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