Monday, March 30, 2009

New Missionary Letters

Hey hey!I can't believe that I am already on my fifth week! Time really does fly by here. I am really trying to soak it all in because I know I will never get another experience like this again. We did our first "English fast" this week and oh man, it was hard!!! I was really excited in the morning and doing pretty well but by dinner I wanted to scream! I hate not being able to speak whats on my mind. I am sure some of you are thinking it is a good thing I had to go a day without being able to say everything on my mind :) I have seen my language improve immensely since that day though. Stepping out of your comfort zone is a good thing. We taught our last lesson in English this week. It went well and our task in Spanish was good too (we taught about why we should pray and how we should pray. I am really feeling good about what I have learned. I didn't think it was possible to me to retain so much information in such a short time. I def still am a lil slower then most the class, it takes me longer to process but I am hanging in there! I know this week is going to push me much harder because we are starting to teach in Spanish! The lessons will be much shorter for sure haha. Me and my comps continue to get along well. I really got lucky. Everyday seems to get better with them and our relationship is really growing. Sis. Sybrowsky's dad came into our class the other day and said "It's not everyday you get a GA answer any question you have, so shoot." Everyone was a little shocked and didn't know what to say. It was really cool hearing some stories for his EVERDAY encounter with Pres. Monson. Oh, and we got Bajio later that night thanks to her mom, and we get it tomorrow...it pays to have connections. Well family and friends I am doing well. I love this work and I am grateful to be apart of something truly amazing. We heard in a talk yesterday about a women who was a philosophy professor in Munich Germany who wrote like 5 dif books on religion before she knew about church. She said at her baptism, "I don't think you people know what you have." It is so true so many of us forget. WE HAVE THE TRUTH and we NEED to share it! I love you. Thank you for everything! Keep me updated with everything. Letters are nice bc we don't get a lot of email time.
love hermana redfern



Chris Letter-

So hows everyone been? we had a pretty good week, which concluded with a baptism on Saturday! IT was awesome, like i said last week, she had been attending(si ustedes hablan espaƱol, apenas puse ¨asisted¨ hahaha como asistir, que bobo) the church for over a year, maybe even longer im not sure. People were surprised to here she was getting baptized ¨can you do that twice?¨ haha because they never knew she wasn't baptized. SO it was really awesome to be apart of that, to help her on the road to eternal life. You gotta love being a missionary, the fruits are always visible. So that was the highlight. So its kinda cool because a lot of people don't think I'm American now, just think I'm from some random country, one person thought i was Brazilian, which i was like yea cool they don't think I'm American because i don't sound horrible, haha until i remembered that Brazilians speak Portuguese, ooohhh, humbled, but in my defense the languages are a little related haha help me out Brandon. But I´ve also heard Argentinean a few times, but my comp says they talk funny, sorry Bree ha. But yea still have a long way to go with spanish always will, but its pretty cool to wake up in the morning have your comp tell you something in a different language, and you think, hey, that made complete sense. Its fun to think about that sometimes, or even to think, a couple months ago I would've had no idea what you said. So the work moves forward. Were having trouble getting to get our investigators to come to church, the promise us on saturday nights, and say oh you don't need to come we´ll be there for sure. And than they don't. You feel kinda shafted. But we just gotta find more creative ways to get them there, its so important they come. Its getting hot, and that's not like, very fun. And all the elders who have time in the mish just laugh, and say this is nothing. Victoria actually the most like, not cold place. in the mish at least. But its not by a lot, its just its not humid here like pretty much everywhere else. Esp tampico and Poza Rica. So this summer will be an interesting one. Time goes by fast on a mission, or maybe life is always like this. Life before the mish is just starting to roll into a ball. Sometimes i look back on certain memories, and think, man that was fun stuff. I KNOW I'm gonna look back on this mission, on this area, on this comp, with a certain family or convert, and just wish i could go back. So we just try to work hard now, so not to miss a beat. I love you all, hope you have a great week!.

Elder Redfern

2 comments:

Lindsey from The R House said...

hey--can you send me that picture of her in the highest res possible? i will post it on her FB and blog.

thanks.

Nicole said...

Hey Toni! I just read your post from the missionaries and saw the name "Sister Sybrowsky". Not many people with that name, let alone Sybrowskys who are GA's! He was my Stake Pres when I was at BYU and one of my friends married his son Josh. Small world. Sounds like everything is going well. You must be very proud.