Rain and the Gift of Tongues!

Hola! How is everyone? 

It rains REALLY HARD here. Like I've never seen it rain in Utah like it does here. A week or two ago, we were driving to an appointment in La Mancha (It isn't actually called that, it is just a nickname because it is sort of a dangerous place and has tons of people) and it started POURING. And I don't use the word lightly. For like twenty minutes it was dumping buckets of water everywhere. Like on the way to the door I moved my umbrella for literally about two seconds to step inside the house and was soaked. I felt bad dripping all over her floor. Of course we had to get out of the car and make it to the house. I had my bag on my lap as I prepared to get out and I forced opened my umbrella and stepped out of the car into about 8 inches of water (my poor shoes) and.... My bag strap came undone. And it also fell into the water. I had it out in like one second, but the damage was done. So that was a little of my expenses that you mentioned. Luckily though, my scriptures were somehow protected. I don't know how, because everything else was wet and it's not like the cloth case I have protected it. Everything else got wet except my scriptures and my hymnbook (Actually that got a bit wet too, but not enough to do much damage). And my camera, but that was in a more protected spot. It was cool. But now my bag smells weird. I'm going to try to do something with it, because I like that bag better. 

Yes, I've played the piano a few times since I've been here. Not much, but I have.

I got transferred last week. I am still in the same ward (actually all three of us are) but a different area and with a different companion. Now I am just in a duo. My companion now is called Hermana Chambers. She is awesome She has only been out one transfer longer than me. As you can imagine, the Spanish gets very... Creative. And we don't have a lot of experience with what to do all the time, so we call the other missionaries lots. But it does really help us rely on the Spirit a lot more. I think I'm going to learn lots this transfer.

But my companion is great! She is 20, and we have a lot more in common than my last companionship. I loved them, but we had absolutely nothing in common. There was a 7 year age gap between us all, and Hermana Brown had been married at one point and had had a career going and stuff, and Hermana Williams was very into like extreme sports and had been in college and stuff, but Hermana Chambers and I have much more in common. She's cool.

On Sunday we went to go have a lesson with the Matamoros: Allen, Brian, and Dina, who have a baptismal date set for the 20th of this month, but their older sister Ana was there, and she's never been taught. She also had a friend, Jose, with her. But she was SUPER interested and asking tons of questions and learned lots and Jose was too. So we got 2 awesome new investigators who are both super prepared! It is amazing how much God knows his children. And also in that lesson, Dina, who is 17, asked when she could go on a mission because she thinks it would be an awesome thing to do. and yesterday we saw her again and taught her about missionary work, which was cool, because we actually went to teach their mom (who is also named Ana) but she was in the shower. For like 40 minutes. But Dina was super interested and was getting excited and stuff and it was great!

Oh and my address changed, ps. It is now 8742 Shadymist Dr, Richmond 23235. I think. You should look it up to be sure, maybe, but I think it is in Richmond. We live in a blue house. Remember that one old show that I used to watch, Bear in the Big Blue House? I have thought of that more, since my house has been blue. It is a pretty nice house though. I haven't even found any massive spiders or anything. 

I have definitely been receiving the gift of tongues since I've been in this companionship. It is super crazy to hear these words just like coming out of my mouth. Everyone is always like super shocked by when I tell them I've only been learning Spanish for 3 months. I tell them the truth, that there's no way I could do it without God's help. But it is pretty funny to see the looks on people faces when we are like store contacting or anything and we are speaking Spanish to each other or when we talk to Hispanics we find and they do this like incredulous little double take, like, "What's with these super white girls speaking Spanish?"

We teach the Matamoros kids in English, because they speak better English than we do Spanish, and when we taught Ana (I'm just going to call her Ana the younger from now on) and told her we speak Spanish, she was like, "Oh, that's cool..." and kind of moved on. Then later her mom came in and we were speaking Spanish to her and after she left Ana the younger had this like shocked look on her face and said, "Wow, you really do speak Spanish! I didn't believe you. I haven't really seen any Americans that know Spanish." It was funny.

I'm working on the money thing, but it is difficult with transfers and stuff and now we're in an area where people feed us even less. I haven't had any member dinners in almost two weeks. So I have to buy contact solution and soap and hairspray and laundry stuff and all my food on top of those things which most areas don't have to do. However, it does mean I don't gain as much weight. People in some areas gain like 30 pounds because they get fed twice a day. And there is no such thing as healthy hispanic food. Everything is fried. Even like noodles, I think they cook in oil. And you don't really get any veggies. There are some really... Interesting things we get fed. Well, not really anything way crazy yet, but some things that are just not that good. Like tamales. No me gusta. But we get fed them lots. Ew. But then some things are amazing and you could eat them all day. Like pupusas. They are awesome. If you ever get offered pupusas, especially like real El Salvadorian pupusas, don't turn it down. 

Well, I better go. Have a great day! The church is true! it is the best! I've been reading the Old Testament along with Jesus the Christ and it is SO GOOD. I definitely recommend it. Adios!

Hermana Emily Pratt