And the WORK continues....

Mon, September 20, 2010 7:36:30 PM

So the wedding and baptism were organization nightmares! The people that participated still walked away feeling good though which is great. We had 23 baptisms in our zone this saturday at the beach (which was absolutely beautiful), and 7 were ours. I was so happy to see how happy they were when they came out of the water, cleansed of all their sins. There were a lot of kids screaming and playing right next to the baptisms though which was rather annoying. It amazes me how ppl can feel the spirit here even with such huge destroyers around.. for example we have taught lessons to the beats of Bad Romance and also to Justin Bieber and a boatload of other things. But still the spirit is there! Just goes to show you how powerful it is. All in all I am glad that this weekend is over - the burden of pressure and stress was huge and we didn´t realize how heavy until the day after.. we were sooooo exhausted mentally and physically by it. But this is the time when we are having the most fun! It is good going to bed knowing you have worked hard and given it your all.

My comp and I are stronger than ever and I absolutely love being her companion, even though like everyone else that spends a boatload of time together we have our own issues every now and again but they aren´t bad and we overcome them relatively easy together. I´m not looking forward to losing her on the 30th. I think that she will be switched out of Leon. I have no idea if I will stay or not. I can see the Lord testing my patience being in one area for a long amt of time (an irritant of mine - there always comes a point when I just have to get out of an area! I just get really antsy) but I could also see him switching me somewhere new for a whole new set of lessons. I have gotten comfortable here in Leon and I really love it. And I can sort of figure out how to get some places which is nice having some particle of familiarity. Also I heard we live pretty well in comparison to others. Also it is the safest city in all the mission which definitely is a plus.

Time is flying and still at the same time. It´s weird to think I´ve been here over a month, and at the same time I feel like I´ve been here forever. My anniversary was nice hahah just the same as any other day. My comp just celebrated her 6th month anniversary. By the way my spanish is coming along great. Everyone compliments my accent.. even from the first day here. However since I am opposite of most other gringos (I speak more than I understand, when usually it´s the opposite), people then think because of my vocabulary and accent that I know more spanish than I do and launch into really fast ´complicated´ stuff that I can´t make sense of hahah. It´s funny. I can pretty much understand the gyst of the things my comp says, esp in lessons. That is because I´m around her 24/7 though and have gotten more used to her accent. Nicas (that´s what you call the ppl here) drop the end of the word though when speaking often so that does complicate the whole understanding part because I am not used to that just yet. I am not fluent yet but I am improving more rapidly every day and I can see how at this rate I could become fluent.

The Lord is amazing, life is amazing, the missionary work is great and I am treasuring the experiences. I have already gained testimonies of so many different things that I didn´t know I could gain a testimony in and I´m ever so grateful for this opportunity. I hope that I don´t bore you guys and I hope you don´t think of me as just some other emotional molly mormon missionary girl in my letters. This really is work. I am becoming a better person because of it as well, and because the testimonies of the people have affected me greatly. I´m happy to be here, I don´t care to leave, and I like constantly improving, even though there is never enough time to do all that I would wish. I love you all! God bless

Hna Riilklsdjflkj (the Nicas really can't say "Rippstein")