La Cucaracha

Holaaaaaaa

 

And Now, verily I say unto you, and what I say unto one I say unto all, be of good cheer, little children; for I am in your midst and I have not forsaken you! And inasmuch as you have humbled yourselves before me, the blessings of the kingdom are yours. (D&C 61:36-37)

 

Hopefully I have time for all that I want to say.

 

So I´m addicted to coca cola right. Because sometimes I just NEED caffine. BUT I don´t want to take excedrine every day and I can´t drink mate anymore.. New rule. Broke my heart. However, they don´t call coke coke.. or coca cola.. just coca. So sometimes I feel like I´m asking for drugs... ¿tiene coca? ¿cuanto cuesta? ¿como esta?

 

Found our first cucaracha in our super nice apartment this week.. I just about died. Hermana Mendez was in the bathroom and she told me to kill it.. so I had the dust pan and the broom and I tried to kill it and it ran under our bunk bed so I moved the bed and all of our bags and I was screaming and whacking at a cockroach that wouldn´t freaking die and it came back alive and I seriously moved everything in our house to the other side of the house. It was insane and now our bed remains on the other side of the room.

 

The Lord answers prayers!! So I´m struggling right? 3 months in the field and barely anything. Sometimes I feel like it´s my fault.. I use the excuse that SHE´S my trainer.. She needs to be the example for ME!! She´s 23 years old and she acts like she´s 10. Seriously she can´t walk in a straight line and she has to touch all of the windows of every store. She eats chicken legs like this: stick your fork in the bone and eat the meat off the bone. like a gross man would eat chicken if he were alone... I feel like I´ve been HER mom for the past 3 months.. And I´m not as tough as I started.. I allow my companion to take her 20 minute naps. and I don´t yell at her anymore when we spend too much time in lessons... It´s not worth it. The fighting and screaming and crying... Just not worth it. So sometimes I feel like ít´s my fault.. Like I´m not helping her in the way that I should be. Which is probably true. But still. Our companionship is stronger than it ever has been.. It´s still super weak cause we don´t get along half of the time. But we have learned how to work well together. But we´re still not having the success that we deserve honestly. And I know that there is something that the Lord wanted me to learn from this experience. Don´t know what it is yet... but I´m hoping I find out soon. Maybe that I will never marry someone from Ecuador.. haha but this morning I was studying and feeling a little like I could have done more to help her.. and I looked at my quote wall and saw the quote that Carter sent me in the MTC.

 

"You´re doing the best you can and that best results in good to yourself and to others. Do not nag yourself with a sense of failure. Get on your knees and ask for the blessings of the Lord, then stand on your feet and do what you are asked to do." -- President Gordon B. Hinckley 

 

So yesterday, I prayed that I would be able to be sensitive to the spirit. That we could find an unplanned opportunity to teach someone. We were walking down a street that we had never been down before and we passed a house.. the door was open and a seniora was sitting in a chair.. we said Hola and continued to walk away.. and I stopped and told Hermana Mendez that I wanted to go back.. But she didn´t.. but we did. we took a card to her and she was there with her 2 hijos... and I started by saying.. Somos misioneras de la iglesia de Jesucristo. and Her son finished the sentence for me... "de los santos de los ultimos dias."

 

And they invited us in. Come to find out, they had already taken the missionary discussions in another town. but they are super Catholic and don´t want to change. We talked and talked and talked. And we felt the spirit. And I explained to them the experience that I had. that we prayed to find someone unexpected and that the spirit told me to turn around and talk to them. And I shared my favorite scripture with them. D&C 84:88. and we cried and it was probably one of the most beautiful experiences that I have had thus far on my mission. It boosted my spirits that there are people prepared and willing to listen to the missionaries. And that we can touch lives in such special ways if we just will LISTEN TO THE SPIRIT!!

 

Who knows what´s going to happen to this family... I´m off to Candelaria. I have no idea where the hell it is or what the hell I´m doing but I´m stoked!! I think... super overwhelmed but super excited. It´s time for a change. Hermana Mendez and I are finishing off on a good note. And I that is all I wanted!! And I´m going to be training a gringa in a new area. Either my President is crazy or the Lord has lots of fun things in store for me. They are also making me a Sister Training Leader. (I can´t decide if this is good or bad) Luckily, no anxiety attack yet.

 

But I´m off to pack my bags!!

 

Thinking about you and praying for you always!

 

I love you lots and lots and lots!!

 

xoxo

 

Hermana Rupe

 

p.s. ssssssssss :)

 

Sending the bank papers TODAY!!

 

Mom you can use my stuff.. just not the sparkley boots!

still nothing from grandma.. can you give me her email address?

I love speaking spanish with dad!!

Cars, how was your date??

And Carter! I have a whole list of foods that we eat here for you.. It´s super great I´´ll send it next week.

 

Pretty sure I´ve eaten more fruit cake in the past 2 weeks than ever before in my life.

 

Also, I jinxed myself by saying that mayonaise is optional. The day after christmas, we had a mayonaise casserole. I swear one day these people are going to come out with a Thanksgiving salad-- Like Marshall´s family from HIMYM.. Potatoe chips.. mayo... gummy bears.. mayo... fruit cake... mayo.. chicken bones... mayo. all in a huge cylindrical vase!!

Merry Christmas!!

Break the rules---Hear good music..

It´s probably really bad that I always start my emails with the music that I hear throughout the week... but it´s funny. :) It´s a way the Lord has learned to comfort me..

You will NEVER guess which song I heard this week.. We went shopping on tuesday. Which we´re not supposed to do... It was for a good purpose. but ♪Ain´t nothing gonna break my stride...Nobody´s gonna slow me down. OH NO! I´ve got to keep on moving.♫ 

almost cried

Speaking of music... There is a new rule. We can listen to WHATEVER we want. as long as it invites the spirit.. :) 

Man in the Mirror

The story-- It´s my theme song.

So.. if someone wants to make me a CD for my birthday-- wink wink. Disney is totally acceptable too.. if it invites the spirit. Pretty sure Les Mis is super spiritual as well... and I have been singing lots of The Sound of Music Lately..

How do you solve a PROBLEM LIKE MARIA?!?!

Maria.. Oh my bad word. She is making me mad. Seriously SO MAD. She keeps committing to come to all of these activities and to church and she doesn´t do it!! and we thought that Max was changing too and he still sucks.. but we don´t know what to do cause when we are with them, we feel the spirit and we see these changes.. we just can´t get them married and we can´t get them out of their house!!

Tamara is still crazy..

And basically the Elders have been teaching someone in our area for 4 months and they baptized her on Saturday.. So pretty much we are both realllllly discouraged.. It´s dumb.

And I´m super ready to change companions. Super ready. but I am still doing my best to love her and be a good missionary.

We had a service project this week that we got permission to paint Claudia´s house for 2 hours which turned into 4 which turned into taking all of our study time and we were a mess... but it was good to serve someone. :) I was super frustrated though that she wouldn´t say anything about the fact that we had to leave to study!

Our ward´s Christmas party was on Friday.That was good. Except we ended up getting home SUPER late. Like 10:45... and even though we had permission to stay out till 10:30.. the leaders were ticked. and I wanted to plan when we got home, but she didn´t want to so I texted the leaders and asked them if we could plan in the morning and they called us and were super mad at her and then she got mad at me for texting the leaders without conversing with her first and she told me that she lost trust in me and I wanted to punch her. Because yesterday she used the computer at a members house. She can break rules but I can´t text the leaders for permission to plan in the morning?? I don´t understand it... 

But I didn´t freak out. I prayed and I prayed and we went to the Christmas Devocional last night and I was filled with the spirit..and I talked to her. I took the blame for the stupid text and I apologized. But I explained that she HAS to respect me and she HAS to trust me if she wants the same from me. And I explained that we probably only have 2 more weeks together and I don´t want to be running away from her by the end of our time together. I want to be sad to leave her.. and we talked and talked and it was really good and I am ready to conquer the next couple weeks with Hermana Mendez.

Also I am so ready to see your faces on CHRISTMAS!! I can´t believe it´s Christmas. Ah. So wonderful. And I would write more but I have to set up my skype account... So you´ll just have to wait for Wednesday.

Love you all..

Merry Christmas. The Church is true. Christ LIVES!! :) I know it I know it I know it. 

Love you.

xo

Hermana Rupe

Photos: Big booty big booty.

My favorite movie. :) :(

ME GUSTA

Hola amado familia.

I´m starting to dream in spanish!! yay for fluency.. Except in my dream i was speaking spanish and the people told me to speak english cause my spanish sucks.. What does that mean?

So... I decided that everyone forgot about me... haha but it´s okay cause I have more time to write this fun big email because no one emails me anymore..

Maybe it´s because one week I get like 50 emails and have to print them off and never get around to replying... cause I´m such a perfectionist I want to send good emails. So, forgive me if I haven´t been replying to people that want me to reply to them.

This week was crazy... I decided that the whole rollercoaster comparison is getting annoying so I won´t use it anymore... 

Sometimes it takes everything I have to not D A M N people to hell... The church email system bleeps out that word... I learned what it is in spanish and it´s not a bad word here.. Hahaha. It drives me crazy when people talk about how much they Love Jesus but they do NOT want to talk about Him... URGH.

I ran away from my first homeless person this week... I was actually a little bit scared. Hermana Mendez makes too big of a deal out of creepy people and if they follow us for one quadra she freaks out and tells me to walk really fast... and usually I just shrug it off cause we´re in the middle of the city and really everyone wants to save my life so I am never scared of dying... And I wasn´t this time either cause I easily could have snapped this man in two.. but it was weird. We ran for like 5 quadras...And she almost passed out.

In other creepy news... I´m sweating like a maniac right now.. because unlike last week, it´s not raining today.. It´s like 200 degrees outside and the computer place is blistering hot. I have sweat literally dripping off of my face. super attractive... and this creepy old man came and sat by me and started speaking in english that I didn´t understand cause I can´t switch... When I´m out and about-- I speak spanish.. When I´m in the office, my spanish doesn´t work and I can only speak english. So this creepy man literally. in english.. this is the only part I understood... asked me if he could kiss me for a souvineer!! WHAT!! I about slapped him.. No, I said... I´m here to serve the Lord. I can´t sorry... and I´m emailing my family right now, so sorry.. and I stopped talking to him. urgh. Why do I have to be so pretty?

Also.. funny story about how hard it is to understand spanish.. Elva.. The pastora that came to church.. She doesn´t have a leg right? We went to visit her and somehow she got to telling us about her accident and about the hospital after her accident and she got to telling us about her bowl movements.. don´t know how. and I didn´t understand what was going on. I just thought she was telling us her story and how her faith got her through.. but her daughter started laughing and told her to stop telling us about her poop... still didn´t understand and I felt bad cause she was embarrassed... so I said, PERO ME GUSTA!!! And everyone died.. I still didn´t understand what happened... but basically I said that I like hearing about her poop story... It was horrible.

This week was good. Tamara is CRAZY!! She told us that we all need to be like animals and just have the instinct to choose good things. WHAT?? And she told us that she doesn´t like anything about smoking... but that it´s rico.. I don´t understand it. Her mom, however has a baptismal date for the 18th of January.. 

and we have another date!! whoo hoo.. Natalia is a new investigator. She just moved close to Eliana because she just got married. She is seriously so darling. Her whole family is Catholic but she converted to the Evangelical church not too long ago. Which in most cases is weird... but in this one it is super great!! We have a lot in common with the evangelical church believe it or not... So it´s kind of easy talking to someone who just recently converted to that church... because she is still learning and there are lots of things however that they are missing.. that we have. because we have ALL of the truth!! whoo hoo.. and she is super excited to read the Book of Mormon.. and we just love her!! And I was the one that got to commit her to baptism.. Super cool..

I finished my 10th week of training... WHAT!! Almost 4 months gone??

Yesterday, we went to the evening of excellence with the YW.. There are only 3 active YW in the ward here. But I was so emotional thinking about Young Womens and how much it helped me throughout my teenage years... YWs definitely prepared me SO MUCH for my mission... ah. I asked for a Personal Progress book in spanish so that we could help Millie Rojas do her personal progress with her mommy!! yaya!!

We tried to get Maria to church this week but it didn´t work.. which was sad. But we´re still working hard. I was getting a little discouraged.. but I read in Preach My Gospel that it´s BAD to be discouraged... because when you get discouraged, you lower your expectations... and when you do that, you don´t work as hard... and when you stop working hard, you lose the spirit. and I do NOT want that... So yes... I wish that things were more successful here. but I am not discouraged!! The Lord still knows what He´s doing. and He can only use me if I work hard!! So vamos... I get to take over today... It´s part of week 11... I am in charge. Hermana Mendez is super excited because she says she gets a break.. and I´m super excited because, you know me... I love being bossy.. I´m a little nervous but so ready. haha.

I´m praying for you always and hoping that all is well at home... Like every missionary, I think... Somedays are wonderful and some suck.. but I love being a missionary. The time is flying by. usually... haha. I´m so excited to talk to you all next week!! yay for Christmas.. but it´s so weird without snow. My body is so confused. Where is the freezingness!!??

I love you love you love you..

Share the gospel with everyone.. Feed the missionaries.. Give them rides too.. Help them bring their investigators to church.. Really, the missionaries are there to help YOU do your missionary work... because you should be doing missionary work always. Remember every member a missionary. Yeah,,, get to it!! I feel like this email needs more spiritualness.. haha.

Cool quote.. "That which we persist in doing becomes easier to do. Not that the nature of the thing has changed, BUT our capacity to do has increased." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson.

I was listening to a talk by President Monson and he was talking about all of the former Presidents of the church.. This was the favorite quote of President Grant. And I loved it.. Be persistent!! And the Lord will bless you. Things get easier. This life is hard.. but when we persistently, consistently live our lives in line with the teachings of the gospel.. with the help of our Heavenly Father and His Son, we can do anything. 

Love you.

Hermana Rupe.

photos: preaching to the coolest graffitti in the city.

la iglesia after a cool rainstorm!

The Old Man is Snoring

When we bring our umbrellas with us, it doesn´t rain.... When we decide not to bring them with us, we get soaked.

I´m soaking wet and I´m emailing you still. because I love you. It´s funny though. Hermana Mendez and I went to the office today to get her money back from the millions of dollars we have to pay for rent and water and all of that fun stuff and it started raining while we were waiting... and the elders were shocked that we would leave in the tormenta... but it´s p-day!! We´ve got stuff to do. Hermana LaPierre took a picture as we left because it literally took 3 seconds for us to be soaked to the bone. and we just laughed as we walked to the store to buy our food because people can´t handle weather here.. A little rain falls from the sky and everyone runs for cover... but here there is this equatoriana and this blonde american walking in the pouring rain without umbrellas and we´re laughing and smiling... People stare at me reguardless... but this was extra special. It was hilarious. Maybe you just had to be here but I´m still laughing at all of the people huddled together under canopies of the stores and us just trudging through the rain and the puddles having a good old time...

Now I´m freezing though. urgh.

I wonder what Posadas would do if it snowed.... aaahhh. I don´t even wanna know.

This week was a rollercoaster again... I don´t even understand my own thoughts anymore. This week was horrible. seriously horrible but in the same week, it was one of the best weeks of my mission. Someone please explain to me how that works.

For some weird reason, I´m always nautious. How do you spell that? I always feel sick. Like I want to throw up but I can´t. It´s weird... But I think I figured it out.

Imagine if you were to go to lagoon... No 6 flags cause 6 flags has cooler rollercoasters. Imagine you´re in 6 flags. and you really like that new rollercoaster Triple X or something like that... So you ask the dude working the rollercoaster if you can just ride the same one all day without getting off... He lets you. Cool... After 3 turns, you´re going to throw up. You want to throw up just thinking about it, right?? That´s how the mission is. And I decided that´s why I feel nautious all of the time. That is totally spelled wrong... Oops.

POR FIN!!! I had real investigators at church yesterday. Everyone can cry happy tears for me. It was the best thing ever and I was so proud!! Florencia. Her spouse... boyfriend. Everyone here calls their boyfriends and girlfriends husband and wife.. even if they aren´t really married. It´s confusing. and there is a SERIOUS problem with unmarried people living together and having families together here. So we have to ask everyone if they are really married. whatever. But Florencia´s esposo is a member of the church. He has been for his entire life really and his whole family belongs to the church. But they have a daughter. She is the most beautiful baby in the world and her name is Maitena. Gorgeous. But Florencia has been meeting with the missionaries for at least a year. And she is basically a member of the church really, she just needs to get married before she can be baptized. She has been visiting her family in Buenos Aires for the past 2 months that I have been here and that´s why I just barely met her. But she is incredible. Im in love. really. We had the greatest lesson with her on Friday. We went to her house with Claudia and we talked about the blessings of eternal marriage. and PRAYER. It was so incredible I don´t even know if I can explain it. Sorry. The spirit was so strong. I feel the spirit all of the time... but this was different. And she got emotional and I think I saw something change in her. Like her priorities are changing. They just bought a new car... A car is more important that eternal salvation. NO. and they have other things that they are saving up to buy... but I think that with a little more time these priorities will change. They are begining to realize that this whole marriage thing is seriously important... if they want to be a forever family. They´ve got to do it now. We taught from D&C 132.. Read it. We are seriously so blessed.

Hermana Elva. Our other investigator that came to church. Basically she is a Evangelical Pastora. She even had to get permission from the Pastor that is like her boss to come with us. and her church was having a worldwide fast yesterday and she came to church with us!! Granted, we had to pay for her taxi to and from the church because she is missing one leg. which is really cool because her hermano is a member. Hermano Ramon. He tool the discussions for FOREVER and was finally baptized. but he lost his leg too.. and they are siblings. He struggles coming to church cause he´s the only member in his family and no one wants to drive him to church and we don´t have many members with cars and taxis are a bit expensive... but we were able to get him to church with his sister who is a pastor and it was great! I think that Elva likes her lively worship services but she definitely felt the spirit which is really so cool. Such a blessing.

This week we had emergency divisions with the Hermana Lideres. Becuase I got really frusterated with Hermana Mendez... I always get really frusterated when she doesn´t know what she´s doing. but we never talk about it so Hermana Mendez just holds everything inside until she explodes at a random moment when I have no idea what I´m doing wrong. She is really rude sometimes telling me that she doesn´t like my attitude and all of this crap.. and it´s hard cause She freaks out at the most random times and she doesn´t have the patience to explain what I need to change so I don´t know how to change to make things better. But we had divisiones which was really great. They called us in the middle of a lesson and told us they were coming to find us.. I was with Hermana Rejas this time and it was so great. I learned so much from her. And we were able to talk about our problems and we fixed them. And we are better at talking about things that drive us crazy when they drive us crazy so that we can fix them and be happy.

Lessons are going better. We´re finding more and more people to teach everyday. The Lord is truly preparing people for us to find and to teach and to bring closer to Him. It´s incredible. I am so grateful to be a part of this marvelous work. It is such a blessing. I feel really selfish sometimes because I feel like the Lord is helping ME more than I am helping Him and more than I am helping His children here in Posadas. But I am trying more and more everyday to be the missionary that He wants me to be. Because He knows what he´s doing. I don´t. But with His help, I know that I can see miracles.

Oh my gosh cool miracle. So we had this really creepy person that we met the first week I got here and he said he didn´t remember his name and we thought he was just a bum and we see him all the time. But we have a new investigator... Tamara. haha mom... but it´s her BROTHER!!! and their mom is seriously distraught because the bum-- cristian. left his family.. which is seriously so sad so we were able to help them solve some problems and we shared a scripture about the responsibilities of a parent and hopefully it helped. Tamara is so cool. She smokes a ton and she is 22 she has a 6 year old and a 3 year old and her husband-- not really married is 40... So she´s a little crazy but so cool. Keep your eyes open for fun stories about her. She was really hard to break at first, luckily Hermana Zambrano was with Hna Mendez for that one cause Hna Zambrano is super frank and great... but yep. Cool miracle...

The Rojas Family is struggling. The dad left. Just up and left. so yesterday, we had a cool lesson with them and I was able to relate to the kids. Not that my dad left. He didn´t. I have the greatest parents in the world. but it was really cool to be able to literally on almost the exact same level.. I could relate to this family. And I think they really were touched that I´m not this perfect blonde from Utah. I have struggles and problems too. I´m real. It´s important to be a REAL missionary I think. The spirit is able to testify of things that we really can´t ourselves when we forget ourselves.. our insecurities, our problems and humble ourselves enought to say. look, I understand... my life isn´t perfect either but I am a living testimony that you can do this!!

We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. :)

I love you all. I am so grateful for your love and support everyday.

Praying for you always.

xoxo

Hermana Karlie Bee!

Still can´t believe corb is a MISSIONARY!! Oh my goodness. How cool.

Challenge for the week!!: It says in True to the Faith that if we merely lounge about doing nothing on the sabbath, we fail to keep the day holy. Abstaining from work and recreation is NOT ENOUGH. Your challenge is to set goals and think of things you can do on Sundays to keep the day holy. A nap is fine... but do things that are productive... Like write your missionaries... Visit the sick and distressed... study. :)

Pictures:

We had Family home evening with the familia rojas on monday and made tacos!!

Hermana Rejas...

My Christmas tree!! I used all of my neckaces... our broken key and some ribbon to decorate it. And of course a bow on the top... a scarf for the tree skirt.. and I bought those cool owls. Wendy should be jealous. They were a little expensive... sorry mom. but so worth it!! Everytime we passed the store that I got them from, I would stare and stare and finally I had to just buy them. Merry Christmas to me!!