Monday, June 29, 2009

Happy Week!

Fambly!
Hi everybody, not too much to say except that after a couple of phone-calls and some first-class ward involvement Antonia and Patricia were successfully baptized and confirmed on behalf of their sister Elizabeth who died in 95 when she was about fourteen. It was very touching for them, and I wished we could have been there, but we had an appointment with Emily and Luis who’ve got dates for the 12th right now… the only problem is that Emily has a problem with coffee and they both have a problem with being able to keep all our appointments. We brought a recent convert who we’re working with, Roberto who is one cool kid, but sadly he kind of knows it. He wasn’t much help with the lesson. He’s got to work a little on the whole “church” thing, but I think a very healthy crush on the cutest and smartest and most reverent and attentive young woman in the whole ward should help. We figured out that he was carrying a torch for the lovely miss Hermanita forget-her-last-name, after we sat in on the Sunday School class with Patricia and Antonia. It’s very cute and obvious. She’ll never go out with him if he doesn’t start helping the missionaries more:) At least that’s what we’ll tell him.
It was SO fun getting to chat with daddy for a couple of seconds por medio de correo electronico. Although the practice is generally frowned upon (because some elders decided to go ahead and spend all their P-day e-mailing back and forth with their girlfriends) it’s acceptable to occasionally be on the computer at the same time and say HI! For a second or two, as long as it doesn’t go nuts or eat up all your time. (we’ve got an hour for e-mail)
Let’s see… que mas? OH! I gave a talk in Church. In Spanish. On El Dia de Resposo. Everybody says I did really well. Lies, lies, lies, it was probably pretty painful for a native speaker to hear. I was nervous, so I couldn’t think much about pronunciation or anything, I’d be willing to bet I had one of the worst accents ever. Hermana Forsling says that when my pronunciation is bad I “speak Spanish with a Russian accent” if you can imagine. And, she actually has a template for how that would sound, since we’ve got an Elder here, Elder Poole, who spoke Russian as a second language already and learned Spanish out here. Anyway, when I think about it, it’s not bad, but when I’m nervous, my Spanish sounds pretty weird. I just don’t have the same excuse as Elder Poole. Who knows what my problem is.
This morning, I was in the laundry room changing, which meant I was out of sight of the rest of the apartment. Hermana Forsling came out of our bedroom and couldn’t find me for a split second. So in her anguish she said something to the effect of “Not again!”
She had a companion hide in the kitchen cupboard as a joke once, and it was REALLY, REALLY funny until a few companions later when one of her companions actually did disappear (she didn’t leave the apartment, she just locked herself in the closet for six hours and wouldn’t come out). So, we had a discussion about like this:
“I’m not crazy, okay? Are you crazy?!” Hna. Forsling
“No.” Me
“Are you sure? Because, that’s what she said!” Hna. Forsling
I found this story very sad and interesting… Apparently there is actually a missionary psychiatrist whose job it is to go around and give counseling to the troubled servants of God.I hope it’s not too terribly common. Generally this kind of thing speaks of unhappiness, and I just can’t imagine anyone doing this work being properly unhappy… Sure it’s hard and lots of tragic and heartbreaking things happen… but there’s that Eternal Perspective that should keep you going.
I didn’t mean to scare her and we both ended up having a good laugh about it as soon as everyone’s sanity was declared. I wonder if any of my other companions will be crazy. Me and Hermana Forsling really do get along. Maybe a little too well. Every once in a while we have to ‘snap-out-of-it-woman!’ and force ourselves to be serious in time for some lessons or district meeting, or interviews with the president. But she’s a way powerful teacher and I’m learning a LOT from her, so I really hope we get to stay companions at least for next transfer too.
I LOVED Jensen’s Opera essay, it was so funny. Jensen, you really need to go ahead and write that Opera that you described as the Common Man’s Perfect Opera. I imagined myself in an elegant gown seated in the boxes overlooking the stage as the incredible story you described unfolded upon the stage, and since it’s me I was snorting with laughter and almost choked to death on my gum.
I’ll help you write the script/music after I’m finished with my mission, but in the mean time, work on it! It sounds SO good. We can be like Gilbert and Sullivan, accept the silly teenaged sisters version. Who are no longer teenagers. ‘But could’ve fooled me, amirtie?’
We’ll call it: The Venitian of Venice. It will be set in Italy and sung in Spanish.
I was mentioned on the radio again? That was definitely the best part of your letter for Elder Meade to read over my shoulder, our district wanted to know the whole story.
Mom, your dream sounds really interesting… I was just talking about the Stand with Elder Herrman a couple of weeks ago. No one else around us knew anything about it, so we probably sounded pretty apostate, but it’s a really good story and I’d say Randal Flag is one of the best and most accurately evil villains ever. Good representation of pure evil.
Congratulations on getting the job at prosperity! That’s so exciting. Don’t be nervous mom, you got the job because you were meant to have it, and you’re going to do wonders for those kids… if they’re anything like the kids who were at Kimber when I was there, then they’ll need a lot of help and love from somebody exactly like you. I bought Jesus the Christ in Spanish already, I saw the whole missionary library in Spanish for like 12$ and decided to buy it, I thought it would be great Spanish study. It’s been VERY helpful so far, but I haven’t started reading Jesus the Christ even in English yet, because Hermana Frieszell made me promise I wouldn’t until my six-month mark (Julio 7). Before I promised her that, I’d read a little about the war in heaven near the end---I CAN’T WAIT to read the whole thing. Some missionaries have this crappy prejudice against it, and basically refuse to read it because they say it’s not useful like Preach My Gospel or the more basic doctrine that we need to be teaching other people. That’s actually why Hermana Frieszell asked me not to read it until my 6 months. She said it would be better to study the lessons thoroughly first and then read it… I basically disagree entirely with the sentiments behind this way of speaking, but Hermana Frieszell was my trainer, I should honor her memory (she’s be pretty mad if she knew I was already speaking about her like she’s dead:) and I do see that there could be a happy balance to maintain, and besides… I can start reading it in about a week! As crazy as that is.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY LANEY-BOO!!! Your birthday party sounds like it was a blast, all those crazy little girls running around… geez, I’m sad I missed all the chaos. And also, Happy Anniversary mommy and daddy! I love you all a lot… I already sent a short “sorry” to daddy about spending so much money last week. Hna. Frieszell was way good about keeping us in budget, so I feel a bit like a crazy teenager who just got sent out on her own. I’m going to have to learn to handle money a little more wisely from now on!
I REALLY want to see Jensen’s animation projects. I never got the e-mail with the attachments in my inbox---but I got it by regular mail, obviously—still it was such a tease to see the links to the attachments that I couldn’t click.
I love you all a ton! I hope you have an amazing week of birthdays and anniversaries and megamaniacal food eating and Shakespeare watching and take a minute to remember the birth of our fair country. I know Texas will.
Actually, I don’t think we’re allowed outside on the fourth of July.
Bit like marty-gras.
Say MWAH to Grandma and Granpa for me in St. George and to everyone else, I adore you all my cuddly little family! Besito, besito, besito.
Hermana Lillywhite

Monday, June 22, 2009

Besito o Bezito?

Familia mia,
Hey, thank you for forwarding the Schumen’s letters, I’d love to write them sometime, but I need their address to do so… I can’t actually e-mail people outside of you lovely folks.
My week has been really wonderful, I really loved Laney’s cute letter, it was so prettily coloured and she’s getting to be such a good little writer! And mommy thanks for sending Lauren and Cody’s letters along with yours and the cute, cute little girl comics. I really appreciate hearing from you guys. I know your busy, and that normal life does go on… as weird as that is to think about.
Pati and Antonia are doing well. Their mother (sort of) wants us to start teaching her too. I think she’s just finally curious about this church her daughters joined. So we’ve tried to invite her in on the lessons but she usually just says she’s tired and takes a nap instead or just disappears mysteriously. Anyway, we’re still going to try and teach her, and the brother too. We’re a little concerned though, the mother has got the girls wearing some kind of little machine. It looks like a beeper but it’s not. It can’t give them any information. It doesn’t do anything, it just sits on their hip and gets mad and beeps when it gets dark or if they leave it in the same spot for too long, and then I guess if it suspects something suspicious is happening it’ll actually call these people who then call the mom. I don’t know what they do after dark, but this thing is weird, it sounds like some kind of device to keep track of them. I really don’t know what it’s about, but the girl’s mom said it has something to do with television ratings. All very sketchy. The website for this thing is this panel.relations@arbitran.com and the phone number is 1-800-277-9136. Do you have any idea what this is, or why this mom is making her daughters were it all the time?
Aside from that, not much to report. We’ve got another young woman Emily, whose got a date for the 5th. She really wants to be baptized and is already going to church and all the young women activities, but we’ve been having trouble finding time to come actually teach her all the lessons she needs. And Pati and Antonia are really excited to go be baptized and confirmed for their sister who died years ago. In church last week someone told the story of how Hyrum was baptized and confirmed for Alvin and Pati and Antonia have been really excited about doing this for their sister since before their own baptism. They were really excited when I explained that Hyrum was my great-great-great grandfather and alive my great-great-great uncle. Is that the right number of greats? I started to try counting but… it’s just not working out for me right now. I’m pretty beat. This week was rough. We had a ward party Friday and that was quite fun. It was a talent-show for father’s day. The Elders did a skit and a few senora’s sang for us and then they had a belly dancer perform for us.
The Bishop was out of town (driving his son to MTC)! So, a few people were pretty scandalized. I don’t really blame them. One of the young men we’re teaching (recent convert and sixteen years old) tried to argue that Belly Dancing is an ancient art and very beautiful and perfectly appropriate in every setting. I’d have to agree to some point, but their particular Belly Dance didn’t really qualify as acceptable and he’s a sixteen year old boy so of course he’s going to enjoy it.
The poor girl was clearly trying, okay, she wore, what was actually a fairly modest belly-dancing outfight, but it was still bare-midriff and all, and Hermana Forsling and I basically decided that at the very least she needed to have a leotard on underneath this Barbie-pink (or red depending on who you ask, the debate is on-going and I am NOT colour-blind) jangling silky thing that she was wearing. Also, there is a way to dance with more technique and beauty and less sex appeal, but I don’t think she knows how to do that, or she just doesn’t care. In any case… Hermana Forsling has a good friend whose a belly-dancer and knows a little about technique and had to explain to our investigators and recent converts who were present, that ’Yes, okay, there was probably something kind of wrong with that, but belly-dancing itself isn’t bad if you know how to do it properly, and also, probably not at a church…’ etc. In the end we all just kind of laughed about it. But a few people are anxiously awaiting the return of the bishop so they can point out the golden calf or something.
Luckily, the belly-dancer isn’t in our ward. I think she’s the daughter/niece of the person in charge of the party.
Have I mentioned that Latino Parties are in stark contrast to white-people fiestas? It’s pretty fun.
So how is everyone?! How is Grandma’s back? How are Laneybaby and Ginna in school?! Are they OUT of school already?! Am I really approaching six months out here? How are mis padres and mis abuelitos y tios y primos y todo?! COMO ESTAN!? I’m going to wrap this letter up with a plee for more information… I heart cada uno de vosotros. (I don’t know why I’m always inclined to use vosotros with my family, seeing as how I’m in Texas and we usually have to explain what vosotros is to people who don’t already read sus santas biblias.
Really though, is everything really as normal and wonderful as it sounds? How’s the weather for biking/swimming, any fun changes/haircuts/impending engagements or births? I LOVE you, littlekiss, littlekiss, littlekiss. (I was going to write besito, but my companion says it’s bezito and I think she’s telling me wrong as a joke, but I’m just confused now, so I translated it into English instead)
Corazon, Hermana Lillywhite

Monday, June 15, 2009

Mi Juanita

Familia,
Thank you so much for the CUTE comic. I’m losing my incredibly close relationship with pop culture slowly, so it took me a minute to figure out what was going on, but then, oh, how I laughed! The article about the MTC was interesting too. We seriously don’t get any news out here at all unless we can hang around the senior couples more, which in my new area, isn’t really possible. Anyway, if everything goes according to plan, we’re going to get our new missionaries on Wednesday (TWO WEEKS LATE!) which is longer than the article said, but whatever, they’re finally coming which is good, cause we need those babies.
I’m becoming quite the expert on the Harmonica actually. It’s kind of hard to practice though, sometimes I play it in the morning before studies for a few minutes; the hymns are simple enough, and Come, Come ye saints actually sounds pretty perfect on a harmonica I found out.
Home sounds wonderful! I still really want to see Jensen’s animations and thanks so very much for the photos! (the link to blog) I was very happy to see them, but I hope you realizing that mis padres Y una de mis hermanas no esta en los photos… Porque? The rain sounds nice. We had a bunch of thunder storms out here for a while, but now it’s just hot all the time.
I don’t have a great deal of time today (again) sadly, because my new companion began telling me her life story today. It’s FASCINATING. I’ve already got a book planned. Anyway, I just let her talk because I was actually really interested to hear this and we usually can talk, but in short quick intervals between lessons and during meals and not for hours at a time. During companion study we have to strive hard not to get side-tracked, because we are two people who like to talk. Anyway, we finally looked at the clock and realized we still have a load of stuff to do today. And besides that, there’s really only one story that I want to tell you think week…
Remember the twins? Well, Patricia and Anotnia went to girl’s camp last week, while Juana stayed home. She did this because she was planning to leave on a trip to go visit “her aunt” for the rest of the summer. Her mom doesn’t want her to go, but she’s not really going to stop her which is too bad… So, we’re going over every day, thinking that we might never get the opportunity to see her again in this life. We ask her to pray about her trip to see if it’s the right this to do. We already know it’s a really bad idea, because her boyfriend doesn’t live terribly close to this aunt, but… it’s just really likely that at some point during the months she’s there, he’ll come to visit, and besides that she was supposed to get baptized, and is now putting that on hold until she comes back right before school. But, her sister’s are squared away and ready to go for this last Sunday.
Juana asks us to come back every day so we can teach her and talk more, and she finally tells us that she prayed and she’s not going. So, we start to talk about her getting baptized again and she says she really wants to, but she’s afraid because her boyfriend hates the church (he doesn’t know anything about it, but he has a huge problem with Mormons). Friday night we come by, tell her again that we’re so happy she’s going to be in town for her sisters’ baptism and that we want her to fast and pray about her own date for baptism, she says alright and makes an appointment with us for the next night (Saturday night before the baptism). Saturday morning, Patricia and Antonia get home from camp and we get a frantic phone call that Juanita is missing. The mom thinks that WE kidnapped her! Antonia knows we haven’t but the mom made her call us anyway, we tell her to check and see if she took clothes/left a not/call the bus station and see if she bought a ticket etc. Then we rush over there as fast as we call. Turns out, her clothes are gone and so is a bag, she hasn’t bought a bus ticket or left a note. We get to the house and aside from the fact that Antonia and Patricia are distraught, everyone is acting pretty normal and not in crisis mode. The brother’s chatting to a friend on the phone and listening to his death music and the mom and boyfriend are hiding in their lair. Antonia has to come out and unlock the gate for us, she looks happy at first but the second we come in she immediately bursts into tears and is clearly not alright. The four of us hid in their bedroom from the rest of the family and had a super-long lesson/conversation about temples, actually, and about their baptism the next day. They were both more determined than ever to get baptized. I think their sister leaving home just prompted them to make some right choices.
Pati finally reveals the note that Juana left—a note which she has decided not to tell her mother about for the time being, she lets us read it, and then we’re all crying and hugging again. It basically just said that she loves her sisters but she’s going to leave town with her boyfriend, so they can go have a better life together far away from this ‘home’ she’s got now.
Now, here comes the tough part were we all have to pray together, because while all this is happening, the very hostile boyfriend of the mom has apparently put it into the mom’s head that Mormons are very bad, bad people and that she does NOT want to let her daughter’s get baptized. Pati is eighteen and immediately says that she doesn’t care what her mom says, she’s doing it, she knows it’s true and no one’s going to stop her. Antonia on the other hand, feels the same way, but is only 14, so she need’s her mother’s signature to get baptized. And we don’t have that yet.
So, we decide to invade the lair of mom and boyfriend. We very eloquently make our case, after explaining again that we would never take Juana away in secret and that we only want the best for all of them and definitely want them to stay united as a family. I can see that during the process of this conversation, the mom is becoming more and more impressed with us and is listening less and less to her creepy boyfriend who basically says “Don’t let them do it, they’re really bad kids and it won’t change them, it’s a big decision and they’re just going to run off like Juana did,” Antonia and Pati were both very good and refrained from yelling, which is a new skill we’re teaching them.
Then… and I can’t believe this even went down, then, this scary person (boyfriend) begins devising a plan to get Juana back. The mom has demanded that Pati bring her the file that has their IDs and social security cards and birth certificates and everything. Pati only needs to look through it for a second to figure out that Juana took ALL of her information (smart girl). So, they boyfriend says “If we file a false police report they HAVE to go after them, all we have to say is that he kidnapped her, or that he raped her and they’ll have to track them down and take them into custody.” He goes off talking about this for several minutes in a room with Antonia and Pati who honestly woudn’t mind seeing his locked up, and two people who CAN’T LIE. After this long rant of plotting however, Antonia speaks up and says “Uh, that’s like, really, REALLY illegal and you can’t do that. And also, it’s evil.”
Yes. Yes it is Antonia. Mom turns to ask us what we think we should do, and our reply: “As representatives of The Church, we really can’t advise you on anything related to this or any other legal matter.”
So, mom still hasn’t agreed to let the girl’s get baptized. We had to leave because we had other appointments that day, but we came back at the end of the night when we were all finished, and had another lesson and a long talk with mom and boyfriend. We learned a lot. Boyfriend has two grown children (who he doesn’t have a great relationship with) who are members of the church. He’s never apparently discussed this with them or met with the missionaries, but that’s why he’s way suspicious of us. He already has this prejudice against the church because he doesn’t understand why his children joined. We ended up giving a short first lesson to them too, then FINALLY convinced the mother to sign Antonia’s baptismal record.
I wish I could say that the family came to the baptism, but they didn’t. Juana called Sunday and the mom said some pretty horrible things to her over the phone (she’s disowned) and Antonia defended Juana and ended up fighting with her mother about it, so the mom refused to go and the rest of the family decided to do other things.
The baptism was beautiful. I’ll be sending pictures soon.
Wherever Juana is and whatever she’s doing, I hope she’s happier and safer than she was at home. The good news is, this experience has led her to trust missionaries, probably more than she trusts anyone else, so if she ever meets them again, she’d be sure to let them in and give them a glass of water. As long as the boyfriend isn’t there…
We haven’t exactly given up though. There are missionaries in Alabama too, if we can ever get her address, we’ll send them after her.
That was my weekend! I’d really love to hear from you all soon, I love to know what’s going on back home. I’m working hard out here, I’m tired, but I’m happy. I love you!
Con amor, Hermana Lillywhite

Monday, June 8, 2009

Crosstimbers

Hi everyone! What a week… I really want to tell you everything, but there’s so much. First off, everything back home sounds like fun. I had an apostate moment and looked at dad’s blog, all those pics are so fun! Which reminds me, why don’t I have any pictures of you from the last six months!? Well, I’ve got one of Jensen in her cute marshing my mallow shirt, but that’s it! That’s so fun that you got a redwood tree mommy, I’ll have to go with you when you return it to Marin. There’s a few missionaries from up there (not Marin specifically) and they talk about it sometimes and I get all wistful.
Also, I was curious to know if I could have any of the pictures from MY baptism. Did we take any? I feel like we did, but I can’t see them in my mind. Anyway, we talk about baptism and I usually show people pictures from the two baptisms I’ve had, but I was thinking it would be a good idea if I showed them ME getting baptized.
Would you all do a favor for me?
Watch the movie bedazzled and pay specific attention to the drug-lord bit and just giggle for me. I’m bi-lingual now you know
Aside from that I really just want to tell you about my new area and companion!
Sooo… remember how I told you that Gunspoint was the ghetto of Houston? Well, Gunspoint is the ‘CULTURAL’ ghetto. Very hip-hop. “Hi can I give you this card? Wow, nice grills.” – like that.
My new area, Crosstimbers (near 5th ward Houston, which is where George Foreman is from) is ghetto in the way that it’s poor, dirty, falling apart and everything is in Spanish. I’ve seen dozens of abandoned houses, most of which have caught fire at some point, everything is coated in graffiti, so giving away pass along cards goes more like this “Puedo darle esta tarjeta? Oh—No, no tengo dinero. Quiere una manzana?”
It’s very sad. There are ladies of the night everywhere and the drug lords ride by in real nice cars. Pretty depressing.
But, people are way more willing to talk about God when they’re poor. I’m touched by how humble these people are, even if they don’t accept everything they’ll let you talk to them and they’ll try to understand.
We’ve got a baptism this weekend. Two sisters Pati (18) and Antonia (14). The sad thing is that they were originally teaching another sister, Juana (Pati’s twin sister) but when they asked her if she woud get baptized she said she’d only do it if her twin got baptized with her, so they started teaching the other two sisters, and now Juana doesn’t want to get baptized STILL, although she admitted that she knows that the church is true and that she also knows she’s going to get baptized someday, but she just doesn’t feel ready to do it right now. I’m worried she’s planning to leave home. Their family is a pretty big mess right now and she’s got a boyfriend who lives in Alabama. She’s going to Georgia this week (she’ll miss her sisters’ baptisms) to stay with an aunt, but we’re all pretty sure she’s actually going to see the boyfriend and may or may not return. Her mother know about all of this (we talked with her about it) and doesn’t want her to go, but sadly, she’s really not that great at the whole parenting thing.
Hopefully, we’ll figure something out. In any case, Pati and Antonia are amazing girls and they’re all squared away. Pati has changed a lot. She used to just mope around the house, hated everyone, didn’t think her sisters cared about her at all… Very sad, but since she’s started learning about the gospel she says that she’s happy. She has hope for the first time in years and she and her sisters have grown closer as a result of having something to share besides a room.
I’m in the coveted Houston Zone. It’s the only all-Spanish zone in the mission. Everyone was jealous, but I don’t really get why, nobody really speaks Spanish unless we’re with natives (which I think is lame) and yeah, we baptize more here but there’s also a ridiculously low rate of people who stay active. They’re all about numbers. Makes me a little sick to be honest… but it’s alright, I know they’re working hard at least and the people who get baptized here and DO stay active, are awesome.
My Greenie-breaker, Hermana Forsling, is way fun. Her style of teaching is way different from Hermana Frieszell. There’s no formality at all, she’s just chatting with them. It’s good from some people, but I can see how she’d be pretty ineffective with many of my old investigators in Greenspoint. I do have to figure out a way to interrupting her and get her back on tract sometimes though. Or point out that we’re running out of time and have half a lesson to teach still.
She’s awesome though. She’s a cosmetologist, so she’s already helped me out with my hair and nails. She used to race cars for cash in Los Angeles when she was 13, made a good amount of money too apparently, but then figured out it was not only illegal, but legitimately dangerous when she saw someone else crash. Houston driver’s are TERRIBLE. If you think Utah drivers are bad, come to Texas, get good and stressed out and then go back to Utah and be blessed with patience for others for the rest of your life, I’m telling you… It’s nice to have someone driving who knows how to maneuver around idiots. I’ve been teaching her Kung Fu in the morning. I should get her to teach me how to really drive, though I think her advice would be something like “Go really fast, but not too fast and don’t hit anybody or anything with the car.”
So, everything’s pretty shiny. I’m still getting to know her and my new area. I’m glad my package and everything arrived. I was sad I couldn’t hang onto that stuff, but I can’t believe how much space I do not have in my luggage anymore… I’m probably going to need to send some more stuff home soon. I’ve got a big box of letters I’ve gotten from people that I want to keep, but maybe not WITH me through my whole mission.
I hope you get the job at Kimber mom, you would be so great! I was thinking about good old Kimber the other day… I’m really glad I went there and also that I left when I did. You never know when random knowledge from Kimber is going to come in handy. For instance, Elder Brisco asked “What year did the Book of Mormon end?” and I said “421.” And they all stared at me.
Kimber hook date.
Very nearly useful when you’re trying to save souls.
My new apartment complex is on Jensen St. I’ll have to take a picture of myself by the sign.
My new apartment is a lot bigger and nicer than the last one. (We don’t actually live in our area, I think they thought it wasn’t safe). And the dishwasher works which is a step-up.
I thought that with time it would get easier to resist writing, but it’s actually getting harder. I still like of ideas for stories all the time, and I haven’t actually started anything, but I got pretty close once or twice. The only thing that saves me is that I don’t. Actually. Have. Any. TIME. Still, I was thinking that for my preparation-day language study, I might try writing a little of whatever I want in Spanish. Nobody ever practices writing the language for their language study (Hermana Frieszell would sometimes write letters in Spanish for her Preperation-day language study, and I’ve done that too). I was really hoping that being in Houston Zone would help with speaking Spanish more, but no. They’ve all been around A LOT longer than I have and feel comfortable enough with Spanish that they don’t feel the need to practice any longer and if I just speak Spanish alone people get frustrated (because it takes longer for me to explain myself) or annoyed (because they’re all speaking English). And sadly, my companion, I’m pretty sure, doesn’t really do language study anymore. I guess a lot of missionaries get to the point where they feel like people understand them and they stop studying. But that’s total bull. I’m getting better at recognizing when other missionaries mess-up in the language, which they all do, A LOT. And besides, I didn’t feel like I understood the English language very well at all until I finished writing that first book and then when I finished the second I realized I STILL didn’t understand it completely. I don’t think you can ever learn any language perfectly. And Especially since Spanish is my second I NEED to keep studying, even if the rest of my Zone is lame… I think I’m going to start taking little moments out of the day to read Nuestro Legado or Jesus El Cristo. I really don’t want to plateau like everybody else.
Any more news about whatever is going down at the MTC? Our new missionaries are still trapped in there. They said they MIGHT come this week, but we don’t know. Hermana Quitana and Hermana Thomas were getting a baby, so was Elder Rowberry. They’re all quite angry about the delay, and I don’t know if it’s true, but it sounded like the quarantine included all the workers/teachers/volunteer or other staff who had been there at the time and not just the missionaries who are trapped them anyway? Is nobody really allowed to leave, or is it just that they’re not letting them fly?
I really, really am dying to see Jensen’s projects. If they’re up on Youtube or something, I think I can watch them if you send me the link. I’ll say it’s like if you’d sent me a picture. Except it moves
I really miss you all a lot, but I am loving it out here and I can’t believe it but I’m almost a 1/3 of the way through! AHHH! That’s crazy, I feel like I just got here… It’s a little early to talk about this, I think, but the other missionaries are already asking, so I thought I’d bring it up. There’s a choice next year. I can take the early transfer and come home june 16 or I can take the late one and come home 6 weeks later (I’m not sure on the date, I only know june 16, because it’s what’s written on my ministerial certificate and is the date that the mission currently has me going home at) I was planning to try and take the late one home so I could show up just in time to go to San Clemente with the family (BECAUSE WE’RE GOING, RIGHT?!) and get to see everybody all together right when I got back! But then I remembered that Laney’s going to be turning 10 end of june and it would be way, way awesome to be back in time for that… I don’t know, I’ll probably fast and pray about it when it’s a little more relevant, but I thought I’d bring it up with my loverly fambly and see what you think.
Oh, also, if you’re not going to San Clemente next year (or anything of the sort) then I might also take into consideration the option of extending. It probably wouldn’t be the wisest thing, because I’d probably have to come home and immediately jump into school and nobody likes that, and also, I can only extend 21-30 days which isn’t a full transfer and would involve me going home. All. Alone. Which could be soul-crushing. I may need a group of ten/fifteen other dying missionaries to hang out with a keep my spirits up.
I really shouldn’t even be thinking about this stuff so soon, but everyone keeps saying that it’ll be relevant sooner than I think, and plus, so far both of my companions and a lot of the Elders I hang out with are dying, so for them it is relevant and I have to try all the time to keep them from getting trunky. Like poor Hermana Frieszell the week I left was sharing what she’d done in Personal Study that morning and she said “Well, I was reading the last chapter in the book of Mormon when Moroni is all alone and is just like ‘Uhhh… It’s all over. Everyone’s dead. I’m all alone. Bye.’ and I got really depressed, so then I decided to look at an Ensign, but I flipped open to that ‘GET ON WITH YOUR LIFE!’ talk from last conference, and so I decided to make a list of everything fun that I could do when I got home, to try and cheer myself up, but then I got WAY depressed when I was making the list, so I just got in bed and read Jesus the Christ until you called me.”
Drama, drama. Why am I hanging out with all these old people? They’re so cool and they have so much wisdom to impart upon me, but I think I need to be companions with somebody whose my age or younger next transfer to avoid talking about all the stuff they don’t want to do when they go home. (IE: School, work, date…) Hermana Frieszell’s list of stuff she wants to do looked like this: Hang out with all my old companions, make food I learned how to make on my mission for family and friends, write the living missionaries, go to lessons with missionaries every night, cut hair really short, wear jeans again, give investigators rides to church.
Pobrecita. At least she’ll have her clothes back.
Hermana Forsling is getting pretty old too. She’ll be going home in November if she takes the long transfer, which she’s planning too. Hermana Marsh is dying with her and then there’s Hermana Quitana, and Hermana Taylor and then guess who the old ones are? The Hermanas who came out with me and Hermana Blanco and Hermana Hollenbaugh who were both in the MTC when we got there. No idea why, but there’s a HUGE generation gap. So, we really need all those little young missionaries who are trapped in the MTC. I’m already one of the old ones! What is THAT about?
You should write me and talk about how I’ve got plenty of time left to baptize all of Houston. Seriously, I can’t believe I ever considered NOT doing this. Best decision ever.
Well, I love you all SO much, and I’m looking forward to hearing from you soon, but I’ve got to go!
MWAH! Ailsa Lillywhite

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Snail Mail Letter from 1 June



Left to right: Guillermo, Hermana Canales, Hermana Frieszell, Mayra, Christopher, Marisol, Ailsa, former Bishop Diaz.

My Familia, June 1, 2009
I just wanted to send you this picture of Marisol and Christopher! Ellos fueron bautizados en la 24 de Mayo! !Fiesta! But--It was kind of like cheating--because Marisol was already baptized when she was 9 in Honduras, but the church lost her records and she's been inactive for a very, very long time. She lives with her mother, brother, two sisters, one of their husbands, a sister-in-law and ALL of their boys. Hermana Canalas (the matriarch) is WAY active and has been taking her teenaged son and her army of grandsons (including Christopher) to church ALONE every week for ages.
So Christopher has wanted to get baptized for a long time-he's been counting down the days till he turned 8, but he agreeed to wait and get ALL the lessons again with his mom and then get baptized with her. Since her records are no where to be found, he's technically a convert with her, so we had to treat them like converts, which was really strange-but way fun because she's so sweet. The whole process has been really great, but emotionally draining for the entire family and us. but it's all worth it because in the process SHE (Marisol) and one of her sisters have started coming back to church, for the first time in YEARS.
The baptism was beautiful and there was a lot of crying and hugging. It was a realy wonderful, uplifting experience and I'm so happy I could be part of it with them. I'll have to write a tear-jerking mother and son story about second chances someday.
But...we forgot (..the Bishop forgot) to drain the fount. The result was Elder Porter, Bishop Diaz and our ward mission leader Hermano Molina dangling Elder Herrman by his ankles into the fount repeatedly until he finally got the drian unstopped. I'm going to miss this ward. Hermana Lillywhite
P.S. We got it on film.

Monday, June 1, 2009

I got a notice that you didn't recieve my letter from last week, here it is!
May 26 2009

Fambly,
Thank you SO much for the harmonica and the instructions. It’s way good to have a little something to play—I’m hoping to get good enough that I can play it during our lessons while my companion sings. We usually like to sing a hymn with our investigators at the beginning and at the MTC Elder Frei would play the harmonica sometimes. Mommy, I just love all the cute little things that you and laney-boo send me. The wall above my desk is papered with tons of fun stuff now!
Soooo… Sadly, I’ve decided to save my best story of the week for next week… it’ll be old news then, but that’s okay, I just think this story is best told with a picture to go along with it, so that’ll come to you in the mail, and since we weren’t able to print out any pictures yesterday (P-day) I’ve decided to wait. I also wrote NO letters yesterday in addition to not writing an e-mail, and this is because we had a very special P-day. Also, it was memorial day, so everywhere we could have written e-mail was closed. That’s why I’m writing today instead! Elder Russell is dying in a week and our district decided to go down town! We had to get permission from the President because it’s not technically in our mission.
So we got downtown (rode the bus) and here’s what happened.
Elder Herrman: “Gee, it sure is great that you got President’s permission to leave the mission!”
Elder Porter: “Err… About that.”
Elder Herrman: “…You did ask didn’t you?”
Elder Porter: “Yeah. I asked.”
Elder Herrman: “…And he said yes?!”
Elder Porter: “Hey, let’s go to Chase tower everybody!”
Classic. It was hilarious and Elder Porter kept it up all day to freak out his companion into thinking we’d all gone apostate, but really we had permission all along.
We had a good time too, but we didn’t get to go to Chase tower, or ANYWHERE downtown, because it turns out that instead of having sales and stuff Downtown Houston pretty much just shuts down on memorial day. NOTHING was open, and NOBODY was there. It probably looked like something out of a post-apocalyptic movie to have the six of us in an empty, quiet city… It was just us and some Jehova’s Witnesses wandering around among the skyscrapers, wounding if we should rumble.
So, we went to the Zoo instead
That was really fun though, the Houston Zoo is pretty impressive, but it was weird to be around all these people without calling anyone to repentance or giving pass-along cards or anything. We ran into a lot of Members too. I sort of felt like I at least set the snakes loose, or do something vaguely biblical. Still, we had a lot of fun together. I didn’t take very many pictures though because I started feeling bad for the animals. It’s so hot and they all look so sleepy during the day.
I hope Grandma is feeling better now that she’s home and resting! It would be way tough to keep working through all that pain… I hope she and grandpa are doing well.
Last week, we did service with the English Elders at a Member’s house. A lady in their ward. It was strange. The Hispanic and the American culture are REALLY different, is what I’m learning. Anyway, she was an interesting lady. She’d joined the church some fifteen years earlier and guess who tried to talk her out of it? Ed Decker.
Her friends were all freaked out that she was hearing the missionary lessons and they put her name on a list for his church to call and try to talk her out of it (I didn’t realize it was such an integral part of their religion to persecute ours, but I’m hearing more and more stories like this) Ed Decker himself ended up calling her, because it was his turn or something, and he almost got her to reconsider her baptism date. He told her to ask for the Elder’s names, promising her that they would be obedient to the rules and withhold that personal information.
They almost didn’t tell her, but eventually caved and she trusted them again.
I wouldn’t have fallen for this one, since out of all of the rules this is the one I find the most… grey area? Shall we say? I don’t go around telling people my name, but if they specifically ask me, in so many words “What-is-your-first-name-please?” then I’ll usually give in and tell them after a brief guessing game which NO ONE ever wins. Only if it’s an investigator, member or another missionary, though. Random people on the street can call me Hermana.
It was way cool to get to read Lauren and Cody’s letters! It’s really interesting, we all seem to have a lot of the same things to deal with right now…
Jensen is becoming quite the little giggling college girl isn’t she? Just remember ginna-ga-boobin, you are not allowed to get engaged until I come home, and also, you’re going on a mission.
Laney’s projects sound like adorable fun, I hope she’s having a good time with all of that and will get more time to continue her newsletter and other things this summer!
It’s good bike weather in Utah already? Elder Herrman loves bikes. He gets all trunky whenever he sees someone riding a bike. I’m starting to really love this whole bike-thing a lot too actually.
Aside from that… I don’t have a whole lot of news. Our investigators are doing well. We brought Elder Perry and Elder Porter over for our lesson with Nelly (and more importantly for this story, her 16 year old daughter Maria Jose) and taught them about Chastity with the Elders. The Elders didn’t know that we invited them specifically for this lesson, in fact they were a little embarrassed when they figured out what we were teaching. (Our ward mission leader thinks our Spanish isn’t good enough to teach Nelly and her family, so he asked the Elders to TAKE them from us. The funniest part is that Elder Perry doesn’t even speak Spanish, he’s a Sign-Language missionary and they were on exchanges, but now we can tell our ward mission leader that the Elders came to their house, and Elder Porter can tell him that we communicate just fine with OUR investigator, thank you very much.)
Anyway. I thinking it was really good to have two strapping young men come meet Maria Jose and tell her how much they dig chaste girls.
Well, Elder Perry couldn’t say any of that, but Elder Porter could and Elder Perry could at least nod and say “Si.” Which was good enough, we really just needed they to look pretty so she’d want to come to church.
They moral of the story is. Even when your new ward mission leader is being a misogynistic jerk and trying to give all your investigators to the Elders (who by the way do NOT have better Spanish than we do) you can turn the assignment into something that benefits everyone with a little creativity and an eye single to your goal: the Salvation of Nelly and Maria Jose.
Or something.
Anyway, they other awesome story involves a baptism (!MINE!) and waterboarding Elder Herrman.
And is actually two stories.
And has pictures to go with it.
So, I’ll have to tell you that one later!
I LOVE YOU! MWAH, MWAH, MWAH! Hermana Lirioblanco

And here's my letter from today June 1st 2009

Ya yo voy,
Internet is down---hopefully I’ll be able to send this to you by the magic of computers later on, but in case I have to print it out and mail it, here’s me explaining; internet is broken. I’m pretty sure one of the Elders broke it. This means I haven’t gotten to read your e-mail yet. So, I’m sending one letter in the mail already, for sure, with an awesome picture and story and hopefully that same envelope won’t contain this too.
This week was very surprising. I was positive I’d be in City view for at least one more transfer. I was wrong! Their kicking me out. Apparently I’ve done my work here for now, I helped baptize 3 people, found a decent sized handful of people who will now be taken care of by Hermana Frieszell todovia and Hermana Hollanbough who I went on exchanges with this last week (She’ll be great here). And I’m going to the coveted Houston zone (the only all-Spanish zone in the mission). I don’t know much about my new green-breaker Hermana Forslyng (I don’t think I’m spelling anyone’s name correctly, by the way). But my district includes Hermana Thomas, so it’ll be fun to serve around her again.
I was honestly pretty upset for a second---I really didn’t think I’m be leaving yet and there are SO many people here I still need to baptize. People have the tendency to get sent back to city view though, so… maybe I can come back sometime and serve here again.
My Spanish must e improving because it’s now much easier to understand native speakers. Gringos are getting tougher. Hermana says it’s because I’m improving more and more---good news!
Jensen should read all of Daniel in the old-testament and then illustrate it. Also, I want to read the Opera essay, it sounds like I’d dig it. Mommy! You’re talk was awesome, I’m sad I could see you give it. Thank you also for the anti-Mormon Q’s & A’s, it was a few weeks ago, but I finally got finished reading all of them, way interesting.
Alright, sorry this letter is so short, but I’ve got to pack today! I just wanted to mention two more ridiculous things… There is an Elder here who I’ve yet to meet who apparently has a hilarious (read inappropriate) sense of humour. He’s decorated his planner with a “EAT MORE JEHOVA’S WITNESSES” and pasted the name ‘Joseph Smith’ over ‘Jesus Christ’ in the churches name.
Also, I want a Santa Muerte made of folded dollar-bills and glued together with glitter-glue. Where can I find such a treasure? One may ask. At the pulga, is the answer. You can get anything at the pulga; pets, gold chains, numerous translations of the Bible, religion, drugs, tattoos, awesome trucker hats and shirts that say “Thug life”/green cards and some very suspicious looking fruit. Also, fine artwork like the Money-Santa-Muerte.
I love you all! I hope I get to read your e-mail today…
LOVE/Hermana Lillywhite

P.S. we just got word that the MTC is under loack-down for illness---all of our new missionaries aren't coming out wednesday! What's going on out there?