Hello again!
Hope nobody is panicking that we got to emailing a little late today- I had a doctors appt. Because I'm SICK. Mom told me not to lie about these things- to hit her with the good, bad, and ugly, so there it is. I know with my mission track record so far, maybe that isn't too shocking, but I don't know when my immune system became such a PANSY. I started feeling achey Thursday night- which ended up being a LONG night of feverish non-slumber. Friday was feverish and achey, headache, stuffy; saturday was killer soar throat and stuffy; sunday the fever broke, but throat was killer, this morning my temp was back up to 101 and my throat was bad. I was trying to think of how to describe how I was feeling...think...you just got your tonsils out and your nose roto-rooted. Like someone shoved metal rods down through your ears and into your throat probably. Oh, and my voice is completely gone. Totally. As in all I can force out is a whisper. And my eye is leaking goop? Kind of weird. I'd been keeping in touch with Sister Parry everyday and so today she decided it was time to head to the doctor. Laryngitis apparently. He pretty much said, sorry you feel bad, get some over the counter drugs and rest it out. He asked me if I needed a note to take off work for a few days?...hahaha...I told him I'm a missionary so I don't really have that kind of boss...I don't think he got my funny joke... We've spent a lot of time letting me "rest" over the past few days, but we've gone out and done something everyday because poor Hma Brewer is going CRAZY. I feel so bad for her being cooped up for so long, but I just can't get up and go when my fever is hanging out around 100, you know? She's so patient with it though, she really is. But when you are a missionary and every minute counts, it must be hard to just dink around the house waiting for your companion's body to pull itself together!
When Hma Brewer was in the shower and I was lying in bed this morning thinking that there was a possibility I was on death's door, I thought, "huh, I feel pretty dang bad. I wonder who would have to come to the door that I would get up to answer it...? My first thought: "Jesus. Yep. I would answer the door for him." And my next thought? The mailman! hahahahaha I laughed so hard at myself when I thought that! I told Hma Brewer and she didn't laugh...so maybe the fever was making me delirious, I don't know. Moral of this story is that I think I'm really a missionary if I'm only answering the door for Jesus and the mailman :)
So, before I get going here on the happenings, I want to thank everyone for the outpouring of love this week in the mail! The primary, the relief society, the Dunkel family, the Brady family, Dana Rene Blackburn, my momma...oh man- when I thought of the mailman after Jesus, it's because the mail makes me SO HAPPY! Haha, thanks everyone so much!
So...Probably the most humbling week and half of my young life. I'm still understanding a bare minimum, I'm completely inadequate as a teacher and 2nd language speaker, I think my personality turned has just become a puddle of goo, and I got way sick. Emotionally, physically, spiritually, and intellectually, kind of a rough time. And by "rough time" I mean ROUGH TIME. BUT since I've been sick, I got a blessing from the elders in our ward on Saturday. INterestingly enough, he didn't really mention my illness that much- he just said, you'll need this time of rest to get better. He talked about letting go of the stresses I'm feeling from home (i.e. how can I get my personality back?!) and just like in my setting apart, that Heavenly Father is waiting to bless me, I just need to ask. And you'll never guess what happened! I became ME again! Oh, it was such a relief. I seriously felt like a different person than I've been- you know the adjustment period is always hard for me, especially since I've been stripped of everything familiar and suddenly have this great calling to do something super important in which I'm completely inadequate. It's so humbling when you are trying to give all you have to the Lord and one day you realize you just don't have that much to give! Anyway, we went to an investigators house for dinner that night, and church stuff the next day and I was just happy and myself and I was so grateful not to be goo anymore. I made a goal during weekly planning last week to laugh 5x a day because I didn't remember laughing at all and I was disturbed by that. I told Hma Brewer that I laughed ALL THE TIME in my past life and she said, "yeah...I think I can see that..." hahahaha OH MAN. Time to loosen up a little bit :)
So church is a pretty big deal for missionaries, so we went regardless of my silly body, and even though we were supposed to have almost a billion investigators there- we did get 4! SO exciting. AND I gave a talk. It was only supposed to be 5 minutes on the Holy Ghost, so I just gave a little blurb about my linguistics love, my struggles with spanish, and the language of the spirit, and just added a little Eryn flair- and I made so many new friends because of that talk! The ward is so loving, but everybody had something to relate to about some part, it was so fun! AND I translated for Relief Society. Yep, you read that right. We got put in a rough place and our usual helpers didn't show up because of various things, and so, my friends, I had to step up my game. I think it was horrendous. haha, but you know, I just did my best and that's all I have! It was fun- hopefully someday I'll be better! It was a great day even though I felt terrible. God is so good!
We have some really interesting people that we're teaching right now- I'm eager to see how things continue to progress! I know missionary emails are often logs of the people they teach- it's because we just love them so much and are thinking about them all the time! I'm still kind of a rare participant in Spanish lessons, so maybe once I know what the heck is even going on, I will feel even MORE strongly about them :)
Oh so I have some funnies for this week:
We were at the elder's investigator's home for dinner (apparently the sisters, elders, and Sergio a recent hispanic convert, helped her move so the thank-you was this dinner), and we were having a lesson about faith vs. fear. Trying to commit her to baptism, you know, what we do. She was telling us some pretty intense stuff about her history, I won't go into detail, but let's just say, it was VERY serious. And suddenly Sergio started pointing at my foot and tried to discreetly whisper, "Hermana! Hermana!" And I'm looking at my shoe...kind of confused...and he keeps pointing, and at this point the whole group's attention is focused on my foot...and Hermana Brewer was like, "There's a cockroach that just crawled in your shoe!" So, being the classy woman that I am, I ripped my shoes off, right there in the middle of the lesson, and took care of that sucker. We got into a lot of homes with cockroach problems, and I have become pretty closely acquainted with those nasty bugs! Oh it was a good time had by all. Except maybe the dead bug :)
On Sunday a cute 5-year old girl asked her mom if we were missionaries. She said, "yes! how did you know?" And then she went there- "I could tell by their shoes!" True. Story.
Hma Brewer was translating sacrament meeting and there was a high counselor speaking. He lived up the the stereotypical high-councilman speaker profile, but she was plugging away. He was talking about American Indians learning to hunt and apparently she got her verbs a little mixed up and said that they were learning how to KISS. Hahahaha, she said she knew something was amiss when they all looked up at her suddenly paying attention...hehe
Christmas call- Elder Sinclair's schedule is for sure the one we need to work around here...I have 40 minutes to talk, so let me know when you'd like that to be.
This work is God's work and I feel that more and more everyday. I watch blessings come left and right and I know God is watching over us. I for sure would not still be here unless I KNEW how important this is! I'm in the business of saving souls and couldn't be more grateful that God lets such imperfect people help in his perfect work.
I love you all!!!
Hermana Sinclair
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