Week 22: Happy Birthday!

Saturday was my 5-month mark. Woo! Wednesday is my birthday. Double woo! Today I bought myself a little birthday present: 14 earrings and a necklace for less then 5 dollars. Things are a lot less expensive here. And I’m actually starting to like the watery cake, because you only have two options: watery, or really dry. I prefer watery.

My companion bought me a balloon for my birthday and forced me
to walk around with it. Quite embarrassing.

Thursday it was an absolutely beautiful sunny morning. Nice and warm and not a cloud in the sky, so we didn’t bring our umbrellas. We were walking to an appointment and these huge ugly clouds appeared out of nowhere and it started to rain like crazy! We took cover under something, but I´m pretty sure it was raining sideways because it did no good. Then it started to hail! We just stood there, “ouch, ouch, ouch”.  They were pretty big - big enough to hurt. So we made a run for it through the river roads. We arrived to our poor investigators house super wet. They are such a great family and didn´t mind. They helped us dry off and gave us sweaters so we didn´t freeze to death. I was explaining our fun experience to them, but I didn´t know how to say hail. I tried to say, “ice from the sky” but I said “helado de los cielos” which means ice cream from heaven. lol

Warming up over a cooking pot of corn.

Saturday was José baptism. He has been listening to the missionaries for a whole year now. He finally decided that the church was true and he was ready. Before he met the missionaries he was a preacher for the Baptist church. He has overcome a lot of obstacles in the past year. We had a great service for him and sang the song ´Te hallare mi querido amigo´. On a mission you quickly get over any fear of singing in front of people, because you do it every day. I’m super happy for José Jaime!

Jose's baptism.

One sad thing - because I don’t know the language people assume I’m dumb (or maybe it’s because of the way I act - lol). When we cross the street my companion always grabs my hand to walk. When we’re crossing the street with members they always say, “Hold on Hermana Johnston”. I’ve been congratulated for knowing how to count money. And the other day a member explained to me that fruit grows on trees, which grow from seeds. That kind of thing happens a lot. I just let it go because I know they mean well. It’s just sad to know that people think I’m dumb.

 I have been informed that Spanish is the most romantic language in the whole world. They like to say cheesy lines. The guys say some really corny stuff. It’s fun, but it’s a good thing I’m not Mexican. My companion tells me different stories of something a guy told her and she’s always disappointed because my reaction is always, “He seriously said that?!” lol.

We went to the cathedral today.
It was pretty, really big, and tons of people.