Week 68: I got bit by a scorpion!

Hello!!

Ohh my goodness. This week was such a breath of fresh air, my new companion is Hermana Fifita, her family is from Tonga and I have not laughed as hard as I have had with her for way too long. Our area is called "Cerro Grande", and yes, it is quite grande. To get from one appointment to the next we walk a minimum of 30 minutes, it is a huge adjustment from being in the city! I also got bit by a scorpion in the middle of the night my second day, at 3 am I wake up to what I thought was a cockroach or something yanking off my finger and as I turn on the lights, there I find the creature in my blanket. Luckily scorpions here are not poisonous, but it HURT. I decided to have charity towards the creature, and so using a cup I threw it outside. Stupid scorpion.

My favorite experience from this week was helping a recent convert build her kitchen. From the street to her house on the side of the mountain 20 minutes away we (my companion and other members) carried bags of bricks and blocks of mud. It was pretty intense, and it was so cool to see so many people so freely offering their service with nothing in return.

My companion has had one transfer in the mission and started the mission out knowing zero of spanish. She reminds me so much of me when I started out, the awkward laughs when you don`t know what`s going on, getting frustrated with communication issues, wishing you could express yourself better, the beginning of the mission is hard. But the one thing that I have loved is seeing how in lessons, she says everything so passionately. Although she may not speak very much for now, the little that she says is often exactly what investigators need to hear, nothing more and nothing less. My goal for this transfer is to build her confidence because unfortunately her first trainer was a little impatient... the good thing is the mistakes that are made don`t phase me, a huge part of the mission for me has been learning to continually forgive and forget in companionship and only serve.

Have a great week!
Hermana Bernal