's the other layer to it, because about a year ago, little Hermanita d'Evegnee just about threw up every time we had to talk to just about anyone. I was angry, stressed, and felt like everything was completely out of my control. I felt like an unwanted, broken piece of corn left behind the... tractor.. harvesting... .... thing. But really, somewhere along the way I found joy.

Now on to some random summaries

- this past Saturday I finally got to attend one of the famous Spanish ward parties, so I can knock that off of my bucket list. It was a ton of fun because a member had given us mexican blouses and let us borrow her huge skirts. So we were able to pull up and bailar. 

- we're also teaching the daughter and grand daughter of a recent convert in the branch. And the daughter is 11 so we've been trying to get her to be our friend. My companion taught her how to crochet and than at the fiesta, we were even able to get her to dance with us. Than she recommended cotton eye Joe, so us and one of the elders did the dance with her. It was a ton of fun and she even came to church with her Mom and grandma which was super awesome. 

-one really cool thing that happened was we had pulled into a McDonald's parking lot to go film a video for our Facebook Page in the cornfield across the street. And when we came back there was a pretty big group of hispanics like 5 people just standing in the parking lot. So we went up and started talking to them and asked where they lived and they said México. And it turned out they were literally on their way from Mexico to their final destinación in Iowa. While I didn't ask more about what their journey had been like, one can only assume it was similar to the many other stories I've heard. None of which are fun. So we shared a scripture about Christ and testified about the power in Him and that He loved each one of them. And we gave them each our phone number in case they were ever interested in talking to missionaries in Iowa. But it was cool to hopefully give a better impression of what America is like. Because no matter where you are or who you are, you should always be reminded about how much Jesus loves you. 

That's all I've got for now. Thank you and goodnight. 

Hermana d’Evegnée