Hola, mi familia!
Missionary experience! On the airplane flight from LA to Miami, I read M. Russell Ballard's book, Our Search for Happiness. I kept thinking about how good it was, and how it summed up the gospel pretty well. I mean, who explains the gospel better than an apostle? Anyway, on the flight from Miami to the DR, Sis. Beesley and I were sitting next to an older gentlemen who was pretty friendly. He was tan, had gray hair, white teeth, smiled a lot, and was Dutch. He asked us where we were from, and we told him, and he said, "Oh, where the Mormons live." We told him what we are doing, and he began to ask questions about the church, if we were similar to the Amish people, if we believed in God, etc. We pulled out our scriptures and read a few verses with him, answered his questions the best we could, and talked about prayer and the restoration a lot. We'd speak with him about his life, and what he believed in, but we also talked to him about his travels and the world. Whatever we would say, he would always direct it back to the gospel and his questions. He had never seen a missionary, but was curious about the church. And he began asking hard questions to, and we had a debate about a couple of things. He asked, "Well, WHY would I pray to someone that I haven't believed in all of my life? That's hypocritical." We answered the best that we could, and it was cool to see how he was progressing just during a flight. I didn't want him to feel like we were forcing anything down his throat. And if I could give him any experience about this church, is that we were good listeners, friendly and weren't demanding. He asked for a Book of Mormon, and we gave him one, he asked for our emails, and we gave him ours. I gave him the book that I had read the few hours before, and he was really excited to read it because it looked easier and more interesting, he said. IT WAS RAD. And guess what? He promised that he would read both of the books, and pray for the first time ever to know if these things were true. He seemed way into it. Maybe he will read the book, maybe he won't. But at least we tried, right? Crazy.
It's only been a day, but its been the longest day of my life. The spirit is strong, and the day is long. Thinking about staying here for six weeks already makes me want to blow my brains out, haha. When we arrived, it was around eleven, and Antonio was very friendly. He didn't speak English, and neither did anyone else at the airport. They just yelled and were very friendly and talked loud and it was just...insane. Haha. And surprisingly I understood a lot of their Spanish. I could ready every billboard which was DANK. We live on the third floor of the MTC building, and people who travel far to go to the temple (across the street) live on the bottom two floors. Its really poor here and we're in the middle of the ghetto. When we took a tour around the temple, there were little kids following us around. This little boy reminded me of a little Zach. He held my hand and talked really fast and picked up sticks and swung them around like swords. People hang out around the temple because its pretty and they have nothing else to do. Haha.
The girls here are sweet. They have helped me realize why I didn't have/want very many girl friends in high school. Haha. They complain a lot. And calling each other JUST "Sister" is annoying to me. Haha. BUT I HAVE TO GET OVER IT. I'm speaking in church on Sunday in Spanish. Whaaaaat. There's only a few Americans, and a lot of Haitians. They come over here, learn to preach the gospel for two weeks, then leave. They speak french, and learn in french, so I've been picking up a lot of their phrases and vocab too because Spanish and french sound similar.
Classes have been good so far. We watched the District. Zach, WATCH IT. It's actually pretty funny. I'm not gonna tell you what its about, so you can figure it out for yourself. The ceiling started leaking during class, and we all thought that was funny. My companion is super cool and I really like her. P Days are on Thursdays. This girl that reminds me of a girl from seminary is so funny. She wears dolphin EVERYTHING and talks really fast and is SO friendly...today, she related the gospel to canning peaches. I was like, "What the........" hahah. I'm the youngest, but I don't feel inferior to anyone.
I miss you guys so much already, but I'm really happy here! And I feel like I need to be here. I like being a missionary already. What an adventure. I'm praying for you guys. Please pray that i won't get a billion zits and that I'll buy a new toothbrush because I'm stuck with a sucky one. LOVE YOU. Peace and blessings.
Con amor, Hermana Buhrley
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