Monday, February 14, 2011

Sister Bolliger - Lemoore Week 43: Dreams... "I-Am-Stressed-And-Cannot-Stop-Thinking-About-This-Dang-Language"


Hello everyone from the very nice public library of Lemoore, California--a teeny tiny little town that is full of spanish speakers and valentine festivities.
It has been a crazy week. But I have a feeling that I say that every single week. Haha.
Transfers were Wednesday, but I got deathly ill early Wednesday morning and I actually had to delay leaving to Lemoore. It was incredibly painful and I couldn't even get up from my bed. The stress of speaking Spanish probably had something to do with the severity of the pain. Haha. Poor Sister To'a had to be my nurse and it just prolonged the goodbye. Hahah. My ride to take me to Lemoore wasn't available when I finally was well enough to move, and so I got to do the fun missionary thing of calling around for huge favors from ward members trying to find someone who would immediately be able to take me on the 45 minute journey down south to Lemoore. I was able to find a family and was whisked away just ten minutes later. It was so hard to say goodbye to Sister To'a! We'd had conversations each night since the transfer call that ended in tears (we're such girls) but I was drugged enough the day of to where I didn't really feel like anything was real. Hahah.
Well, Lemoore is amazing. Apparently the Assistants called Sister Lemalu before transfers to ask how many investigators that spoke Spanish. She answered 25%. However, it is more like 50%!! I have already committed someone to baptism in Spanish, am memorizing the First Vision, have taught probably four lessons in Spanish, and semi-translated for a meeting. Hahahah. SERIOUSLY. I feel like I'm getting an ulcer already. I dreamt last night in Spanish, but it wasn't one of those "Yay-I-Am-Fluent-Now-Because-I'm-Dreaming-In-Spanish" dreams but a "I-Am-Stressed-And-Cannot-Stop-Thinking-About-This-Dang-Language" dream. Hahah. But, I have made a personal goal to read the Book of Mormon in spanish before the end of this transfer----March 23rd. That's about 17 pages a day. I have finished the book of 1st Nephi already and am about five chapters into 2nd Nephi. Ahhh! I do about 50/50 reading on my own and listening to a CD of El Libro De Mormon. It's crazy. I'm not quite sure why I decided to do something so drastic, but the only reasoning I have thus far is that I'm trying to keep myself busy so that I don't think about people's eternal salvation at the mercy of my spanish. :)
It is so fun to have another repeat companion!! Sister Lemalu and I are crazy. And the same height. Which is a real treat. It is fun to see how much we have both grown since her 2nd transfer and my 3rd transfer. There is a lot of work to be done here and we have just hit the ground running! Did I mention that she's crazy? The ward says that they've never had two foreign companions--one from Australia and one from Texas. Hah. Hah.
In August, when I was serving in the Visalia area, we did a Special Ops program with the Hanford Stake where Priests and Laurels went out with missionaries for a full weekend. The girl that came with us, Kelli Ashby, actually lives in the Lemoore ward! We both freaked out when we saw each other on Sunday. Hahah. It was so fun! I taught her how to flick Tongan style and we've been writing each other, but I'm excited to take her out with us on teamups here!

Sister Bolliger

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