Week 13 - September 22, 2014 - Owensboro, Kentucky

Ok so, 

     Everything is going all right.  I can tell that I am growing so much.  I am so much better than I was before.  I am so glad that I have grown up in the church, but it wasn't until my mission that I have really experienced the power of the atonement in my life.  Wow.  

      So, I am getting better at speaking Spanish, which is nice, but I still have those days when I struggle.  It is so frustrating.  This week I felt like my Spanish was getting so much better.  I was talking to people and getting across what I wanted to say.  Then, there would be times that I would not be able to muster up anything.   

      Yesterday was probably the worst.  We were talking to a guy that was so nice and the perfect investigator.  He asked all the right questions and he led us right through everything.  He asked about prayer and why baptism should be when we are older.  Hermana Porter shared some scriptures.  We talked to him forever and he accepted a baptism date.  He is even moving over to the apartments near where we live, which will make it easier for us to teach him. 

     We were so happy, and don't get me wrong, I am so happy for him, but every time I opened my mouth I felt like I drove away the spirit.  My Spanish was so horrible.  I couldn't say a single thing.  I basically suck!!!  I have never been so grateful that it is not me that teaches, but the spirit, because well... I would have failed on my own.  Hermana Porter did great, but I sucked!!!

     So, on to Hermana Porter.  We are different, but she is a good person.  I am trying to get to know her better.  She has helped me learn some things about myself that I needed to know.  I feel badly because I can't help her like I would like to, and what I do say, she has to fix sometimes.  But, I also have really come to understand that I am not going to be perfect now.  It is a process.  So, yeah!  That is me.

     I feel like my studies have gotten so much better.  Now, if only I could remember everything when I teach... and translate it into Spanish.  Yikes!  I get so nervous when I talk to people.  Well... you know me.  I get nervous when I approach someone or have to talk. I have to practice A LOT to say what I want to say.  I think that overcoming that is half the battle.  I have to be able to push those nerves away.  I think that I am getting better, and man, do I know that the Lord has, and is, already helping me a ton, but I still need to get over that.  Once I can push those nerves away, I think my brain will once again fire completely.  Then the Spanish and the things that I have learned will be able to flow better and I will be able to talk to people better.  So, through a lot of prayer, I can feel myself getting better, but - o man, that will be my battle.

      I have to go, but this last week our district leader and a fellow Owensboro missionary left, so we all got pictures.  Here they are.  Sorry I don't take more pictures.  Well, maybe once I get everything down and learned, my picture taking will get better.  

 

     I am so happy to be here and so glad that I get to learn so much.  I am super happy, just working on perfecting my skills.  

     O yeah.  Check out this lesson.  Our ward mission leader is basically amazing.  He trained in his mission at 17 days and was a branch president for most of his mission.  Anyway, he showed us this and taught the lesson with it.  It was really good.  It is way better when he explains it, but, hey, I will send it anyway. 

 

     Got to go.  Sorry for the crazy email.  I LOVE YOU ALLLLLLLL A TON. 

Hermana Gamett

 

 

 

Week 11 - September 8, 2014 - Owensboro, Kentucky

     So, this week has been pretty good - busy and working, but good.  

 

     So, this week we decided to help this lady that we teach to stop smoking.  She has to stay at home and can't go to church, but she has already read through the entire Book of Mormon again, and she is going through the Doctrine and Covenants like there is no tomorrow.  She basically rocks.  Anyway, she has been wanting to stop smoking.  She did stop a few weeks ago for about 4 days, but then she started smoking again.  Well, we decided that we were going to get this thing started.  So, we decided to do a program called the 15 steps program with her.  It is a program that has worked for most people, and helps people to stop smoking.  Anyway, so we walk in and say that we are going to help her stop smoking.  She looked at us and said, "All right, but I stopped on Sunday".  Well, alrighty then!  We still went through the program with her and she was totally committed to it.  We, or a member of the ward, talks to her everyday and she still hasn't had a cigarette.  But, Wait!  There is more.  As part of the program we hang up signs all over the house to remind her that she doesn't want to smoke.  As we were hanging up these signs, she informed us that she wanted us to hang up some on the outside of her door so that people would know that she was done smoking.  Alright!!

 

      So we did and she has had a lot of people ask her what they are.  She also has a lady that wants us to do the program with her.  So, like I said, she basically rocks.  She is the sweetest lady ever and told us to tell our families thank you for letting us come over here.  So far, she hasn't had a cigarette and every time she has the urge to have a cigarette, she reads her scriptures.  So far, so good.

 

     Here is more from this fine week.  I have decided that to learn the language better, I have to speak it more.  There is a member here who lived a few years in Mexico as a child and he is now a Spanish teacher- so I would say a good source to learn Spanish.  He said that we are trained to read and write.  So naturally, we are going to be good at reading and writing in the language we are learning.  That skill will come first.  He said that we haven't used our "learn to speak" skills since we  were little ( he said this in more psychological terms, which I actually understood like dendrites and such- Go Psychology),  so those come later and are a lot harder for us to learn.   That made sense to me, so I decided that for my personal study I was going to start speaking in Spanish.  O yea, me and the wall or the pillow or the couch, or the bug on the wall that won't live too much longer,  have some great conversations in Spanish about the gospel.  My companion probably thinks that I am crazy, but ,hey, I even found myself thinking in Spanish about what I wanted for lunch.  Yep, those talks with the wall are working miracles.

 

     So, everything is going well.  I am happy, blessed, learning (in English and Spanish) and so far so good.  Love you all,

 

Hermana Gamett

 

 

Current Address:

Hermana Gamett

1017 Venable Ave. #10
Owensboro, KY 42301

Week 10 - September 3, 2014 - Owensboro, Kentucky

      So, this week has been great!  We got to go to a conference with Craig A Cardon.  He is a member of the Seventy and is amazing.  Just being around him you feel special, and you realize that he is a man called of God.  He did an amazing mission conference, and I feel so blessed to be a part of that.   We left super early in the morning, and "wow"! the sunrise coming up and the fog were beautiful.  WOW!-lets just say a camera would not do that one justice.  Amazing!!!

     We also had an amazing zone conference, yesterday.  I felt the spirit so strong during one part of it, and learned so much.  I realized that there is so much to improve on- aside from the Spanish.  We have an AMAZING mission president and wife.  They are so great and I am sooooooo happy to be a part of this mission and this church.
 

     So the food is amazing.  I have had real authentic Mexican food 2 times and they were both absolutely amazing.  Yeah!  Amazing!  The members also feed us. They are so sweet.  Let me tell ya, the people here can cook!  WOW!!! 
 

    Also, the bug bites.  WOW!!!  I saw my first praying mantis.  It was big...yeah-big.  Also, we had a nice big cicada on our door- now those things-they are gross.   My legs are nice and speckled with the bites from different bugs.  Yep, they are beautiful. 
 

    Although I am not fond of the bugs, I am very fond of the trees.  Imagine all of our sagebrush, but green trees.  Yeah.  It is a little different for me, but it is pretty-Oh so pretty.     
 

      So, we are doing fine.  This is short.  So sorry you don't get to read my amazing writing skills, but there are things to do.  I love it and can't even begin to thank my friends, family, and ward at home for the influence they have been in my life. 
 

Love ya all,

Hermana Gamett
 

 

Beautiful Sunrise

 

Beautiful Sunrise

             Hermana Gamett and her companion 

Praying Mantis

Brain Tacos

 

 

Current Address:

Hermana Gamett

1017 Venable Ave. #10
Owensboro, KY 42301