First, if you haven' watched General conference, go do that. My personal favorites were President Uchtdorf, Elder Robbins, and Elder Bednar.
So, I am in Plano, Texas now. It is much hotter than Mexico. My trainer is Hermana Enriquez, born in Mexico and moved to the US when she was 9 years old. Last Tuesday, we had a morning of meetings, and then we were assigned to our trainers. We took my luggage out to the parking lot and she told me that I was going to be the driver. That was the beginning of the miracles here on my mission.
I think that the definition of miracles is really broad for missionaries. It is a miracles to find a parking spot, to be let into someone's house, to walk down a street with a pecan tree on it because then we eat the pecans as we are walking. The main miracle every day is that we arrive to our destination safely because of my driving skills, Hermana Enriquez's directions in Spanish, and our mutual unfamiliarity with the area. Every day is an adventure.
Tocamos puertas. We knock doors all the time because right now we don't have many investigators. You just have to learn to laugh, especially when some lady looks through the blinds at you, makes eye contact, and just glares and shakes her head until you walk away. So many awkward moments. Another awkward moment is when someone is just beginning to realize that I don't actually understand the majority of what they are saying. Then I just stand there as Hna Enriquez makes the appointment with them. And of course, we show up to their house later and they say they are busy and then we never actually get the chance to teach them. It is sometimes really frustrating.
We only cover Plano East. Hna Gubler and Hna Beebe are in Plano West. But since the area was only split when I got here, we have been seeing them pretty often because we eat dinner together. I think that is changing soon, which makes me kind of sad because I like them.
Dinners. The main problem is that I don't know how to explain in Spanish that I don't want another serving. They just ignore whatever I say.
General Conference was awesome. We watched the Saturday sessions in English and the Sunday ones in Spanish. I look forward to reading the talks from the Sunday sessions next month because I understood about 40% I think.
In the mornings we run at 6:30. Then breakfast, then hours of studying, then lunch then appointments that fall through, then knocking, then dinner with a member, then more knocking until 9. Good times.
A real miracle! There was a pretty good sized storm one day last week, and we made it to our car just in time not to get drenched. That was also the first day Hna Enriquez showed me the pecan trees. It was funny because that same kind of storm is considered totally normal in Mexico.
I discovered that I am terrible at numbers in Spanish. People give telephone numbers and I am completely lost.
Overall, this week has been easier than I thought it would be. I just have to accept the fact that I don't have to know what is going on most of the time. Heavenly Father knows what I need. I wish this email could be more spiritual. Sorry. Just go watch conference on lds.org. Have a great week!
Hermana Pace