Zuni, Arnold, and All that Goes with That

Hello my lovely friends and family.

This week has been a week. Or something like that. It's been really good, actually. And it went by ridiculously fast. I feel like I was emailing yesterday. Time flies by soo quickly. I can't really handle it.

Okay. I realized last week that I said nothing about my companion. And I feel bad about that. Because she is so wonderful! The best mom that anyone could ever want! :) Her name is Sister Arnold, she's from New Hampshire, and she goes to BYU Provo. She watches Sherlock and she watched part of Doctor Who (but this is a really long story and I get a little bit upset with her because she skipped 9 and only watched 10 and I just...I can't.) But we get along really, really well. We love each other so much. She had a really crazy situation -- she was called to speak English, and then she got 3 months into her mission and President Murdock asked her to switch to speaking Spanish. So she's only been speaking Spanish for 7 months. She's really good though, and she helps me out a lot. I love her so much! Really, she is the absolute best trainer I could have ever hoped for.

I want to talk about my district. But I also want to make it known that the Zuni District is in no way better than my 12C. 12C will always be the best. I miss my Mexico crew. Anyway. My District here is really great. I love them a lot. We are the model district for our mission. My mission president is pretty new and he has had to implement a lot of rules because it was just a normal thing for everyone to be really disobedient. SO. My District is the most obedient District in the mission. We have to set a really good example for everyone else, so I feel ridiculously blessed to be in it.

We had exchanges this week, and I got to go English speaking for a day. :) It was really great. I can actually participate a lot in the lessons in English. I loved it. We met this one guy though, oh man, he was funny. He told us all about how he believes in God, but he thinks God is an alien. And he thinks God and a bunch of his alien friends discovered Earth and saw a bunch of monkeys just hanging out, so they did some gene splicing. And that is how God created man in his image. So, my friends, according to this theory, we are half alien and half monkey. Mas o menos. It was so funny. My Sister Training Leader was not impressed with him. I thought it was really interesting to listen to. I've never met anyone who has thought that way before. My Sister Training Leader has kind of a bad attitude. I had a hard time with her. But I do love her! And that's all I have to say about that. But while we were on exchanges, we tracted...basically all day. And I fell off of the sidewalk and almost got run over by a car. That happened. But I'm still alive and didn't get hurt! So all is well.

Yesterday we tracted into a less active member (and by less-active, I mean inactive). She hasn't been to church in 10 years. But she wants to start meeting with Sister Arnold and I. And I love her SO MUCH! Oh my goodness. I can't wait to get to know her better and ah. She's great. She's going to make us enchiladas sometime, also, because evidently she makes the BEST enchiladas.

Next Sunday, we're having a special sacrament meeting especially for our investigators! I'm really, really excited. Because it is just centered on Jesus Christ. It's going to be soo amazing. The missionaries had to plan it. (There are 4 companionships in my ward. My entire district is in the same ward.) But our obispo kind of gave us an outline of how he wanted the meeting to go. He was very insistent on a musical number. And my District Leader was very insistent that I sing. So. I'm singing next Sunday in Sacrament Meeting. So I'm really excited about that. It's going to be an amazing Sacrament Meeting, and I'm not going to be able to understand about 75% of it. That's rough. But all is well.

My heart is so, so full. I love the people of Colorado so much. I love my investigators. I love the members. I love the recent converts. I love the people that are less/inactive. I love all of the missionaries. I just love everyone. I'm pretty sure that my heart is going to explode. But it has a crazy way of just expanding. And I love it.

My Spanish is so rough, guys. The struggle is real. I can say lots of things, actually. I speak it pretty decently. BUT. I have no idea what anyone is saying to me ever. And that's really hard for me. It's not like how it was in the CCM. The teachers were so easy on us, speaking slowly and in Spanglish. But, they did help me a lot. It's just so different in the field. I'm slowly understanding more and more. And someday, I'm going to be great. But I'm really jealous (that's not exactly the right word, but I don't know how else to express it) of the missionaries that just get to be immersed in the language. I feel like you're going to learn it so much faster than I will. But it's okay. Because I can do it! Because I was called of God and He is here to help me.

Friends and family at home: I hope all is still well. I love and miss you so much, it's a little bit insane.

Friends and family from the CCM: I'm pretty sure everyone is sick of hearing me talk about how much I loved my time in Mexico, how much I loved every single person, and all of my never ending stories about my time there. I miss you all so dang much. And I hope you're kicking butt in the field. :)

I love you all so much and pray for you always!

Con mucho amor,
Hermana Sherilyn Harper