October 21, 2013

 

This week has been quite a blur, as you might be able to imagine. The last night in Laguna Seca, the members and my friends threw an impromptu farewell party. It was so heart warming to see them all gathered on our front porch to send me off. 

 

As I anticipated, I was assighned a brand new area with a brand new missionary. This is called ópening an area. It's basically like starting from scratch. Our area was La Comunidad....they haven't had Sister missionaries for about 20 years. But for good reason. It's incredibly dangerous. Just as we were getting to know people that first day, we were told that the next day we would be changing areas. Good thing we didn't unpack. So, the next day we transfered to an area called El Tesoro 1. The treasure. Wow. It's such an incredible difference from my humble little Laguna Seca. 

   

The members and people are amazing. They all want to help us and offer to go on splits with us all the time. Only thing is, we don't know who ANY of our investigators are. Well...now we know two, but we can't just go visit them, we have to plan with them. But, although we're kind of wandering in the dark on how to work in the city and how to find people to teach, we have seen lots of miracles. People just COME to us wanting to learn about the church! What...is in the water here? People are so willing to listen or the members are so ready to share the gospel with their friends. It's crazy! 

 

Their homes are mostly very nice. It's a bunch of large gated residential communities. Our area is HUGE! It takes about 20 to 30 minutes to walk from one end to the other of our area. It blows my mind. My house too, is a mansion. It has 5 rooms! A kitchen, dining room, living room, bedroom and a room where we have our clothes. It makes me miss Laguna Secan and the simplicity of their living. They're so happy there. 

 

I have been able to hear from my hija in Laguna Seca about some miracles that are happening in Laguna Seca. It makes me so happy to hear of the growth that is happening there and of the people I love.

We have had some really funny experiences here. People sometimes give us food. And don't stop giving. Haha, it's rough when we¡'re short on time to get somewhere and they keep feeding us. Then we have to waddle to the other side of the community in 5 minutes. Our new investigator, Moises, who found us in the street, is a sweet, lonely, simple man. He was very grateful for our first visit and to show his gratitude gave us colorful placemats from his house. Mine has dolphins on it. He then tried giving us hugs. But as Sister missionaries, it's a rule that we are not to hug guys. Someday I want a picture of the awkward Sister missionary hug rejection. It's awkward. Haha, but funny. We couldn't stop giggling about our new placemats. I enjoy my new companion a lot, we get along really well. She has a great sense of humor and she's smart, bold and confident. Just what I need in a companion to help open a new area. We look forward to working in this area. One step at a time we're going to figure this out.  

Environments change, but the message remains the same. What's going to change is the manner in how we work and our skills. 

 

Ok, I am officially out of time. I had no time for pictures today, so hopefully next week. Love you all and I will talk to you next week! Don't be discouraged when you encounter problems. There's a way to tackle the problems. Heavenly Father gives us challenges to learn how to over come them. He doesn't give us more than we can handle. In other words...he knows we can over come the challenges or pain or dificulties in front of us. Be happy and smile because the Lord is with you.

Love,

Hermana Schultz

I forgot to say, my area is in an area called Montserrat.