Monday, September 29, 2014

Bienvenido Hermana Gomez




29 September 2014

My new companion is Hermana Gomez, from Puerto Rico. Her native language is Spanglish. Literally there are words in Spanish that she doesn't know in English and words in English that she doesn't know in Spanish. I'm relieved that I don't have to teach anyone Spanish. We just both have to learn to differentiate which language we're speaking. 

Hermana Gomez is 21. She has to trust a 19 year old who is still learning Spanish to train her. Pobrecita. She is studying criminology.

On Tuesday Hermana Clark and I went to the mission office to meet our new companions. I was so nervous as we were waiting there. I had a printed email from Mom to read and that helped. Hermana Stanger also gave me a note from Hermana Dodds. Thank you! I needed both of those things in that moment. All of the new missionaries walked in and we noticed that there were no gringas in this group. I lucked out getting a companion who speaks English just in case I need help.

We got her suitcases and the mission had a bus to Los Andes for us. I showed her our house and we went to buy some groceries.

On Wednesday she made her first contacts and taught her first lesson. The good news is she is very comfortable with contacting people and has a lot of enthusiasm to talk to everyone. We laughed when she made a contact in Spanglish, "Have a buen dia!"

On Friday we had the training for new missionaries. Hermana Dodds is reading this and offering a prayer of gratitude that she never has to sit through it ever again. It's a lot of information in one day, and it's a whole day. Hermana Clark and I were the only ones there who had been there before, having just left our training, because everyone else there was either new or trained before President Videla got here. Hermana Clark was sitting in front of me and would turn around occasionally to smile. We both knew when Hermana Videla was going to talk about foot fungus, or parasites, or teach us how to use a Q-tip properly.

Hermana Gomez loves to cook and is determined to teach me how. She is also very organized and this morning after one hour our house is sparkling.

I can't get pictures to upload on this computer so I will have to send a lot next week, but it sounds like you already have some from Hermana Stanger so you should all live.

Have a great week!
Love,
Hermana Eva VanCott 



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