Bernalillo, NM Transfer 3, Week 6

Ah. I could get used to this. All you who have recently returned from missions, or who fought with myldsmail.net for 18 months or 2 years will be jealous to hear that they have switched systems and our e-mail is now through google. It will be easier for me to attach pictures and such to my e-mails to send home pictures on a more frequent basis (though my camera chip is in the mail, or will be tomorrow).

Anyway, it has been another good week here and I can't believe how fast the time is flying for me. It seems like I was just here in the library writing my e-mail.

Monday: P-day. I received letters from a couple friends who I haven't heard from in a while. It was good to hear from all of you and to get updates on what you're doing and all of the exciting news you all shared with me! We went and visited the family whose dog bit me for the first time since I was bitten. They were very worried that I was mad at them, but really I'm not. Accidents happen and my leg just happened to be in the line of fire. It is doing a lot better now. (There are pictures on my memory card that is coming. You should post one or two so I can gross everyone out ) It is looking 10 times better today than it was 2 weeks ago.

Tuesday: We had a member go with us on several of our lessons. She was an amazing help. It was wonderful to have a member with us to help us out. It is hard for us to find members who are available to go with us during the day to help us on lessons, because our Spanish-speaking members who aren't working or have other things going on are in short supply. They're working on calling some ward missionaries who speak Spanish to help us, but we haven't heard anything yet. I also received a package from home with homemade bread and cookies. Oh it was heaven! We were too full Tuesday night to eat anything, but Wednesday and Thursday morning I will admit that I had cookies, along with toast from homemade bread and cocoa for breakfast.

Wednsday: We spent most of the day at Magda's helping her clean. She is living alone and has back problems that make it hard for her to do several things. She has a flat roof that had collected a lot of gunk, so my companions climbed the ladder while I used the bissell cleaning machine someone had loaned her to clean her sofas. And then after the Elders got there with their vacuum and I could vacuum the carpet, I spent 3 hours on my hands and knees using the same cleaning machine to clean the carpet in her living room while the sisters helped her elsewhere in the house. We were there for 5 or 6 hours and had a blast! But let me tell you... I was sure hurting later that night and the next day. It also snowed, which I always love to see. But what really cracks me up is that down here they actually have snow plows. I know, crazy right? Up in Idaho I rarely see snow plows, but rather bulldozers and graters to clean the roads. Up where they actually have snow. I think that's a little backwards. And another thing I find crazy is that the plows and sanders are out before the snow even starts to think about sticking. Gee whiz... people who don't know how to drive in the snow. But another thing I find funny is that Sister Cabello starts to get really nervous to go anywhere in the car when it is snowing because there is one of our investigators who talks about black ice and how dangerous it is to drive on snow if you don't know what you're doing. But I learned how to drive in the snow, so I know exactly what I'm doing. It's the other crazy drivers out there I'm worried about.

Thursday: The last day of the year. Where did the time go? I can't believe how fast 2009 flew by! We went to Magda's with the Elders and she fixed us a turkey dinner that was very delicious! I absolutely loved her stuffing! She added corn, peas, sliced olives and cubed apples. Yummy! After dinner, we helped her move a car that has a dead battery from her backyard to her garage. The Elders said that one of the sisters got to drive... steer... something... and since I'm the only one who can drive (Sister Cabello has been in a car more in the 6 weeks she's been here than she ever has in her life) I was the one who was chosen to do so while everyone else pushed and Magda took pictures. After that, we went to the Luna’s for a Mexican New Year's Party. Sister Luna loaned Sister Cabello and I huipils (wippills) so we could all be dressed traditionally. Sister Michel has one. When I put it on, Sister Michel told me that I looked even more gringa.

Friday: Happy New Year! I woke up at like 12:01, though I didn't realize it until morning. We had beautiful clear blue skies as we were out working. When we got home that night, since we had to be in early, we did our weekly planning, for the first week of NEXT transfer! Holy cow, where is the time going??? I can't believe how fast everything is flying by! Seriously! It was my 6 month mark Friday. I have been gone for 6 months! It really doesn't seem that long. Wow. 1/3 of my mission completed. Incredible.

Saturday: What a beautiful day! The temperatures were close to 50 degrees. We were driving past the KFC restaurant in Bernalillo, and we saw a car that looked like the car of one of our recent converts who moved to Albuquerque and disappeared about 2 1/2 months ago. Sister Michel and I have been freaking out, let me tell you. We knew that he used to work there, at least before they moved to their new location about a month ago, so we decided to take an early lunch. In the parking lot, we drove past the car and knew that it really was his. It was so good to see Jose again know that he is doing okay, though his schedule changed and he works from open until 4:00 on Saturday and Sunday so he can't go to church anymore. And we received transfer news! I am staying here for another 6 weeks, along with both of my companions! We are excited! And they are bringing in sisters to one of the areas in our stake, so there will be sisters close who we can do things with on p-day starting tomorrow. We're really excited! We actually know both of the sisters. Sister Waters is in the next stake over and has been at least since I got here 4 months ago. She trained the sister I flew down with. And her new companion, Sister Allred, got here a transfer after me and is the sister I took knocking doors for part of their orientation.

Sunday: Church has changed to 1:00. It really made the day fly by! We were grateful for the opportunity to have our studies in the morning. We never had time to do anything in the mornings because we had to leave our apartment by about 8:10 or so. We had a little time in the morning to go knocking doors before church, and after church we went to dinner and had one more appointment and headed home. We received some good news... at least we hope it's good news. We saw the Stake President, President Roundsville, and he told us that he called Salt Lake and they are reviewing the application to start nuestra rama Coronado this week. So if you would all please keep that in your prayers, we would appreciate it. We should know in the next week or two. This will be such a great blessing to the people here who are attending church and not fully understanding because they are using translation. And for the people who are attending our Service, they will be able to have actual leadership. While we were out knocking doors in the morning, Sister Michel slugged me and was like "Why didn't you say anything?" I was very confused. She proceeded to tell me that she'd completely forgotten that I passed my 6-month mark and we hadn't done anything to mark that. I remembered, but really it was just another day. What's really crazy is that I'm now less than 3 months away from my half-way point. Wow is time flying!

So yeah. There's my week in a nutshell. I hope you're all doing well and are looking forward to a wonderful 2010! I know I am looking forward to another wonderful year of missionary service!

Hermana Good