This area is REALLY hard. I must say when I heard
people say "Oh you re going to San Nicolás? that's the hardest area in the
mission" I thought "psh, people said Paraná was hard, and we still
had lots of success" but San Nicolás is ROUGH. Our area is centro, so it
is basically like contacting in a mall. A mall where every person is muy muy
MUY Catholic. So I guess 200 years ago the virgin Mary appeared to a woman
here and commanded her to build a chapel for her to worship her, so in our area
is a GIANT chapel, and people move here to wait for when the virgin is going to
come again. But I never have had so many doors slammed SO hard in my face. At
first we just laughed it off and kept our heads up and kept going. But by
Thursday, by the 100th door SLAMMED in our face (and when i say slammed, I
mean like your hearing goes away because they slam the door so hard) it gets to
a point you just want to stop. But something in me kept me going and I was able
to finish the week. I felt like our numbers were horrible, because even though
we contacted lots of people, we had hardly any new investigators or people with
a baptismal date. Then I found out we were leading the zone--and that we had
doubled the amount of investigators in a normal week here. With that hope, my comp
and I are spending a lot of time on our knees in prayer, really making solid
goals, and going to just give all that we have. I KNOW we can find a baptism
here this transfer. It just has been really, really hard. Its been a week of
long, long, tearful prayers.
But aside from that, I still love being a missionary. I love what I'm doing, and I can see so many blessings from this work. One is my companion. I told her that I love running and she hasn't ever run once in her life. But she goes home in 4 months and she asked me "Does running help you lose weight?" yes, yes it does. "bueno, I want to go running with you then everyday this transfer" so I wrote up a little plan for her to help her start getting in shape. Her first day she ran 5 mins and wanted to die. Today, she ran 12 mins, and then played soccer after. I told her that at the end of transfers she will run 30 mins without stopping. She thinks I'm crazy, but she really is improving a lot!
So this week, we ate at someones house and they brought out what looked like salami. She asked us if we have tried Morcilla. I made the terrible, terrible, TERRIBLE mistake of asking what morcilla was. It's a mixture of all the blood in a pig, and then they grind up the rest of the pig (bone and cartilage and all) and make like a sausage link out of it. After that she cuts me a big Ole slice and says "Here try it, its delicious" ya, i cant tell you if it was delicious or not because all i could think about what that I was eating pig blood and cartilage. If you don't know what it is, don't ask.
One more crazy story for you all. We share a chapel with 2 elders, and one of them told me that they had these investigators, and one of them has diabetes. His diabetes got pretty bad and they had to have surgery on him and remove his leg because it was infected. So they had the surgery, but when he came out the doctor said "oops, sorry, we accidentally chopped off the wrong leg. We removed the good leg. We are going to have to do the surgery again on the other leg" HOW TERRIBLE!!!! Now he will have no legs. Hello socialized health care....
I love you all! thank you for all your prayers, I know it is what kept me going.
Besos
Hermana Collins
But aside from that, I still love being a missionary. I love what I'm doing, and I can see so many blessings from this work. One is my companion. I told her that I love running and she hasn't ever run once in her life. But she goes home in 4 months and she asked me "Does running help you lose weight?" yes, yes it does. "bueno, I want to go running with you then everyday this transfer" so I wrote up a little plan for her to help her start getting in shape. Her first day she ran 5 mins and wanted to die. Today, she ran 12 mins, and then played soccer after. I told her that at the end of transfers she will run 30 mins without stopping. She thinks I'm crazy, but she really is improving a lot!
So this week, we ate at someones house and they brought out what looked like salami. She asked us if we have tried Morcilla. I made the terrible, terrible, TERRIBLE mistake of asking what morcilla was. It's a mixture of all the blood in a pig, and then they grind up the rest of the pig (bone and cartilage and all) and make like a sausage link out of it. After that she cuts me a big Ole slice and says "Here try it, its delicious" ya, i cant tell you if it was delicious or not because all i could think about what that I was eating pig blood and cartilage. If you don't know what it is, don't ask.
One more crazy story for you all. We share a chapel with 2 elders, and one of them told me that they had these investigators, and one of them has diabetes. His diabetes got pretty bad and they had to have surgery on him and remove his leg because it was infected. So they had the surgery, but when he came out the doctor said "oops, sorry, we accidentally chopped off the wrong leg. We removed the good leg. We are going to have to do the surgery again on the other leg" HOW TERRIBLE!!!! Now he will have no legs. Hello socialized health care....
I love you all! thank you for all your prayers, I know it is what kept me going.
Besos
Hermana Collins
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