Monday, December 28, 2009

Bernalillo, NM Transfer 3, Week 5

Dear Family and Friends,

Another week has flown by here. I hope you all had a Merry Christmas, and that you're looking forward to a wonderful 2010, because the next time I write you, it will be 2010. Weird!

Monday: We had an... interesting day. We spent an hour and a half in the doctor's office for my dog bite, only to be seen by the doctor for 10 minutes and to have him tell me to wash it twice a day with soap and water and keep it bandaged with Vaseline because the neosporin I was using could cause more problems. Of course by this time, the wound was kinda closed up. At least it wasn't a completely gaping wound. Then we went and e-mailed and the internet was being stupid--I didn't think that my e-mail had sent, but it had. And then we went home and found that the washer wasn't working and the clothes were sitting in there in a puddle of water. Then we went and spent an hour and a half in the eye doctor for Sister Michel to get new contacts. And our gift for the 8th day of Christmas was hair clips.

Tuesday: We helped one of our investigators make Christmas cookies. And our gift for the 9th day of Christmas was perfume--for which I was grateful because that is one thing that I didn't bring that I've been wishing I had for the past 6 months now.

Wednesday: We woke up to snow! Boy did that make me happy! It gave me hopes for a white Christmas. We started our day out with a snowball fight as we cleaned off the car. I don't know if I've ever seen snow that wet in my life! But the snow was all pretty much gone by sundown. The gift that we received for the 10th day of Christmas was un Libro de Mormon por cada una de nosotras con el testimonio de mi familila to give to someone who is truly ready to hear the message of the Gospel. I think that we were all in agreement that it was our favorite gift. When I looked at the bruise around my dog bite, it was turning yellow... not that you all wanted to know that.

Thursday: Christmas Eve. We had District Meeting and did a white elephant gift exchange. I received toe socks, lotion, and a tie. Yes, a tie. Not that it's very useful, but the socks and lotion were nice. (It probably helps that the elder who drew my name is a little older--all the other elders gave ridiculous gifts. I really appreciated mine). I gave coal that I found at the dollar store, and a singing tie--also from the dollar store. We visited lots of people. We saw Magda for a few minutes, but she was on her way out to go call her family. We also went to see Norma to let her know that we're thinking about her and that we haven't abandoned her. And we spent some time with the Luna's and the Clays and the Edwards (both in Bernalillo ward) and the Fonseca's, our neighbors, so Sister Michel could call home. When we got home, we put on our jammies and read Luke 2 and sang a couple hymns, then opened our gifts--a tradition for Sister Cabello. Sister Cabello was VERY grateful for the gifts that my family sent her, as was Sister Michel. We were up way past our bedtime. And our gifts for the 11th day of Christmas were stockings filled with candy, raisins, 2 mandarin oranges and a pile of mold (that I think was a mandarin orange when mom put it in the box).

Friday: MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! I made breakfast cake, and boy was it heavenly :) We had no snow, but I survived. In fact, I didn't wear a coat all day long. It was gorgeous! We went back to the Luna's and had a traditional Mexican breakfast with Tamales and other food. Sister Luna had also knitted each of us 2 sombreros (but not the big straw kind you're all thinking of. They were cute warm hats!) I also got my best Christmas present ever! A call to my family!!! It was easier that I thought it would be. I'd talked to people here who wished they didn't have to call home because they were unable to focus for weeks afterward. It re-energized me and gave me a new drive to keep working hard. We had Christmas dinner with Sister Shipe, then went home and attempted to plan. When I say attempted, I mean attempted. We weren't very successful.

Saturday: The wind was very cold, which made it miserable to be out walking around. And it didn't help that I wasn't feeling super great, though I think it's probably because I messed up my sleeping schedule with Christmas and had eaten a lot of junk. I was feeling fine by Sunday morning.

Sunday: We had close to 30 people at church, which was way nice. Sister Cabello and I had been called Saturday afternoon and asked to speak in church as well because one of the talks fell through. Actually, they just asked Sister Cabello, but then Sister Michel pointed out that I hadn't had the opportunity to speak yet either, so I was roped into it and had 15 minutes Saturday night to prepare a 7 minute talk in Spanish. Yikes. We saw the Stake President and we're still waiting on news from SLC on our branch--definitely a good sign.

So there's my week in a nutshell. For those of you who are interested, my dog bite is doing better. It doesn't hurt and it's finally pretty much stopped bleeding. Yes, it took a while. As I look at it now, I realize that I probably should have gone that night to get stitches. By the time I went to the doctor last Monday it was too late. Oh well. I'll just have a cool scar to show off as a memory of my mission forever. And from talking to people, we've decided that it was likely a Rottweiler that got me. So yeah. Sister Good had a Rottweiler try to eat her. Exciting stuff.

Have a great week, and Happy New Year!

Hermana Good

Monday, December 21, 2009

Watch out for Dogs

Dear Family and Friends!

Merry Christmas! Wow. It is hard to believe how fast the past year has absolutely flown by, especially the past 6 months. Has it really been 6 months? Yep, I think so. But boy is that hard to believe. SO much has happened and so much has changed in my life.

Lance, I liked your talk! Good job. For trainer training, I basically just help Sister Michel teach Sister Cabello what she needs to know how to do. Next transfer I could be Senior Companion, but we won't find that out for a while yet. It would depend if we're getting another Spanish sister in the mission. Honestly, we don't have anyone who is progressing. Actually, we do have one with a baptismal date for January 2, but she hasn't been to church yet, so we'll have to move that. And another is progressing--she's just not ready for baptism yet. We actually just dropped a lot of people because we weren't getting anywhere. My language is coming along. I'm not doing as well and understanding everything I want to yet, but then I remember that I haven't even been speaking Spanish for 6 months yet. I have a whole year to continue improving. Most people think I'm a native speaker because of my accent and complexion. They call me "la morena con ojos claros" (the dark skinned, dark haired girl with light eyes).

Monday: P-day. We had to clean the car well for car inspections at zone conference, and spent about 1/2 hour or 45 minutes vacuuming and cleaning the windows and everything. But our car was clean for zone conference on Thursday. We also went to the dollar store and bought white-elephant gifts for the elders--something ridiculous (i.e. coal) and a singing Christmas tie. Yes, at the dollar store. We opened our gift for the first day of Christmas: a mini Christmas tree with nativity ornaments. I had been thinking that morning that if I saw a nativity set in the dollar store that I'd get it because our apartment needed a nativity. My mother must have been inspired.

Tuesday: We did lots of knocking doors. When I looked at our tracting record at the end of the night and counted the number of doors we knocked, the total came to 65. That's a lot of doors. Our gift for the second day of Christmas was a container of homemade oreo cookies. In the poem, it said something about how we were feeling beat... that was an understatement! We were exhausted! And when we thought about how long ago the cookies were made, because they had to get here and they've been sitting under our tree for almost 2 weeks, Sister Michel and I turned to each other and said "I don't even care!" And Sister Michel wants the recipe, por favor.

Wednesday: My music for zone conference finally arrived, thank goodness! I was really starting to freak out! We helped Felipe put up his Christmas lights on his house. Sister Good is the tallest of the bunch, so I was the lucky one chosen to stand on the chair and hang them on the nails on the house. Don't worry, the chair was completely stable. No broken bones. We went to Sonic for lunch because we forgot to make food and when I went to start our car, the battery was dead. The manager is in one of our wards, so he came over (along with his general manager who was also there) and helped us out. And we got chewed out for paying, too, because he likes to treat us to lunch when we're there. Later that night, we went to visit a less-active family. They have a ginormous dog. I don't like this dog during the day, and during the night it's even worse. And it was of course dark. One of the girls took the dog to the back so we could get in the house, but he got away and Sister Good was the lucky missionary at the back of the line. Needless to say, there's a nice chunk missing out of the back of my leg. They felt horrible. I immediately put peroxide on the bite to clean it out and a bandaid. We helped them put up their Christmas tree. Our gift for the 3rd day of Christmas was a Mo-Tab CD, just in time because we were starting to get sick of our other 3 Christmas CDs. I cleaned out the bite good and put some neosporin and some gauze with an elastic bandage over it. My first-aid kid that I didn't think I'd use got put to good use. And in reading the "how to treat wounds" insert, I read that you shouldn't use peroxide because it slows down the healing... oops. So I used a bottle of clean water because the water at our apartment is nasty and followed the directions and poured the water in a ziplock bag with a hole in the corner to squirt into the bite to clean it out good. That really kinda hurt.

Thursday: While the other sisters were in the shower, I sat down at my desk and "practiced" my song for zone conference. Luckily I have played the song, Paul Cardall's "Silent Night", before. And I did have time to run through it on a real piano once before Zone Conference. There was an amazing spirit at the Conference. For one of the activities, they had us write a letter to the Savior. I encourage all of you to do this sometime between now and Christmas. Just write what you want Him to know. It was an amazing activity. The whole conference had a very special Spirit. I am so grateful for this opportunity to be here. I told Sister Anderson about my bite (a nice hole in my leg and a huge bruise), and after assuring me that there have been no rabies in New Mexico in over 60 years, she told me that I took care of it properly, just to watch it for signs of infection. And as she walked away, she told me, "You must have been a tasty morsel." That made me laugh. The talent show was hilarious! I recorded most of it on my camera, and will send my chip home after Christmas. Mom, make sure you save the videos on a CD or DVD for me please! I don't want to lose them, and after you watch the videos, you'll see why. And maybe you can post me and the Anderson's talent on my blog... actually, on second thoughts... just the Andersons. Theirs was SO much better than mine. They handed out the Christmas packages. Sister Cabello didn't get anything from home, but the Anderson's daughter made sure that she had a package with gifts to open on Christmas morning. And our gift for the 4th day of Christmas was some cocoa and popcorn. Yummy!

Friday: We did our weekly planning, or attempted to. Our minds were definitely not in the right place. We all had a very hard time focusing. We were over here, then we were over there. I'm sure you can imagine. Planning Christmas morning will be a disaster, I'm sure! We also went to a rehabilitation center to visit a sister who joined the church in September. She is from Albuquerque, but since we're the sisters here, the office called and asked us to go visit her. And come to find out, the missionary who baptized her is one of our zone leaders and the rehabilitation center is in his area. We also went to help the Luna's set up for Fernanda's quincenera party. It was good to see them again! Our gift for the 5th day of Christmas was an ornament for our tree. It's a good thing we have a big tree, because those ornaments would have completely overpowered the little tree mom sent us. And craziness... judging from letters and members here with children at BYU-Idaho, I realized that I would have been packing to move home for the last time if I weren't here. Umm... I am so not ready for that, so I'm VERY glad that I'm here. Thinking of student teaching is kind of a terrifying thought, though it will be here before I know it.

Saturday: It was super warm (in the 50s)--I didn't wear a jacket all day. We had district meeting, which totally threw our brains off, and interviews with President. I always love having interviews with President Anderson! He is such an inspired man! I also showed Sister Anderson the bite on my leg, and she said that it doesn't look like it's getting infected, but to keep an eye on it. For the 6th day of Christmas, our gift was a set of Christmas kitchen towels. They're almost too cute to use, but we're using them.

Sunday: It was super nice again. I didn't even take a coat with me (but I had my warmest blazer on). The Spanish service was combined with the Bernalillo Ward for the Christmas program and the lucky sister missionaries got to translate. There were a lot of scriptures and I read most of those, and translated the last paragraph. And I was terrified to do that. Maybe I'm not so confident with my translating abilities as I thought I was. We also drove around in the dark trying to find some inactive members who might speak Spanish (judging from their names), but it was impossible to find house numbers. That is a much better day-time activity. Bernalillo is a very dark little town. Our gift for the 7th day of Christmas was a booklet by President Monson called "The Search for Jesus." It was a nice talk to read. And when I unwrapped my bite (I've been keeping neosporin and an elastic bandage on it) it was looking better and the bite site doesn't hurt, but the bruise is looking worse and does hurt. I'm taking pictures, so you'll see those when I send my memory card home.

Busy week, no? And mom, don't freak out, but I woke up this morning and my leg was really hurting. When I got out of the shower and looked at it, I wondered if it was infected. So I called Sister Anderson who sent me to the doctor. We spent 1 1/2 hours in the urgent care walk-in clinic to be seen by the doctor for 10 minutes. He looked at it and cleaned it and told me that it isn't infected, that it looks the way it does because it is healing. He told me how to keep taking care of it, and said they'll call me if anything unusual comes up in the skin culture he took. So no infection, but I'll have a pretty nasty scar when I get home.

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas! I love you all, and can't wait to talk to you on Friday! I'll call sometime in the early to mid-afternoon, so you better all be around because I only have 40 minutes and don't want to waste a minute waiting for anyone to get to the phone.

Love, Hermana Good

Monday, December 14, 2009

Bernalillo, NM Transfer 3, Week 3

Dear Family and Friends,

The holiday season is quickly flying by. It is hard to believe that Christmas will be here next week--especially since there is no snow on the ground, the grass is still green, and there are still some days that I only need a sweater in the middle of the day. (Yes, I'm rubbing it in to all of you who are in Idaho and are FREEZING. Mom told me that your warmest day has been 36 degrees). But really, I want it to snow. So if you all can pray that we can have a white Christmas down here in New Mexico--at least where I am, I'd appreciate it ;)

Monday: We went shopping at Walmart, and did our Christmas shopping for each other. Christmas morning will be really exciting knowing what we're getting, but that's okay. When you can't be out of sight of each other, there's only so much you can do. We pretty much chose our gifts and said "okay, I'm buying that for you." It also rained all day long--snow up higher in the mountains.

Tuesday: Sister Michel told me that I sat up in bed in the middle of the night praying for our investigators in Spanish. She found it quite entertaining. I woke up around 4:30 to hail pounding on the roof, and it was super windy all day long and cold... for here. Nice and toasty compared to what you all have been dealing with. We said goodbye to one of our investigators who left to Ecuador on Wednesday for 3 or 4 months to visit her family. Sister Michel and I think we'll probably be gone before she gets back... unless I really am the next Sister Trunnell and stay here for close to a year like the Elders are predicting. She gave us all a t-shirt so we can remember New Mexico, and it was crazy. Sister Cabello likes the cactus, and that's what was on her shirt. Sister Michel likes the kokopeli symbol and that's what was on her shirt. And I'm a fan of the Route 66, and guess what... That's what was on my shirt. (Mom, I'm sending that home in my box today because I can't use it here, so I figure I might as well just send it home.)

Wednesday: Sister Cabello told me that I sat up in bed introducing myself in Spanish. It's been an interesting couple of nights, no? We had dinner with the Bernalillo Elders. It was our turn for the message, so we gave it in Spanish (the Sister we ate dinner with is from Peru and her son is also fluent). It was good for the Elders to see what it's like for one to not understand what was going on. Elder Jorgensen (our District Leader) is really patient, and when Sister Cabello answers the phone, he speaks slower so she can understand--even more so now.

Thursday: We had District meeting. We talked about the Christlike Attributes in PMG chapter 6. After that, we had lesson after lesson fall through, and we'd quickly exhausted all of our back-up plans. But such is the life of a missionary I guess. It's just rare for the Spanish missionaries in this area.

Friday: So guess what. I woke up to find my retainers not in my mouth, but in my bed which means only one thing. I was talking in my sleep again. I don't have any witnesses of this event, but I always take my retainers out to talk because I can't talk with that much plastic in my mouth. So a question to all of you who have slept in the same room as me: Kesha, Nicole, Brittani, Shaina: Is this NORMAL for me to talk in my sleep, or is it something I've started doing recently? Shaina is probably the best one to ask because she was always up later than me, and Kesha has lived with me the longest. But if ya'll have an answer for me I'd appreciate it because I want to see if I'm just now getting weird sleeping habits or if it's something I've done for a long time and people just didn't tell me. We had our weekly planning session which went for twice as long as it was supposed to. And then we went finding in the River's Edge area. We know it's bad for Spanish people, but we feel bad for the Elders because they don't have many investigators and one of them hurt his foot and is on crutches for 2 weeks so they can't go out finding, so they're pretty much stuck inside.

Saturday: We went to Albuquerque to get our flu shots. No Swine Flu for these sisters (at least Sisters Good and Michel, because Sister Cabello had it in the MTC, and got the shot.) One of the members drove us down there. It was nice to be able to see a bit of the city. The clinic was at the convention center right in the middle of town, so we were able to see a lot of the big, downtown buildings. The weather was really nice. I was fine in just my sweater as we were out walking around during the afternoon. And that evening we went to see Magda, who was baptized a few weeks ago. She is doing so good! She has truly turned her life around and made changes for the better. It is incredible for us to see the changes she's made.

Sunday: As we were driving to Bernalillo for church, Sister Michel told Sister Cabello and I that we woke her up in the middle of the night because we were talking. She asked us what was wrong, and a few seconds later she heard snoring. And yes, the conversation was in Spanish. We had twice as many people in the Spanish Service as we did last week. Definitely a good thing! The weather was even nicer than Saturday--I only used my blazer all day long. I could get used to this :)

But it was a good week. I hope you all had a nice week as well. Good luck on finals for those of you still in school (I have no idea when BYU-Idaho or BYU get done... but it's weird to think that if I weren't here, I'd be taking my last finals ever and getting ready to move to Utah to do my student teaching. Yeah, I think I'd rather be here, because I don't think I'm ready for that yet).

President Anderson asked us all to read 3 Nephi 13: 19-34 every day between now and Christmas and think about where Christ would be during this Christmas season. It's a beautiful section of verses, and I invite you all to do the same.

Have a wonderful week! I love you!

Hermana Good

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Bernalillo, NM Transfer 3, Week 2

Wow. Another week has flown by. I probably start every e-mail I send with that sentence, but it's true every week! They just fly by! Soon Christmas will be over and 2010 will be here. Which means that transfers are just around the corner again, well, in a month. I hope you are all enjoying the Christmas season. Good luck with finals to all of you in school, because I know it's finals season. It's weird not being in school and taking finals, but it's even weirder to think that if I weren't here I'd be in Rexburg taking my LAST finals and getting ready to move to do my student teaching. Yeah, I'm glad I'm here because I don't think I'm ready for that yet.

Monday: P-day. Did the usual washing of clothes and car, e-mailing, buying food. You know. The usual boring things. Actually though, that's the variation to our week. We had a lesson scheduled with one of our investigators and some members lined up to go with us that night, and he didn't show up. He was stuck in traffic (it was backed up for a couple miles because of an accident), so we rescheduled for the next night and the members said they'd come help us. Well, Tuesday night rolls around, and we hear him in his house but he doesn't answer the door or phone. We haven't been able to get a hold of him since he came to church last Sunday.

Tuesday: Our appointments fell through left and right, but as we spoke to other missionaries, it wasn't just for us. It was just a bad day. I had an incredible study in the morning... though I only read 15 minutes in the BOM and 3 sentences in Preach My Gospel. I was really struggling with homesickness last Monday and what I read in Preach My Gospel was just what I needed to hear, so I went off writing about all of the impressions I had. The weather was beautiful--during the afternoon I didn't need a coat, simply my sweater.

Wednesday: We had an incredibly productive day, teaching 13 lessons. We got home feeling like it had been unproductive, until we did our numbers. We did lots of walking too, but we need to in order to save our miles because we have limited miles to use each transfer. Besides, things in Bernalillo aren't that spread out. Most of the Spanish-speaking population is within 1 square mile or so.

Thursday: We got up and set up our Christmas tree instead of exercising. While we were decorating, we looked out the window and saw SNOW!!! I was so happy I could have cried. Seriously. And while I was in the shower, my sweet companions put angel hair on the branches to look like snow so I'd feel less homesick. The snow was all gone by noon, but it snowed just enough to make it feel like Christmas. It was a cold day. I wore long johns under my skirt, and about 3 pair of socks under my boots. As we were driving into Bernalillo after our dinner appointment, we saw that it was a mere 12 degrees outside. I don't have a clue what it was during the day, but I'm guessing not much above freezing. When we got home, the three of us talked about the blessings of our serving here. And when we got home, there was a package with some things for the 12 days of Christmas waiting for me... us! Thanks mom! My companions appreciate it very much because they know that they probably won't get much, if anything, from their families for Christmas.

Friday: We had planning, then went knocking on doors because our appointments fell through. One of the houses had a thermometer by the door and it was 32 degrees, but the wind was blowing pretty good. I just THOUGHT I was coming somewhere warm. It's just cold and snowless. But the cold did come in later than I'm used to.

Saturday: I had no time to write anything to remind me about the day, but I don't think anything really exciting happened anyway. Just another day in the life of the Bernalillo Spanish Sisters.

Sunday: We only had 11 people at church. Yep. Pretty pathetic. 3 missionaries, the pianist (who doesn't speak Spanish) 5 members who are all bi-lingual, the high counselor who conducted the meeting, and the Stake President. Ouch. Bad day for him to show up. We didn't even have any of the recent converts there, let alone investigators. But he announced that they're just waiting on the letter from the First Presidency to approve our Spanish Branch! And it should get here within the next week or so! La Rama Coronado will have leaders called and be ready to go within the next month-ish! Sister Michel and I are both praying that we'll be able to stay here another transfer so we can see it get started. What an exciting time! It was a very cold day, and we were told that there's a cold front coming in. Oh goody. Every time I think I'm cold, I tell myself that I'm an Idaho girl and can take the cold, but we'll see how long that lasts. And we're also told that this is one of the coldest winters on record. Perfect. The cold weather is following me. But I'll survive.

Well, I love you all. I appreciate your prayers and knowing that you're thinking about me. Have a wonderful Christmas season!

Hermana Good

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Great New Companion

Here we are with another week come and gone. We're into the holiday season... though to be completely honest, it doesn't feel much like the holidays. I never thought I'd say this, but I miss the snow and curling up by the fire. But I knew I'd be missing my family during this time. That's probably why it doesn't feel like the holidays. That and there's a lot of people around here without Christmas lights on... at least so far. But anyway, onto my week.

Monday: Elder and Sister Martinez delivered our new bed. Gee... they only took Sister Trunnell's bed out 3 weeks ago! We're back to very little space between the beds and praying at the foot of our beds. I made banana bread a) because we had bananas that were going bad and b) I knew that all we'd get for breakfast at the mission office was a donut and juice and that we'd all be hungry.

Tuesday: (I wish I could put Spanish expressions into typing, because I've got a word that I'd love to use here but it just wouldn't have the same effect. Okay, okay, I'll try anyway.) Eejolai! (yeah... that was bad... ee--ho--lay) What a day. My first day training. The trainer meeting was really neat. There was an elder training a Spanish-speaker for the first time, so he asked Sister Michel for some pointers, and I was able to contribute what works for the trainee--because I was there with my trainer. Our new companion, Hermana Cabello, is from Trujillo, Peru. She is the sweetest sister you can ever meet. She is going to be an amazing missionary... she IS an amazing missionary! She is a go-getter. I feel so inadequate to be training her, and feel that I have learned so much more from her than she has learned from me. As soon as we got in the car to head up to Rio Rancho, she started asking us about our investigators. It was great fun thinking in Spanish and driving in Albuquerque traffic :) We took Sister Cabello to meet President Roundsville and he told us the name of our "ramita" that is quickly on it's way to opening. Within the next 2 or 3 months, la Rama Coronado will be up and going with strong members. I only pray that I can be in this area for another transfer to see it started.

Wednesday: We went to Pena Blanca again to do finding and meet with our one investigator there, but she told us that her husband doesn't want her to meet with us anymore. And we didn't find anyone else, so we're not going to continue to go out there. Which, I suppose, is probably for the better as it's nearly 100 miles round trip. We went to visit another of our investigators in Bernalillo, and instead of the planned lesson, ended up cleaning their house. Armando's wife has cancer and is going through chemo right now, which really drains her energy. She hasn't been too open to our message, and she didn't want our help cleaning her house, but we insisted, and she is more open to the message now. She was very appreciative of our service. And I continue to be amazed by sweet Hermana Cabello and her drive to work and learn everything and be the best she can be. I have a long way to go to be as amazing as she is.

Thursday: Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you all had a great day. We had district meeting and got to meet our new district leader and the other new elder in our district, Elder Jorgensen from Ogden and Elder Nash from... I have no idea. After that, we headed to our first dinner with a family in the River's Edge ward. Honestly, I left feeling homesick (I don't know why... it wasn't anything like what I'm used to... actually, that's probably why) and hungry (which was a VERY good thing.) Our second dinner was with the Luna family! I left feeling comfortably full. And our third dinner was with the Hererra family. I laughed so hard, but left a little uncomfortable in the full-ness area. Honestly, it didn't seem much like Thanksgiving. I wasn't with family, there was different food, no games, no fighting over who would turn on the Christmas lights, and weirdest of all, no snow. Okay, okay. There isn't snow in Idaho every year for Thanksgiving, but usually. And I was comfortable outside without a coat! But hey, I figured out how I can eat the same amount of food and not get sick: Just spread out the eating and eat a little bit at a time spread over 4 hours :)

Friday: We did our weekly planning in Spanish. Sister Michel and I have done it partly in Spanish, but this week it was all Spanish so Sister Cabello could understand what was going on. Our dinner appointment fed us Thanksgiving left-overs, which made me feel more at home--especially because it was more like the traditional food that I'm used to for Thanksgiving.

Saturday: We went to the baptism of a man we were teaching before the area split. It was neat to see that... and even neater to see Brother Luna dressed in white to perform the baptism. It was a little rainy and cloudy as we were out knocking doors.

Sunday: We had Relief Society and Priesthood combined with the Bernalillo ward because there was only one person who doesn't understand any English, and he sat by a brother who translated the meeting for him. And I sat by Sister Cabello and translated the meeting for her. That was a great boost in my confidence about my abilities to speak Spanish. I wouldn't feel comfortable translating church or a big meeting to a large group of people who don't know any English (because I had to say some words in English), but at least I know that I can, and that as I keep practicing, I will continue to improve my language skills and will be able to help translate toward the end of my mission and after. We also met a family who President Roundsville has been telling us that we need to meet. It's not that we didn't try... they moved and we didn't know where they moved to. They just so happen to be in our area and signed up to feed us dinner. And want to feed us one of our Christmas dinners as well.

Yep. The Hispanic people like to feed us. A lot. But the food sure is yummy!

Well, I hope you all have a great week, and that you're not freezing!

Oh yeah! Megan Meyer: My grandma told me that Linda told her that you're home. Has it really truly already been a year and a half? Welcome back to the real world. Tell me... how is it?

I love you all!

Hermana Good