Dear
Mom and other folks,
Crazy week, as usual!
That's okay though, because that's just life. Well, to get started, let's just
say that the gift of tongues is real and also that missionary life can be quite
awkward and you just have to laugh it off and keep moving forward. This week we
had two exchanges (my companion is the Sister Training Leader and she has to go
on exchanges with all the sisters that she is over, so that's where we switch
companions for 24 hours and she goes into their areas and the remaining
companion comes into our area with me). She is over a lot of sisters this
transfers, so we had to squeeze two exchanges into this week back to back and
it feels like I spent most of this week without my actual companion.
Anyway, on Tuesday she was in Saint Helena and there are three
sisters in that area, so two of them came to Sonoma and stayed with me for a
day. I was with Hermana Navarro and Hermana Mendez and it was so much fun! They
are great. And crazy. And awesome. And I just have to say again that the gift
of tongues is real. I haven't struggled too much with speaking and
understanding Spanish on my mission, but I definitely had extra help on Tuesday and I didn't even realize that I was simply
talking with everyone and responding to all of their concerns and communicating
in Spanish without even thinking about it and it all came out so naturally. As
you can tell from the names of my companions for the day, they both grew up in
Hispanic homes and they asked me how someone so white could keep up her Spanish
like that. And all I could say is that God is good and the gift of tongues is
real! I don't know why He chose to help me out even more that day because
honestly the only reason why I can speak or understand on any other day is
because of Him, but I guess that just goes to show that Heavenly Father is
merciful and blesses us even when we don't deserve it.
As for life being
awkward, that happened on Thursday during the other exchange when I was with Hermana Gudmundson.
I'm pretty used to weird things happen and even embarrassing myself quite a
bit, but for some reason Thursday was a special day for it and so many awkward
things happened in such a short space of time! Normally they are more
spaced out, but pretty much the whole day was filled with these little mishaps.
Example: I love to wave at people in the streets and in their cars and just
smile because it makes me happy and it makes them happy too. Well, we were
walking up and down one street for about 20 minutes because someone told us to
come back then, and I saw a car coming so I just smiled and waved at the
driver. All of the sudden, he hits the brakes and just stops in the middle of
the road! So as I am still walking by and trying to figure out what happened, I
saw the taxi sign painted on his door and I realized that he thought I was
flagging him down and he was waiting for me to get in. Then I awkwardly
explained to him that I was just trying to be nice and that I hope he has a
Merry Christmas, and he laughed and drove away. Then, because we were on the
same street for a while, he drove past us again a few minutes later and this
time he waved at me and gave me a thumbs up. I ended up running into him about
three times in 10 minutes and we were even talking to the woman who we came to
give a ride to. Anyway, a lot of things happened that day and I realized that
you just have to laugh and move forward. And I guess it's a good thing I'm not
in New York because I'd probably be accidentally stoppin' taxis all day.
Well, I hope you are
all having a great week and finding lots to laugh about, because God has a
sense of humor! Lots of love!
Hermana Burton
Oreo sandwich! (I'm the pasty white one in the
middle)
This is probably what my name tag should say.
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