Be More Loving

We got some hefty mangoes!

Family,

I am so jealous you've all held baby Hannah!!
 

More adventures this week:

 

We had 3 intercambios. Because Hermana Earl is an Hermana Leader, that means we have to trade off with the 6 girls we're in charge of, plus the super Hermana Leaders. I got to be the senior companion for the first time! I was with two girls who only had 3 months on the mission, and one was a gringa! But she knows as much Spanish as I do with 7 months. All went well. We have two more intercambios planned for this week, but I didn't get my whole apoyo/ money, and gua gua guys like to rip off Americans. So hopefully I can afford everything.

We broke our house key. It all played out pretty suspicious, looking back. We were walking home last night in a hurry because it was about to bucket, and we kept seeing all these flashes of lightning in the distance. About 3 minutes from home we saw a big black cow in the street and we stopped to take a picture. Of course, only then a guy contacts us and talks to us for 5 minutes until it started really coming down. Then we had to run because now we're late to be in the house and we're getting soaked. We get to the gate outside our house and I can't hardly see because it's super dark and there's so much rain. I turn the key once to unlock it and then I turn it again to pull out the bolt out of the lock without hardly any force, and pop! the key breaks and we're stranded outside our house in the pouring rain!

 

Our mega water bottles

Our neighbors across the street let us wait under their porch until the rain stopped. After the rain goes down, my comp notices that the other gate to the house (which is never open) was left open the entire time and so that great. Now I just hope our neighbors downstairs, who use the same gate, don't lock us out until we can get a new key :) This all started with that big black cow!

Homemade Domican shoes with little metal brands from clothing

We are seeing blessings. We keep meeting more promising people. And my lice went away. And an investigator came to church. And I bought a Bueno Bar. Also God finally sent me a Bon Bike (a guy who sells Bon ice cream on a bike) and so I finally got to buy ice cream.

I love learning and growing in the gospel. I found a Come Follow Me manual so I can finally follow along with the rest of the world! I like Paul. I like 1 Cor 1:27: "But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty" because sometimes God chooses 2 little 20-year old gringas who hardly know Spanish (weak, foolish) and puts them together as companions and lets them conquer Madre Vieja Sur (mighty).

Goal for the week is to be more loving. I was reading an article Mom sent me and Elder Cook's talk from last general conference, and they're both about how we have to do the gathering of Israel with love. I wish I had a more open, loving heart. 💓

Love,
Sneaky little rat
(Story: We contacted a guy washing his car and he responds to us in fluent English. He put an appointment with us to return, but when we came back he wasn't there. We stopped by a different day and found him. We told him in English "sorry we are dropping by unannounced, but we wanted to know if you had time for us to share a quick message." He laughed and said "sneaky little rats." Then he let us in.)