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