Hi!

That’s so sad about poor Chester, but you’re right, he’s probably frolicking happily in heavenly fields of green with all our other animals. I’ve got one story I was supposed to write last week, but I forgot! Here is it: Rose and Erica Sanchez two of our investigators (They should be on the progress record that I sent you.) We went and taught Rosa alone and she asked us to come back so we could talk to her 18 year old daughter Erica too. They don’t really get it though—they’re both VERY talkative. Rosa says she’s completely catholic and that she and all her descendants are going to DIE catholic, just like all of their ancestors. We were pretty reluctant to go back after we taught both Rosa and Erica and were held prisoner in their house for THREE hours while they refused to shut up about their lives, which are, though fascinating, not easily made relevant to the message of the restoration. They were very grateful to us for listening to them and for the advice we managed to gasp out in between their long, long discourses of utterly sad including but not limited to: coma dreams, divorce, assault, other crimes, alcoholism and general pathology. All in Spanish, peppered with bits of English as Rosa doesn’t really speak English, but understands it perfectly and prefers to use some English words, IE “Voy a la grocery store para comprar some manteqilla y sugar para que podamos hacer cake.”
Beautiful.
Anyway, they outright refused to go to church and lots of “I’m dying catholic” was said again and again and again, including the happy phrase “Nunca voy a cambiar.” (I’m never going to change).
We actually did go back though. It was tempting to call it a loss and move on, but I really wanted to see if Erica would read the book of Mormon we left her. Also, she had been really interested in us and what we do as missionaries and had said she wanted to heard more (though we’d barely gotten to teach anything the whole time we’d been there.)
Not only did she read it, she fell in LOVE with it. We went back the next week and watched the restoration video with them (we figured they couldn’t talk if they were watching a movie) when it was over, Erica started gushing about how much she loved the book. She’d gotten in trouble for reading it at school and her friends had been getting it too under her influence. Her friends and family had noticed her change and had been demanding to know what had happened. It’s only a week later but she says that she loves it and she just feels happy when she reads it.
Rosa on the other hand, had only read 3rd Nephi 11 (the chapter we assigned) but we were just happy she did that, she wasn’t going to (she told us she didn’t want to read it) but Erica basically made her. Awesome. However, Rosa was very impressed by the movie. She said that if was difficult to believe, and that she still thinks that she’s going to die catholic but maybe “There’s something better for my children”. We’re going to keep working with them. It’ll probably be a while, because they’ve got more problems than… well… think of something that has a lot of problems and then multiply that by like 27. They also have issues with pretty much every commandment ever, but I think they’re going to get baptized. Probably not for a while, but still, it’ll happen.
Aside from that, I don’t really know what to say about this last week. I’m SO tired. We taught 23 lessons total, plus Pulga and Zone conference and service (Which was really fun, we went to one of our in-active’s house and helped her make empanadas to sell. I think she really appreciated our help, but the coolest part was that I now know how to make empanadas:) Give a girl an empanada and she’ll eat it, but teach a girl to make empanadas and she’ll always have friends.
Your trip sounds AMAZING! I love all the food. There’s a Taqueria here too! But I haven’t been yet. I might have to wait until I’m with a different companion to go. Hermana Frieszell loves food, but doesn’t tolerate fast food unless we’re with the Elders, who sadly have NO imagination and always just want to go to one of three boring places (McDonalds/TacoBell/Subway) which is fine, but seriously… I like a little variety sometimes, even in my fast food.
Thank you for sending me the info all about your trip, I’m glad you had a good time and got to visit with so many old friends!
I so begged to go to the Winchester Mystery House, remember?! 30 bucks for a tour is pretty-much a rip-off though. I’d just go check the house out like you folks did and then maybe accidently get lost and if anyone noticed me wandering around someplace I’m not supposed to be, I’d just pretend to be a ghost. I’m creepy enough, they’d probably believe it. Hey, so guess who thinks I look like a vampire? The Elders. And some of the less-actives kids. And some of the members.
They all claim that they haven’t heard from anyone else to bring it up, but seriously, I think someone is having a laugh, because I have said NOTHING about vampires at all except to mention gleefully that I’m pretty sure Tim Burton is doing Dark Shadows.
Anyway, I wish I could write more, but my poor comp so wants to play right now, so I’ve got to go!
OH! I get to call on Mother’s day, I think, but we know NOTHING about it, so please keep the phone available this weekend, I might get to call Saturday or Sunday, but I don’t know when or anything, they’re not being very helpful with information. Also, I don’t have dad’s cell number memorized anymore, but I might resort to calling that if I can’t get a hold of the home phone. SO annoying that I don’t know more, I know! I think I can only talk for 40 minutes too… anyway, I LOVE you all, so, so, so, so, so, so, so MUCH!
Hermana Lillywhite

P.S. Rest in peace little ratty-boy.