Sister Michelle Christine North: Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head

We scored this week in the department of receiving compliments from random strangers- I felt beautiful. So there is something that you have to know about the Chilean hombres here…they are sin verguenzas or have no shame, in telling a girl that they are pretty. Not really in a confident/ rico suave/ classy way, but mostly by yelling out or by giving a blatant stare kind of a way. At the beginning of my mission I didn’t really deal so well with that but now I am learning to accept the compliment and even laugh at some of the things that they say. I wrote down some of the things we heard this week just because this week’s compliments were extra entertaining (plus, being with a blonde companion calls a lot of attention to us, seeing that 99% of the people here are brunette):

“Congratulations, you guys are gorgeous” (Where is my trophy?)

“You three are fashion” (5 minutes later when he passed by again) “See, I told you you were fashion” (Good to know that I haven’t lost my fashion sense after being a sister missionary for the past 15 months).

“Hi. You guys are really pretty. You went over the top (se pasaron). You guys are the best.”

A stranger singing out to us, “I fell in love once again...” (I wonder how many times he’s fallen in love this week).

“Hi! My name is George….and my name is Oscar…” (As we walked through a crowd of drunken soccer fanatics- Should I count that as ‘dos nuevos’?).

“Look at those eyes, they are beautiful!” (a stranger from the micro singing to my companion).

Haha, you gotta love our latin “friends.” They are just too kind sometimes.

This week we had our first rain of the year! Which also meant less appointments. Usually when it’s cold and rainy no one wants to receive us. Out of all of the weeks that Hermana Leavitt and I have been together, this week for sure was one of the hardest weeks; teaching wise (Although it didn’t truly affect our animo- that’s what best friends are for). I remember there was a specific day where every plan A, B, and C appointment fell through at every hour. And all of our members were unavailable to come out with us. It was cold and rainy outside and we were running out of ideas of people to teach. We decided to say a prayer for a little extra help from the man up above and we went on our way. Right after our prayer, everything turned out in our favor. We called a young women from our ward and her mom, Maria, (who is our super awesome investigator) picked up the phone. We ended up just asking her to come out with us and she automatically said “Yes” (1 point). We told her that we were going to go meet a new inactive Hermana named, Monica and she ended up knowing where she lived already (2 points). When we got to Monica’s house, she came out with a not so excited look on her face, We introduced ourselves to her and then when she saw Maria, she got super excited and let us in (3 points). We ended up having a super spiritual lesson with Monica and her son Jonathan. They told us that they had stopped reading their scriptures and basically everything else for over a year. They committed to reading their scriptures and coming back to church when she has work off. (4 points). Then at the end of our lesson when Monica offered a prayer she said words that melted my heart, “Thank you for sending my hermanas over tonight. I realize now that I really do need them, even though before I didn’t think so” (5 points). Then she asked us to come back two days later, which hardly ever happens, they usually make the return appointment for a week later (6 points). I could not have been more grateful for the willingness of Maria to come out with us too. If it had not been for her then we never would have gotten into Monica’s house. She was the answer to our prayers….and she isn’t even a member! It ended up being an absolutely amazing night. But wait! Things just keep getting better. When we got home to plan, Hermano Orellana (the 2^nd counselor in the bishop rick) called us and told us that he was outside of our house to deliver something that his wife had made us- Sopaipillas pasadas aka my absolute favorite! (10 points). The Lord answered our prayer and then some that night. I felt and continue to feel so blessed.

In a reunion that we had with President this week, Hermana Cook shared a lovely poem, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, that I thought went super well with the theme of this week; with the rain and all:

The day is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains,and the wind is never weary;
The vine still clings to the mouldering wall,
But at every gust the dead leaves fall,
And the day is dark and dreary.

My life is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains,and the wind is never weary;
My thoughts still cling to the mouldering past,
But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast,
And the days are dark and dreary.

Be still, sad heart, and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.

I especially loved the ending. It made me think this thought: Rain must fall so that we can enjoy the green grass and fresh air that it leaves behind. If the sun shinned all day long, then we wouldn’t enjoy “LIFE” that raindrops bring- think about it. So we should never be discouraged on dark and dreary days because, as one of my best friends always reminded me, after the darkest night always shines a beautiful and bright dawn.

Peace and Love people J xoxoxoxo, Hermana North

Picture 1: Missed this Hermanita