week 9: will of the Lord

Whoa. Well this week threw a curve ball didn´t it? Was not expecting that at all. Presidente Caffaro submitted the report to Salt Lake on Friday about what´s been going on and he said we´ll know what they decide by today. The nurse says she´s almost positive they´ll be sending me home to get it fixed and that they usually do it really quick for health needs, she said her guess is that by Wednesday I´ll be home. But Presidente said he´d call me when he finds out for sure and I´m sure either him or I will be in contact with you about what they decide. Whoa. Ha it´s been a very emotional week. I can honestly say I´m more nervous to come home than I was to come here. But I don´t want to talk about that anymore so ya...

Any ways, this week was good! It´s been so hot! Finally!!! I have been a happy camper. 

Monday was a good day, P-day is always a good day. That night things got a little rough. All of our appointments fell through and no one would talk to us. We saw one of our investigators that was supposed to get baptized on Saturday smoking. So there goes that baptism. It was a really rough night.

Tuesday Hermana Sanchez and I woke up and were still upset about the night before and we went out and were walking every where trying to find people and go to our appointments and once again no one was talking to us. It was so frustrating! We were out trying to talk to people, going to our investigators houses, less actives, knocking on random doors and seriously no one would talk to us. We were feeling pretty down about everything and then we said a prayer to just find somebody. We then went and knocked all the doors in an appartment complex and were able to teach one lesson and the lady did not like it. But after that we went back out and were walking and still not having much success but then I realized, that I was out walking and trying to find people and doing everything that I absolutley could and that the Lord only asks us to do all we possibly can and that´s what I was doing. So I felt better. That night we felt like we should go to do how to begin teaching with one of our street contacts from last week. Her name is Flor, she´s 16, lives by herself, can´t read and is so prepared for this gospel! We taught her and she just ate up our message and said at the ends of our lessons, if she feels like it´s the right thing to do she wants to get baptized. Such a tender mercy and made the whole day worth it.

Wednesday we had an awesome zone conference about how to be better missionaries and meet our goals. Wednesday was a tough day for my knees. I could only make it to one investigators house before I literally could not walk. So we went back to the apartment and tried to find a ward member for me to stay with and another to do divisions with my companion. So such luck. PLEASE PLEASE work with the missionaries in your ward. It´s so frustrating when no one works with us.

Thursday was good, we were in and out of the apartment all day because of my knees. When it got to the point where I couldn´t walk we´d go back and I´d ice them and then we´d go back out and then in and out. It was so frustrating. But that night we met our district leader at the church so he could give Sergio the baptismal interview. He passed!! He got surgery on Tuesday so he won´t be able to be baptized for a little bit. But I´m so excited for him! And after the interview Elder Hart and his comp gave me a blessing and it was in spanish and I didn´t understand everything, but I felt the spirit so powerfully.

Friday we spent most of the day in our apartment once again because of my dumb knees. But we had one amazing lesson with our investigator Antoina, she has been so prepared and is so excited about the Book of Mormon and is progressing so well. I´m so excited for her. Her husband can´t read but she´s reading the pamphlets to him and the Book of Mormon and they both feel good about them. This gospel is so amazing!!

Saturday Hermana Trapnell called me and talked to me about what´s going to happen this week and she read me the email that dad sent and after that Presidente Caffaro called to check in with everything and he read a scripture to me that brought me alot of comfort becuase honestly I´ve felt like the crappiest missionary ever this week. But he said he submitted the report on Friday and it´s now up to the general authorities to decide what to do. So now we´re just waiting to hear back from them.

Sunday was amazing. I´m tearing up right now just thinking about the power I felt from the family fast. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You guys honestly have no idea what a strength that was for me. I woke up and just found so much comfort about everything and was so happy and was able to be out and working all day. It was honestly a miracle. No matter what happens, everything is going to be okay and it´s part of a bigger plan for me. It might not be ideal or what we expected, but that´s where faith plays in and I´ve just found so much comfort in that. So thank you. I have the best family in the world and don´t know what I´d do without you guys. Sunday there was also a big earthquake! It was awesome! Earthquakes are still my favorite things.

So that´s what happened this week. Oh also, I will never ever complain about having to do laundry with a washer and dryer ever again. It´s 5 billion times easier than doing it by hand. That´s all I can think of so I guess I´ll let you guys know when we hear from Salt Lake and what they decide. Maybe they won´t decide today because we aren´t the only mission in the world that they need to think about, but whenever we know I´ll be in touch. 

I love you guys so much. Thanks for everything! 

Love, Hermana Tuddenham

week 8: Lots of learning

Hey family! Sorry about the email last week, there was so much going on and so many people trying to talk to me and I was trying to write and it was just insane. So I´m sorry! I´ll try to do better!

So my trainer is Hermana Sanchez and she is amazing and fluent in english! That seriously has been the biggest blessing in my whole life at the moment. She´s from El Salvador and is so helpful.

So this week was really good, but to be 100% honest (and I told you before I left that my emails aren´t going to be the cheesy ´´oh everything is perfect, this is the best thing ever´ emails missionaries usually send. They´re going to be truthful) This is so hard. I knew the living conditions would be bad, I knew I´d be walking around all day long, I knew my knees would be swollen and hurt and I was ready for all of that. I was not ready for people pointing at my laughing at me all day long, I was not ready for how lonely it feels to only understand maybe 1/40 of what´s going on in a conversation, I wasn't ready for not being able to understand the hymns during church and not having Ang come up to me after and patting my back and saying ´hi hon´ or no hugs from Kim, or not sitting in between Cami and Brittany in the chapel in Cedar. It´s little things like that, that I had no idea would be so hard - but I also had no idea how happy I´d be walking around all day long attempting to talk to people. 

So on Monday we had P-day and Presidente and Hermana Caffaro came and played with our zone and Hna. took the sisters to go get ice cream and after hna sanchez and I went grocery shopping and I found peanut butter! YAY!!! 

Tuesday we went to go find two girls who we contacted in the street and they weren't home so we were standing outside of the door and this old lady is up on the mountain and says, you can come teach me. So we hiked up to her house and taught her. Her name is Antonia and she lives in a tiny hut and has a dirt floor and is really open to our message! It´s awesome. She has 7 dogs, a cat, and a bunch of chickens. During the closing prayer a chicken came up and pecked my foot....who would have thought that 6 chickens would just be chillin´ with us during a lesson? I thought it was pretty funny.

Wednesday was terrible. During language study I just felt so overwhelmed with the language and just started to bawl. Then later that night at an investigators house they were talking and I couldn't understand and I´ve gotten really good at understanding the phrase, ´she doesn´t understand does she?´ and one of the investigators said that and I felt the tears starting to come, so I asked to use the bathroom (that I do know how to say in spanish) and in this tiny, dirty bathroom, underneath the stairs I just sank onto my knees and started to sob uncontrollably for a good 5-10 minutes. Not one of my finest moments. I remember saying, ¨heavenly father¨ but I don´t think I got anything out past that. It was terrible. I´ve never felt so alone in my life. But then I read in Matthew 14: 29-32 and realized that I am Peter. We all are Peter and that the Lord has his hand constantly stretched out to us and that it is up to us to take a hold of it so He can pull us into the boat and the storm can stop. So after I finally stopped crying our investigator, David, started making jokes and had me laughing so it was all better and I finally realized who he reminds me of. He reminds me of a mix between Daddy, Shawn and Tony. I love it! 

Thursday was awesome!! I saw a volcano explode!! (I've seen 2 more since) It was awesome! I 

didn't have my camera though...so no pictures, sorry! But after I saw the volcano explode we were contacting and we contacted this family and the mom started making all sort of excuses about how they don´t have time and blah blah blah, and then she said, ´my son is in english classes and he has this big test and he needs to study´and then I said, I can help him study. I know english. And she asked how much I charge for tutoring and I told her that it would be free, just a service and she looked shocked and then agreed to have us come back and help him. So basically we´re going to baptize the whole family. It´s going to be awesome. But the coolest thing was Thursday night. There was not only one, but TWO EARTHQUAKES!! 

Friday we went and contacted with a member, she´s in her 60´s and lives alone and has a friend who she thinks needs the gospel, so we went with her and shared our message and her friend started crying and said that her husband is sick and has all these problems and she knows that the gospel will bless her life so much. Amazing!

Saturday was good, I met Juan Lopez. We walked past him and he started talking in english and normally I ignore men who talk in english because they just want to get my attention and it´s just dumb. But for some reason I said hi back and then he started up a conversation and he´s from LA and he gave me all the updates of what´s going on with football and said we could come teach his family on monday´s before football is on. 

Sunday was so much better! It was just a good day. At church we had an elder in our ward get home from his mission and then we went and ate lunch with his family and he was Kaden Newburger´s companion and so we talked about that and he said Kaden is doing awesome. Then that night we went to teach Sarleth and we got there and she was trying to make her house warmer. So me and my comp insulated her house using cardboard and a nail gun. Cardboard. My heart broke. Seriously, we have it so easy in the states. I feel so spoiled. 

So that´s all that I can think of for this week! Hope all is well with you guys! I love you so much!! Have a great week!

Love, Hermana Tuddenham

week 6 & 7

Hey family!

Okay wow. So much to say. So our last week at the CCM was awesome and very sad. Our district got so close, it was tough for all of us to say goodbye. 

So I told yáll about that song that we were going to sing for our last devotional and we had some people from the airport come over to have lunch at the CCM so we can have a better relationship with the airport and they´ll help out more with missionary needs. So our teacher had us go sing that song to them and the spirit was so powerful. This tough old man was sitting in front of me and none of them are members of the church and this old man just had tears running down his face, along with several other people. It was such an amazing experience.

So one of our last nights in the CCM we were waiting for our teacher and two other companionships to get done with teaching and so we were all chatting and having fun and someone brought up quarter basketball and one elder had never heard of it before so we played it with him and he had pencil marks all over his face and we were laughing so hard and presidente walked in...ya...not one of the brightest moments, but it was still so funny.

Mom I got the letters!! YAY! Thank you! They made my night!

So I´m really short on time and there is so much to say, so you´re just going to get parts of the week.

Presidente and Hermana Caffaro are the nicest people. I love them! They know Rachel Cox and are related to her some how and they also know Dave Richards. Such a small world!

So my area is Monte Maria and it´s in the capital just like 10 or 15 minutes away from the CCM. I´m the first missionary to start in this area so that´s kind of neat...We have some awesome investigators. We have 6 with baptismal dates and I am so happy for all of them!

My spanish is terrible. Absolutely terrible. I hardly understand anything, but each day it gets a little better and I understand a little more. Which is good.

It is freezing here. No joke. I am always so cold! It´s really pretty and I love seeing the city lights at night. The area is pretty poor and it is just heart breaking. I wish you guys could see the way these people live. Their homes are made out of pallets and scrap wood. It´s so sad. But they don´t complain, this is the only way of life they know. You guys seriously have so idea how blessed we are.

So as far as being the only white person here, it´s great.....I get honked and whistled at everywhere we go. Men always blow me kisses and one night we were teaching a lesson in the street and I was in the middle of teaching and this drunk man just comes up and kisses me! Thank heavens I turned in time and he just got my cheek....but still...this place is crazy! Little kids will see me walking and they all look at me and yell that I´m a giant. It´s so funny. 

That´s all the time I have for this week. My comp is uploading pictures with my camera right now, so I´ll send some of those! I love you guys so much! (They had a camera glitch so there are no pictures this week. However, the one below is when she left the MTC in Guatemala for the Guatemala City South Mission on Tuesday, October 28, 2014).

Love, Hermana Tuddenham