Welcome to Bearcreek!

Hey fambly mia!
The members definitely will not let us sit at home and eat macaronis&cheeses on Thanksgiving. Especially not in this ward. In Sunday school, the teacher asked,
“How can we help the missionary work in our ward…?”
“Feed them?”
“Food?”
“Do we give them food? Is the answer food?”
“Have them over for dinner!”
So, after this array of cries from the class he turns to the missionaries in the classroom, “Sister, on a scale of one to ten, how much does feeding you help with the missionary work?”
“Err… Almost three.”
I had to be honest. The entirety of this message was translated from the original Spanish to English for the convenience of the English Speaking audience. A direct transcript of the event is available on request.
I LOVE eating with members. It is one of my favorite things. We’ve already got an invitation to come over for lunch on Thursday to the Salazar Familys’ place. I’m excited to get to know the people in the ward. I’ll never knock dinner appointments to much, because they are awesome. Not if you’re trying to lose weight, mind you. As said, it is not, as such, calorie counting food.
It’s good food too. I’ll have to make some for you.
OOOooo, I so want to see this picture that caused audible gasps from the class. I bet it’s gorgeous. I do so love your style Jensenbubby.
About graduate school… so, apparently I don’t take the test until after my mission. But in the mean time, I’m supposed to complete the other steps on the checklist. One of which is to get three letters of recommendation. I’m going to ask President Hansen for one, and then I was hoping to procure good recommendations for recommendations from you folks? Ideas? Who are they expecting these letters to be from?
Anyway, my new companion Hermana Russon is ADORABLE! She is one of the sweetest, nicest people I’ve ever meet. She’s from all over. Her dad is a chemist and they’ve moved a lot as he did work with different labs, I guess. She’s lived in Canada and Connecticut and Arizona and a bunch of other places and slip my mind, but right now her family is in Tooele. Of all places to end up, right? She’s sort of annoyed, because now when people ask where she’s from she has to be like, “*sigh* Soy de Utah…” like so many other people. The typical response to this answer is: “Oh. The factory.” Or, “Ay, la fabrica.”
She’s very cute. Me and Hermana Forsling used to mercilessly make fun of the hundreds of girls at BYU Idaho who were majoring in Elementary Education. But now I feel kind of bad about that, because that’s Hermana Russons major, and although, there are more LDS girls in training to be elementary school teachers than society will EVER need, given any sort of baby boom or what not… I’m pretty sure she should be the one to actually get the job. I think I want Hermana Russon to be my kids’ elementary school teacher, is what I’m saying. She’s so patient and kind, but she’s a very hard worker, and she’s very determined. She’s a bit hard on herself, which is ridiculous she’s already tearing it up out here, she speaks Spanish way more confidently than I did when I was her age in the mission and the little mistakes and things that she does make are hardly noticeable/easy to fix with a little bit of time and practice. She’s not really much of a greenie, I keep telling her, because she’s already got this.
The area is different from what I’m used to. I’m officially out of the ghetto. This place is actually pretty nice. Not like Woodlands, or anything, but life seems much more comfortable here. We’ve got some great people we’re working with. A little boy named Steven who’s twelve and whose less-active mom wants him to get baptized. We’re working with both of them… a man named Carlos who doesn’t think he’s ready to get baptized because he still uses bad words. And this great guy Eduardo who just went down to Mexico for a month and a half, but is going to get baptized when he comes back.
My district is a little weird. I’ve never been around so many very, very English missionaries. Usually, I like English missionaries. I was around them a lot at the office, but I don’t know if the APs really count. Especially since Elder Briscoe actually did speak Spanish, and was loco. But whatever happens and wherever I am, I’ll learn to get along with a love the Elders I serve with.
I’m glad you guys dug the CD I can’t listen to! I’m excited to hear it one day, and groove to it’s happy/peppy beats.
As far as B-day and Christmas goes… There actually are a couple of songs I have yet to have on CD that I’d like. There’s two Christmas songs that the Mormon Tabernacle choirs does, “What shall we give to the babe in the manger?” is I think what it’s called… I don’t remember if that’s the title exactly, but it’s really pretty and has a “tumtatumtum,” bit and a line about “him who will carry the tree” which I’ve heard dad say before, so I assume he knows it. And then I love their version of “Carol of the Bells” and I don’t have either of those. If you wanted to burn me a Christmasy CD including those two songs, I think I’d have a very happy Holiday season!
That’s all I can think of specifically right now… I know there’s a lot of essentials that I probably need. Make-up/footy-socks, I’ll probably need another pair of gel inserts right around my year-mark… But I’m living pretty light these days. There’s not too many places to put things. Food/goodies are always good… They don’t seem to last long, hehe. OH! And I just remembered, there’s a target and a Walmart that we shop at sometimes and also there’s a couple of restaurants where we can go, and I guess what some of my companions family’s do is they’ll get them like a gift-card for cracker barrel or Chilies or anywhere like that, if you guys wanted to go that route.
But whatever you wanna do! Lo que sea, como quiera, tal vex, quizas… ya.
A traffic ticket?! Mommy. That’s cute. And he didn’t knock of the miles because of oldosity, it was because you’re PRETTY! Duh. I’m sorry your record is broken. But now you’re just like the rest of us. You get traffic tickets too. One of my companions got pulled over a few months ago. I really alarmed the officer because he asked her to back the car up and I jumped out of the passenger seat to “hechar aguas” and he was like “WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?” and I was like “I’M SORRY IT’S A RULE! We’re missionaries, we have really weird rules!” Because one of us has to be outside of the car when we’re backing up, to make sure we don’t run anyone over.
He calmed down and didn’t give us a ticket though. I think once he realised we were harmless church ladies and that the posted speed limit is hidden behind a tree he let it go.
I am so glad that Laney’s interested in Greek Mythology. It’s so fascinating, isn’t it? I like the image of her drawing Athena in church. Naughty little primary adorables.
Hey, has anyone seen New Moon? Did it come out this last week or is it not out yet still? Two little girls in Louetta, Mariah and Ariel were going to tell me all about it, but then I moved. They got to go meet “The Wolf Pack” and were very excited about it during our family home evening about missionary work. The lesson might have gotten derailed a couple of times. Just imagine you’re daughter being like, “Yes… and…Alice’s psychic abilities are kind of like when we get member referrals.”
No, I’m just kidding, it didn’t ever get that crazy.
The baptism and dad’s talk sounds wonderful and inspiring… Tell silly Jensen that she should always go to baptisms first and play video games later. Preferably with whoever just got baptized:) And could you send me a copy of daddy’s talk maybe? Si existe?
Well, that’s my letter this week. I LOVE you all, so much. I miss you like crazy, and I’m starting to get really excited to hear all your lovely voices on Christmas day. That’s pretty much the best present:)
BESO! Hermana Lillywhite