Lookin like a Fool with my Spanish on the Ground?

So a little update about what is happening at home!!! :) Brought to you by me, Josie Durfee!! We haven't been up to much lately. Although I can say this, this whole summer has been full of my family, which I have mentioned that before. But I know this, I am so grateful for that because I am heading off to the big big world in September, haha (just a little town in Idaho, really, but still!!) I am going to be on my own. I have had the opportunity to get very close to my mom, dad, and sisters. Usually people say that they are going to go see a movie with their friends over the weekend. Well, let me tell you I saw a movie with my family!! :) We celebrated my dad's birthday this last Saturday. We went to Chile's for dinner, did a little thrift store shopping, and then went to Despicable Me 2!! And can I just say that, that movie was the funniest movie that I have seen in a very long time!! It was very cute!! I recommend that whoever reads this should go see it!! :D Anyways, so I just want you to take this little thought from me before you hear from Shar, it is that family is never to be taken for granted 'cause your friends will come and go, but the one thing that will be forever constant is your family. They will be there for you always. And I know that we all have different kinds of families, but that does not matter!! Anyways enough about me, let's hear from my wonderful sis~

 

 

These pictures are older but I thought that they would add some variety to the blog!! ~ Josie

 

Shar's letter:

 

Okay,

 

So I am going to start this off with the paragraph of the email before so I can finish telling you about my first day and then on to my first week!

After we arrived we then proceeded with a ton of different information stations about driving, service, manners, referrals, etc. I was so tired and I had a hard time staying awake. I also got to eat really food! I was so excited and it tasted so good! around 5ish, I think, I met my companion. Her name is Hermana Espinosa and she is a native Spanish speaker. She lived in Mexico for all her life and about 5 years ago moved to Utah. She's 19 so that's a little weird in fact she'll turn 20 in October and then right after that I'll turn 21. But besides that she's great! The more I get to know her the more I love her. While we do companionship study during we talk in all Spanish  I can understand most but again where I struggle is speaking. I know if I continue to work hard the Lord will help me.

We had more meetings and dinner which lasted a long while. We didn't get home until 9:30 and then we did planning. I wasn't able to unpack hahaha actually I just finished unpacking today. I can now say that I am officially moved in! 

Okay so what I'll do now is tell you about some awesome stories of my first week in Colorado. I was assigned to the Fort Lupton ward. Its a pretty big area and there are a ton of horses and farm land around, reminds me a little be of home. There are quite a bit of Spanish speakers here but not a ward. So I attend an English ward. Now on my companion doesn't really like trackting (sp?) but what we do instead and specially after the Missionary Broadcast is we focus on members and in-actives. However, she wanted me to knock on some doors. My first and second door were pretty normal. Normal meaning the first one talked to us but said he wasn't interested and the second one the parents weren't home but gave us a time to come back. The third door was actually a referral  We knocked and I began to say, "Hi I'm Hermana Durfee and this is Hermana Espinosa. We are missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Lat....." They shut the door. And the crazy thing was I wasn't devastated. I might have laughed. I honestly hope we do some more door knocking. Though what we are doing right now is super effective. 

I have been able to give away 5 Book of Mormons! 2 Spanish ones and 3 English. Haha one of the spanish ones went like this. Sister Espinosa was talking and then handed me the Book of Mormon. I was so nervous. I turned to the man and said, "Es El Libro de Mormon. Es central a nuestra iglesia. Es por usted." Yep that was pretty much it. Hermana Espinosa was laughing so hard after that and I was because well... I defiantly need to work on my Spanish. (For those who don't know what I said, "This is the Book of Mormon. It is central to our church. Its for you." hahaha oh man. I laugh even now. 

One of my favorite parts is interacting with the kids. One of our investigators, Eve, has two kids, one is 5 and the other 7, and while we were visiting her they just loved us... aka me. ;) During the lesson they wouldn't stay quite so I tried to find something in my bag that would entertain them. Of course all i had in there were journals, a spanish Book of Mormon, my planner and the white bible (the missionary rules). I gave them the Spanish Book of Mormon and the girl asked, "Is this a bible?" I told her it was in a way. After that anything that I pulled out of my bag was a bible. It was so cute! Another time was we were trackting in a poor trailer park where mostly Hispanics live. As we were teaching someone we contacted (The same one I gave the spanish BOM in the story above) he had two little girls. They kept handing me flowers they picked. I loved them. And right after that we ran into another little girl, who was about 8. She said to us, "Who are you?" 

I said, "Well we are missionaries!" 

"Do you want to get my mom." 

"For what?"

"To teach the people!" I think my heart died with happiness right there. Curfew was already upon us, but we quickly walked to her trailer to get her address number and told her we would be back. We went to contact her yesterday but there was a huge baby shower going on so we just walked passed. But we will definitely return.

I love having dinners with the members. That's mostly where we try to get referrals. That is one thing I want to challenge my family. If the missionaries ask for referrals try to think of some names. Missionary work would move along much faster if members were helping us with finding. I have had some crazy dinners though. One was with the Ramirez family. It wasn't that crazy but she has two goats and she milks them! I was reminded of you, Mom, and Betty, our cow. She also had like a cream cheese that we ate with crackers. (also a reminder of home). If there is anyway you could send me some milk let me know! ;) Another crazy dinner story was with the Greenlands. They are less active and we are trying to get them to come to church but she works and he babysits while the kids take naps. I have actually heard that excuse, "One o'clock church is during our baby's nap." more then once. The only reason why it was weird because she said that when she was investigating the church... demons were attacking her. Now, I believe there is opposition in all things and I also believe that, Satan is real and so are his followers, but she said she was getting burned and scratched during these episodes... I don't know what to think.

Speaking of weird and slightly scary, we were looking for less actives and we knocked on a door that we thought was a member. We heard voices and thought someone was home and waited for them to get the door... nothing... so we knocked again. Then at that moment someone came and looked through the slit of the side window. We could only see her eyes. Hermana Espinosa said she was shaking her head and it looked like she was saying something. Hermana Espinosa thought she wanted us to go to the side window so we do but nothing. Did I mention that the house was completely dark? Then we heard the same voices again but still now one opened the door.... So we left. I hope we never have to go back!

What we do here in my mission is a lot of service. I love it! Wednesday we work at the food bank in Fort Lupton, and then on Friday we work at a lake called Barr Lake. Saturday was Lake Appreciation day, supposedly, and we went back to the lake. They were getting rid of some sort of tree along the canal. It was hard work. As they were cutting down trees our job as missionaries was to drag the large branches up a hill to the wood chipper. It was hard and really hot but totally worth it! I am really glad we do a lot of service. During this service we aren't supposed to preach the gospel but if they ask we can set up another time with them. 

Okay I have one more story before I have to go and it will tie into my spiritual thought. Again we were looking for less actives and we went to the house of Nathaniel Buelo. It was late so we were a little worried but he answered the door. We asked him if we could share a message and he shared with us that he was born in Utah, had grown up Mormon but decided that it wasn't for him. He didn't want us to share a message with him and asked us to not come back. I was so sad and baffled. I wondered how people can loose their testimonies. I wondered how Nathaniel lost his. Now, for the spiritual part. Please for those of you who do have a testimony. Don't loose it. Keep the basic commandments of God and really endure to the end. I can testify that if you continue to do the right thing and follow Jesus Christ the blessing will pour like rain! I have received so much because of this gospel! 

I love you all! Hope everything is going great! Don't do drugs and stay sweet!

Hermana Durfee