For the first time in my mission my companion and I are taking (on purpose) a day just to write letters and hang around our piso [apartment]… it was not my idea, but we are a companionship and we do things together, right? I´m sure this never happens in marriage, does it? Anyways... I´ll be responding to some long ignored letters today.
This weeks´ stories:
It´s been warmer this week and we went out to visit that couple that live in the campo [country] (where we get muddy shoes) and the woman was not there, so we had the cita [appointment] outside sitting in lawn chairs in the sun on his patio. It was delightful. During the cita [appointment] the neighbor gave him some oranges (the famous Valencia oranges!) over the fence... it was like home. I love visiting their house.
I love Africans. We are teaching this man named Nathanial who is from Nigeria and his piso mate [roommate] used to be an investigator (she is called Faith). While we were there we taught a man who is now a new investigator named Matthew. Then Nathaniel got home and we taught him his own lesson (I love the double lesson visits!) And while we were teaching, Faith gave us these little tasty things called ¨chinchin¨ or something like that, that were just little balls of flour and water and sugar that had been fried (pretty much tiny donuts). It was just nice to be there with them. They´re such a kind people and they are so willing to learn about the gospel. Many of them recognize that their churches are corrupt and they love coming to our church and seeing how well organized it is and how strong the spirit is there.
We had a really good Zone Conference. The highlight was an invitation that President and Hermana Hinckley gave us to read a fresh copy of the Book of Mormon in our native language (they gave each of us a new copy) and mark it with three colors as we read (not doing cross references, just reading and marking and pondering).
- references to Christ (in whatever form His name may be in).
- The words of Christ (when He speaks or when a prophet quotes him ¨Thus sayeth the Lord¨ type of things).
- Attributes of Christ.
We were promised that as we do this everyday for the next few months, our testimonies, our missions, and our lives will change. I´m already loving it and I´m on page 13 of the Book of Mormon. I invite all of you to join me!
We are teaching a Mongolian family. They are so cute. The mother and the 2 kids (10 and 7 years old) speak Spanish quite a bit now... but the father doesn´t speak at all basically. We are waiting for some materials in Mongolian from the mission office. People are always thinking that they are from China because of their eyes and because Mongolia is just north of China... but they relate more to Russians- especially in their language. Their alphabet is much more similar to that of Russia than China. We´re having a surprise birthday party for Chinzo (the 10 year old boy) on Saturday because he didn´t get to celebrate (his birthday was the 9th of January) because they have no money. I´m going to make brownies and put the candles mom sent me on them.
Well, I spent my whole email telling stories... now it´s your turn my beloved family. Story time!
Thanks for the blog entry Alyn. I liked seeing the Hancock Christmas (my district leader right now is an Elder Hancock... from somewhere in Utah... no me acuerdo que ciudad... [I don't remember which city...]) I liked the gingerbread houses and seeing Charlie in the oven.
Love you all-
Hermana Diehl
p.s. I hope everyone is having good birthdays (Nathan and Erin recently). I don´t forget them, I promise! I just forget to say anything in my emails... it´s not the same.
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