It's Getting Hot!

Hellooooo everyone!

Thanks for the emails this week- they are such a source of strength for me. It's so comforting to know exactly what's going on with everybody, the ins and outs of the goings on. Colby saw health films?! WHAAA?! And the Camaro? One day I will be home to ride in those! And prom and BBC miniseries and the temple? Wow. Sounds like life is GOOD in the Sinclair household :)

So not that you are all on pins and needles waiting to hear how our new sister is or anything...but...she's not here. Found out on tues that she got pretty sick her last few days in the MTC and got sent home for 2 weeks. She should be here next week-ish. I wasn't really stressed about training until transfer meeting. And then I got STRESSED. Haha, there is like a little pep talk from Pres Perry to the trainers while the greenies get a little pep talk from the Assistants and the other companions just chill- and then we all get together for the grand pairing of trainers/greenies. It's all very dramatic feeling- the trainers sit on the stand and the greenies in the from row and President says the name of the trainer and they give a little schpeel about themselves and their area and then he says, "And your companion is..." And then they give each other big hugs and go sit together as a new terrified companionship. It brought back so many memories of 4 MONTHS AGO! (Like- yesterday) when I was on the front row trying to figure out who MY trainer was going to be, because everyone in the MTC told me that your trainer was just going to be the best missionary ever and would show you how to be the best missionary ever. It's in these humbling other-side-of-the-fence moments that you realize just how much you need to improve and just how much you need God because really you just aren't as awesome as you need to be.

But my greenie wasn't there, so I just sat with Hna M in the crowd as the stress mounted higher and higher and higher...President said we'd probably just go with him and Sister Perry to meet her at the airport when she comes. I got the chance to talk to a few of the new missionaries and asked them about her...and well, it seemed like they had a difficult time getting along, so I'm anticipating a rather strong personality of some sort headed our way! I'm just banking on the fact that Heavenly Father knows what he's doing and we're all in this to learn together. All week I've been pushing hard to really use this time to BE the kind of missionary that can lead by example, and well, I feel like my best is barely par, so Divinity will definitely have to make up the difference.

Had a series of small humorous experiences this week that y'all might get a kick out of:

Hermana M found not 1, not 2, but 5 white hairs on my head after transfer meeting. Coincidence? 

Another funny manifestation of stress: our Zone Leader called and was like,  "Hello, this is Elder Kent." And I was like "Hi Kent!" And following a rather awkward silence I realized my error and was like, "uh...I mean ELDER Kent..." whoops.

I realized that I have also started introducing myself like a hispanic even to white people, saying "sister seencluhr" haha this creates a little bit of confusion when the white people read my nametag :)

So almost all the kids of the hispanics we teach know English because they go to school here. Most of them are more comfortable with English than with Spanish, actually. So we were at this investigator's trailer and I was trying to keep this little 6 year old boy entertained so I gave him a Jesus pass along card and explained who Jesus is, then I pulled out the SLC temple card and the first thing he said was, "Ohhh...Does God live there?" 
Yes, my heart melted. Out of the mouths of babes. I was like, "Yes! that's his house." (how did he know?!)
"Are there monsters there?" 
"What do you think?" 
"No monsters in God's house!"
 "You are right!"
"Will you take me there?"
Does this say "paul sinclair talk material" or what? ;)

We were talking to this former investigator in a flee market this week and he was talking to Hna M and said to her about me, "Does she understand spanish?" And I was like, duhh, "Ye-es, hermano, I understand spanish" and I then I thought he said "How long have you been out?" And so in my pride in my impressive language abilities was like, "only 6 months!" (I'm so gifted, riiight?!) and Hermana was like, "uh no hermana...he asked you how many languages you know..." HAHAHAHA love it

I realized this week a blessing of getting my wisdom teeth out- it was a beautiful and legitimate excuse not to eat myself sick. I'm back in the full swing of eating huge hispanic meals with our people. They keep saying, after I have literally eaten 4x the normal amount of food I would normally eat, "You don't eat very much do you? All you Americans eat is salad!" haha if they only knew...

As far as the work is going here in Chesterfield, it's going. We are supposed to have a baptism next Sunday, but not quite sure if she's going to be ready yet- we still have a lot to teach her and we want to make sure this is a testimony-based decision. We're having a bit of a hard time helping people KEEP commitments and I have learned in this area I need more patience. Less actives and investigators alike, I want them to MOVE and PROGRESS and well, I can't make them. Even though I say, "hello! Look at these AWESOME blessings you're going to get!!!" They don't seem very pumped up. Sometimes they pretend like they aren't home. That's my favorite. Uh- we can HEAR you in there! Hermana and I had an especially rough day which we decided to cure with milkshakes from Chic-fil-a. All I have to say about that is: BANANA PUDDING. Oh my gosh. Go get one. Asap. 

Still loving Hna. M and bracing ourselves for the big changes coming. Still trying to teach and baptize, still trying to straighten out all the FD floating around, and still trying to guess about the crazy weather here. Still loving the gospel and still so grateful to be here. Still loving you all and happy I get you forever!

Abrazos y besos!
Hermana Sinclair