August 29, 2011

Hi mom!

Yeah it's really hot down here! I'm glad we have a car too, it's just when we go walking that it's bad.

Awesome! You'll get it for sure, they love you there! I'm so happy to hear that, seems this surgery was the one to do for you! :)

Sounds like it's going to be pretty crazy this year for them. Tell connor not to let the stress get to him, he'l get through it! i'll send him a letter, I'll send it to your house since I don't know his address. I've been hearing much the same from everyone else about him too

Okay, love you mom! Thank you for everything you do for me!

So this week we had a baptism, the other one had to wait a week but she's super excited and has been making invitations! Jamie is nine and he had such a good experience at his baptism! He's such a smart kid and his family is the best!

A cool experience this week, we missionaries get protection! We were in a trailer park knocking doors and went to this one where the gate was open which is odd. We knocked on the door and talked to the lady for a bit then she said, "Actually, I'm really surprised that you knocked on my door. Usually my dog scares everyone away." We looked around and went, "What dog?" Not sure what happened but either he ran off right then or just stayed asleep.

But even if the dog is there we get some help. We were going to knock this one door but te dog in the front yard tied to the tree was mean and tried to come for us. The owner waved us on and so we started back to our car to leave to our appointment when I heard the owner yell, "Hey, stop!" I turned and the dog was coming for us. So I got my bag ready to use as a club and hunched my shoulders and yelled really loud, "Hey, back off!" He skidded to a halt and stayed in that spot till his owner ran up and dragged him off. Got my heart pumping a bit! He wasn't a big dog but big enough to do some damage.

We met a very odd man the other day. We knocked his door as it started to get dark and he opened the fiorst door but we still couldn't see him through the metal door. He said, "What's the password?" We loked at each other and Hna Kigueta said, "...I don't know. Buffalo?" "Hmmm, might be!" We grinned and said, "Elephant?" We talked for a bit and he was very crazy but very nice. We ended up sliding a card through the door since he said his wife didn't allow him to open the door.

Things are going great down here, but it's so hot! We've had extreme heat warnings all week and I think it got up to 120 the other day. It's just crazy! But the up side is the fruit here is really cheap since they can get it close by. Plus when I get back home I'll have to find a spanish bakery and get empanadas and pan dulce. It's so good! My companion and I laughed the other day that other than our member meals our diets consist of fruit, fresh spanish cheese, and pan dulce.

I love this one family we're teaching! The father can't work because of heart problems and they recently lost their nice house because of it. But they love us coming over and really love the gospel. They're the ones who went to chruch over 20 years ago but it was in english nad so they didn't know what was going on, they just liked how it felt. The other day we were teaching and they said, "Oh by the way, we made you dinner, do you want to eat now or after the lesson?" It was so good! The father especially is just devouring the book of mormon and is so smart, he always has questions for us.

It's been a good week and a baptism this saturday!

Love you all!

August 22, 2011

Hi mom!

 

Things are going well down here and I'm so happy! We have a car and mostly we use that but we do have bikes. And no I haven't had to buy a bike because a sister left hers when she went home and I inhertited it. It's pretty sweet :) 

 

I'm glad you liked the pictures! It's sooo pretty down here with all the palms and cactus and tons of flowers! We went hiking again today and it was great! Although I had bad allergies about half way up the mountain, but I'm doing good. Yeah I just have as much time now to keep you all updated but boy do I have some stories to tell now!

 

The people here are amazing! I'm in awe over the young women here and what they go through. One girl talked to us (she's 14) about how her and her mom were stuck in Mexico when she was 11 and that they were kicked out of her fathers house (her mom's drunk ex) and had to live on the streets. They worked every day to make money to get home and it took them two months because she got sick just as they had enough and had to be in the hospital for two weeks. She and her older sister are the only members of the church in their family. Sometimes their family doesn't have money to buy food so Luis who rents the small shack behind their house buys some for them. Most of her family is in jail for drugs are sells or other things and they just want to get away from that so badly.

 

So about the nice older woman who let us in my first week. We finally saw her again. She's been sick for the last three weeks and couldn't leave her house and didn't want us over so we wouldn't get sick. She's just amazing though!

 

We had some divine help the other day. We had just left a dinner apointment and were wondering where to go next because we had an hour till 9 still. We thought about it and said, "How about we go visit this family? They live close to here." So we went over and parked and just as we did a woman with a two year old son came walking down the dark street towards us. We went over to talk to her and just started bearing testimoney of how much Christ helps us in our lives. All of the sudden she started to cry and just kept saying, "Yes...I know." We ended up walking her home down the street and just sat and talked with her and shared testimoney. It was a really neat experieince. I don;t know that she'll join the church but she just really needed someone to talk to her that night. God puts people in our way when they need us, we see it al the time.

 

Well, I don't think I really need anything. But whatever you'd like to send down :) The members take very good care of us so we don't lack for much. They especially love that they finally have sisters. Aparently for a long time they pulled the sisters out of this area and only put them back about a year ago. So they treat us like their Princessas. They call us their floracitas (little flowers) and one family the Frietz family just love us. The hermana tells us all the time that she's our mom and if we ever need anything to just give mom a call.

 

Sounds like you guys are having a blast! I bet Primamry is so much fun! I can't wait to see how I do at the ping pong table against al of you. Of course you'll have so much practice at it that you'll kick my butt.

 

Well I love you all so much! Take care!

 

Hermana Watson

Description of Elora, by her companion

Today, I will start with a character sketch of my new companion: Hermana Elora Raedell Watson.

As her name suggests, she is a wonderful mix of utah/idaho grown 'Little House on the Prairie' with a splash of 'Lord of the Rings' fantasy. Her tone of speech is like she is constantly reading a fairy-tale--soft but with emotion. She loves to read, cook, bake, paint, learn about history, and tells great stories. She also loves nature, so naturally, this morning i took her up my mountains.

~Sister Borrows (Kigueta)

August 8, 2011 (Photos)

Centipede!

Elora's companion, Sister Borrows

Elora's Mission - Montana Del Sur

August 8, 2011

Hi mom!

 

Haha! Yeah her last name is Borrows but her name tag says Kigueta because she's a fourth Ogibwei (she speaks the language too.) and since in spanish her last name Borrows would mean a donkey or someone who's slow of speech so she choose to use her Given name from her grandma. She's teaching me to say blueberry pie in that language. It's long! Yes she said she wanted to write to you guys as well as her family. That's how she descibes me to other people.

 

How're you feeling now? Almost back to normal? But ick, doctor. I hope you're doing well! i'm still praying for you!

 

Yeah bit of culture shock but I love it! This ward is the best and I'm soooo happy not to be serving in english! The hispanic people are so nice! It was a little odd learning how to kiss other women, it's a big part of the culture down here. You see someone you know, or might know, or have just met, and just got in for a kiss ont he cheek.

 

Thanks! I think I'll be set once I have my bedding. They had an extra blanket I've been using so I'm good! I love you mom! I'll be sending some things in the mail and pictures in a bit!

August 1, 2011

Okay so I don't have much time (there was a ton of emails!) So this'll just be a general letter to everyone and I'll work on answering things more next week. Thank you all so much for writting to me!

 

I love it down here! I have the best companion, Hermana Kigueta! She's from canada and a fourth ogibwe indian. She's great to work with and we get along so well! She's also really glad to have me because I know how to and like to cook. We're starting to eat pretty well!

 

The area I got sent to is very interesting. My companion told me as we were driving to it that it was down at the very southern most part of the mission by South Mountian. Our mission is called Montana del Sur, Sur. I really am serving in the best area of the whole mission. Now don't start worrying with what I'm going to be telling you next. My companion told me as we were driving to our apartment that we're down the street from the projects and are in one of the poorest areas of the mission. As we walked into the apartment she jokingly told me, "Yeah it's great. We have cockroaches for pets. Also sometimes it smells like either garbage or smoke from rhe other apartments." Yeah it's all true. We have a bit of a roach problem but the apartments are getting sprayed tomorrow so that'll help. I didn't know that they were green on the inside. Aparantly Elders had the aprtment a few months before they the sisters have been working on geting it clean since then. It was a mess!

 

And they weren't joking when they said it was a poor area. It's funny to me that these people are living in these run down old shanties with no AC but they have a phone with interent on them.

 

But honestly I'm sooooooo lucky to have been sent here! It's one of the more densely populated Hispanic areas in the mission and our ward is the best! We have an absoluitly amazing memeber support here and they just loves us! The calls us their principessas and angeles and take good care of us. Another great thing about the people here is that I've only had one door slammed in my face and got yelled at once by a guy. But it wasn't that bad. For the most part even if they won't listen they'll talk to us and invite us in. I hate when we knock on the doors of americans because they're always really rude to us, but the hispanics are super nice!

 

We'e got a baptism!!! It's this awesome girl named Stefanie. She's 16 and just amazing. She was a little standoffish when we first met her but has warmed up big time! They've been teaching her family for 10 months already but only her in specific for a few weeks. A recent convert Suzy is a huge help with her! We had a neat lesson the other day with her. Since she's so close to bweing baptised we had to sit down and tell her straight out that she needed to get rid of her lip ring. She was shocked and got mad at us a bit. She flat out told us that she would do anything but take it out. But we bore our testimoneies along with Jose Juan, a member who was there (he's awesome!) and all of the sudden Hna Kigueta was elbowing me and saying, "Look!" I looked and Stef was holding her ring in her hand and looking serious at it, then put it in her pocket. She has just lit up since then and gotten so excited for her baptism this friday! I just love her!

 

I'll send a letter with more stories in it to p[eople later.

 

So today! This morning we went for a hike on the mountain by us. We sat up at the top and looked over the valley it was amazing! But then it happened. I'll send you a picutre of what we saw so you'll know why we screamed and ran about twenty feet away. This monster had crwaled onto Hna's backpack right next to her arm! It was a giant centaped! I'd see a few little (3-4 in) milipeds running around but hadn't expected this this! It was at least a foot long and huge!!!!!!!! You'll see what I mean when I send pictures with the letters later, it scared us so bad!

 

Okay one more quick story! We were knocking on doors one day and an older hispanic lady answered. We smiled and said, "Hola, somos represetantes de Jesucristo-" andshe lit up and swung the door open and said, "Pasen! Pasen!" She all but kicked out the guy who'd been talking with her out the door and was sooo happy to talk to us. She told us how she was a catholic by tradition but had been really feeling lately that she wanted to find a church. We talked a bit and basically gave more of the first lesson (we didn't get to Joseph yet) and she was just loving it. Before we left we gave her a Book of Mormon, and you have to understand, we don't just do that down here. We mostly just give them our numbers and a pamphlet. But we could just see how excited she was. We'd read a bit with her (Alma 7:11-12) and she felt that it was right. So we gave her the book. We invited her to church and she was excited to go but didn't show on sunday. We called and turns out she had gotten pretty sick. But we're going to call again today to see how she is and to invite her out to Noche de Hogar. The members here just rock and every week they have a group family home evening together for everyone at the familia Jones' house. We're also having a birthday for one of the members tonight there to. He's doesn't know that yet though, we just told him that it was his turn to give the lesson.

 

I love this area! I love this ward! I love my companion! It's the best area in the whole mission! Cockroaches and all! But I don't mind those too bad anyway,my aim has improved considerably since I've gotten here. After all we get our own apartment and some privacy. The elders are in consecrated living (in a members house) and they don't have cockroaches there...they have scorpians. As in, in the house. A elder got stung twice because one had crawled into his towel. It got his ahnd and he dropped the towel and then it got his foot. He's okay though. I haven't seen any here but then our apartment is up on the top floor.

 

It is HOT. I about passed out when I first stepped outside. It's generally been about 105 here during the day. It's really odd that the sun comes up at around 5 and by 6:30 it's already baking at 95. It doesn't really cool off at night here. And I'm learnign that storms don't help. Because then it's both hot and very humid. Although we had our first real storm. It was awesome! The whole sky was lite up with lightning and it just flooded! It was awesome!

 

Well it's time to go, I love you all! Take care and I'll write as soon as I can!