Hola! Como estan?!
This week has been an interesting week. So we had a devotional in Wichita and I got to meet my new hija! Her name is Sister Samani! She's from West Valley, Utah and she comes from a huge family of 12! She is Tongan in case you're wondering. So I'm excited to be learning a little bit of Tongan along with Spanish. I'm also excited to be making some Tongan food.
So we're whitewashing an area, which means that there weren't other sisters in the area. So we're starting out brand new. We actually don't even have a house... yet. So we're homeless. Just kidding, we definitely have a place to stay in Hugaton a half an hour away from Ulysses. We're staying with 3 other sisters. I don't know how we do it but somehow all 5 of us have the same schedule and we all get ready in time in the morning with 1 bathroom! We will have to stay here a couple of weeks until we get our apartment in Ulysses. Funny story, I actually drove Sister Samoni to the wrong area.. to Garden City!We laugh about it all the time, although in the moment we weren't so sure what to do! Good thing we didn't have a house anyway, so we just stayed there for a night. Plus Garden City is in our district, so we have to drive an hour and a half to get to district meeting! We've done a lot of driving lately and we're going to continue to do a lot of driving since some people in our ward are an hour away in Colorado!
By the way our ward is so amazing! Our ward is super huge, well.. compared to the Guymon Branch... We have 120 members who regularly attend. The Bishop told us just how their sacrament attendance has been skyrocketing. He said there's going to be so many miracles happening in this ward. Pretty much everyone in town knows who the Mormons are because it's a small town in the middle of nowhere. Our best luck finding people is uniting with the members.
This Sunday was super amazing since there was the primary program. It's so amazing that in this Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, even 3 year olds can explain the gospel. The gospel of Jesus Christ is so simple and so easy to live and understand! Well since we're the only Spanish missionaries in Ulysses, I had the privilege of translating sacrament meeting. after the sacrament we realized that the Spanish members didn't have headsets and no one was translating. So I talked to a member in charge of the techy stuff and he asked me if I was going to translate. I was caught completely off guard because they mentioned a returned missionary in the ward doing the translation. Well since no one else was translating I just did it. I had no idea what I was doing. I had to go into a different room with headphones and a mic while I heard the speakers. I felt like a secret agent for the Lord (even more so). Before I started translating I went down on my knees and asked for el don de lenguas and to be enabled to translate. It was so easy. Not because I know Spanish very well, but I know that if we have faith in the Lord, he will enable us to do anything that may seem too hard to do on our own. Weak things really become strong, like in Ether 12:27. Good thing I was translating the primary kids, because they keep things simple. "Jesus died for us." "We need Prophets on the earth today." and then it started getting more complicated. Good thing I have the first vision of Joseph Smith memorized in Spanish. And then there were just a few times I couldn't quite translate because they started speaking really fast and talking about the story of the lost sheep. I now know lost sheep is "ovejas perdidas". Apparently the Spanish speakers were laughing when I tried to translate that part.
Then for sunday school I was caught off guard when they asked me to teach the gospel principles class in Spanish. So I did it and I actually was able to understand everything and speak when I needed to say. It was so awesome. I know I've been on the mission for a while but I'm just barely starting to be comfortable with Spanish. I think it's because early on in my mission we didn't teach many spanish speakers. But then slowly I've been teaching more and more in Spanish. I think it's because I don't have the crutch of having a companion that speaks fluently or anyone else in my area who's a native. It's so amazing how we can really stretch ourselves if we use the atonement of Christ.
Thanks so much for all that you do. I'm so grateful to be a missionary and to be serving in the best Mission! The Kansas Wichita Mission! I love you!
con amor,
Hermana Webb
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