These past two weeks have been absolutely loooooccccooooo. I didn't get a chance to send this one last week so I updated it a bit and then there is another on it's way right after. Sorry I know it's a lot, but I just want to share a bunch with ya'll.
First to keep you updated. The Elders in Honduras found Marcelino's family!!! He called us last week and was so so so excited. And then, they went to the Sunday morning session of General Conference this weekend. I'm just so grateful to Heavenly Father for helping the Missionaries find this family who lives in some 4 street town on the outskirts of another small town in Honduras. Marcelino was so happy.
Yarah
We had a lesson with Yarah, our deaf friend, and wow it was honestly one of my favorites. It was so hard!! Pretty quick into the lesson we realize a few things.
A. Yarah doesn't actually know American Sign Language, just Mexican Sign Language.
B. She just read lips till she was a teenager. She didn't learn anything till she moved to LA. Aka this woman was not given the resources she needed and deserves.
C. There's even a lot of Spanish that she doesn't understand because she was never helped!!
D. She is so eager to learn.
This is what happened. We sat down and said a prayer (Sister Allen did it in Sign Language. So proud). I started talking about who God is and asked her a question but her response was super off topic. And that kept happening. So I tried to simplify everything and then that's when it became more clear that there were a lot of words that she didn't understand. So when there was a word she didn't understand I would type it out on the phone in Spanish and about half the time she would get it. Sometimes I had to explain through other signs and it would make more sense.
Example: make
I signed make, talking about how God made the Earth. She didn't quite understand so I typed "hacer o crear" in the phone. (Which means "to make or to create") neither of which helped her.
What was so cool about this lesson is that we taught her the Plan of Salvation. We told her that God loves her and the light that came across her face was such a a sweet joy. Also telling her that she will be able to hear when Christ comes again, when she receives her resurrected body, she got so excited and said "I'll be like you?"
Of course there were a lot of things that still went completely over her head. Not only because she doesn't know ASL but also because mine is a lot less than perfect. But it is perfect in that sense because we are both trying to help each other and that makes it so much easier to communicate.
My good man Salvador invited me to Mexico.
We walk up to him right as he's getting out of his car from work. He's just a sweet middle aged Mexican man. We talk for a bit about this and that, about what we do as missionaries, how we learned Spanish, we share a scripture with him and then gets this phone call. This is how the conversation went from there.
Salvador: "That was just a woman in Mexico who wants to get married, sabes que es casarse? (Do you know what to get married means?) We are going there for the wedding."
Hermana B: "yea! *puts fake ring on ring finger to show that I know what casarse means* what part of Mexico are you from?"
S: "Michoacan."
Hna B: "No way! I have a mental list of all the places I want to visit in Mexico and Michoacan is number 1"
S: "really? We invite you to come with us."
Hna B: *thinking it's a kind of empty invitation* okay sweet!
S: "we're going in December. Do you have a phone number so we can call you?"
Hna B: *slightly stunned.* "Oh hermano we cant go! We do this all day everyday for 18 months, we don't have time to go on vacations! And I don't get off my mission till January"
S: "that's okay I stay for 3 or 4 months. You can come after you get off your mission. What's your phone number? My wife will call you."
So that ladies and gentlemen was the sweetest human being ever and I now will be going to Michoacan January 2020. Looking for a travel buddy.
We had a lesson with Yarah, our deaf friend, and wow it was honestly one of my favorites. It was so hard!! Pretty quick into the lesson we realize a few things.
A. Yarah doesn't actually know American Sign Language, just Mexican Sign Language.
B. She just read lips till she was a teenager. She didn't learn anything till she moved to LA. Aka this woman was not given the resources she needed and deserves.
C. There's even a lot of Spanish that she doesn't understand because she was never helped!!
D. She is so eager to learn.
This is what happened. We sat down and said a prayer (Sister Allen did it in Sign Language. So proud). I started talking about who God is and asked her a question but her response was super off topic. And that kept happening. So I tried to simplify everything and then that's when it became more clear that there were a lot of words that she didn't understand. So when there was a word she didn't understand I would type it out on the phone in Spanish and about half the time she would get it. Sometimes I had to explain through other signs and it would make more sense.
Example: make
I signed make, talking about how God made the Earth. She didn't quite understand so I typed "hacer o crear" in the phone. (Which means "to make or to create") neither of which helped her.
What was so cool about this lesson is that we taught her the Plan of Salvation. We told her that God loves her and the light that came across her face was such a a sweet joy. Also telling her that she will be able to hear when Christ comes again, when she receives her resurrected body, she got so excited and said "I'll be like you?"
Of course there were a lot of things that still went completely over her head. Not only because she doesn't know ASL but also because mine is a lot less than perfect. But it is perfect in that sense because we are both trying to help each other and that makes it so much easier to communicate.
My good man Salvador invited me to Mexico.
We walk up to him right as he's getting out of his car from work. He's just a sweet middle aged Mexican man. We talk for a bit about this and that, about what we do as missionaries, how we learned Spanish, we share a scripture with him and then gets this phone call. This is how the conversation went from there.
Salvador: "That was just a woman in Mexico who wants to get married, sabes que es casarse? (Do you know what to get married means?) We are going there for the wedding."
Hermana B: "yea! *puts fake ring on ring finger to show that I know what casarse means* what part of Mexico are you from?"
S: "Michoacan."
Hna B: "No way! I have a mental list of all the places I want to visit in Mexico and Michoacan is number 1"
S: "really? We invite you to come with us."
Hna B: *thinking it's a kind of empty invitation* okay sweet!
S: "we're going in December. Do you have a phone number so we can call you?"
Hna B: *slightly stunned.* "Oh hermano we cant go! We do this all day everyday for 18 months, we don't have time to go on vacations! And I don't get off my mission till January"
S: "that's okay I stay for 3 or 4 months. You can come after you get off your mission. What's your phone number? My wife will call you."
So that ladies and gentlemen was the sweetest human being ever and I now will be going to Michoacan January 2020. Looking for a travel buddy.
Anyway moral of all these stories is God is good and being a missionary is always an adventure.
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