"I don't want therapy, I want my fetchin taco."

Ok woah. This week has been one of the longer weeks of the mission. Last week when I wrote my email I didn't even bother mentioning that we had transfers this week cause 1. I forgot. and 2. I wasn't expecting at all to be transfered for my last six weeks. Well, God had a different plan and I have now traveled a full 6 hours away from where I was and am living in the heart of Montevideo, in a section full of a heck ton of apartments, a whole lot of tourists, and a lot of beaches. And supposedly a lot of people who stop you on the street and rob you of everything that you have butttt that has yet to happen so here we are. Oh yeah, and I have a new companion and she's from Brazil! She's super nice and actually speaks Spanish pretty well, even though it's her first week of the mission. I'm learning a little bit of Portuguese cause most of the time she doesn't know how to say something in Spanish so she just gives up and says it in Portuguese and I guess from there. Pretty fun stuff!

MILAGRITOS: 

• Well, getting into a new area with a new companion who doesn't know the area either is a little confusing. But we're making it work and walking blindly around the city all day every day. We've already met a ton of people, both those who are very excited to see us and give us tiny sandwiches and ice cream, and those who are not so excited to see us, and who are teaching me brand new bad words in Spanish. I'm enjoying each one of them, and completely lying to my comp and "translating" what they said into something a little nicer than what they actually told us. Is that bad? I dunno. But I genuinely enjoy getting rejected and she is still in the phase where it breaks her heart so we're not gonna break her heart all day every day. 

• In my area in 33, do yall remember Hugo? Probably not. I'll recap. Hugo showed up to church unannounced and said he wanted to get baptized. He told us to go to his house the next day but he didn't know the address or the street name but he knew the general area so we walked around until we found him sitting outside. Did I think he was lying when he said he didn't know? Yes. Was he lying? Apparently not. His house really doesn't have a number and his street really didn't have a name. Anyway. We had one of the best lessons I've ever taught on my mission. It was a full two hours and him just rapid fire spitting his questions he had at us. He had two full papers of questions and obviously our answers led him to have more questions so we taught the restoration, the plan of salvation, the gospel of Jesus Christ, and a bunch of the commandments all in one lesson, and all completely out of order. Well, he's now reading the Book of Mormon, the Bible, praying, and going to church every week. What a guy. I miss him already. 

JAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAs of the week: 

• Me and Hna Trindade were walking down the street when God told me to talk to this random dude so I said "hola cómo está? Somos misi-" and before I could get anything out he goes "I only speak english" but with a super thick accent. So I totally thought he was lying and he just didn't want to talk to us. But as any good bilingual missionary would do, I immediately switched to English and said "oh awesome! Well we're missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ!" And Mr. Singh just looked utterly confused. Anyway, turns out he really actually doesn't speak spanish, he's from India, he was working for a cruise ship but it left him here in Montevideo so he's just here until another cruise ship comes along and he's gonna hop on and try and work for them, but he's Hindu and he believes in lots of gods and he quite literally knows nothing about Christianity besides the nuns hes seen on tv. So it ended in me absolutely bewildered by him and his story and how he got to Montevideo, and him absolutely bewildered by me and my story and how I got to Montevideo, and my poor comp absolutely bewildered because she doesn't speak English and it was her second day. A whole lot of confused people on the street, but he wanted to take a picture with us and now we're gonna go meet up with him to talk about God this week. So yay for Singh!

• Taught a lady in her house who had just come back from the beach so she was just in a swimsuit and still dripping wet. Not that big of a deal but she was holding her 5 cats at the same time and she was like 60 years old so I'd like to invite you all to picture that scene in your head (also she scream sang The Spirit of God without knowing any of the words so you can add that to the imagery in your head) 

• In my comps 2nd day of the mission, we passed by a park with a grill thing and a bunch of people at a party having a barbecue. Well, as the good trainer I am, I looked at my comp and said "okay hermana listen. That's a really big group of people right there, there's a whole lot of potential people to teach. What we have to do is go and ask for some of their barbecue meat and say that either they give us food or we have to share a scripture. Usually groups like this choose a scripture cause this kind of food is expensive. So I'm gonna let you lead this one just go up to that dude and tell him you want food and if he can't give you food you're gonna share a scripture with everyone" Well. Let's just say the fear on that woman's face was enough to last me a lifetime. She did not think I was funny and I very much did think I was funny. Poor thing, I was much nicer to her after that. 

• On like Thursday, my comp told me that we needed to go to the store and buy pasta. I was like "okay for sure! We can do that on monday" and she told me that no, she needed pasta urgently. And we had a night full of lessons that night, and really didn't have time to go buy pasta, so I told her that tomorrow morning early we could go and buy her pasta. She was like there's no way we can buy it tonight? And I was like genuinely so confused cause why does she need pasta so bad? Anyway, as we were walking home from a lesson that night, we walked by a pharmacy and she was like, can I PLEASE go and buy my pasta? And I was like girl you ain't gonna find any pasta in there. But she insisted so we walked into the pharmacy to find pasta and TURNS OUT she was looking for toothpaste. Pasta de dientes folks. Cause apparently in most countries (in Spanish and Portuguese) its called that but here it's not called pasta so I was utterly confused. We got a good laugh out of that one afterwards.

SHPIRITUAL SHPEEL:

Imma be 100% honest with yall. I saw this shpiritual shpeel on Facebook a couple days ago and I decided to rewrite it and put it in as my shpiritual shpeel. So the writing is mine but the original thought goes to some random missionary on fb that I don't remember who it was so yeah! 

In 2 Nephi 2:25 it says "Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy." How interesting is that little word in there. Might. Men are, that they MIGHT have joy. Might? What kind of plan is that?? God sent us here and we maybe, just maybe? Are gonna have joy? The trials are guaranteed but the joy is a might?? That's a kinda lame gig in my opinion. 

But if you think of it, there's a lot of beauty in the might. I think might is the line between not knowing anything and having full knowledge. And I think that's what, at least in my life, I call faith. 

As missionaries we say "we could go to her house but she might not answer." "Yeah but she might..."

Or

"He looks like he might need help"

Or

"She might be having a hard day. Let's go talk to her."

Or

"She looks kinda scary." "Well, she might be really nice!"

Inside every might is a spark of hope. A person that might need our help. A person that might need His help. A friendship to be made, a heart to be healed, a smile to be smiled, a answer to a prayer, a JOY to be found.

Men are, that they MIGHT have JOY!!

When Jesus suffered for us, or Adam fell for us, they didn't say "yeah well Juan over here might not accept this gift I've given him, so I'm not gonna give it." NO!

He said "well Juan over here just might accept this gift I have for him. So I'll give it to him just in case."

We are here that we MIGHT have joy. So let us be the group of people who pushes through all the mights there are in this world, and for sure, no questions asked, find JOY!! 

After all, there just might be a whole lot of miracles that happen today...

That's all folks! Love you all! Hasta la vista bb!

- hermana allen