ramos practices in ramos

Every day during the practices, as leaders, we take on the names and personalities of investigators. This week when an elder very new to the mission came into the practice with me, he Could Not call me Monica. I think he even tried once or twice, but in the end it always came out Hermana Carter. Actually, it was very sweet!

My real first name is Debra, and while that is a very common name in my age group in the United States, it is a very difficult and uncommon name here in Buenos Aires. When I am making a reservation for dinner, to make it easier for everyone involved, I just tell them that my name is Lucia. That is the reason why several restaurants in town greet me by saying, “Hola, Lucia! Como anda?”

With the practices, I have a different name almost every time, which is how I ended up in trouble. Last week when I was with Presidente and our daughter, he dropped us off at a restaurant while he went to find parking. The girl at the desk said that if we wanted to eat outside I needed to give her my name because there was a wait, but if we wanted to eat inside, we could go right in. As she saw that we really wanted to eat outside, she asked me for my name.

In that moment, I was trying to remember what my restaurant name was, but I couldn’t remember. My daughter was looking at me like, what is wrong? Then the receptionist and my daughter both asked me In English what my name was, but I was still trying to remember…Monica, Yesica, Florencia???? Finally, I just looked at her and told her in Spanish that we would eat inside.

As soon as we had a table, my daughter asked if I was okay? Yes…I am okay. I just couldn’t remember my name. And that is the reason that I called the office elders this morning and asked them for a specific name tag.