It is SO wonderful to hear about everything that's going on---mommy thank you for beinga busy body, I completely agree with your suggestions. Elder Porter took charge (which is good, as I mentioned before the leaders in my ward are more likely to listen to an Elder than a Sister,) and took all of our suggestions to the Bishop for us. We've got a list coming together of people who'll offer to give rides to investigators and less actives... the only thing I haven't been able to get ANYONE to agree with me on is the nessecity of getting these poor kids to church with or without their mom.

I really didn't think this would be a hard one, but apparently there's some interesting opinions about teaching/baptising/doingANYTHING with children who's parents aren't members or aren't active. Elder Porter (our fearless leader who sort of resembles a muscular red-neck Pooh-bear, though if you mention this to him he turns into "grumpy bear") says that he NEVER teaches or baptises the children of in-atives, or helps them get to church because it's their parents respondsibility to step up and take care of their child's spiritual well being. Although I agree with the sentiment that Ideally one would re-activate the family in order to baptise their children, I'd have to say that I think it's silly of him to outright refuse. If the children have a real desire to go to church and be involved, I wouldn't let their dead-beat parents get int he way of their spiritual education... I think it's different in different circumstances. Anyway, so, it seems everyone else agrees and isn't interested in helping the children if they can't help their parents. This makes me madder than I can say without breaking the white-handbook rules about correspondance with family members, so i'm just going to say that I'm working hard on loving everyone who is realy, truelly, sincerely trying to help me, I can tell... in the mean time, I'll just have to keep working with the parents. I can't figure out what Orfelda's hang-up about church is. I think maybe she's just scared. She doesn't know anything about religion, and she doesn't believe us that church isn't scary and filled with people who are there to judge her. I just know that if we could just get her there, she'd make friends and probably really love it and then she could take her poor kids and their adorable cousins to church.

That's so wonderful about Brandon and Kelly and little Merrick! I can't wait to meet the little guy, I bet he's precious and adorbale just like his padres.
A blizzard?! I am so happy I am in Texas, although the weather here was a little crazy last week. Mostly it was warm but it was FREEZING at the Pulga on saturday morning. (Pulga is like a little outdoor mall thingy where people set up tables and sell things, we stand at our little table and try to get people to stop and talk to us long enough that we can get them to give us their name/address/phone#.) We taught an entire first lesson to a Jehova's Witness and he actually listened politely and then told us no. He was nice though, kept complimenting us on our Spanish and asking if we were from El Salvador. I think he was just trying to be nice, I'm clearly a white girl who looks lost and speaks bizarre spanglish.

It also hailed last week, while we were tracting. I bet you never thought I'd write home and say that I'd gone tracting in the hail, huh? You'd think people would have sympathy on us and let us inside, but no. We still taught a lesson but it was in the doorway (before the hail started).

I'm getting pretty good at recognising where hispanics live. There's an art to it. Look for the following staples: Aloe/Frog figurines on the lawn/next to the aloe, dirty work-boots left outside, poka music, heavy richly patterned drapes obscuring the view into the apartment or house, an impressive collection of satalite dishes, virgin-Mary light-up clock in the window or outside on the balcony. Avoid: American-flag paraphanelia, cutsiey arts and crafts décor, horse-shoe themes or interesting door-knocking shapped like bull-horns etc.
Actually, we taught a lot of lessons in English this week. We were doing a lot of tracking and West-field (the English missionaries in our area) told us to go to a couple of different aparment complexes because they swore that there was a ton of hispanics living there—so we took their advice and found a lot of black people who were very interested to hear more about the gosple, but who we can’t teach because we have to refer them to the missionaries in their ward: West-field. I told Hermana Frieszell, “I think we’ve been dupped.”
It’s so good to hear from home, mom are you still crusing the boards all the time? Please tell me stories, I’m sure to face some of the exact same junk out here, you’ve got more experience dealing with these people than I do. Jensen, I think I forgot to tell you last week, your penguin picture is SO COOL!
It’s weird being out here with all these people who didn’t see The Dark Knight because… well, they were out here! Pretty much, everyone has a least heard a little about it (enough to be very anxious to see it when they can in about August-September (when the majority of the whole mission is going home, including my companion and the reast of my Zone except for Elder Herrman who obviously came in the same time I did and Elder Porter who’s about a year in.) So, let me just say, I’ve been getting questions, which is a little bad because then I have to TELL them about the movie, and then I want to watch the movie, which I can’t do. Batman is just so cool. He wins. He wins the universe.
Also, thanks for telling me about the Kung Fu test, can I see pictures of battle-wounds?! Did Chantal go?! When did Randy and Ian come back?! Why haven’t I heard about this from you or Chantal?! You must tell me all! Is Mike gone? Who is KEVIN?! Tell Sifu to write me. In Spanish.
I saw some Jehova’s Witnesses our tracting the other day. A couple of girls like us. I turned to Hermana Frieszell and asked, “Should… Should we rumble?”
I thought it was funny. She just blinked at me.
The birds sound like car alarms here. It’s what they hear when they are young and they group up learning to speak this way. A bit like an accent, but for birds.
I’m sorry about not sending the picture card yet, there’s so good stuff on there too… A picture of a typical hispanic doorstep and a door we knocked on before we realised that that huge bolt on the knob meant that somebody didn’t pay their rent (don’t you love the ghetto?) And everything from the MTC too… I’ll work on that.
I wanted to say thank you, thank you, thank you for granpa’s testimony grandma, it became the subject of my personal study when I got it, and was very lovely and touching to read. I think you’re right that I got some of my writing talent from him, for sure. I’m glad he enjoys my letter as well. I try not to make them too terribly useless.
I need some help. In the white handbook it says not to ask for donations to local causes, but I really need some help with this one. Remember my investigator Carolina? I think I figured out what she needs.
Do you happen to know a smart, good-looking returned missionary who speaks Spanish and would like to marry a sweet, spunky, VERY pretty 31 yr old with two children, two teenaged sisters and a mother who all need financial support?! I think we might be able to not only get her baptised, but we could possibly figure out a fast-road to the celestial kingdom if we could just find this guy.
We took them to the employment office and that was basically what the guy told us “What they really need is a man. Preferably an American, to take care of them all.”
I swear, this society. At first I was exasperated by his response, but the more I think about it the more I start wondering if any of my teachers from the MTC would like to move to Texas. I could play the song for them and everything.
My companion sings in her sleep. It’s ADORABLE. Almost Laney-type songs too, with a little squeaky “lalalala” voice.
Mom I got one of your letters, I don’t think it’s the one you were talking about in your e-mail today though because you didn’t mention the preacher or my Bishop, but you did mention my music! I’d love to get some ‘acceptable’ songs put on it. I’m seriously so dissapointed that it’s come to this… but now there’s the sadness that I’m not sure my Ipod is working. I think it’s a little problem that could be fixed by a trip to the Istore, but I just don’t have time. The light still comes on when I plug it in to charge, but then it won’t play… so, I’m going to send it back and maybe it just needs to be looked at by someone compitent. CDs, might be a better idea for now, just because all the cars have CD players and in the car is one of the only times we get to listen to music.
Okay well, my companion is looking bored, I think I’d better wrap up this letter and go home, but as usual I’m going to do a hand-written letter that should arrive later this week… I love you all! I miss you, but I’m not homesick, I really love it here, and I’m enjoying every day… but at the same time I can’t wait to see you all again and tell you everything about it. Gosh, it seems like I haven’t seen you in ages or something, we should hang out pronto. I’m really busy right now, but let’s get together when we’ve both got more time… how about in like a year and half?
Hermana Lillywhite

Mi familia! Friday, March 27, 2009
I love everything! I love Houston, I love the people, I love the random wildlife, I love the ghetto that is my apartment complex. I get made fun of by the other missionaries because whenever we see a flower or a butterfly or other kinds of wildlife or babies or buildings, I always exclaim "I love _____!" It's true though. I do love the babies and the silly insects and this random raccoon we saw the other day and the half burned-down apartment complex across the way...
Oh! I got in my very first Bible Bash this last Thursday night. (It wasn't a REAL Bible Bash, since Hermana Friescell and I refused to call upon scriptural defenses--we basically taught the first lesson and then got chewed out. We're pretty sure he is a preacher of some kind.)
Anyway, we were knocking on doors in the apartment complex across the street from us, and we got one man who sort of seemed hostile-he didn't say anything mean, he just was looking at us like we were little cockroaches and the way he said "Bueno! Dame su messaje.." just wasn't friendly. So he let us in and partway through the lesson, I suddenly got the impression that he was a preacher of some kind. He hadn't said anything to suggest this, there were no signs on the walls-save for the usual religious paraphinalia that decorates every Latino home. When we asked, he said that he went to a Christian church, I think Holy Cross was in the name (Santa Cruz). Anyway, he wouldn't really say anything else, but he let us finish then went and got HIS bible. It was one of those gorgeous, heavy duty/leather case deals with an insignia of a dove stiched into one side. I've already been in quite a few homes and most people have a bible, but this is the kind of Bible that gets carried around; there was a well-worn handle in the case. I realized then that he WAS a preacher. He chewed us out, the usual over-used (try not to roll your eyes, Hermana Lillywhite) stuff that EVERYONE says, "The Bible is everything God ever meant to say", \ "Prophets ended with Jesus" etc. We tried not to argue with him beyond, "Dios puede llamar un otro profeta, si quiere. El es Dios! Sabe?"
He wasn't listening so we decided to leave--but not before reminding him 3 TIMES that he had admitted that he beleived God answered prayers, so that meant that he needed to pray about what we'd told him, and about Profetas SINCERELY before we would be satisfied. He lives REAL close by, and I'll probably be in this area for 3-4 transfers at least (Thomas S. Monson apparently recommended to the mission Presidents of the world that they should keep missionaries in their first area for about 6 months (or 8).
So...I may go visit him again later since he only lives across the street and ask if he's prayed about Profetas yet.
The Hermana who was here before us says she thinks she knows who we're talking about, because she met him too, and she says we're right, he's a Preacher if it's the same man.
So - it looks like everything my teachers ever told me is true. All Hispanics have the same exact entertainment system, the children are so cute it breaks your heart. The food is amazing. I'm probably going to have permanent emotional damage by the time I hit my 2nd transfer. The lamest rule is that you can't drive your Investigators to church. Less actives are some of the nicest and most frustrating people in the world. Don't worry about the Language--it'll come. Morning studies are VERY important. You're going to feel incredibly hurt and guilty whenever you talk to someone without sharing the gospel..Tamales are SO much better when they're made with banana leaves instead of corn husk. Don't aggrevate the fire ants. Nobody knows what the word Albedrio means, or Apostacia, and most of them don't REALLY know what a Profet is. Speak slowly, it helps. And SO many other things that they told me that REALLY help a lot.
Remember Elder Homer who I mentioned in my email? The one in "Pay it Forward"? Well, he's turning 21 this Thursday (we get Cake Friday) and he's also looking for his birth mother. I don't know the whole story, but he knows she's living here in Houston probably and he has a first and last name, but that's all to help him find her. He doesn't know what she looks like, except that he's got VERY blue eyes and he thinks her's might be the same. I really think he can't have been called to the same city that his long lost mother is living in for no reason. They should meet on his 21st birthday, I think. He's such a neat person, I hope he finds her.
All the Elders are really nice, on (Wednesday/Tuesday no recuardo) we did service with Elder Conrad and Elder Olson. We got to go to the Arbolidum and help out there, they were making it hard to focus because they kept telling stories and making us laugh. It sounds like being English speaking in this mission is pretty entertaining too--they have a lot more experience with running into Preachers and the like. I guess it is part of the Bible Belt, isn't it?
Anyway, the Arboledum was NEAT. There were cute little frogs and lizards all around and we ran into a family of members from Colorado (I think).
Oh--I think I figured out one of the main problems with "missionary" movies. The focus is way too much on the missionary and not enough on the people they're teaching\talk to on the streets. That was one good thing about Errand of Angels, is that you saw them with a lot of investigators, even though only the one lady got baptized, there was a much better focus on the people BESIDES just the missionaries.
I spend all of my time with the investigators\lessactives\random people who don't really want to talk to me. I seem to remember God's Army in particular being a lot about missionaries together in the apartment\at parties..and that stuff is real, but it only lasts for a few minutes; then you're back to tracting or (hopefully) going to an appointment.
So, that what's wrong with the movies. (Though I DO like The Best Two Years.)
Now. I love bishops. Mostly, I love Daddy, but I Love Bishops. And I love the Bishop of the ward I'm serving in, he's a good man...But he made me very angry yesterday in P.E.C. We had a baptism, you know. BIG deal. Very excited. You think he might have offered a congratulations or something, right? Instead he just sat us down and chewed us out. (In Spanish, so the good news is that I understood all of the very ignorant things he told us.) He says that we need to bring specific requests. The ONLY thing we've asked of him since I got here was to PLEASE introduce himself to Arnie. The newest member of his ward, you know? We actually brought Arnie up to talk to him, and he completely blew us off. He also complained that our Baptismal services are too long and that they are at inconvenient times, like Sunday after church or Saturday morning when he'd rather be with his family.
(It's good I can't speak Spanish very well, because if my 'Spanish-brain' was a little faster I might have said something like "I really don't care sir, much sir. I don't get to hang out with MY family for about a year and a half--you can go ahead and wait 30 minutes later this afternoon." or maybe "Arnies wife is dead. He might be able to hang out with her for all of eternity if we can just get him to the Celestial Kingdom!")
Anyway,-maybe it's too soon to tell, but Hermano Prestwich had a story about one of his Bishops who was a bit like this. Hermana Frieszell says that it's just different in different wards. Sometimes the Bishop is really involved in and excited about missionary work and sometimes he's just busy and tired and doesn't want to deal with it, or is openly hostile towards missionaries because of bad experiences in the past or the like. El Periodical in Evangelio talks about learning to gain the trust of the members and the Bishop, but it doesn't really specify HOW aside from baptising people. Maybe if we do that more he'll give us a break. Hermana Frieszell says that part of it stems from general misogynistic sentiments in the culture. For the prayer in sacrament meeting, the Hermano actually asked for God to make the Women in the ward be more loving.
It doesn't really bother me yet, mostly, it's just funny/a little pathetic.
It's just that we work so hard. We really care about this work a lot, and you'd think that other members and especially our leaders would be able to relate.
I know Daddy, I know, it's the Bishop's right to advise us about anything he sees fit to in his ward. I'm sure his heart's in the right place, he just doesn't really understand that he comes off as apathetic/prickly.
Why is it so hard to get people to church, I ask you?! Yesterday, one of our Investigators, Orfelda, blew us off for a lesson we'd scheduled with her and her children for that afternoon and then we were all supposed to go to church (we can't give them a ride, but their less-active neighbors can.) They'd actually thought of this themselves and told us about their plans, then we scheduled this appointment to make sure this miracle actually happened.
It didn't. Orfelda..well, I'm not sure where she went, but she told her children to get a ride from someone else, because the Martinez family wasn't going to be around either. But, of course, she didn't call us, so we came by before church, and there were 5 adorable little Hispanic children hanging around who wanted to go to church, and NOBODY would give them a ride! The adults were all just lounging around, telling them to get rides with other people. They were SO upset. It was incredible, I couldn't help but think of all the spoiled Mormon kids in Utah who complain about going to church. Is it safe to say that their parents are going to have to answer for this one day?
I really feel how lucky I am to have had my own sweet family in my life, and to have been raised in a home with the gospel imbrued (I used one of my old words!) in every word and action. The children here are so heartbreaking. Whenever I see a child now, I think about what Hermano Richardson said about the blessing that children can have, and how much more secure and loving a home is with the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know this is true now more than ever, the contrast between the disposition and prospects alone..Parents just LOOK at their children different when they fully understand what God intends for them. And there's so much more-but it's lights out, and I think I'd better wrap up this epistle--sorry the ending is a bit abrupt! I love and appreciate you a little more cada dia.
Hermana Lillywhite.

YAY! I had my first Baptism yesterday! It was so special, Arnie (Arnulfo Gomez) is so solid, such an amazing member of our church. It was so exciting to see him get baptized, and Hermana Taylor (Hermana Frieszell’s companion before me) got to come, which was so neat because she found him tracking with Hermana Frieszell, but then she was transferred, so she didn’t think she’d be able to come, but she had a fireside at a chapel nearby, so they let her run over. It was so cool!
So how was everybody's week?! Mine was incredible, I was so happy to get your letters! I’ve got a lot to tell you and I tried to make a list… I’ll start with silly things first. There’s an Elder here named Elder Homer, he’s an actor and the first thing he mentioned was that he was in “Pay it Forward” he’s the kid who pushes Haley Joel Osmond into the knife and kills him. My response to this was, “…You made me cry.” And then he said, “That’s what everyone says.” And rolled his eyes. He’s super funny though, you should keep an eye out for him if you watch that movie again. All the Elders and Sisters are really funny, we’ve got a sort of code… I think it’s common among all missionaries because I heard some of these expressions before… here’s a brief vocab/phrase list for missionaries.
The Be Born: when you arrive in your mission from the MTC.
Mother/Father: The missionary who trained you.
Son/Daughter: The missionary you train.
+Grandfather/+Grandmother: The trainer of your trainer.
Aunt/Uncle: other missionaries trained by your same mom or dad.
To Die: When your mission ends.
To Kill: When your companion’s mission ends but you’re still here.
To Kill Each Other: When you both finish your missions at the same time.
The dramatic life-analogies seem kind of appropriate though. At first I thought it was weird. But then, like I usually do, I thought about it way too much and decided that the MTC is our pre-earth life, then we go into the ‘real world’ and forget everything they taught us/have to relearn everything they taught us with real-world application, and we have families and we meet people who we knew before sometimes and it’s really surreal, then we die and go on to fulfill our true purpose and have families like the ones we came from. This pretty much means that you (my real family) signify my heavenly family in this analogy.
I may include this in my book about missionary work. Depending on how it is received by people who aren’t as crazy as I am. What do you think?
My companion and I teach an English class at the chapel on Tuesday nights, it’s way harder to teach English than Spanish. English is… well, there are rules but we break them so much. There’s exceptions for everything, it made me like of Brian Regan, “I before E accept after C, and when sounding like A as in neighbor and way and you’ll always be wrong no matter what you say.”
English is silly.
We have a car! But the miles are so limited we’re afraid to use it anymore this month, we’ve also got Bikes, and I’ve learned it’s actually pretty easy to ride a bike in a skirt, it’s just hard to keep the skirt from blowing off. We’ve also got our feet… Oh, my bike helmet is a little sad. I’m pretty sure it’s an egg-carton. I’m going to die. Actually, I’ll just look for another helmet when I get the chance.
Oh, the way sad news I have is that in our mission President Hansen has decided to go beyond the white handbook when it comes to what music is acceptable. Only hymns, pretty much, is the new rule. It has to be “sacrament appropriate”. This means I’ll be sending my Ipod home soon… I’m pretty sad about this, but I’m trying to be obedient. The really lame thing about this is that there’s apparently some country singers who took it upon themselves to do their own renditions of the hymns and everyone seems to have this CD and they play it and I think I’m going to hurt someone. I can’t stand that kind of nonsense with religious music. I swear it’s got to be some kind of sin. It’s a crime against the genius that God inspires in people to create music for him, when talentless pop-wannabe musicians just ‘borrow’ and then violate sacred music. Seriously.
Lucky for me, my companion seems to feel the same way. We listen mostly to hymns in Spanish. The music itself isn’t much better than the country junk, but at least it’s interesting for me to try to sing along in Spanish.
Everyone says my Spanish is really good, but Hispanic people are so nice, I don’t know if I should believe them. I do understand a lot. The other missionaries say that I seem to understand a lot more than is normal for new missionaries, but I can’t really say everything that I want to, or anything that I want to sometimes. But my speech is good enough that I can carry on a conversation and teach about gospel-principles, with some hand-gestures involved…
Oh! I also wanted to talk a little about my area, City View.
I’m in the ghetto.
A lullaby of my neighbours arguing and car alarms going off between strains of sirens puts me to sleep every night… But I’m sleeping really well and continuing to have bizarre dreams. With car alarms.
Greens Point is the name of the little place where I live. It’s got a nickname, I was advised not to tell you, but I think you’ll think it’s funny, it’s often called Guns Point. I don’t know what everyone’s talking about though, so far everyone I’ve talked to has been really nice. Except for that preacher (That story is in my other letter). There’s all these adorable little kids in our apartment complex, they’re all black (I think my companion and I are the only white people for a couple of miles) and whenever they see us they always say “Hi! Where are you going?! Why are you always leaving?!” and then one of the other little kids with say, “They have to tell people about Jesus”. They are so cute. My companion says that there is a certain amount of respect that black people have for “church ladies” which is why they have us live there. We’re actually a lot safer, because people don’t want to rob from the church ladies or give us a hard time. Since we’re Spanish speaking we usually travel out to other parts of town to proselyte.
My companion is so great, I can’t believe I didn’t tell you a little more about Hermana Frieszell before… she’s from Washington, and she’s 24 years old. She’s been out here for about a year, and I think that Greens Point/City View is like her sixth area. She’s moved around a lot more than is normal for missionaries. I’m her first baby, but she’ll probably have the chance to train again before she goes home this summer. Her Spanish is really solid, but she says it took her a while to feel like she was fluent (about nine months). She and Hermana Drainy are the oldest Hermanas. She and I are a lot alike, she’s really laid back, doesn’t really worry about being on time etc. as long as we get everything done that we need to. I try not to have a hard time with it, I do have a lot of experience waiting around for Jensen, so, no big deal
The dollhouse sounds incredible! You have to finish it before I get back, it sounds so neat! I love that there’s history/a ghost story to go along with it, that is just so cool! I bet Laney is having fun, I want to see her drawings of the ghost lady! Eliz. Tilley? We are so awesome. I just remembered how cool our family is. Jensen, you are so cute. You’re not allowed to tell me that there’s a million things you want to tell me but you can’t because it’ll take too much time. Pick one and write me about it! I want to hear what’s going on! Good luck on the test, I hope you EARN your RedSash. I’m excited for Chantal to get her black too, she needs a sash to match her soul. I hope she seriously considers the Air Force, I think she’d love it!
Shazi is going to conquer Kimber?! Sweet. So sweet. Dulce. Yeah, she’s better make sure to go to seminary. Aww, tell the kitties I said “Mwwahhola!” and tell Chester “…” which means I love you in Hispanic ratty-speech.
I’m starving. We’re fasting today with two or our investigators. Carolina y Nellie SantaCruz/Puig. We’re hoping we can find them work were they can attend church on Sunday. They both want to, but they need to work and neither of them can get Sundays off. So, we took them down the employment office today to help them out. I LOVE this family so much. Nelly is the mother and then Carolina (the r is almost said like a T Catoeleena), her daughter has two children, Rafael and… I’ve never seen it written but I think it much be written like Paula, but it’s said “Powla” and then Nelly’s other two daughter (both teenagers) are Maria Jose and Marisol (Marisol is a nickname, I’m not sure how to say or spell her full name). They’re from Ecuador, which is apparently the most beautiful place on earth. I think we should visit sometime… anyway. You know those investigators who missionaries say they just love WAY too much, and you want them to get baptized so bad?! Well, I want everyone to get baptized, but this family is a major focus for us right now. They are just so sweet, and so curious, I really hope we’re able to get them to church. They came to our Baptism yesterday (they were late because of work and missed the baptism itself), but they still came by, which I think says a lot.
Anyway, I’d better get going, but I’ll be sending you my other letter for the week soon enough. Goodbye, I love you all con todo mi alma!
Hermana Lirioblanco

Dear fambly, Monday Mar 16, 2009
Mwah, and also mwah. This is really difficult, but wonderful. I'm not sure what to say. I love everything. I love Lucky Charms because the marshmallows stick to the bottom of my spoon. I love the other missionaries, they are all so nice--I love my companion, she imparts her wisdom upon me. I love the members--my ward is amazing and they FEED me! So delicious! I love the investigators, they are all so loving and understanding of my weak, weak language abilities.
They really take care of us here (when they can) because we work hard. It was raining constantly since I arrived, which was fine--the Texans were happy to have the water--the Latinos didn't want to leave their houses and seemed to think we were a little crazy for leaving ours.
But today we had sun!
We just taught another lesson with Carolina and Nellie and Maria Jose y Maresol--they've got two little ninitos (carolina's) a little boy and girl. They are so cute and they're always running all over the place. It makes me miss Laney.
We played volleyball today with the Elders. I'm amazing--I'm sure I'll get a contract with Nike any day now. One of the Elders actually said "Good eye!" to me when the ball went flying an inch away from my face into the out of bounds area. I thought of Brian Regan, "What did I do?!" "You avoided getting hit in the face." "Oh good, I'm glad I did that!"
I'm not sure what else to tell you about this week. I'm honestly still a little overwhelmed! I decided not to send the card from the camera yet--actually, I wanted to, but I don't have a padded envelope to send it in right now...I'm sure there's still plenty more space on the card though..I'll send a few more pictures home until then, one quick one of me and my companion Hermana Frieszell! (She's so smart! I'm learning so much from her!) OH! I don't know if you're hanging onto my letters, but I hope you are because I want to compile them when I get back. I've been keeping all the letters people send me too--but there's getting to be A LOT and I'm running out of places to put them, so I might have to send some home--please keep them safe for me if I do! I don't want to, because I want to be able to read them...but I'm not sure what else I can do! Anyway-it's not something I have to think about until I get transferred, but I thought I'd bring it up because I'm very tired and writing nonsense. Anyway--I'm sorry! This letter is a little pathetic, and it's also the only one I wrote/will write this week. Pitiful--I'll do better next time-I promise!
I love and miss you all like billio (this means muchos!) Yo amo ustedes! ( not sure if this is correct. Too tired to think...but I really do love you all so much!) Hermana Lillywhite
P.S. I saw a SANDY! (like a lot of them actaully--squirrels are all over in some of these neighborhoods! Texas squirrels!)

HI! My new Day of Prep. is Monday!

Texas is GORGEOUS! I walked off the plane and I can immediately tell why Texans have that "Texas pride" this place is really something special. The people have all been really nice to me so far, (I' sure the door slamming and cocked pistols will come later). My new Companion is Hermana Frieszell, I think they may have sent you a picture of us Thursday when we came back... They said they were going to e-mail you with a little information about the mission and just to say that we'd arrived and were okay. I don't know if they did though... as for addresses, it sounds like it's best to just send things to the mission office. At least for now. I'll tell you if anything changes, but right now that sounds like th emost practicle thing. The mission office is in my current area, and we end up dropping by often enough that it makes sense to send my mail there. We have our weekly meetings here and this is where we come to e-mail, and also a lot of our investigators need to find new jobs and this is where they come to get help with that... so this is fine. Also, I'm not sure but I think that they will actually forward things to our apartment if they know we're not going to be in the office soon.

That's so cool about George Taylor's library! I'm indebted to him. And yes, I do love my own little library at home... I miss my books, but it's alright, i don't really have time to read anything but the scriptures right now. I haven't even started Jesus the Christ yet, though I want to devore the whole four books in the missionary library before I leave.

I never did meet Elder Lang, I looked for him, but yeah... I didn't see him at the MTC. Still, he'll be here for the next transfer, so depending on how things work out, I'll either meet him then, or... well, it's hard to tell, but I'm sure I'll meet him at some point. If my Spanish becomes particuarly awesome, or if they decide to put me in a trio again, than there's a possibility I'll be training as soon as this next transfer. They have the sister missionaries start training really FAST. There is a Hermana here who I met at the MTC and she's already training.

My mission president and his wife are really wonderful, lovely people. They're both working on their Spanish and getting pretty good. Word on the street is I might at some point end up as a Bi-lingual missionary, meaning I'd teach in both languages. We have one companionship here that is made up of one English and one Spanish speaking missionaries, so they both teach in English but then I guess when they're teaching in Spanish the English sister just smiles and nods?! I hope they are least teach the poor thing how to testify in Spanish.

So... I've got my first baptism this weekend!!! It's so exciting, is name is Arnie and he's totally golden. Seriously, he is... Hermana Frieszell and her last Companion Hermana Taylor met him about a month ago and he let them right in and after they'd taught for a few minutes he asked if they were 'sort of like the Mormon church?' then he explained that he'd been looking for the Mormon church for a few years now but couldn't remember the real name (the first thing they told me is that Latinos pretty much don't use the internet) but his brother in Mexico had told him that he should find the Mormons. So, he's just so smart and so great, he has questions sometimes but he just accepts the answers we give him, and he's so nice!

Everybody keeps saying how lucky I am to show up just in time to teach the last few lessons before he gets baptised. We've also got some other investigators, who need a little more help. Carolina and Nelly and two other daughters who are sort of semi-interested but probably won't think about it seriously unless their mother and sister do.

Let's see... what else can I say?! I went tracting my first night! I talked to people in Spanish and English and I wasn't scared. I felt a little silly because they were all sort of smiling at me like "Oh, that's so cute, the white girl is trying to speak Spanish!". But Latinos are always a million times nicer than white people, I'm learning. White people are kind of mean. Black people usually find the first excuse to say 'God bless' and leave. Sometimes they don't even open the door, but just yell "Not interested!" through the keyhole. We've had a lot of people saying things like "Weren't you just here this morning?"

Houston people are pretty nice though, in all. I've been told by a lot of people that we're in a bad area, kind of ghetto and dangerous, but it just looks like a cross between murray and california to me. Except there's more churches. And gigantic chocolate crosses for easter treats.

Anyway, we share our area with Elder Herrman, who I know from the MTC and his comp who's also our District leader, and there's also a lot of English speaking Elders around. Our ward is Spanish---I went to Spanish church yesterday! It was awesome, I understood a lot and we had three people to keep track of. Arnie, and two less active members, Ramon and Maria. Church when you're sheparding people is a little different. I would guess it's a bit like going to church when you have tiny little babies with you and you have to keep an eye on them and make sure they don't take off across the street the first chance they get.

Alright... well, I'd better get off the computer now, I'm going to write a regular letter too though, so hopefully you'll get that in just a couple of days... I just want you all to know that I'm happy and I'm heathy and I can sort of speak Spanish, and I miss you all a lot and I love you. I know you're prayers are helping to sustain me, and I pray for you every day too!

Hermana Lillywhite

Fambly! Friday marzo 6, 2009
I basically didn't get through ANYTHING that I wanted to talk about in my email today...I had to end it with the weird story about when that teacher yelled at me in front of all the missionaries. The point of that--if you couldn't understand the last few hurried sentences of my email, is that I very sincerrely want to help people WANT to change. I'm not there to tackle them kicking and screaming into the font. Nobody is going to want to change if the person who asks them does it wrong.
I've got a lot to learn, but I've got at least one comparative story to work with. At Kimber, the method of getting me to follow the dress code was "Your shirt is making it hard for the boys to think about Jesus." Gee--why didn't that line work on me? And here, Hermana Saylor managed to convince me to follow the dress code by simply showimg me that it was part of what I'd signed up for (and not forever) and that she knew we could all look pretty and feel professional even if our options are a bit pathetic.
But there is a time for Boldness-I'm a big fan of BOLDNESS. I read through the story of Abinadi this week. I love Abinadi. I used to wonder why the first few chapters seem SO focused on the corruption of King Noah and his priests.... So--is it really bad out there? last days? That kind of stuff? I pray for you every night, I hope all is going well and as normal and wonderful as it sounds.....
This week has been pretty emotional, I think it's just because it's my last week here which means we're seeing less and less of our teachers (the significant font of motivation at the MTC) and we're facing more and more teaching appointments.
One of our progressive investigators Alassandro, speaks English, Spanish and Italian. He is from Italy, so when we gave him a Book of Mormon, I signed it Gilioblanco (which I've no idea if I spelled it correctly, I supposed I could have tackled the nearest Italian missionaries). Anyway, he's VERY real-his cell phone went off while we were teaching him and he answered it and chatted for a few minutes in Italian with one of his friends. After our lesson, Hermana Thomas was like "that was rude" and Hermana Gurney said, "Well, he told the person on the phone to hurry; remember, he just picked it up and said "pronto" (hurry in Espanish). I didn't want to crush her little happy feelings, but I think I remembered Dad saying once that "Pronto" is just how you answer the phone in Italy. She was a bit disappointed when I told her.
Speaking of Italy, I have a dream to share. It's pretty cool--I hope you like this, Daddy. I had a Dante's Inferno dream--but instead of going through all the circles and up through the whole Divine Comedy, I travelled through the three Kingdoms of Glory (actually, I woke up before we got to the celestial Kingdom, probably because my subconscious realized that I shouldn't be able to comprehend it.) The Telestial Kindgom was glorious--but Dim, the people there were changed-like Demons with demonic appendages (wings/horns etc) they loved it there, and they fought with eachother constantly. Those who came to try to teach were attacked. When they spoke to each other, there was no sense in their words. It was all giving me a headache-I had to leave. We went through a tunnel up to the Terestrial Kingdom. Here it was calmer- the people were more humanoid, but still not quite correct. They weren't fighting with eachother, but waited patiently for the other to share his opinion. But I still couldn't understand them, their views were warped--unfamiliar. I know we were still in the wrong place and I wanted to keep going, but I couldn't because I woke up.
So, all of this was still on my mind, along with Dante. I really felt this strong desire to READ Dante all week. Last night, we had our final meeting with our other Spain-nativa progressive investigator, appropriately named Beatrice. It was very hard. Beatrice has always made teaching seem SO real. She's a very good actress, and she'd never broken character. She explained (in Spanish) that she had done like we asked and prayed to know if the Book of Mormon was the word of God (again/for the third time) and that she'd felt a change in her heart, she'd felt the spirit just like we said she would, but she still couldn't join the church because she just wasn't sure, and she couldn't turn her back on her family and her heritage. We let her talk for a long time and I just didn't have any idea what to say to her. I finally figured out, right then, that I'm going to spend the next 16 months walking around with a smile on my face and a broken heart. I'm going to meet real people, just like her, who know the gospel is true but can't or won't accept it. I knew all this before-but it's really powerful when you feel it. I can't even describe it. The closest I can get to it is to say: "This is going to be really, really hard and I'll be lucky if I make it through this without being emotionally ruined for all of Eternity, because I just can't save everyone."
I was speechless. In any language, I had no idea what to say to her to make her understand. I just told her that I knew this was God's will for her and that he'll help her and her family through this difficult time. Luckily, Hermana Gurney (who is basically fluent) managed to save us, while I just sat there and tried not to burst into tears. I didn't cry-but with Hermana Gurney's, Beatrice got really close.
Finally, after our lesson was over, Beatrice broke character, for the first time ever, we really got to talk to her. She served in Barcelona Spain, and she's been back for about 1 1/2 years. Her younger brother is serving in her same mission, with her same mission president and she got most of her questions and doubts from her brother's letters when he was talking about real investigators he's teaching in Spain. It was really neat to finally meet her for real. She wasn't even a real investigator-but like with everyone else I teach, I feel so responsible for them! I just love them so much.
Later that same night-we got kicked out of one of our usual studying spots because they needed to have a meeting. We were down in the basement and we went into a room we'd never noticed before--it's just this little door sort of shoved in there-looks like a janitor's closet. It's NOT. It's George Taylor's secret Library! I know that I shoud know who George Taylor is (there's a building named after him here) but I don't-I just know that I LOVE him! (Edsitor's note: We have since learned that this is John Taylor's (Natalie's Husband) uncle.) He had so many great books--including the book I'd been thinking about all week since I'd had that dream--The Divine Comedy!
So, for our study, Hermana Gurney read from the discourses of Joseph Smith outloud while I copied a few of my favorite literary passages in my journal. We all discussed the Prophet's discourses and lost track of time completely and ended up staying way past our study time.
So, I think I need to learn Italian. Awesome-I think I know someone who can help a little with that. Daddy, thank you so much for all your letters this week! I especially loved your musings on the End of Days, and also when you wrote about testimony. I'm not sure you realize--you included what is pretty much a perfect Door Contact in your one letter--at least that's how the teachers have been telling me to do it. Clearly, you knew what you were doing as a missionary if you can still remember the key opening points. My Door Contact is terrible, it's basically like this, but in very-bad-spanish "Hi, I'm a missionary and I have a message for you about Jesucristo. Can I come in?"
Yeah, My teachers just noticed that it was still really bad; it's not just the words though--I somehow manage to really make people uneasy when I first meet them. Hermano Prestwich says I should smile more. It's hard to smile and think about speaking Spanish at the same time. Anyway-I'm going to take your advice because I think you basically just explained to me perfectly what my teachers have been trying to help me understand.
Oh! And of course, the brownies were AMAZING, thank you so, so much. I crave real food. I may get very large in Houston, but here--I'm starving. Also, this paper is so, so cute! Thank you mommy, and the picture of Tommy made me laugh so much. I'm glad Laney liked getting her own letter, I hope you didn't cry too much! But I cried when I wrote it, so if you did, that's just fair.
All right, this is starting to turn into a five-stamp monster--I've got to stop, but I just want to say Jensen, I LOVE you! Don't stress about class, you're a genius, remember--also, thanks for writing me again and how was Watchmen?!
Also, enclosed is a "33" napkin like I described! I earned it by chatting with some Elder actually. I think he was a teacher, who speaks like six languages fluently. They read WAY too much into it, but it's signed by three witnesses and everything, so I guess I deserve it!
I love and miss you all!!!! Hermana Lillywhite
P.S. Elder Master and Elder Wadsworth seem to have made it. Tonight during our final testimony meeting/thing, Elder Wadsworth expressed his appreciation for Elder Master and Elder Master in his usual form said nothing about Elder Wadsworth. Anyway, Elder Wagsworth said two really fantastic things that will be in books later. My books. 1. "Elder Master gets an average of 42 pages of Anti-Mormon crap from his dad a week. If I was having to deal with that-instead of getting an average of four pounds of fudge a week from home, I might not make it."
2. "You're so strong Elder Master. You're like.. A Cockroach! You just WON'T DIE. You're a beautiful, muscular Cockroach."
What am I going to do when I get to Texas and there's no Elder Wagsworth around to make me smile?!
PPS I'm going to send you the photocard on my next PDay (whenever that is) there's some cute pics of Me and Hermana Porter/ I printed one out, and I wanted to send it to you, but I like it so much I think I'll keep it--but it's on that photocard--along with pictures of my teachers and other people whose faces you should see! I really want you to be able to put faces to these people I'm talking about!

Ailsa's MTC Zone

We mounted up, he first and I the second,
Till I beheld through a round aperture
Some of the beauteous things that Heaven doth bear;
Thence we came forth to rebehold the stars.
Dante, Inferno Canto 34

Last 30 Minute Email

I'm excited, because after today when I write messages to you on e-mail, I won't have the creepy blinking counter giving me a heartattack with it's red flashing glory.

This week has been really quite awesome and incredible... I'm sort of freaking out now, because we'll be leaving to actually go out to the mission-field on Wednesday! That's five days! I can count that on one hand. I'm freaking out.

RC has become really cool. We've started doing Spanish phone calls, which is very entertaining. The other night we sat down and started dialing and Hermana Thomas suddenly gasped and looked at me in horror. "Como?" i asked her, to which she replied, "I just realise... I don't know Spanish!"

We did alright though. It's harder on the phone that in person, because they talk faster when they can't see that you don't understand them, also, you can't read body language or anything. I talked to a couple of really nice people though, who slowed down for me. One guy stopped every coupld of seconds and asked, "Entiende?" And I was like, "Si, yo pienso." it was very silly.

It's really amazing that I've managed to learn as much Spanish as I have. Thank you all so much for your prayers, they are definately helping. I'm not sure my faith is sufficient enough to account for my level of Spanish. I'm not really confident that I'll be able to talk to people the second I hit Texas soil, but I am confident that I'm learning it, and not more slowly than I should be... In fact, I think this is like lightning-speed, rapido learning that's going on here. Every once in a while I toy with the idea of quitting English entirely, but I'm not sure that's going to be possible until I get to Houston, since I still have to talk to so many people here who don't speak Spanish.

I had a nasty scare this week. It was about ten o'clock at night and a voice came over the intercom and said my full name, not just Hermana Lillywhite, and they told me I needed to go to the Wilford Woodriff building and up to the front desk. I was terrified, I was sure that someone was hurt/dead or i was being transfered to a Poland Mission or that Texas had split from the US and now we had to get Visas and mine wasn't coming through so I had to stay an extra month! I threw on a coat over my pijamas and ran through the darkened lanes of the MTC with Hermana Gurney behind me, concerned and in her slippers. We got up to the front desk and they returned my nametag.

How lame is that? I think I've lost my name-tag about three times since I've been here, but they usually just put it in my mailbox. Why did they have to get me out of bed like that? Que es eso, donde esta mi fiesta? Seriously, it was junk.

I've got one more funny story before I talk about something... arguably more serious.

So, I've changed A LOT since I've gotten here. But this week, something happened that made me realise I haven't changed that much.

We went to the TRC for an appointment with one of the evaluators. We were supposed to do a pretend door-contact and then come inside and teach the first lesson in Spanish. So, our teacher was totally nice, and he warned us that he was going to be completely realistic and stop along they way if we happened to "dig ourselves into a hole". So, he shuts the door with us on the other side and I knock. I coudl hear him inside and (we were all speaking in spanish but I'm going to write in English to save time) he's all "Who's there?" and I said, "The missionaries!" and then he said something else, but it was hard to hear through the door. I asked him what he'd said and he said something else, still not intelligable through the door, but I thought he's said to come in "entre", so I opened the door and smacked him in the head with said door.

Instead of having a laugh and starting over he decided to play it for real and started telling us off in Spanish. I apologised and even managed a hacked explination for why I'd opened the door, and he was using I word I didn't know "grosera" Hermana Gurney said she thought it meant grocer, but I pointed out that it made absolutely no sense for him to call us grocers because I had attacked him, so I assumed the word meant rude, and sure enough I was right.

Anyway, he begrudgingly let us in after I apologised for about a million years. Don't worry, I only leave for the field in a few days, then I can really smack people in the heads with their front doors. Seriously, I am going to "Astonish people" but not in the right ways, I'm a bit worried.

Really though, It was good, I learned something to never, ever do. I for sure would have done in out in the field if I hadn't gotten it over with here, that's just me, I think.

The last thing was just a small incident that turned into kind of a big deal. It also displays that some things about me will probably never change. I was in the sort of longue with my companions planning for the following day and we were in there alone, so I had my feet up a little on the couch-cusion next to me. My feet weren't actually on the pillow, but my legs were still slightly elevated, and keep in mind, I'm a missionary so I'm wearing a pretty long skirt--anyway, there's some Elders around us planning too, probably like eight people in all and this teacher comes up to me and says VERY LOUDLY "Sister, put your legs down. This is a consecrated building and we want to treat it with respect."

First off... I don't even know this punk. Seriously, I'd never seen this teacher around before, and I've been trapped here for 2 months, so who is he and why is he barking at me? Then there's all these missionaries around looking sort of shocked by how rude he was and also nervous because they've got their legs elevated a little too... Anyway, I don't want to go on about it for ages, but at the time, I did go on about it. I was really mad. He was right--sure, but that just wasn't enough for me... and then I had an epiphany. I'm going to be asking people to make major life changes.

I can't just walk up to them and yell. There is a right way and a wrong way to ask for something, and thus far in my life, I haven't figured out how to ask, the RIGHT way. A request, no matter how small, will not be headed if you don't ask it with love and real concern for the person, minus the pride at being 'in the right'. Just knowing that I've got the rules on my side isn't going to be of any comfort to them. Look how angry I got when someone asked for me to do something really simple in a way that I didn't like?

So, I thought about how Hermana Saylow might have asked me to put my legs down... I realised then that my method is a bit more like whatever-that-guys-nametag-said. I need to develope the ability to show people that they can be better, instead of just telling them that they're wrong.

I've got thirty seconds left, I'd better sign off! I love you all so much.

Hola Fambly!(it's pronounced Ho-la. There's an h.) 2-27-09
Hey! It's getting down to the end here and I am freaking out--just a little bit. We did phone-calls in Spanish this week for the first time. Some of them were really nice and spoke slowly--but there was one lady who yelled (in spanish) "I can't understand you!" and hung up on me. Triste.
I still don't really know how to clasify my abilities with the language. I can read in spanish GREAT, I've started doing a lot of my personal study with my Espanol escritores. I do pretty well with understanding spoken spanish too--we watched the Joseph Smith restoration movie in spanish for class (on-censor that, we're pretty sure our teacher "burrowed" it from a visitor's center, which you're really not supposed to do.) It was great though, I understood a lot, and Satan is about a thousand times scarier in spanish.
When I speak in spanish, it seems like people can understand me, but I think I sound like a 3 year old. Still--I can communicate. I feel pretty confident that you could toss me into any spanish speaking society and I could get along all right. Oh--and I'm more determined than ever to become a polyglot. I LOVE languages. I love being here and being exposed to so many different people from all over.
I met an Elder Rith a few weeks ago. He was born in Cambodia but he moved to Salt Lake when he was still pretty young. Still-he's been fluent in both English and Cambodian for years, and he was called to a Cambodian speaking mission in Boston. He taught me a couple of very cool Cambodian words.
"Dukmoke" which looks kind of like this ;it literally means "water face" or something, and is used for our word countenance, it implies looking into the water and seeing our reflection, so, to have someone else's countenance means to look into the water and see THEIR face.
"Rsmae" looks like this , this is a very popular girl's name that means indescribably beautiful, magnificent light. This word comes in very handy while reciting the 1st vision.
"Trust" "Dokejet", literally means to put your heart in something and know it will be taken care of. So, maybe I want to learn Cambodian? One day, one day, first I need to perfect Spanish, then Italian and French, then German, Russian, Finnish, Japanese...Togalog looks interesting...I've heard that it eventually gets to be pretty (not easy) but EASIER to pick up languages. They're all so beautiful.
Still, I'm greatful every day that my second language (the undisputed hardest #1 language to learn) is Spanish, the undisputed easiest and most logical language ever conceived of. And it's SO beautiful. I want to learn how to pick up the little accents in Spanish too. Our progressive investigator Beatrice has a very pretty "th" called the "theta" ingrained in her spanish. It sounds a little like a lisp when you're first trying to imitate it. Actually, there's a story that it came about in Espana (Ethspana) because the King had a lisp and ordered everyone to talk like he did so he wouldn't feel so awkward. I don't know if it's true, because I heard it here and I don't have the internet or a library or anything to check up on this story...still, I think I should learn "vosotros" conjugation, talk with "theta" dye my hair black again and pretend to be from Spain. Or--I'll just tell everyone I'm from Paranguiricutirimicauro. Lauren will talk cute too when she gets back, she's going to Argentina, they do a slight "Ja" or "sh" instead of the "ya" sound that goes with ll.Wow, that's weird, there really isn't much for me to talk about this week--it went by so fast--even faster than normal. It was a little rough getting back into our trio. We figured out that teaching with two people is about a million times easier than teaching with three, but everything is normal again. I'm a little sad I don't have an excuse to sit in on Hermanos Hadly and Richardons's class anymore, but I'm really glad that Hermana Fitches got to go to Spain at last, the MTC there sounds amazing, and I've seen pictures--it's utterly gorgeous, marble floors and big pretty, pretty gardens to take walks! Oh--I love Europe. I think the Lord knew that I needed to go state-side so I wouldn't just disappear into the ancient cities of Europe the night before I'm supposed to go back home. Chiste, I wouldn't do that --I miss you all too much. So--remember, any Dearelders that you send after like...probably the 6th of March, probably won't ever make it to me, and the mail-people here don't forward stuff on to the mission. I'm really looking forward to getting to my area in ..12 days?! Eeen.
KEA KAHA y paz y amour ustedes Hermana Lirioblanco
P.S. I saw my friend Vlad on Sunday! He is very bad you know, he just waltzed onto the MTC campus to chat in Russian with some of his friends. I don't approve of such a blatant disregard for the rules anymore (although 7 weeks ago, I probably would have thought it was cool) but still, it was nice to see him and chat for a minute and remember that there's this whole 'nother world outside. I especially feel weird when I see the BYU campus and think of my Ginagabobbin. Same city/different worlds. It is truly surreal, I love and miss you all con todo mi corazon.