Hermana Katie Holt: Week 5: One month down, 17 to go

Happy One Month Anniversary??

Can you believe that it has been one whole month already?!? I can't... it has been the fastest but slowest month of my entire life!! And the fact that I only have 17 left is so sad to me! I LOVE being a missionary!! And the real fun hasn't even begun yet! So I'm sure you guys are dying to hear my proselyting experience hahaha it was AWESOME!!!! I loved everything about it!! Ok, yes it was super frustrating at times with the Spanish because I'm pretty sure I had a "Best Two Years" moment!! You remember?? ...."That's not the language they taught me in the MTC..." HAHA it's true people. My companions name was Hermana Glauser from Utah and she has been out a year! So cute and so fun to be with! We met with some members and then a less active!! The first lady we met, oh me madre I couldn't understand one word!! It all sounded like one word ahahah I'm pretty sure she barely breathed while she was speaking! That's how fast it was!! I just kinda nodded my head and smiled hahaha the only thing that I knew was that the spirit was there! Thank goodness for that right?? The next house we went to was the bishop of the ward and I understood a lot more!! It made me feel a little bit better about myself haha! The last visit was the most humbling, amazing experience. This lady was a less active, but seriously had the sweetest spirit. She lives in this literally 2 bedroom house (as in one room had her bed and the other was the kitchen) and she had buckets around the house catching the water coming through the ceiling. We started with a hymn that we sung to her (I realized that these missionaries start every lesson with a hymn, HOW cool is that??) and the Spirit was instantly there. My companion shared a scripture and after all I could do was testify, so I did! I'm not sure if what I said was grammatically correct, but that doesn't matter. The Spirit was there. I definitely learned something from that small visit! I could study spanish for months and months and speak perfect spanish in my lessons, but if the Spirit isn't there, it doesn't matter!! The Spirit is the best teacher, not me!! It is only my job to bring the Spirit, to invite him into the lessons! That's when the miracles happen. How grateful I am for the power of the Holy Ghost!

Anyway, so I'm kinda sad that I didn't bring my camera because I wish you guys could see how awesome the DR is!! And crazy!! The first thing me and my companion did was go on a bus type thing, I don't remember what it's called haha but it was insane! It was like this minivan type car that plays the game, lets see how many people we can cram into one car!! 20. Haha I counted!! And even better, there was no door!! People would just jump in and out! And I was on the end of course and I thought I was going to die at some moments! How these people drive and don't run into each other I do not know haha but it was seriously so fun!!

So guess who came and spoke to us for our devotional this week?? Elder Zivic!! The one who spoke in conference!! And guess what? Well first of all, we had no idea who was speaking and we had to have a musical number so I played an arrangement of I Know That My Redeemer Lives on the piano (the one that Rachael sang at my farewell) and some of the hermanas sang in Spanish!! And then Elder Zivic walked in and I got THAT much more nervous!!!! I played a musical number for Elder Zivic!!! Music is such an amazing thing that Heavenly Father has blessed us with!! And I am SO grateful to my lovely parents who have brought that blessing into my life!! Also, another fun music thing that has happened this week was, one of the teachers has a violin and had made an arrangement of Nearer My God To Thee and was dying for someone to play it, so I did!! Guys, I played the violin!! Hahaha it was amazing. I miss my viola so much! As I was playing the arrangement, other teachers started coming into the room and just sat there as I played. They just sat there and listened!! President heard it and asked if I would play it for family prayer. I played the violin for family prayer last night!!

Ok, I am literally getting kicked off!!! Thanks everyone for your support!! Love you all!!!

Love

Hermana Holt