Note: Courtney goes to Nicaragua on Monday, August 16, 2010.
ANNIVERSARY!!!!! .. to all celebrating but mainly my parents and my
bestie, INGA! Congrats, you made it again! haha. Also, belated
birthdays - because i'm so awful - to Inga and to Aunt Annette and
Kerri. As well as feliz cumpleanos to my dear Nana! and aunt Ali and
Morgan.
Well I can finally say that the times that I feel like I have to make
sure my cell phone is on silent when we're doing something spiritual
is almost gone. I think I only get the feeling like once or twice a
week now. Hahah. Thought yall might get a kick out of that. Things are
great at the CCM as always - crazy schedules, crazy responsibilities
with my new calling, but hey it's all good. It's an experience for
sure!
Last week we went to the mercado, which is like this underground 4
level market where you can get all kinds of goodies. It was
interesting, as well as was the ancient ruin museum we went to and
this huge carved relief map of Belize and Guatemala. It was just good
to have a field trip I think. Nothing too exciting, but it felt good.
We did walk in a mall then too, which was a nicer mall than any i've
been to in the states, and that was totally strange. Now that Im
feeling totally hip and out of fashion.... just kidding haha it was
weird being in a place like that again though. My favorite part of the
day was when we were bussing out there, all of the sudden we ran into
this HUGE street party and the cars had to go around it and there were
like these Latino clowns EVERYWHERE. It was cool and kind of creepy at
times. Hna Roney was like, 'This is the BEST day of my life!' hahah it
was just awesome. They had like a marching band and all sorts of stuff
and the mission president had no idea what it was soooooo we just
figure it's some sort of clown festival? No idea, but it was exciting.
I was enthused haha.
Because of lack of real different news guess what?? There are Latino
versions of a lot of ppl here that really makes me smile sometimes.
There is a Latino uncle Spencer - who I call Elder Tio - elder uncle -
which is pretty sweet. He is about 2 feet shorter however haha. Then
there is a Latina Shannon - which is totally weird and uncanny. She
looks exactly the same, but she's a Latina version. Its intense. Then
there are also some that remind me a lot of old roommates Ive had.
Then there is a North American - that's what we are called down here -
elder who is like an LDS version of my friend Ian, and there are two
elders that are like my companion and I. Except, hers is a little bit
more goofy and mine is a little less weird than I am. Anyways, just
thought Id bring that up.
Anyways my district is improving a lot and we are learning more about
many things every day. My spanish is improving, when I remember to
push myself. My problem is I can do anything, so long as I can get
past my first hurdle which is myself. I have to have a motivation to
improve myself by my own means, not by anyone else. Life is simple,
it's just not easy. Life can be hard. Confusion is hard. Lack of
knowledge, motivation, and/or inspiration is hard. It is difficult at
times to continue on to the next things. But that is what we have to
do. And that is what we can do. And the Lord is with us every step of
the way - he reaches our reaching. With God, opportunities are for
everyone, we just have to reach for it. All the help we need is
already out there - we just need to recognize it and realize we need
to make the decision to apply it. Anyways - gotta run on to the next
big thing :)
Yours forever - Hna Rippstein
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