Speaking of Spanish, so I'm not really speaking it here. There's only two sisters in the whole mission who are assigned to speak Spanish,and that's me and Hermana Tucker, who is one of my trainers. We barely get to use it because the area we are in, Canandaigua, has zero Hispanics. Hermana Tucker says when she does find Spanish people it's like gold because she can finally use her Spanish. But we do get to use it at the sites. We can give Spanish tours, which so far there hasn't been a lot of, but everyone says will pick back up in the summer. Everyone keeps talking about how crazy it gets in the summer. Around that time we won't really be in our areas, we'll just be on the sites, kind of like an all hands on deck deal for three months. It makes me glad I came in around the time I did because we can take our time with training for the sites. Sister Topham, my other trainer, was talking about how she came in during the summer. They asked if she was born a member, said she was, then was just kind of thrown in. She said during tours she was all "And I can just testify that the gold plates
were buried here." If only you all knew Sister Topham, she's hilarious.
Anyway, so yeah! I have two trainers, so two mothers! Yay! As mentioned above Sister Topham and Hermana Tucker are super sweet and awesome. They really help with me getting adjusted, because I'll admit, it feels like a lot. Everything to learn is kind of overwhelming, but the best way to go about it is one step at a time! Hermana Tucker has been out for almost nine months and this is Sister
Topham's last transfer, so we're a bit all over the place. We work well together though, we call ourselves the "Trio of Life" (yeah, we're hilarious). Also my trainers are the best because they are huge Avatar fans. We were just talking about it isn't the car when Sister Topham screams, "We could so be that for the trunk or treat!" So we were earth, water, and fire, and our car was supposed to be air
(appa). Long story short we were in a dinner appointment and missed the trunk or treat, thinking it didn't end until later. So we showed up and no one was there. But it was alright because we got to use the same costumes for site meeting (basically district meeting, but mission wide with all VC sisters.) So I can officially say I've been an Avatar character in some form for Halloween five times! (Keeping up the tradition).
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| Sister Topham, Hermana Tucker and me! We are Avatar! |
So more on the sites. I've only served at the Grandin so far (Book of Mormon publication site), but it's been awesome, and I've visited all the others sites except for the Whitmer farm. There are only a few people who show up this time of year, but it's great because it's people from all over. We've given tours to groups from Australia and New Zealand. No Spanish people thus far, but they'll come! There really is so much to learn, but from what I can see sisters pick it up really fast, it just comes with serving at the sites ton. I gave a tour by myself the first day and was like "this is uh...this thing, but yeah, I just know the Book of Mormon is the word of God." Yeah...it'll come around, that's what I keep telling myself at least. The coolest thing though about serving at the sites is how familiar they start to become. I can already tell this is going to forever be a special place to me. Not many people can say they've chilled at the Book of Mormon publication site eating pizza (it was a slow day, and the senior couple offered to pay). I should probably explain how it all works. Were called to serve on a specific site for an allotted time, normally all day. Shifts run from 9-9, 9-7, 9-5, 11-7, 11-5, etc. Whenever we're off site were serving in our area. Senior couples normally run a shift with us so we chill with them. Some days we don't serve in the sites, just the area, it depends on the schedule.
Speaking of my area. So I'm in Canandaigua which is tons of farm land and consists of lots of driving. But it's great! It is so pretty here, and most of the members live in like fancy log cabins in the woods. Anyway, our area covers a lot and there's this town called Naples we don't get to visit much because it's out of the way, but Sister Topham was like, you know what, let's go to Naples. It was pretty much the best day ever. We got grape pies (grapes are a huge thing here) and met tons of people who were way more open than back in the normal proselyting areas). There was a sweet family we met, and also a nice lady at a pizza place, and we also got to serve a less active member. Ugh, Naples is the best!
The ward here is really missionary minded and they love feeding us so we have tons of dinner appointments. There was a really sweet family with three young toddlers, the same age apart as Rio, Genevieve, and Ryker, so that got me a little teary eyed. They were so sweet and drew us pictures, which I am saving in my journal. Tomorrow is more training in the sites, and I'll be able to go serve at the Hill. That should be sweet. Here's a picture of all the VC sisters at site meeting, they're great!
Some house keeping notes I guess! So P-days are weird with VC sisters. The Visitor Centers are always open so we alternate P-days. We aren't told until we get the schedule (which I'm still not sure how often that is), so some days it will be Tuesday, others Monday, occasionally Wednesday, so just hold tight if I don't email at a consistent time! Speaking of emails, we have I-pads, so we can read emails all week long, we just can't respond until p-day.
I love you all, and there's still tons I haven't talked about, but hopefully I've been able to give a good review of all the craziness. I love love love you all! Have a great week!
Hermana Abreu
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