Monday night I said goodbye to some people I will miss. We had Panettone and hot chocolate with our little white/Peruvian mixed family. It felt like home. I bought some today. It is like an Italian-born fruit cake that is popular in Peru and maybe in other Spanish speaking countries.
My boots have been wet this whole week. I don't really know of any remedy for that.
We are in an apartment with another set of Hermanas. It reminds me of college. There was a bit of a problem with a huge cockroach last night. I felt bad for the neighbors, because it got pretty loud. After being chased around with a can of poison spray stuff, it was finally bludgeoned to death with a broom handle.
My companion goes home in 5 weeks. I will probably stay here until I go home. I don't know what my address is because we might be moving in with members soon. It might be good, because we live farther away from our area than I would like.
Lots of the people I have met here are great. We taught two classes on Sunday. The Primary class was fun. There weren't very many kids, but they were funny and pretty well behaved. We started by asking what holiday was coming up. Everyone one said "CHRISTMAS!!" and then someone was like "And Hanukkah too, right? Where did Hanukkah come from?" A really big part of me wanted to go off on a Judaism tangent, but we didn't have enough time. The lesson was about service, so we had each of them write a thank you card or get-well-soon card for someone. They wrote some pretty sweet things.
I don't know if I mentioned it, but I did my first written translating work. There are so many things that should be in Spanish, but they sometimes aren't or I can't find them. Right now, I just need a native speaker to read it through for grammar mistakes.I am pretty satisfied with it. Maybe I shared this with you a few weeks ago, but here is the original.
"Brethren the spirit of this work is urgency, and we must imbue our missionaries and members with the spirit of now. N-O-W. We are not just waiting for natural slow growth. We must move more rapidly. We must take things up a notch. If we have to call down miracles or angels, then call them down. The drama is unfolding and we must do whatever it takes to ratchet up the work.
I feel an incredible sense of urgency. I feel such a sense of urgency in my chest that I can hardly breathe. Every dispensation begins with a vision. We must have a vision. We are the church that dreams dreams. We are the church that has visions. We must believe in miracles... We must believe and build on what our forefathers have done. We are just going to putter along, be average until we wind up to the level when our heart is up in our throat and if we opened our eyes, we would expect to see angels.
If this is God's work, and if He still lives, then the miracles and angels are still there. We must live up to our potential. God will bless us with whatever we need, God wants us to just see what he sees and know what he knows. He wants us to ratchet up the vision. God is easy to please and hard to satisfy. This is not convenient easy work.
We have got to take things to the edge. We have to move into the realm of the miraculous. We have to live in such a way that we cannot do it alone anymore, where we will resort to the Lord where we will cry, without thy help I will fall. Help me fly; Go to the edge where miracles happen. Move into the realm of the miraculous. Welcome to the apostolic work”
(Jeffrey R. Holland, 1995, France).
That's about all I have to say.
Have a good week!
Love,
Hermana Pace