CHUGGING ALONG | 9.24.18

hola mis amigos!!

chugging along nicely! I like it here. It has been suuuper killer weather lately. cloudy, sometimes rainy, but super fresca and breezy. 

Over half way done with my first transfer, but please don't bring it up, it makes me sad inside bc it feels like I got here yesterday? and it means running the risk that mi mejor companera may leave me in 2 weeks? 

FUNNY THINGS PEOPLE SAY

okay Hispanics have really funny things they do while texting. Here are some

"O" (instead of "oh", for some reason this kills me every time)

- write in all caps in every text message

- use periods between words instead of spaces

- "jijijijiji" "jejejejejeje" "jajajajajaja" 

- G.A.D. ("gracias a dios")

and additional funny things that have been said this week:

- a group of like 3 Mexican 30+ y/o guys came up to us while we were studying at the Mexican market. They were being obviously kinda fake interested in the gospel it was funny and they were asking us how we learned Spanish. We asked if they  knew any English, and one of them just goes: "ohh, pues, mi ingles no es muy bien, solamente puedo decir: 'I Love You'" lol it was so funny, also slightly creepy, so we gave them cards w/ pics of Jesus and they scattered quick!!

- this way funny Hermano in our ward, to the Bishop: "Si me quiere golpear, golpeame!!" (if you want to punch me just punch me!!) haha like what? okay?

CLOSE SHAVES WITH PUPPER

story time again: last night, we were cruising back from a lesson at 9 pm. It was a 5 ish mile bike ride so we took a shortcut through a neighborhood. It was dark and misty and kinda skooky. suddenly, this HUGE BLACK DOG started sprinting after me and my companion!!! it's owner was yelling at it to come back, that it doesn't bite (u sure? It's baring it's teeth and drooling as it's sprinting at me?), etc. etc. It was springing toward us and was like an arm's length away from me sprinting towards me!! Luckily I'm getting super speedy on my bike!! (too bad it doesn't have any brakes!) so i out pedaled that little sucker!! inches away from a chunk out of my calf lemme tell ya! 

FOOD

- (reye's apple salad)

- pupusas for the first time i am deeply in love

- learned how to make cucumber water :-)

- Saturday night me and hermana Casper ambushed one of our investigators at his house. they were having a classic "bbq in the driveway with no lights on at 9 pm with all mexican bros" kickback!! it was kind of intimidating to walk up to but we ended up having a good talk with our friend and they gave us this HUGE plate of grilled onions, chicken, tortillas, etc. they were actually super friendly. so we took this smoky flame grilled chicken and made a DANK bowl thing, with roasted sweet potatoes, sauteed red peppers, chili garlic sauce, elote, yellow bell pepper, a whole jalapeno (our house was full of fumes but it ended up being so delish), and the chicky! we are getting good at making really good food out of already really good food. It's a nice system. 

PERSONAL EXPLORATION/GROWTH

- got to go on exchanges with our STL's. they ROCK. i got to help teach one of the most amazing people I've ever met. He is 20 something and is one of the most spiritually sensitive people I've ever met. Basically he just would repeat everything we were saying in a more correct and beautiful way, and then say how much that knowledge changed his life. It helped me realize how special the teachings of the gospel of Jesus Christ are, how they can transform people and put them into something more happy, peaceful, divine, and Christlike. he rocks.

- I have been learning a lot more about how special this time to be a missionary is. We have an excuse to jump right into a very personal and engaging conversation with complete strangers. We certainly get rejected a lot but learning how to brush them off more and more easily day by day. 

- Realizing how easy my life is compared to so many other people. We met a really special woman the other day who had one of the hardest lives I've seen. She is 70 something, one of her daughters just died, and another is sick. She doesn't have money to buy real shoes, so she can't get a job.  Her grand kids are going hungry. Yet she still let us in and was so kind and welcoming to us, even though she was going through these hard hard things. We are working to try and help her get some help. But it's just been crazy to see how so many people here are just in such brutal situations. Many people have recently migrated from Honduras, Mexico, El Salvador, etc, and barely have enough money to rent a room. They work as many jobs as they can get and, somehow, they still have an open enough heart to let us into their homes and let us talk about the gospel of Jesus Christ with them. 

- it made me think about this amazing talk I read today, called "" Like the talk said, they learned how to drink from the bitter cup without becoming bitter. 

- Took a long time to get to the moral of the story, but here it is: I am trying to learn from these people!! I still complain so much about my life! and it's actually so easy!! they are like 10000x nicer than me and so many of them have it so hard. 

I love you all so much. Please keep me in the loop. Or write me letters or smth. 

2854 belt line road apartment 293T Garland, Texas 75044

Les quiero!!!

Hermana Rasmussen

p.s. sorry my emails are so long!!! it's ok if you don't read them mostly it's kind of nice for me to process the whole week :)

pics:

1. our feast made w/ elotes from last night's dinner w/ a member, meat we stole from our investigator's bbq, and other goodies. 

2. PUPUSAS 

3. taught a lesson w/ the elders in espanol

4. i just found this amazing photo from when we taught ricardo and jesus in their actual bed