December 4th, 2017
Happy holidays, everyone!
It was a pretty good week. Lots of knocking, lots of MyPlan. It is more than crazy to me that I have only two weeks left in the mission. It is all going by so fast!
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| Well I have only gone on the A train once, but I thought it was pretty cool. |
Christian and Alfredo are still consistently meeting with us and they both went to see the Christmas devotional yesterday. Let me tell you all, I have such a strong testimony of street contacting. Over half of the baptisms of people I have taught in my mission (including those baptized by other missionaries after I left the area) have been from street contacting. It works! Knocking and working with members does, too, but I am convinced that street contacting is the most Celestial form of finding. ;) Okay, not really. But I do love it!
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This week's rejections:
-Random guy: "Run! It's the Jehovah's Witness."
Me: "Actually we're missionaries from the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Sai-"
Random guy: "Even worse!"
-"I don't speak English," in perfect English.
-"No tengo tiempo, Bendiciones." *firmly closes/basically slams door*
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Anyone heard of Cecelia Andrews? Julie Andrew's Hispanic sister?
Well, probably not because my guess is that she doesn't exist. However, I suggested that Sister Gillespie go and talk to a lady at the bus stop and she did, naturally. We continued to speak with her as we got onto the bus. Cecelia was very religious and asked us if we wanted to hear an alabanza. I'm not sure about the English translation for that, but an alabanza is essentially a song praising God in Spanish. They have lots of them. We said yes, presuming she would pull it up on YouTube or something. Nope! She belted it on the bus. It was amazing. Her voice was so beautiful. Gorgeous. Like I said previously, it reminded me of Julie Andrews. But in a silent bus packed with people I was amazed at her courage to sing loudly and proudly. It felt like an individualized concert, and was probably one of the coolest moments I've ever had. It was a shame to have to get off the bus and stop listening! Public transportation is the best.
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"She returns the onions."
Whilst going down from the train platform we noticed a nice Asian lady in need (carrying a huge heavy bag) and Sister Gillespie went to go assist her. After helping her down all of the stairs the lady said thank-you in Chinese "Shih Shih." Then, she opened the bag and handed Sister Gillespie an onion. Sister Gillespie said "thank you" and then the lady grabbed a small plastic bag out of her purse and gave it to Sister Gillespie. Sister Gillespie was pleased. Not only did she get an onion, but she now had a way to carry said onion!
However, the lady mimed for her to open the bag wider. She did so, and the lady put tens of twenties of onions into the thin plastic shopping bag. Yet, it wasn't enough! She grabbed the largest cabbage man has ever set eye upon, and placed that into the bag as well. We said many "thank-yous" and departed with our bag of onions and cabbage.
Sadly, there is no human way to use 50 onions and a cabbage before they go bad. So, come English class at 7pm we are devising ways to get rid of the onions. We created a game in class. The verb is, 'looking for' and we have them go on a hunt to find a pen. Whoever was to find it should say, "I found it!" They were to receive a prize. The prize? A bag of onions.
Thirteen-year-old Evelyn found the pen. We gave her onions as a prize, naturally. Evelyn comes to English class each week with her sister Marlee, who always would come up with the funniest things to say in English. We moved onto the next verb, 'to return'. We had each student formulate and say a sentence using the verb 'to return'. Marlee, "wise but harmless" as the scriptures would say, smartly looked at Evelyn and said, "she returns the onions." We all burst out laughing and sadly Evelyn did indeed return the onions.
So... moral of the story is that it is hard to get rid of onions. If anyone needs onions please give us a call. ;)
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| We found the way to the roof of the church!! |
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| The roof! |
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| Roof Selfie |
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"We Seek Christ"
I know that throughout my mission one of my goals has been to become like the Savior as much as I possibly can. I have sought Him through study, through finding and teaching and testifying, and through striving to become like Him. This is such a wonderful time of year to make the resolution to become even more like Christ and to seek Him daily. I know that we can really light the world as we strive to become more like our Savior.
'During this Christmas season and throughout the entire year, may we seek with our hearts and souls our beloved Savior, the Prince of Peace, the Holy One of Israel. For this desire, in large part, defines not only who we are as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints but even more who we really are as Christ’s disciples.' -Dieter F. Uchtdorf
Have a lovely Christmas season,
Hermana Ally Voss
P.S. I have my departing temple trip next Tuesday and will not be able to write until that day. To be honest, I probably won't even write very much that day. And I won't have any preparation days after that.... Any final questions may be asked now to avoid me awkwardly not answering important things!
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| Bus Selfie! |
