WEEK 2

Daut'eh!! (Hi in Apache)

So this first full week has been filled of so many emotions. I've learned so much and grown a lot from it as well. Comfort zones definitely do not exist on the mission. I've been learning this especially with my phobia of public speaking in large crowds. 

Lesson#1:

 Giving the prayer at a funeral service with over 400+ peaople for a person whom I had never met, and getting told I had to do it literally 10 min. before....yet my name was on the program! bahahahahaha!

I've gotten the chance to already have so many inspiring experiences on the reservations. 

Quick facts about "The Res":

1) You better not have a fear of dogs as packs of stray dogs are everywhere!

2) Wild horses everywhere as well!

3) The natives live mostly in low income houses...nevertheless they are houses.

4) The  natives are such humble, sweet, simple people.

5) Alcoholism and drug abuse is a HUGE issue here b/c of the standard of living.

6) A lot of the natives were put in what was called "The Placement Program" as children, where they lived with an LDS family for a better life.

7) However many of them didn't learn much about the religion and fell away once they came back

8) Apache is extremely Difficult!

9) Yes, we can use credit/debit cards

10) There is one grocery store(Extremely overpriced so we don't shop there)

11) Gang activity is also huge

12) There is one Gym

13) One main road

14) Fry bread, and ash bread will be the REASON I COME BACK FAT.

So after my first week I've been thinking about a lot, especially things that other missionaries said. 

More specifically the line "The mission is hard".

 However, I have come to learn, at least for myself,  Missions are not hard! 

They are not easy, but definitely are not "Hard". 

It's just a matter of where your heart and your discipline is. There is only one thing HARD on the mission, and that is Seeing the standard of living of others.

 Since the start of my mission I my heart has been broken over and over again as I see the poor living conditions of the people that I work with and the adversity that they must face, extreme poverty (Sometimes $46 a month), lack of education (no real formal education for the older generation), Drugs and Alcohol is their biggest crutch, making many native men turn to gang activity. I never had to experience life they way they do so it makes me so very thankful for everything that I have in my life. 

Our "humble missionary life" is really more of a luxurious lifestyle in comparison to most of the people here. 

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So I had been struggling with the water here and could not drink the tap water no matter how much I tried! I was getting migraines since I was used to drinking at least 8 cups a day! 

4 DAYS had passed and I had not been able to receive water from any of the members. I don't know why but I never thought bottled water would be so important to me. 

I begged my companion to stop so we could buy one of the overpriced bottles of water from the one grocery store to which she reminded me that we can only shop on Pday. I was like ";( oh yeah".

 I eventually had to do it....almost in tears I turned to prayer lol. I was so thirsty and was almost in tears. AN HOUR LATER at one of our appointments the head of the house offered us a water bottle. 

I was LIKE YESSS HALLELUJAH, THANK YA JESUS!!... Ever since then I have been offered a bottle of at at least one appointment a day. Tender mercies. ^_^

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This week I was reminded of Elder Hollands talk about how you must work until the very last hour the very last SECOND of the day b/c that's when miracles happen. 

It was 8:25 and we have to be home at 8:30 but my comp pushed for one more house. I agreed even though I REALLY didn't want to.

 I was DONE for the day. So exhausted, could not even think about doing a lesson. We knock on Rose's house and an elderly lady with a distraught face and a broken arm answers the door. 

She ended up being Rose's mom (70 yrs old WITH A BROKEN ARM!)....Rose was in the living room bedroom couch curled up having an anxiety/asthma attack and had barely returned from the hospital a few min ago.

 Her 8 Year old son was curled up in a corner. We rush to her side and quickly learn that she had barely been prescribed her inhaler and was having a anxiety attack in b/c she could not read the instructions for how to use it...meanwhile having her asthma attack.  We were able to get there just in time to help. 

We reacted fast and called the Elders over for an emergency Blessing. Rose and her mom burst into tears during the blessing and they both testified of the amazing power of the spirit during the blessing. My companion quickly testified of the power of the Priesthood. 

Neither Rose nor her mom are members but it was so amazing to me to see them testify so strongly. Rose told us how she was supposed to take care of her mom but really it's been more of both of them taking care of each other. That just broke my heart. I'm so grateful for heavenly father putting us in the right place at the right time.

The people here just need so much help, but we have to focus on what we CAN do for them rather than what we WANT to do for them. I've been able to put my social butterflyness/goofyness to good use here. I love being able to make them laugh! 

Turns out they're like Hispanics and respond well to humor! We've also learned that asking each person we visit to teach us Apache significantly builds a higher level of trust and openness from the natives. 

This week I am most thankful for LAUGHTER...IT WORKS MIRACLES ^_^

Love you guys! Hope all is great! 

Shish'en shon (I love you- Spelt my way) lol

Sister Colina

Promise i'll send a pic of myself soon....aka next week. lol All my camera pics are of the outdoors because there's no time for selfies.

                                                          1) I love the scenery here

2) Some of the houses