¡Buenos dias!
For the first time since I was in training with Hermana Dibble, I'll have more than 1 transfer with my companion! Yep, Hermana Ventocilla and I will be staying together in Bella Vista! I blinked, and the transfer was over.
Good things that happened: we finally got the General Conference edition of the Liahona, hooray! We just got back from a fun zone activity, and I found 4 more buildings with my name, ha! Melissa isn't even a popular name here, so I don't know why there are so many apartments with it, but whatevs, it makes me happy:) I went on splits with CCM Hermana Ahlstrom from Oregon, who will actually be coming here to the West mission, wahoo! We were contacting and found an American pastor who didn't know Spanish and told us we didn't believe in the same Jesus as him; really weird. Tuesday, we woke up at 5:30 for an early zone meeting with the mission president and his wife, and we talked about what we needed to do to cleanse the mission and have more success through perfect obedience.
Okay, Dominican culture fact: these people are obsessed with hair. Like it's as important as food, basically. Dominicans naturally have the texture and color of African hair, but they don't like it, so they go to the salon every week and get it all straight, sleek, and often dyed. Then when it rains, they all freak out and yell at us to get inside and do whatever necessary to protect their hair, even if that means running around with a garbage bag on their heads. It's pretty darn funny:)
We met with our Relief Society President about the less-active women in the ward. There are 90ish of them that we know of, and only about 10 are truly active. The ward is having a hard time with attendance and people fulfilling their callings, and since we're not having luck with finding new investigators, we're going to focus more on strengthening the ward. Well, we found an inactive lady named Victoria by accident this week; turns out that her husband of almost 50 years was the Bella Vista bishop, but he passed away 5 years ago. It brought back too many painful memories for her to even see the chapel and the temple, so she stopped going. All this time, she has chosen to shy away from the comfort, peace, and love that the ward, the temple, and the Lord could offer her. But she said that we can come back and help her. I really hope that she'll allow the Savior's saving Atonement to heal her.
At zone meeting, President Nuckols shared this quote from Muhammed Ali: "It isn't the mountains ahead that wear you down, it's the pebble in your shoe." I really love that. Whatever that pebble may be--a lack of faith, pride, an addiction--don't let it keep you from progressing. I hope we all progress towards the Celestial Kingdom together:) ¡Buena suerte esta semana! ¡Les extraño! And happy happy Father´s Day yesterday!!
La Gringa,
Hermana Randall
For the first time since I was in training with Hermana Dibble, I'll have more than 1 transfer with my companion! Yep, Hermana Ventocilla and I will be staying together in Bella Vista! I blinked, and the transfer was over.
Good things that happened: we finally got the General Conference edition of the Liahona, hooray! We just got back from a fun zone activity, and I found 4 more buildings with my name, ha! Melissa isn't even a popular name here, so I don't know why there are so many apartments with it, but whatevs, it makes me happy:) I went on splits with CCM Hermana Ahlstrom from Oregon, who will actually be coming here to the West mission, wahoo! We were contacting and found an American pastor who didn't know Spanish and told us we didn't believe in the same Jesus as him; really weird. Tuesday, we woke up at 5:30 for an early zone meeting with the mission president and his wife, and we talked about what we needed to do to cleanse the mission and have more success through perfect obedience.
Okay, Dominican culture fact: these people are obsessed with hair. Like it's as important as food, basically. Dominicans naturally have the texture and color of African hair, but they don't like it, so they go to the salon every week and get it all straight, sleek, and often dyed. Then when it rains, they all freak out and yell at us to get inside and do whatever necessary to protect their hair, even if that means running around with a garbage bag on their heads. It's pretty darn funny:)
We met with our Relief Society President about the less-active women in the ward. There are 90ish of them that we know of, and only about 10 are truly active. The ward is having a hard time with attendance and people fulfilling their callings, and since we're not having luck with finding new investigators, we're going to focus more on strengthening the ward. Well, we found an inactive lady named Victoria by accident this week; turns out that her husband of almost 50 years was the Bella Vista bishop, but he passed away 5 years ago. It brought back too many painful memories for her to even see the chapel and the temple, so she stopped going. All this time, she has chosen to shy away from the comfort, peace, and love that the ward, the temple, and the Lord could offer her. But she said that we can come back and help her. I really hope that she'll allow the Savior's saving Atonement to heal her.
At zone meeting, President Nuckols shared this quote from Muhammed Ali: "It isn't the mountains ahead that wear you down, it's the pebble in your shoe." I really love that. Whatever that pebble may be--a lack of faith, pride, an addiction--don't let it keep you from progressing. I hope we all progress towards the Celestial Kingdom together:) ¡Buena suerte esta semana! ¡Les extraño! And happy happy Father´s Day yesterday!!
La Gringa,
Hermana Randall
Love these babes!
The Central Zone
We finally got to have our little bit of heaven: Krispy Kreme!!!
Happy 6 months Hermana Ventocilla!
Turns out we'll be staying like this for another transfer:)
Transfer call night with a bit of America:):)