20 April 2009

Querido Fambly; Handwritten, Mon. April 20, 2009

So, remember the Elder who cast out a demon? Elder Clark? Funny things happen on P-day. Our fearless district leader, Elder Porter, was tired of playing football, so he stopped and was watching the other Elders play football and at two to three minute intervals would yell "Hey, let's go get something to eat!" over and over and over for probably about twenty minutes until we were starting to get annoyed. Then Elder Clark (who's been standing silently next to him the whole time) yells "Hey, We're going to get something to eat" and everyone got up and went to get food (and I laughed. Oh how I laughed).

I guess people just listen to you more when you cast out Demons.

Going back to California sounds amazing! You have to tell me all about your trip; it'll be so fun. I sure love California. I've been dreaming about weirder and weirder things. Shadows of my homeland and themes from out here in the field mingle into dissonance in the steampunk engine that is my mind. Also, there's a lot of Spanish. Bi-lingual dreams. It's hard enough to understand what's going on in English.

I played Basketball again. No injuries, but I think I'm getting better.....

I'm sorry I don't have much to say this week! I made it to the end of my first transfer. I do get discouraged sometimes (Tahiti would be nice) but it never is long before I'm on the top of the world again-totally enchanted by the people I'm meeting and the experiences I'm having.

I love you! Hermana Lillywhite

P.S. Tell Aunt Les THANK YOU!! so, so much for the lovely letter and especially for the awesome CD's! Also, thank you, thank you Daddy for sending me the Fictionpress reviews and for Los Articulos! They are SO so perfect for what I'm studying right now!

P.P.S. I certainly will be writing about my mission when I come home--but, right now, I've got to go LIVE IT!!!

What a Week!

~Hermana Frieszell and I divided our stories in half this week, so you’re getting part of her letter too!
~Hermana Frieszell says:
So great news. Aurora agreed to be baptized! Aurora is a sweet, shy young mother with a 2 year old boy and a new born baby girl. We have been teaching her for sometime. Well we were teaching her and then we thought she dropped us but it turns out that she was just having her baby. So we went back and she still wanted to learn. We have been teaching her for a few weeks now and on Thursday we went and taught her and asked her if she would be baptized. She was a little hesitant as she didn’t know if she would be ready by the 16th but we had her pray right there and she said she felt a good, thumping of her heart. She is so great. We still weren’t able to get her to church but as soon as she goes 3 times she will be baptized.
So we had an amazing week. We taught 22 lessons without even trying and got 10 new investigators and 4 people at church, and 3 baptismal dates.



We are still struggling with getting people to go to church. It seems to be the biggest challenge. However, yesterday we had a pleasant surprise when a family, Cecilia and Juan we are teaching showed up at church. They didn’t seem very likely to come but the member that came with us was very good at talking them into it and they showed up. They have 4 kids and one on the way. The little girl that is 9 is so cute. She was so excited to be there. She had her book of Mormon and it was all used and was so excited to show us that she had it. They also brought their 11 year old cousin and she didn’t understand Spanish very well and wasn’t a very good influence and so they were all like “it was boring.” But that’s just because they had gone to the church of the woodlands and they play video games and have piano lessons there. So lame! That’s not church. But we were so excited to get them to church finally.

With transfer, on Tuesday we got to be a 3-some for a day. Sister Christenson, an English sister who’s companion was going home so she had no companion for that day so she hung out with us. It was fun to be a 3-some. Kind of like a party.

~End of Hermana Frieszell’s thoughts for this letter!
~ME! From here down is Ailsa again!
We've got one lady we're teaching now, Maria Erica, I might have already talked about her a little, she was a referral from one of the members in the English speaking ward, she cleans the building where he works and she had been really impressed by him speaking such good Spanish when he is clearly and very white-bread blue-eyed Texan. Anyway, she had a copy of the book of Mormon in English and we came by to give her one in Spanish and started teaching her. She's SO cute. We can't get her to come to church though (that's always the hardest thing to pull off it seems) she had a wedding this Sunday. She's so sweet though. She doesn't have a very firm base for religious knowledge we think, as she was very surprised when we told her that we were supposed to go to church on Sunday, she seemed to think it was just optional "Extra-credit" or whatever. She asks a lot of questions though, which is good, but it's not like contentious, it's more like genuine curiosity and then once we've explained it so she can understand she doesn't argue the way some people do, she just kind of nods and says "okay."

It might be a bit of journey with her though. She says that God has never answered any of her prayers. We're going to have to talk about that.

We've got two kids we're working with, Daniel and Jennifer Varrera. There's also Orfelda, their mother. She's sais she wants us to teach and baptize her children, and we think she wants to get baptized too. She didn't outright say so, but she says she wants to hear all the lessons too. We think she'd be way into the idea of joining the church except that she's got NO religious background at all. We mentioned a couple of stories from the Bible and she hadn't heard of any of them (Moses/Noah/Joseph/Jesushad12apostlesreally?) but if we could just help her get over her fears about organized 'church' and get her to sacrament meeting she'd LOVE it. Her next/door neighbor and friend Alma Martinez is a less active who I've mentioned before, but she's not been much help getting her friend to church as she rarely goes herself. Still, we're hoping to help them out and get them at church and baptized before the end of this transfer.
Yes, I know Laney-boo is still a rat, she sounds like she’s getting more and more drama-queen-esque as she gets older. Yes, I suppose absence does make the heart grow fonder. She’s so adorably primadona. Tell her she is a GREAT artist, and that she’s only going to get better as she keeps practicing and develops patience. (I can imagine her rolling her eyes here and saying “Yeah, whatever.” Like the fourteen-year-old she thinks she is).
I’m glad my cute little car is better! And tell Jensen that there’s already a picture of Elder Hackett in the batch I sent you. There’s the silly one of the three Elders posing, the short one with the blonde hair is Elder Herrman, the one in the middle with his jacket off is Elder Homer, and the dark-haired one being silly on the end is Elder Hackett. But I DO love that line about the barber. I will use it. Later. Elder Hackett was transferred on Wednesday though, so I probably won’t see him for a while. He was very excited to go back to “Exile” as he calls it. See, here in my zone, we’re right in the middle of everything. We hang out with the Assistants to the President and go down to the office every other day. The President’s house and the Temple are both close by. We’re right in the middle of EVERYTHING, so we see the other missionaries a lot. But there are some missionaries who get sent out to lonelier parts of the mission. Were, it’s pretty much just you and some other mu-cha-cha wandering around the desert looking for people to teach. Elder Hackett likes this set-up a bit more. Still he’s fairly new out here (He’ll probably go home shortly before I do) so I’ll probably see him again sometime.
Pulga is “fun”. I suggested palm reading and card tricks and the other missionaries quoted that “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live” scripture at me.
I heard that Lawyer’s in Love song in the store this morning and thought of Daddy. Our leaders are getting “slightly” better. (Worse if you ask Hermana Frieszell). But I really miss my own leaders sometimes. I feel like we’ve got a really good ward/stake. People listen. It’s not just that they’re speaking another language, at least not any more, because I basically am Bi-lingual at this point, I’m just “shy” in Spanish more so than English. (And my spelling and grammatical skills in both languages seem to be getting worse as my communication/understanding skills get better.) They’re just… I don’t know. I can tell they’re trying and they DO care and maybe that’s all that’s important. They just don’t trust us very much. They should have been really excited about us getting a Baptismal date this week and all, but instead he just demanded to know if we’d thought to ask if she and her husband are legally married. I wanted to say “Duh.”. That’s one of the biggest problems that we have here, yes, we’re not stupid, we make sure about papers and all of that before we extend the invitation to be baptized. We didn’t say that though, we just nodded and said “Si, por la ley.” Meaning they’re legally married, and then he continued to chew us out for a few minutes about how we have to make sure every time that they’re married. Sometimes they just treat us like we’ve got no idea what we’re doing.
Anyway, I miss daddy-Bishop-sir and his unparallel leadership abilities.
Well, once more… some stories are better told in person. I really want to talk about this one, but I just don’t feel comfortable with it yet. Let’s just say I have to eat my flippant words about demonic possession among the people I’m serving. I didn’t think this was going to be a regular thing out here. In fact it never even crossed my mind that I might see and hear things like this with my own eyes… Anyway, I don’t have much time. Maybe I’ll wait until I can talk about it on the phone with you VERY soon!
Happy Mother’s day soon!!!
Alright, now, my hand-written letter this week is going to be really short. More like a PS, but I wanted to send you something cool. At least, I think it’s cool. It’s my correlation sheet from this last week and it is AWESOME. Me and Hermana Frieszell tried REALLY hard this week to make our goal of getting 20 lessons this week. We ended up with 22. Next week we’re going for 25. As a result, the rest of our numbers went up too. So, I just wanted you to see a brief outline of some of the main people we’re working with right now.
I LOVE you!
Hermana Lillywhite

20 April 2009

Familia, Monday, April 13, 2009
Everybody has been sending me lovely paper, on which to write them letters, so I've selected one of each of a few of them to write to you today, This means I'll be upsetting my usual front and back pattern for art.
Jensen! You're going to use my art for your x-box stuff?! I can think of no higher compliment from one as nerdy as you are, my darling-sister-pants. I've been keeping my eyes open for Elders who you should date once they're finished here. The winner right now is one Elder Hackett. He's got that nose you like, loves Zelda and is known for his consistency. (He's eaten a peanut-butter and jelly sandwich every day for lunch since he got here like 8 months ago) and for his thrifty-ness. (He clearly doesn't spend much on food, at least.) Sounds like Prince Charming, amirite?
Seriously though, the Elders here are so fun. Real good young men. But I think you should think about serving a mission yourself before you fall madly in love with someone.

Yep, I've met some quirky people out here. Texas is sort of like Wonderland that way. Oh, I asked Elder Homer about his mom again, I explained about what you said, but I don't know, I'm worried he's giving up hope of finding his mom. I'm going to keep asking him about it though. He's cool, he won't get angry, he knows it's just because we care.
I've started into my missionary library, FINALLY. Once I've read them all in english I'm going to get the spanish set.
I miss LaneyBug so much. At the pulga this last weekend, the stand next to us was playing the Beatles all afternoon. When "Penny Lane" came on I got all teary and had to fight off feelings of *sigh* by flagging down the nearest person to talk to (pulga is like street contacting, I don't now if I explained it before--you know the cell-phone guys who try to get you to stop at the mall to buy stuff?! We do that, but we're not asking for money, Just your soul.) Anyway, I saw pretty Laney-face in my mind and felt all extrano for a minute. She's such a sweet baby. I've had dreams about comig home too! But they are kind of weird. Still, it's nice to see you all in my dreams sometimes.
I'm learning so much out here, it's pretty amazing..not just about the gospel (though, that's kind of..) the bulk of it, and it's related to everything else I learn) I'm also learning how to COOK, (not just bake, COOK) I'm collecting receipts. I can't wait to make you all FOOD!
I'm turning the Yo-Gabba notebook I've got (the plushy one) into a cookbook.
I'm going to send Jensen and Laney letters too--I made a new poem for her book-I'm gonna send a preliminary sketch.
Anyway, I'm out of time again-there's SO much more I want to tell you all.
But...some stories are better in person, I think. 1 1/2 years isn't so long. Love, Hermana Lillywhite

To those in Zion

I do miss the mountains, a LOT. I feel kinda of lost most of the time actually. I never know which direction I'm facing. It frustrates my poor companion to know end when it's my turn to drive, because I still have to ask for directions, every street looks the same and there are no monuments to guide my eye. She's got a 'not-too-helpful' way of trying to get me to learn my way around though. Here's how it works:

*Approaching the intersection*

Lilly "Right or left?" (Derecha o Isqueirda?)

Fries *Silence* (Silencio)

Lilly "Serious. I don't know." (En verdad. No se.)

Fries "What do you think?" (Que piense usted?)

Lilly "Err... We're almost there." (Aaii... Estamos casi alla.)

Fries "Hermana, you know this." (Sister, usted sabe esto.)

Lilly "I don't think I do." (No pienso que yo se.)

Fries *Silence* (Silencio)

Lilly "Alright, left!" (Esta bien, isqueirda!)

Fries "No." (No.)

Repeated about twenty times a day. A veces en Espanol, sometimes in English.
The mountains are like a fortress for me, and it's especially spiritual to remember in context with our ancestors and the work I'm doing here. But, I know that people who move from flat places to valleys like salt lake have the exact opposite dilemma, they end up feeling trapped. Ahhh… my Jensen, she is so cute with her little face and all. Elder Hackett says you should write him, I told him “She doesn’t even write me, she’s not going to write some random Elder I told her to marry.” But I’m glad you’re keeping busy, and hay, you totally did write me this week, and you usually add in an enjoyable paragraph into Mom’s ever so diligent letters… It’s lovely to hear from you all and get news. The other missionaries insist you’ll all forget me. Try not to, okay? By the by with people writing people and such, I’m sorry but the letters for Laney-my-boo y Ginna-gabobin are probably going to have to wait, I’m SO busy right now and I started working on awesome like ‘mock-up’ designs for my ever-longer children’s book for Laney. New characters include Isabelle Orchid, Old Admiral Bones and Rainbow Roadrunner. Also, I don’t know if I ever showed you Fredrick the owl, and I might add in a page for The Stained Glass Orchard, but that’s actually it’s whole entire own story… THANK YOU! By the way for sending me the Castle Mirrors reviews. I swear, I think that is the worst book I’ve ever written, but it’s been my most consistently reviewed considering I finished it and have just been letting it sit there for a couple of years… I’m kind of surprised when it still occasionally gets reviews. I’ll have to rewrite it one day and make it not so terrible.
My car died! Oh, I could cry… it’s such a good little car. At least Laney had an adventure. I hope that they can fix it, I’d feel so bad if I wore it out just in time for Jensen to get it! Poor, poor Hung Car. They can fix him though, make him better, faster, stronger! Very impressive work mommy, you could probably give Jason Statham some seriously epic competition.
SO sad that Jensen missed the demo. But that’s great that Sifu’s having more success with the school! I’ve been trying to practice, but I’ve just got NO time. I should be obedient and exorcise in the morning, but I’ve got to admit, more often than not I’m like “…Read in the Book of Mormon, or exorcise?” and studying wins a lot, but I should take better care of myself. I’m going to get all gross and pudgy.
Oh… err, I’m not sure I should admit to this. I think I saw a little tiny bit of that movie that absolutely EVERYONE has written me about. This movie would be Taken. We were checking up on a contact from an English member. (He served in Peru, I think, a number of years ago and was talking with the woman who cleaned his office building—the lovely Miss Maria—and I think she must have asked him where he learned to speak Spanish,) anyway, it came out that she has a Book of Mormon in English and she can’t read it! So, he offered to have us come by and give her one in Spanish and teach her. The kids were watching that movie when we came over. It was the really intense bit when the girl gets kidnapped too. But we waited for a minute while she looked for the channel-changer, and I realized when he said “They’re going to take you” that this was the movie that a number of people had mentioned in their letters. Looks very much like a man movie. I’ll probably love it in a year and half. Liam Neeson is so adorable.
So, this woman is amazing though, she’s SO sweet, and she was asking all kinds of questions and midway through our lesson her friends came over and her boyfriend got home and everyone just kind of sat down on the couch and listened quietly. It’s interesting how so often it seems like we end up teaching a larger group of people. Once, we were teaching a man on his balcony outside and his neighbor came out on her balcony with some snacks and sat in to listen. People are usually at least “curious” to know, what’s difficult is getting that curiosity to make them want to actually DO something. So often you’ll talk about how wonderful the gospel is and this happens:
“Wouldn’t you like to have everlasting happiness?”
“Yeah!”
“Well, you can! And we’ll tell you how.”
“No, I’m okay.”
Urrgh.
Oh, there’s so much I want to talk about… Some stories are just better told in person. Here’s one that’s ridiculous either way, and it didn’t even happen to me, so I’m kind of cheating: Elder Herrman got to help our Zone leader Elder Clark cast out a demon.
I didn’t think missionaries did that. We’ve been asking questions since it happened and apparently anyone can cast out a demon, but you’re more likely to get the desired result (the ‘casting out’ bit) with a priesthood holder/true believer. If you just say the words and don’t really have any faith to back you up then you’re just going to look dumb. Elder Clark didn’t look dumb though. He’s English, of course, Hispanics typically want their dreams interpreted, they handle demons on their own. Anyway, one of his former investigators called pleading with them to come help her with her boyfriend/husband (or something, this part of the story I didn’t hear from the direct source) The only part I heard was that the boyfriend was freaking out and screaming at her ever since she’d taken her old Bible off the shelf. So, they took him out to the car and he was talking about how this was such a joke and there was nothing wrong with him, but then he started talking about his life and some of the things he’d been thinking about lately and there clearly WAS something really wrong with this guy. Elder Clark decided to give him a blessing, at the end of it he added the proper words for ‘exorcism’ or whatever you call it, (even though he technically wasn’t supposed to touch him if he did that, was he?) anyway, he said he did it wrong, but it didn’t matter because it still worked, apparently. As soon as he was done the guy started shaking and passed out cold. He woke up again in a few minutes and was fine.
I was advised not to tell you this story because it would scare you, but… I’m going to go ahead and guess that you’ll find it more interesting that scary. Elder Herrman had this to say on the matter: “…That was weird.”
Indeed.
Oh, what else… I have a boyfriend. He’s got pretty russetty/blonde/chestnut hair and big pretty eyes and he’s only a few months old and a puppy. His name is Rocky and he belongs to my neighbors, but he’s SO cute. I’m not sure what breed, but he’s going to be huge, you can tell by his big-old dog paws. It makes me miss all the bad little doggies back home. Is Izzy-Cow much recovered form her surgery yet?
I miss the bad kitties too, I can’t believe Tommy keeps fighting with that pretty neighbor cat. Bad things. Diggy is so fluffy and silly, is his bald patch gone yet?
The weather here has been nuts this week. We were at an appointment with our VERY stubborn, very Catholic investigators and their… I don’t even know how many dogs they’ve got, and when we left their front yard had completely flooded. It was probably about a foot deep, there was no escape, we just had to swim to Hermana Porter’s car. (We had taken her with us to be our miembro.) It’s SO nice when members come to appointments with us, then they can talk to them like normal people and we can be like “Look! She’s wearing jeans and tennis shoes and is all normal and adorable and simultaneously filled with the light of Christ, don’t you want to be like her?!”
Arnie is doing so good, but we’re having trouble getting our other investigators to that point. Our one who’s doing the best right now is Aurora. She’s really quiet and for a while we didn’t think she was really interested, but then at our last lesson she just kind of casually mentioned that she’s read all the way up to the end of 2nd Nephi on her own, in addition to the assignments we’ve given her but she wants to be sure before she’ll agree to be baptized. We still can’t get her to come the church though, and that’s a huge problem… I really don’t get why it’s so difficult to get people to just come. It’s not scary! I promise.
I’m only half way through reading your letter, but my companion is getting impatient to leave, so I’m going to have to finish reading/writing later! I LOVE YOU! Kia Kaha
Hermana Lillywhite

Mis Padres y Hermanas y primos y tios y abuelitos! MI FAMILIA!

Extrano a mi familia... MWAH! Les amo, muchisimo.
Did everyone experience a very feliz pascua? I did. I got PACKAGES! Which was honestly so, so lovely! Thank you so much for all the wonderful Easter goodies and for the new paper on which to write more letters to vosotros. My companion laughed so hard when she read how much weight of candy I’d been sent on the boxes. It’s mostly gone already, we gave some to our less-active’s kids and the children in the apartments around us. Also, we tried to give away a little at the Pulga, but I think they sensed that if they stopped for candy they would have to listen to us, so mostly we just ate it that day. I did managed to flag people down though—and in Spanish, none the less “Hola, buenas tardes, usted ha placticado con misioneros antes?” Y el dice “Mande?” and I’ve got him! Yesss, now you have to listen to me talk about the restored gospel and give me your address.
We also realized that although we’d mysteriously run out of chocolate-chips, if you crush up candy bars and add it to the cookie dough, it’s kind of way better than regular chocolate chips. Delicioso. Yes, that candy went to good use. We shared it with the other missionaries as well, but it was just so yummy and we were running low on food, so we ate… probably more than we should So good. Thank you so, so, much Grandma and Mommy! It was wonderful Easter surprise, and helped us to feel a little bit more… normal, for a few minutes.
We must have watched Lamb of God ten times with our investigators, less-actives etc. Trying to help them feel the importance of this last week. I'm not sure it worked, why is it so hard to get people to come to church? We actually offered candy, and we sent members to go pick them up and everything and they mysteriously vanished. Es la vida, pero, que es eso? En verdad. Still, we did absolutely everything we could, outside of violating their agency. I know if we keep trying, eventually we'll see results.
Everything home sounds idylic! I miss those silly ragamuffin kitties and feral rat-boy. Diggy sounds so silly with his bald-patch. ("I'm afflicted with a (Censor*SECULAR*Censor)" but you know:) And bad Tom, fighting with pretty girls, cual es su problema?
That’s funny about Gram and Herbalife, I still haven’t had the opportunity to try some but Hermana Frieszell insists “Oh, you will.”
I see the brand-name everywhere, bumper-stickers and scripture cases ect. I think it’s so funny… That’s so sad about Charlie Young’s farewell, and the Atonement is such an AWESOME missionary subject too. He totally could have tied that all into an Easter message if they’d given him the chance. The dumbest part is that “How can I prepare for a mission?” has got to be the stupidest, most backwards subject to talk about, here’s my answer: You CAN’T.
I’m not saying “Don’t try.”, I’m just saying, “Sorry, you can’t do it—but try anyway.”
You’re going to hit the field and no matter what, you’re not going to be prepared. There’s always going to be a million things you wished you’d done before you left to make yourself into a better missionary sooner. I have yet to meet an exception to this, I’ve meet missionaries who already know the language, like adorable Hermana Dewey who lived in Chile for two years so speaks both English and Spanish fluently, already, she admits that she doesn’t feel prepared to teach people in any language because she understands the gospel but isn’t sure she can explain it to people clearly, then there’s the missionaries (so, very, very many) who can’t figure the language out but have explaining and teaching the gospel down to an art in their own language (which is now useless to them). There’s people who’ve wished they’d gotten into better physical shape, people who’ve wished they had studied the scriptures a little better, people who wished they’d gone to mission prep and people who wished they’d gone out with the missionaries in their home ward when they had the chance so they could start experiencing what it’s like sooner, I’ve meet people who’ve felt like they should have started learning how to talk to total strangers sooner, missionaries who wish they’d taken the time to learn how to cook/clean/do laundry. Missionaries who wished they’d taken the time to break some of those ‘un-missionaryish’ habits a little sooner (swearing/not-looking-people-in-the-eyes/saying ‘um’ every five seconds etc) . Even people who’ve done ALL of this stuff (and it’s a good idea to do all of this stuff) come into the field unprepared. You just can’t really… ‘prepare’ to become a missionary. You just have to do it. Everyone comes into the field with a long list of “things I probably could have done to come into this better prepared”.
So… Do EVERYTHING you can think of to prepare, then go in comfortable in the knowledge that you’re still totally unprepared. That’s my advice.
I’m SO happy Alejandra is going on a mission! That’s so great! She’s going to have such a wonderful experience, and I just know she’ll be able to touch the lives of so many of God’s children out here in the field.
I’m curious, mommy and daddy. My companion has a rather… shall we say… Elitist view on who will be admitted into the Celestial Kingdom and especially who will go to the Highest Kingdom there-in. I’m… a little more ‘happy-bunnies-and-dulces-of-hope’ about it (“Hippie.”- She accuses) I’m not saying she’s like 144,000 about it or anything, and I’m not saying it’ll be particularly crowded, but, anyway, I thought I’d ask for your much valued opinions on this subject, especially on how the ‘ubber-righteous’ of the Celestial kingdom will also be sorted into three categories.
You talked to MANDA! Yay! I love my Manda! I got a lovely package from her &Nafoolio this week too, but of all the lamosity, when the silly UPS man delivered it, I was out working (for a change, she added sarcastically with a roll of her eyes) and instead of leaving a slip or coming back later, or even leaving it on the doorstep(although that’s not safe in gunspoint) he tossed it over the side of this little fence that encloses our ‘porch’ (a slab of cement about two inches wide that we can sort of stand on in order to see if it’s raining or not) it’s hard to explain, but the point is, I didn’t find it for a few days. We’re not sure how long, but when I finally did find it, it had clearly been out in the rain for a while. It was fine, which was awesome and the contents were heaven-sent! So lovely!
I’m so glad you liked the picture card, I wanted to send it to you ages ago, so I’m so happy I finally sent it---I want to keep typing, but mi companera is getting antsie, I’d better finish this by hand! I love you all, Glory to God!
Hermana Lillywhite

Familia, April 6, 2009
I completely forgot to mention in my letter last week that I met Elder Argyle at Zone conference-he was looking for me! (Hermanas are much easier to find) It was very fun! Also, I've been meaning to write the Margetts, but I can't find their address-I know I've got it somewhere, but I can't find it.
That is so cool that Jeremy is going to Uruguay! That is on my list now, there's so many countries I want to visit later. That's where Hermano Hadly and Hermano Richardson served, they sometimes like to line up missionaries at the MTC with teachers who served in the same place (or so I've been told) like with Hermano Antonio teaching a class of state-side spanish speakers. So maybe he'll have one of them as a teacher! Anyway-I want to go there. And Ecuador, and Spain and Guatemala, Argentina-Honduras sounds amazing too. My investigators/ward members always recommend their homelands very convincingly. Want to go to Mexico when I get back?
I had my first exchange this week! I went up to the Woodlands for a day with Hermana Marsh, it was really interesting...Their area has a lot more money than ours. Posh-Texan.
I've been trying to practice KungFu but it's so frustrating--I don't remember my forms! I'm going to keep working on them though--maybe it'll come back to me, the way Moonlight Sonata came back to me inexplicably the other day (not all of it, sadly) I'm sorry. You keep asking where my companion is from, and I keep forgetting to answer. She's from Washington. She's a quarter Japanese though, if that answers your real question.
Oh! I have to tell you. Remember Herbalux from Ugly Betty? It's real!! But they call it Herbalife and hispanic people SWEAR by this stuff. I so do not get it, but keep in your mind an image of Hilda wearing her little button and being taught the restoration by ME, totally happened last week. I haven't gotten to try any yet, but the other missionaries assure me, it WILL happen. They love this stuff. Oh, it's funny how you mention all the stuff I don't ask for. It's not that I don't need anything from home, it's just that I forget every week to ask. My clothing is really not working out so great--it's HOT here, I've got too many long sleeved blouses. Does anyone make a shirt with pockets?! That would save my LIFE. Also, why are thigh-highs so hard to find? And why didn't I bring a photo album to put pictures in? What is my problem?
I honestly don't notice much anymore. I've gotten out of the habit of wearing make-up--I'm pretty sure I look a bit dumpy most of the time too.
But! I am not gaining weight. Which is amazing with how much I EAT. We live off of avacodoes and Tortillas and Crema, which is like sour cream, but Mexican and better. I'm learning to cook some pretty delicious things too...I can't wait to cook for you. I don't think I ever related Arnies' full story--It's pretty great. So, Hermana Frieszell and Hermana Taylor found him knocking, he let them teach him and partway into the first lesson he asked if they knew where he could find the "Mormon church" as he was interested in joining them. Turns out, he has a friend in Mexico who was baptized and recommended he do the same. but he's hispanic and a lot of hispanics kind of don't bother with the internet-so he'd been unable to find "the Mormon church" in the phonebook or anything.
I love this man. He's so smart, he's the newest member in the ward and he's already reading all the lessons in the handbook and asks questions and everything. He's so great.
Wasn't conference incredible? I watched a little in spanish, but the translation is really irritating unless it's pre-recorded, so we started only listening to those..in spanish, I mean.
I'm kind of tempted to just gush about conference for the rest of this letter, I'll just tell you my favorites: err...never mind, I started to look through my notes and realised I'd just end up listing all of them. How adorable and shivering was Anderson?! I already mentioned that Perry answered my prayers. Elder Holland is my hero--President Monson made me sob like a child...It was so wonderful. I LOVE conference. The only thing really that made me sad was just that this is usually a time we all spend together, and that was hard. I hope all the family had a wonderful time!
Is anyone else REALLY excited about the LDS version of the Santa Biblia? cause us spanish speaking missionaries are FREAKING OUT!!!ARRRBA!!!
Seriously. There was some dancing.
I was so happy to get a couple of lovely letters this week! Mom, I want to tarry--but you knew that already, I poured over that chapter you sent me.
I LOVE the scriptures. I always did, but it's different now. I already gushed a bit about Ammon. I love the missionaries and the warriors and most especially the missionary warriors! One hour a day is NOT enough study time.
I love Alma so, so much. And Daddy I read all those articles you sent-they are GREAT please send more when you feel inspired, they helped me out a lot with some of my personal study in Alma/Mosiah this last week.
I've got to go--I've only got 2 more minutes of Pday! I love you all, Hermana Lillywhite
P.S. Happy Easter! I love chocolate--do I get a package?!

P-day is Stupid Sometimes

Seriously, I have no time to do anything. I'm sorry, I can't write an e-mail today. Not a real one, the employment office where we usually print and write e-mail decided that Monday would be a good day to fumagate (sp?). So, we're forced to borrow the mission office computers for five seconds to print anything they've sent us and explain why you're not getting an e-mail! So, sorry, But I'm sending the picture card and the usual hand-written letter this week. I love you all!

Mwah, Hermana Lillywhite

P.S. HOW AMAZING WAS CONFERENCE?! I could die. L. Tom Perry's talk was in answer to my prayers.

Ailsa's Mission President and his wife Sister Sharon Hansen

Serving since July 2008

From the Church News:

Todd B. and Sharon Hansen

Todd Bailey Hansen, 52, Texas Houston Mission; Higley Groves Ward, Gilbert Arizona Highland Stake; ward mission leader; former bishop, high councilor, stake mission president, temple ordinance worker and missionary in the Hawaii Honolulu Mission. National sales director, Genentech, Inc. Born in Cedar City, Utah, to Robert Carvel and Ann Claire Bailey Hansen. Married Sharon Elder, four children.

A stake Relief Society president, Sister Hansen is a former ward Young Women president, seminary teacher and gospel doctrine teacher. Born in Van Nuys, Calif., to Morris Day and Verna Ingram Elder.