Uncle Lyle and an ORIOLES GAME at Camden Yards!!! - September 1, 2014

FAMILY!!! 

First of all, Uncle Lyle and I hung out a little bit this week :)

How are you guys!? How are things going? How is school? How is work? Hows the mish mish Han? I am so excited to read about it all! 

Monday:

It was Elder Burrup's birthday so we had a little partay at the Quintenillas. BEST dinner I have had yet! 

We also had a family home evening with the M. family. Our lesson was on prayer. Apparently, they believe in witchcraft so they told us a long story about praying in a house full of spirits. Then, the Mom shared an experience. While Hermana Zindel and I were walking to the car I siad "That was a crazy story about an earthquake huh?!" Turns out the story was about her son not drinking her milk when he was a baby. WHAT? Just when I felt like my Spanish was improving! haha!

Tuesday:

FUTBOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! JC, N. and J. came :) I can’t believe I hated soccer so much when I first came out because I LOVE it now! Hold up, let me correct that, I don’t love soccer, I love my branch! 

Wednesday:

Had my first ever exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders. I was scared out of my wits because I was staying in HAgerstown and Hermana Zindel was heading up to Martinsburg. The Sister Training Leaders don’t speak Spanish so I was gonna be doing ALL the talking! TODO! I wanted to cry my eyes out. Surprisingly, it went well! We had a lesson with M. y N., JC y F.! I was able to communicate just fine! I could really feel the Lord strengthening me! 

Thursday:

NOT A SOUL ANSWERED THEIR DOOR! i am not lying. NOT A SOUL! We went through all our plans and back up plans. We could hear people inside they just weren’t coming to the door. I had heard stories like this happening, but I thought it was a lie or definitely an exaggeration. Nope! It happens!

Sister Jones was awesome to be with on the exchanges! She is 6 feet too! It was nice not feeling like such a giant! She is so dang funny too!!!  We had a blast together! 

Friday:

To start off the day I got yelled at by the crazy lady upstairs. We forgot to take the trashcan in and she reminded me that we don’t live in the ghetto, we take our trash off the streets. Lets just say I am excited to get a new apartment.

And....wait for it...... 

We went to the Orioles game!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my goodness gracious! It was a blast! They do it every year! We rode to Baltimore with the Quintenillas. The ball park was HUGE and so pretty :)

Elder Burrup threw the first pitch of the game (because he is playing MLB after the mish)! How amazing is that!? All of us missionaries got to sit together so I was able to meet more and more people! The Orioles hit a home run with the bases loaded! Such a fun night! I will admit, it was VERY hard not to dance to the music they had playing. haha!

I was out cold on the ride home, but was awoken by the booming sound of Presidente Quintenilla's voice. He was singing these cute songs (kinda like your preschool songs mom) from El Salvador. Hermana Zindel and I joined in and had the BEST time! 

Saturday:

I was so tired from the game. So tired. So tired. So tired.  It was definitely not my day. I just wanted to be at home, napping/ watching TV with you guys. I had the worst attitude. Not good. We went to visit Hermana Vargas and it completely flip flopped my outlook. A friend of theirs was over and we were getting to know him. They told us that he had  a really good voice so we convinced him sing for us! He was amazing! He didn’t just sing 1 song, he gave us an entire concert! During this personal concert in a small apartment in the city of Hagerstown it hit me... I realized just how stupid I was being! Who would want to be watching TV @ home when you could be out experiencing this!? It was def def a tender mercy from the LORD! 

Sunday:

I sat with P. during sacrament meeting. I can’t describe her !I am going to make you all come out here and meet her someday! She isn’t hispanic, she just comes to our branch because she speaks Spanish. When I asked her why she learned Spanish her response was "Honey, when you date Latin men, you have to speak their language" bahahahaha! She is the best! She was tossing candy across the pews and making faces at all of the speakers trying to get them to laugh! #asacramentmeetingtoremember

After church we walked about 6 miles. It was so hot I really thought I was gonna pass out! Maryland is so dang humid!! I was sweating SO bad, my hair was drenched! I have a before and after picture I will send you guys!

All in all it was a good week! There was a few times where I got a little down, but as soon as I did, the Lord helped me remember and see all of the blessings I am surrounded by (one of those being the Popcorn Boppin CD- THANKS mom!) Just like Hannah said a while ago, our perspective is errrrthang! I could focus on how bad my feet and knee hurt from walking, how much I want to sleep, how much weight I have gained OR I could be grateful for all of the wonderful people I am privileged to meet and stories I get to hear while walking around in Hagerstown, and I could be grateful for the kind women in our branch who work so hard to feed us these delicious, big meals. 

I LOVE YOU GUYS!!! Can you believe this is the last week of my first transfer!? GAH! Time needs to slow down!!! 

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Hermana Mangum :)

Hermana Zindel says thanks!