Pride, cheap sushi and a great personal testimony

Yesterday I had my first "real" translating experience. I had to translate for a new student who wants to hire my maid. I was so concerned with what the student was going to think about my language that I found myself preoccupied and stuttering. Her opinion of me was way too important. That darn pride ALWAYS gets in the way.

So tonight I took my language teacher, Eugenia and her daughter (the same age as my God's girl, out to eat Sushi. Sushi is her absolute favorite, but it is not something she can regularly afford. We were together almost 3 hours and it was wonderful. I never thought I would say speaking Spanish for 3 hours would be wonderful. Well, her company was pleasant, not necessarily the Spanish. We talked, and talked and laughed and shared stories. I just adore her. I wish I could take her with me to Peru. The whole meal (with drinks, appetizer’s and 48 pieces of Sushi cost $32. Not very expensive given that we were eating sushi, there were 4 of us and we were STUFFED. I even brought home 8 pieces for John. Anyway, she commented on how expensive it was and how she could never afford to eat like this. On the way home, she just said that this was one of her best gifts ever. She said the whole night was like a dream. I think it is very hard to live with less, but then I see the thankfulness that people who have less actually have and it is almost indescribable how thankful they are. I was blown away by her words and her gratitude. Something that is no big deal in my life is like a "dream" in her life. How humbling! I want to continue to live a more simplified life and be thankful for all of the small blessings that God gives me.

And today, in our grammar class, our teacher shared her personal testimony with us. She spoke for almost an hour and we were hanging on every single word she said. She shared of the hardships that God allowed her to go through to draw her into a relationship with him. Before the hard times and before coming to work at this school with missionaries, she was just "religious" and knew of God. But God worked some miracles in her marriage, work-life and personal life to bring her to His feet. It was truly a beautiful story. She has a huge scar on her arm, from an answer to pray believe it or not, and she said that it reminds her of what God did in her life and how He answered her prayers. I was extremely blessed by her testimony and I wish I had more words in Spanish to express this to her. Our testimonies of God's work in our lives are very powerful. I am going to share mine more often. How about you?