The kids down here have "easter break" instead of "spring break" and they are back at school today! Which is both good and bad I suppose :) Yesterday we finally officially have our new Young Womens president and we went to her house to get to know her better and the girls are going to LOVE her. We are so happy!! Friday night we are going to have a movie night and watch "Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration." If yall haven't seen it yet, you can look it up online on youtube ormormonchannel.org or even hulu! :) Totally informational and super interesting! Love it so much!
This week has been sooo much fun! I must say, though I'm incredibly grateful we have a car, it makes it so much easier to find people to teach when riding bikes or walking. Totally a downfall, but I'm still so happy and we still have been finding more people to teach! I have a couple of stories to share this week :)
So, to start off, sister mcclendon and I were driving to this ladys house in the ghetto and sister mcclendon always waves at people when we drive as if we are best friends and it makes them smile so we did it once to this group of black guys that we hanging out on this corner and we turn into the next street to come to find 2 of them walking to this other house across the street! And so we just kind of wave and say hi and have a little baby conversation from across the street and then they leave. & then later that night we were going to one of the young womens house because they were having a sleepover thing with all these girls to prepare for girls camp in the summer and so as we pull up to the apartment complex we see the two guys again!! So we went to go talk to them, trying to be all fearless and whatnot, and we ended up having a really fun conversation and talked about Jesus a little bit and then all 5 of the yw come down and see us and come to give us hugs as we are trying to explain a little about the book of mormon and we are like oh goodness, haha so they leave and we end up having one of the guys agree to give us his phone number and he gave us both his cell and his house phone and then we go upstairs and the mom of one of the girls is like "Do you know who you were talking to?? That's G-money! He's like the biggest drug dealer around here..." and then we are like, well... we gave him a book of mormon and he gave us his number, so I guess if anyone needs the gospel he'd be one of the first cadidates! :D then we all busted out laughing and thought it was awesome. It totally made our day & we've been keeping in touch with him and should be meeting up sometime this week! I'm so excited.
We also went to go visit this 16 yr old boy we met not too long ago named Sylvester & so we go up to his trailer and knock and then all of a sudden we hear someone angry yelling "Who is it?! Just come in! Ain't nobody knock around in this neighborhood!" And sister mcclendon and i just look at each other like, what in the world do we do...?! and we just kind of stood there patiently (though we just wanted to run away) as the person is still yapping and mad and then they come to the door and open it super fast like theyre super furious and then the moment he looks up, we realize its sylvester and his countenance COMPLETELY changes and you could just see how embarrassed he was. We ended up reading some of the book of mormon with him and his 15 yr old brother Tyric. It was a really good lesson and they were so happy we came by but later that night as i was reflecting on it, I was just thinking, aside from how honestly terrifying it is to be a missionary at times, we literally right now stand in place of the Savior. It just made me think about what the Savior would have done if He was the one standing at that door step as we waited for them to answer the door. It was a good reminder to me to treat everyone with so much respect no matter who they are or what they are doing. The whole "looking at everyone like your brother and sister" has never been so real to me. It also made me think metaphorically how it must be for Christ when he just is knocking at each of OUR doors, at each of OUR lives, and how we receive him. Do we hear things pertaining to Christ and slam the door? Change the channel? Neglect the idea of even contemplating going to church? The door is wide open for my Savior, but how open is yours? Just something to think about. I love Jesus!
Little/HUGE tender mercy -- I'll try and make this short. Sister McClendon and I both ran out of money this month like mid april and we seriously in our pantry and fridge we had like 3 eggs, some dried oats, almonds, a slice of cheese, rice, a can of black beans, ketchup, mayonnaise, etc... and we were literally eating everytime someone offering us food, gave us leftovers, or took us out to eat and it was actually quite entertaining to see how far we could make it... lol. so we made it to friday and then Michael told us he was going to be leaving to oklahoma and asked if he could take us out to lunch and so of course we said yes, and then we say our goodbyes and then later that evening he calls and texts us and tells us he needs our help and we are like sorry michael, we are already running late to another appointment, we can't! And then literally as we stop at the stoplight he justtt so happens to be right in front of us! so we pull over and are like, "whats going on?" and he going to the other side of his car and pulls out TONS of groceries!! They literally filled our trunk!!! We were like WHATTT?! & he's like, "yall are my sisters & I'm not going to be here to feed you anymore so this should last you a while." Talk about a tender mercy of the Lord. We couldnt believe it and we were sooooo happy! Now we have food!!!! hahahah...
I love the Lord! Theres nothing better than being down here loving these people to pieces.
:D
Hope ya'll have a great weeek!!!
So much love,
Sister Corina Selene Cuevas
p.s. we had a yard sale from donation of members for the girls to go to camp and we made $308.14! Soooo awesome! <3
p.s.s. I wanted to share some differences from down here in Louisiana --
- People don't say "He just turned 13 yesterday" they say "He just made 13 yesterday" :)
- There are these spices called Tony's and "slap ya mama" that people literally put on EVERYTHING!
- It's not called a "laundrymat" its called a "washateria" :)
- the word "fixin'" is used sooo much! "I'm fixin' a clean my room" or "I'm fixin' a go to the store tonight" "You fixin' a come over later?"
- Its getting hotter (and humid) outside and literally NO ONE wears a shirt. Men everywhere have no shirts on and we see cracks galore! hahaha.
-I'm going to be thinking of more to keep sharing with you. They make me smile.
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