WOWzers is the only way that I can start this email.... this week has been one heck of a roller coaster. I have hit all time highs and definitely a few all time lows.
Well to start off our day of traveling was super long and I told mom about how no one in our house woke up and so they gave us a wake up call just 5 minutes before we had to get on the bus haha so that just gives you a little idea of how that day ended up going IT WAS LONG. but we made it to washington!! and the elders that I traveled with were so adorable and watched out for me the whole day so that was a huge blessing being that I was kind of a mess from not having any sleep haha.
ok so I am just going to write everything pretty much straight from my journal so I am sorry for the details and if it bores you to death but here goes nothing....
On tuesday president ware, the APs, and one of the senior couples were waiting for us when we got off the plane, and dad you were right he is AWESOME. He is such a great person/mission president. Anyways we loaded up all of our luggage and headed to a church where we were having dinner and a little bit of an introduction to being a missionary in the washington kennewick mission. We had honey baked ham and funeral potatoes.. boy have I missed normal american food after all that weird stuff we had at the ccm. By this point I was EXHAUSTED and had almost zero energy. We had our little meeting with the 27 or so missionaries that got there that day and although I was fighting to keep my eyes open, it was still such a great meeting.
President ware interviewed me first (I think because he could tell I was falling asleep haha) and then I waited for the other sisters to have their interviews and sister ware took us to the mission home where we were going to be sleeping! THAT BED WAS A DREAM. after sleeping on rock hard bunkbeds wowzers and also that was the best shower I had in 6 weeks haha.
The next morning we got ready and went to the church to have orientation and to find out where we were going to be serving! yada yada yada.... I am serving in Selah in the moxee spanish branch and my companion is Hermana Mohun! The drive to moxee was about an hour and a half but it felt like I was driving all the way to Ephraim especially since it was 1000000 degrees but I made it!!
Hermana mohun is from californa I cant remember where.. but she has been out about a year and this is her 4th transfer in moxee. I cant decide who she reminds me of and I also cant figure out her personality yet..... she is super nice but also slightly awkward to talk to hahaha. we are still warming up to each other but I think it will be a good transfer!
We live with members, the michells. They have a beautiful garden in their backyard with just about every fruit and vegetable there is. but one downside about that is that because of all the watering they do.. the shower doesnt work. no water comes out of the shower head, only the faucet of the tub and even then it is a VERY small trickle.. and the drain wont plug so yeah #thestruggleisreal when showering if you can even call it showering haha I think I would rather shower with a bucket outside.. and its not the cleanest house ever (in other words it will be clean by the time I leave even if I die cleaning it because my ocd is really in full force right now haha) but on a more positive note it is a place to live and im sure it could be much worse!
Every night our district goes to one of the members of our branch's house for dinner. It is pretty great and a great way to get to know the members! So far they are all so awesome and I cant wait to get to know more.
On wednesday we dropped off my stuff at the house and went straight out tracting. WE talked to a bunch of people, everyone we saw, and we got a few potential investigators. But the real miracle came when we were walking through a trailer park and saw a lady bringing in her groceries. We stopped to see if she needed any help and what do you know, she said yes!! So we carried in some soda for her and then she invited us to sit down and we taught her the restoration. It was awesome. We left her with a book of mormon and planned on stopping by the next day but unfortunately she wasnt there.. and hasnt been there since so we are hoping maybe she will be there tonight!
Ok yeah so it sounds like things were just going great right... well I dont know why but I had THE HARDEST morning I have had since being on the mission on thursday. I was struggling with spanish, with wondering if I was strong enough to be a missionary and I felt homesick. It was the absolute worst. But I kept telling myself that I could do it. so what did I do.. I PRAYED my little heart out that I could have the spirit with me and that I could be confident in my teaching. I needed to humble myself. So we went out tracting and we went to a house that hna. mohun had been to before and they said she could come back. This lady her name is Lisa and she also speaks english so we ended up talking to her in english, but yeah she invited us in and we started talking to her about the gospel and about her life. She told us EVERYTHING. she has a ton of family issues and has had a crazy hard life. I was just sitting there listening to her and everything she was saying and it was making me that much more humble and grateful for the things that I have in my life. I have things that are hard for me right now but all of these things are temporary.. the shower doesnt work (haha I know it seems so first world of me), the language is hard, the house is kind of unsanitary, I miss all of you, and I am completely out of my comfort zone but all of these things CAN CHANGE.
I am SO blessed to be here and I chose to be here and I want to be here and so right in that moment when we were talking with lisa. It was like Heavenly father threw a humble pie right in my face. I shared with her about the atonement and that Christ really does know each and everyone of us personally. he know us perfectly and he wants nothing more than for us to be happy and to have the gospel which is a way for us to be happy and a way for us to become closer to him. I know that the spanish WILL COME and that its going to take a lot of hard work but it will be so worth it to be able to help people come unto Christ.
Ah I am sorry I am kind of running out of time but we do have 2 investigators with baptismal dates of August 2nd! Araceli and Jose. They are GREAT. They werent at church yesterday because they were camping but we are going to teach them wednesday about the commandments so we'll see how that goes.
I also had my first baptismal invite on saturday! This is a different jose, but he said YES! so we are going to teach him tomorrow and we will figure out more of when he will be baptized. The work is great here in moxee and I know that there are a ton of people who need the gospel.. we just need to find them!
Two things I have learned about being a spanish speaking stateside missionary so far is that it STINKS when you find great potentials that speak english.. haha I kind of despise white people and also I swear every hispanic is catholic. The days just keep getting better and I am so ready to work. Sorry this letter wasnt very funny!!!!! I love you all so much and I am so grateful for you in my life!!!!!!
HAVE A FANTABBY WEEK
con mucho mucho amor
hermana wortley
sorry I dont have any new pictures but here is a picture of some of the people in my ccm zone! The poly kid in the front played football for the U so we bonded over how awesome the U is.
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