things i learned as a child! no, fo reals?

hey mom and pops,

que onda?

hows life in the empire state?

let me give you a run down of my life right now. its nothing spiffy, but it is my life. 

we have been working hard in reactivation. we are seeing the fruits of our labors. this ward has so much potential, and we are working hard with the relief society president! we took the ward directory out, like we did in san rafael, and went looking for those lost sheep. well, we went to this area called el pinito, por el rastro. let me tell you a bit about el rastro. its a slaughter house area, but its not a factory. its this run down tin shack neighborhood where the people do the butchering inside the house! it is completely unsanitary, and when we went to see the lady on the list, she opened the door and her hands were covered with slime and fur. she was cutting up little cows, IN HER HOUSE. we were walking outside and from far away saw this clear tube thing hanging up, and when we came closer, we realized they were cow intestines drying in the sun. its to make sausages! yummy. it was super appetizing because it was covered in flies. well, the streets are dirt, and on the sides there are piles of carcases stacked high! it smells so bad because there are no trees, so everything roasts in the sun. anyway, we found the family, and there are 14 inactive people living in the house, and including about eight more that are not baptized members. they seem receptive, and so.. there is work to be done! 

are kapris a style for men in the states right now? we see all these gangster type guys wearing kapris (capris?) and we are confused. that one direction group is a HUGE deal here, so i dont know if it has something to do with them. im just curious. i hope it is not a thing in the states right now, because men wearing clothes like that... ewwwww.

i have learned quiet a bit throughout the many many years of my life... more like just 20. well, from the little that i know, i remember learning how to say good bye in sign language from blue's clues. well, we met a deaf girl, and we make small talk... with our hands kind of. well, we wanted to say goodbye so i did the chin thing and she did it back! wow, i thought that wouldnt work because its american sign language and maybe it was different. well, i felt pretty proud to know that steve taught me that from blues clues. also, i studied mandarin, i love it still! i rememebr it a bit, but i will never forget the basics! well,  hna.michaelis told me how this inactive member claims that he speaks chinese, so we visited him and i just busted out with some mandarin small talk. he looked at me so puzzled. i first asked him in spanish, if he said he spoke mandarin, and he said he did. so i asked him (in mandarin) his name, and if he speaks chinese. he then goes "no no no, its not ni hui shuo, its ney haaash!" i asked him if he knew what i said and he said "its a greeting, no?" i felt bad, but he got embarresed, but.. dont go setting yourself up in language lies. you never know when you'll get a gringa in you house that speaks english, and spanish with a brazilian accent that also knows mandarin. 

another language thing. i like german, but i know like little phrases like 'the soup is very good' or 'what time does the traincome' or 'where is the train station' and nautrally 'do you speak german?' well this one sister we met was being mean and saying spanish is easy and that there is no excuse for our spanish to be so bad. i felt more sad than angry. she said she spoke german so i asked her in german 'you speak german?' and she looked at me for about 5 seconds and said.. va pues. im not a linguist, but watch your tongues gente.

our investigaroa hna.g is getting baptized! this saturday! we love her so much! she passed her interview! i love her and i am so happy she is deciding to repent and come to the fold! we went to her house and reminded her of next saturday and asked how she felt. she thensaid "i dont know.. i dont know anymore" so we asked to explain everything. well, she said she doesnt know the rules of the iglesia, and i said all that is important is to pray, read, and follow the commandments. that is it. nothing else matters really. keep the commandments, in this there is safety!

okay, the 'fo reals?' part. i have CHANGES! I am so sad. i have been here for six weeks, and hermanita.g is getting baptized this saturday. also, this thursday we were supposed to go to the Temple with our convert hermana.B! im crushed. i have a dismal outlook on it, and i need to change that. i usually am fine with cambios, but this one hurts! i hope this next area is my last, because i only have two changes left. 

anyway, i apologize for the typos. 

i love you all! take care!

Love, 

 Hermana Ramirez

it's not me, it's you... The Break Up

Mom and Pop,

  hows it going out in the land of the free? Is it hot and humid? I don't miss that too much about ny in the summer, but i guess i couldn't get too far from the humidity- being that it is the rainy season right now. hey, lets not talk about the weather, i am sorry. 

did you hear about the earthquake? probably not. i don't know why, because it was a freaking 7.2 quake, but nobody wrote me to see if i was alive. i'll tell myself that y'all just didnt hear about it, so that is why nobody asked about if i was okay...so, yeah. anyway, i woke up last monday at 5am, and heard all this water moving, gushing water, and i thought a pipe had broke. i sat up in my bed and looked around and saw everything swaying from side to side. i realized the water was the fountain that is in our house, and all the water gushed over the sides. it was crazy and awesome. i was prepared, i have my 72 hour kit.. it's full of snickers. 

we've been taking the ward directory around and finding people we dont know. we found this family of six, and the father is a high priest. we searched for them, and the second time... we found them! they love us too. the daughter came to church on sunday and a ton of people came up and we talking to her and made plans to hang out! I am so proud of the ward for welcoming her back. next sunday  i hope the whole family comes. they are sweet!

okay, lets get to the break up! remember hermanito.a? well, fíjese que we dropped him. no more, until he calls us back. we love this kid so much, seriously, it hurt to drop him. it's just, if we keep visiting him, and he doesnt progress, we can go back because we'll be numbing him to the importance of acting on faith, and the importance of our purpose as missionaries in trying to help people progress and make covenants with our Heavenly Father. We are working still with his aunt, hermanita.g and she is progressing so much! she is still working for her baptismal date for the 26th of july! she is so amazing. she said how she can see herself changing, and it is so beautiful watching people come closer to our Father in Heaven by repenting and preparing to make sacred covenants. I feel like a proud parent, watching their child grow up into an awesome person! I love hermanita.g so much!

we saw the inactiva lady, Hermana.G this week. she is the one with ms, and she is so amazing. we were visiting her and all of a sudden she breaks down crying. before i tell you why, let me share more about her. her husbands drnks and is drunk a majority of the time, her son chooses to not have a social life and insists on taking care of her (which makes her sad), and she cannot speak claerly even though she spoke four languages fluently. she is lonely and cries a lot. well, she started crying and saying how grateful she is, because she says that everything she asks in prayer, she gets it. she says she doesnt understand why there are suffering people all over the world, and when she asks for something, she receives it. she says how grateful she is, but she feels sad for the rest of the people. she said "how can i tell somebody that Jesus loves them, when they dont even have a bed to sleep in, andi have everything i need?" I love this woman, so much. we are secretly best friends. the thing is, she doesnt know it yet. 

Apparently i have a different accent. some people say i sound like i am from brazil, and others say i am from portugal. they think im from brazil sometimes, and i dont understand it. anyway, this one family said i speak strange, but not like a gringa, which is cool, not sounding like a gringa, but, they laughed at me obnoxiously. oh well, i guess if people think i speak like a strange brazilian, i just think  'thou sayest.' i should give portuguese a try some time. 

there hasnt been rain for a while, so oh well. im living it up, but saturday it came down hard, i wasnt expecting it. oh, germany won mundial, and all of guate wept. the majority of people wanted argentina. i secretly wanted germany, but didnt tell peolpe because many people get offended over little things here and i didnt want to offend. 

love, 

Hermana ramirez