Gee, am I in a culturally confused state of mind or what. A wise soul once told me "Home is wherever your heart is" and it would appear that my heart is stuck in a few places right now. I feel the Aloha spirit pumping through my veins, but I'm breathing in new Latino love every day. My heart beats faster when I meet someone on the street and get the chance to speak english again. When I see snow there's a rumpapumpum as I picture the beautiful Alaskan mountains in Provo. But gee am I happy! I'll gladly share my heart to anywhere and anyone who will have it!
So BOSTON
I'm sure this will be the most interesting part of the email, so I'll mention this first. (In case you get bored and transition back to facebook or whatever you were doing before you came to this here blog.) I'm at the Boston Public Library using a laptop like it 'aint no thang. On the way here we were walking down the street and ahead I saw a big red sign. It read "Brown Bro's" and below it read "Pooping". I pondered that for a bit as we got closer and kept trying to figure out why the heck this sign would be here... on a busy road... next to houses...brown pooping... brown... then I got up to the sign and saw that it actually said "Brown Bro's Roofing". I've since decided to wear my glasses all the time.
SUBWAYS are cool. Many places here give me the feeling that I'm in a movie. Perhaps it's because before I left for my mission I watched more than my fair share of old classics, many of which took place in New York and other old coastal cities. The subway is one of these places. It's a hassle to have to walk to a bus to get to the station to ride a subway to take another bus to walk to someone's house when in reality, it would only take 15 minutes in a car. However there are absolutely no complaints from me because I feel super super cool checking times and looking through the maps. I can't wait to get a grip on all of it and become a true Bostonian travel genius.
My HOME is fantastic. It's first floor townhome apartment in the lower Boston area. Every floorboard creaks and none of the doornobs work efficiently. The heaters are big and loud and the other day I was realizing how unsafe they would be for a child. I thought "This could seriously burn a baby" as I was reaching out to it. Apparantly the backside shoots out steam and I burnt my finger right as I was thinking this baby thought.... so I guess I'm a baby. But really. Those suckers could honestly hurt an infant!! Anyway, I love the apartment and am so comfortable there! All the houses here are 3 tall townhomes. I've seen 1 or 2 real houses but only in the outskirts of town. So everyone here lives in an apartment style home. My favorite thing is walking around because all the houses are the same standard size, but they are all unique and every house is a different colour than the one next to it. It's perfect. Just like a movie!
STREETS can be a bit... so on day one here my companion told me "Alright, 5 most common things to find on the street. 1)Cigarettes 2)Banana peels 3)Mini alcohol bottles 4)Gum and.... I wanna say pennies.... but honestly, number 5 is poop". I died laughing!! I can now say that I know this list quite well. On any given block you will find all 5 of these things. And that's just the top 5. The streets are horrendously dirty. Picture I Am Legend with all the cars and trash, but add people.
BLESSINGS from anyone in the higher General Authority of the church are called "Apostolic Blessings". When I was at the MTC Elder Ballard came and spoke to us. It was a great talk and we all felt very lucky to have such an incredible, spiritual, hard working man address us. At the end of his talk he gave a blessing to all the missionaries there. Afterwards the teachers kept telling us to always remember it, because it is one of the most special experiences we'll ever have and it doesn't happen very often. Check. Blessed by an Apostle of God. Ready for the mission! When I got to Boston the first thing I heard was that none other than Elder Ballard was coming to Boston to speak to the missionaries! SAY WHAAAA! Again!? I was stoked! We all went down to the Cambridge Chapel (super historic, super cool, go google it) and sitting on the second row, just 10 feet from the man himself, Elder Ballard again gave us an Apostolic Blessing. Before the meeting started he shook hands with every single person there. It was an incredible experience and I feel more than blessed.... I feel protected, and cared for, and I feel more than ever I feel the love that Heavenly Father has for me. Elder Ballard answered questions that I didn't even know I had. Near the end of his talk he had a little Q&A and almost every question that was asked was the same. I was a little frustrated because I actually had a question in my mind that I wanted to ask but there was no more time. I felt that the Q&A had been a waste of time. Even Elder Ballard kept saying that the questions were all the same. He closed his talk by saying word for word the question that I had wanted to ask, looking right at me the whole time, and then answering it. I know that Heavenly Father is aware of us and that he knows our hearts. Even the petty things that we ask for or complain about, he hears and helps us in everything we need.
I need to get off now but before I go I just wanted to tell you that I love you and am thinking of you often! Those of you that have sent me letters, you have helped more than you know. And those of that have said prayers on my behalf, or merely sent a good thought my way, they are being sent this way! Keep on keepin' on because I can't wait to come back and see how everyone is doing! Never back down, never surrender, they can never take away our freedom, don't take NO for answer, and all that jazz. (I might miss movies, a bit.)
Ciao
Hermana Hileman
At the Boston Temple with my new companion, Hermana Brown! She is from Springfield, Missouri and she's got it goin' on. We call ourselves Fuego de Rubio (Blonde Fire) and people often ask us if we are sisters.***
MTC - this is what every study session looked like. Sometimes there were more books, even. I've never studied this hard in my life!
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