Chip darts and a new hatred for birds.

This week was full of emotions. Where to start. Well, this week has been a little hard for me just because I am in my fifth week here and I feel like my Spanish is not the best. It has been full of some days of anxiety and stress and sometimes feeling overwhelmed.  The weird thing to think about is that I only have about a week and a half left in the CCM until I leave for Argentina, and that is kinda scary for me, but I am a little ready to just get out there and figure everything out. By tomorrow I will be hitting my one month mark and so only 17 more to go. It sounds really long but at the same time once I actually get the language down I know it will go by a lot faster. So, before I get into the funny things this week, I just want to say that we had a Skype call with a member from Uruguay and they talk the same way they will be talking in my mission. And let me tell you... I didn´t understand a single thing he said. I think I might have gotten like two words out of everything he said.  The whole time I was lost and I just can´t help but realize that this is how it is going to be for the first few months of my mission. I kinda feel like all the Spanish I am learning here is not even the language I will be speaking. In Argentina they say some of their vowels different. Like the "LL" is pronounced like a "sh" sound instead and they say like the "Y´s" with an "A" sound instead so that will be a lot different when I actually get there. Other than all of that kinda sad stuff, here are the things that made my week a lot better and trumped all the bad parts. First off, a little background on the first story. A couple weeks ago I heard how two Elders in my district got pooped on by a bird (there are a lot of birds here) and I was like ok it's like my fourth week here and I haven´t gotten pooped on by a bird, so they must only be aiming for the Elders. But then like a week later we are outside under this tree working on a preaching activity, which is hard because it had to be in all Spanish, when all of a sudden the Hermana I was working with and I heard this weird sound and I look down and a bird POOPED on my skirt!!! It was so gross!! And my teacher just laughed at me. I mean, I laughed too, but it was really gross. Then, after a little while, we were back under that tree finishing the lesson but I moved to a different side so I wasn't in the same spot as the first time, and an Elder sat there. I was just kinda like, you are brave for sitting there that is where you get pooped on. He said something like he wouldn't get pooped on because it already let it all out on me. A few minutes later a bird pooped on him and I was a little happy about that karma.  The other funny part is whenever we go outside my teacher always wants to go over under that tree and I´m just like, no I do not want to, that is where birds poop on you. And when we sat under that tree a bird pooped on this Elders scriptures. It was so funny, but with my other story yesterday my companion and I were walking and we had a bag of tortilla chips that my mom sent me and we were eating them on the way to the computer lab. She stopped walking and looked around and I was kinda like what are you doing. She told me how she dropped her chip but she doesn't know where it went, so then we started walking a little bit and we kinda looked around again and she found the chip on the back of my dress. It was really funny just how that chip stuck to my dress. So then we told some of the Elders in our district about it and they thought it was so funny that some of that night consisted of people throwing chips at me like a game. One of the Elders took a picture of it but I dont have the picture, so hopefully I can get it next week.

 Anyways, one last thing, is to always remember that you are going to have bad days and good days. And sometimes you are going to have more bad days then good days. But don't let those bad days bring down your spirit. Always remember the good times, the good moments, and the good days, because in hard times those memories are going to be what keep you going. Remember that your Lord and Savior loves you and that as long as you are doing the best you can do in all things, the Lord will bless you for your efforts.

Peace and love from your favorite missionary,

Hermana Pollock