Se cayo el veinte

Today I:

• Had my first language lesson
• Took my first walk around the neighborhood alone (I carried my phone, no worries)
• Attended two Bible studies
• Was contracted to sing and play my guitar next week in one of the houses
• Played with a very, very cute, very, very fluffy puppy that did the I-have-worms-in-my-butt scooch across the floor of the entryway just before I left the house
• Used an awful lot of very strategic hand sanitizer and avoided touching my face for a long time.

Tiny Spanish lesson for you today: in Spanish, idioma means "language," and modismo means "idiom." One of the fun modismos that I learned today is se cayo el veinte, which translates, "The twenty fell." It is roughly the equivalent of, "Oh, now I get it." It harkens to the time when it cost twenty pesos to make a pay phone call, and if you couldn't connect, you pulled a lever and got your twenty back. If you connected, the twenty fell into the machine. Got it? Good.

Tonight at Bible study we were reading John 4, and I saw a girl's twenty fall. She read the part where the Samaritan lady tells Jesus, "When the Messiah comes, He will tell us all things," and Jesus replies, "I who speak to you am." When the girl read that passage, her face sort of jumped, and she said, "Oh!" It was a beautiful moment.

Another tiny language lesson, one I thankfully learned with my friend instead of in front of people. The typical word for mother here in Mexico is not madre (too formal) but mama. But you have to accent the second syllable. If you don't, the word means "breast." It is a tiny but important difference.

I met my language teacher today, and we talked for two hours, mostly in Spanish. He asked me where I had learned my Spanish, how did I speak it so well if I had only had one year in university, a long time ago, and we both recognized that it's just been a gift from God. But it was crazy; we were able to communicate well for almost two hours, and the time just zipped by. We ran the gamut from Africa to my family, to cults, to grace, to the Affordable Care Act. He may be a born again Catholic; I don't know. But please pray for our times together. It was an incredibly encouraging time. He told me that, as part of my study, I should buy The Imitation of Christ in Spanish and read it. 

Please pray for my conversations with my language teacher, for the Bible studies my friend and I are taking part of, and for wisdom in what to share on Saturday at the ladies' breakfast, and what to share on Sunday with the kids in the church. I may also have some opportunities to lead worship--in Spanish--so please pray for that too. Please continue to pray for improvement in my Spanish. I really need to be able to understand and speak it in the street, not just in the classroom. 

Thank you for praying!