Pray for the Taets family.

How I so love the Opera. And, getting called Strippling Warrioress. Nice. And a midsummer night’s dream. All my memories of home are glossed in sparkly rose-glass-osity. And your letters always make me sigh. It sounds idyllic. So perfect in all it's craziness and glamor. Thanks for updating me on everybody’s comings and goings. That’s cool you could recognize that she was trying to say Urdu. The couple of times I’ve run into people on my mission who don’t speak English or Spanish as always kind of fun. I like trying to communicate without language. It’s an interesting experience.

Before Friday, I suppose this letter might have just focused on the fact that we’ve got these eleven awesome people who want to get baptized and how utterly exhausted I am all the time… but the vitamins are helping. Silly expensive little things. I got the Flintstones ones because they’re classic and were the same ridiculously expensive price as the other ones. I’ve started running in the morning again, which I should probably keep up since I’ve been feeling a lot better physically than I have in a long time. As Hermana Taets says, “We need to get rid of the tortilla weight.”

I only have one story this week.

Friday after district meeting we were giving the Elder’s a ride to their next appointment when the phone rang. It was our Zone leaders, letting us know that President Hansen had been trying to call us for hours and that he needed to speak with Hermana Taets immediately. We had been having some problems with our phone (we got a new one on Tuesday and I still haven’t figured out why it rings sometimes and doesn’t other times). We switched seats so I could drive and she could talk on the phone. President Hansen let her know that her father had just had a stroke and was in the hospital in Arizona dying.

Hna’s parents are divorced, and her other sister in a minor which meant that legally, she is the only person who can make any medical decisions for him. The first words I heard her speak after she was on the phone where, “…So… I have to go back to Arizona?” Yes, she did. The church had already made all the arrangements; they’d purchased her ticket for that afternoon and had been trying to frantically get in contact with her so that she could make the flight. We went home right away and she packed a carry-on bag of clothing, got a blessing from the Elders and then I drove my companion to the airport to send her home. She tried to stay positive and cheerful. At one point she laughed bitterly and said, “I’ve been telling him to quit drinking since I could talk.” And again later, “Should I give him instructions on what to do in the spirit world? Find the glowy people with nametags like this, and listen to them this time!” She also insisted on talking to president about the arrangements for the area, “Listen President, you need to be VERY careful about who you send over here to take my place while I’m in Arizona, we have eleven investigators with baptismal dates!” she was trying so hard to seem alright, and it turns out that she’s one of those people with this amazing ability to sound absolutely fine and in control of her voice even when tears are streaming down her face.

We must have looked pretty interesting at the airport. We went with her as far as we could, but had to leave when we reached security. The Elders teased me a bit; “You’ll be back here in ten weeks Hermana.” Then we left and I was companions with two Elders for a bit, while we reenacted an episode of Seinfeld and tried to remember where we’d parked in our frantic hurry to get my companion on the plane.

Honestly, it all happened so fast that it didn’t seem real. I don’t think it set in that she was really leaving until she called me from Arizona the next day to let me know that her father had made it through the night and that she was still hopeful, and a little weirded-out while playing Apples to Apples with her mother and sister and Arizonian companion in the hospital waiting room. Her family wasn’t handling it well. Her mother is a wreck. “She still loves him.”

My temporary companions (because President Hansen maintains that Hermana Taets should be home in a week) are Hermana Hastings and Hermana Wardle. They have nobody they’re really teaching right now so are required to momentarily abandon their area and be my companions in Fairbanks since the work-load here is considerably heavier. They are both wonderful sisters who are being a big help to me. Saturday was when everything sank in. It was a hard day. I think Saturdays always are. You always have a ton of appointments set up for Saturday, but you notoriously get stood up more than any other day of the week.

Sunday was stressful because I knew that Hermana Taets wouldn’t call until after church so she could find out how many of our investigators and recent converts came. I was anxious for the call all day. On our way to go eat dinner at a member’s house (as a family/the whole district, all seven missionaries in the ward) she finally called. Her voice sounded very cheerful when she asked me who had come and we discussed that for a moment, then I finally demanded “Pues, como esta?” (How is he?) and she said, “Mi padre fallacio este manana.” (My father died this morning) “A lo mejor, voy a regressar en una semana. Premiramente nessecito ir al Illinois para el funeral.” (I’m probably going to be back in a week. I need to go to Illinois for the funeral first.) then she told me she was fine and that she needed to go.

We all have a lot of questions right now. Our district leader is wondering if she’ll come back at all. Elder Porter and Elder Kerr are wondering if it’ll really be a week. I think she will come back and I’m wracking my brains trying to figure out what I can say or what I can do to try and help her when she comes back.

Because of how rushed we were, Hermana Taets and I only got to have one thirty second conversation alone during the walk to and from the mailbox before we jumped in the car with the Elders and raced to the airport.

“I’m fine.”

“Estas segura? I would not be fine.”

“…I will be fine.”

“He’s-”

“He’s in God’s hands. Whatever happens… I’ll be alright, eventually. What’s important is that I get this taken care of fast and come back here quickly.”

I think she means it. She’ll be back. I’m trying to think of what I could do for her.

Elder McGary and I only got the chance to talk for a second, but his big question is, “When she comes back… is she going to hate me?”

I told him absolutely not. The dream he had can still be prophetical. She has a choice here just like with everything else. She can either be bitter about it and look at the dream he had as a string dangling in front of a cat or it can be a hope and a great strength that keeps her tied to the truth and the love she has for her family for the rest of her life and into the next world. Because she’s Hermana Taets, and she’s amazing, she’s going to be hopeful. She’s going to look at the dream that he had just a couple of weeks ago as a great comfort, another tender mercy of the Lord that he offered to her to give her the strength to get through her earthy father’s death.

Ultimately, what she told me is true. She will be fine. She might even be normal. Elder Kerr has a theory that she’s the type of person who probably won’t even emotionally deal with his passing until after she’s completely her mission and has to really go home. And by then, we’ll all be there and her family will hopefully be better equipped to offer comfort as well, since as of right now, they are not in such good shape.

I hope she’s doing alright. It’s hard to be away from her. But she’s where she’s supposed to be right now. And so is her father, and I think she recognizes that.

I love you all very much, and I miss you. Thank you for your prayers and your letters, I got some great ones lately, and I’m sorry I haven’t had time to write everyone back yet. I’m slowly working my way through the list for the couple of hours I get on P-day to do it.

BIG hug and kisses all around, Hermana Lillywhite

hasta que el dinero nos separe

Spanish television shows only last for like three minutes. The big one right now is hasta que el dinero nos separe. I don't know what it's about, I assume all the usual drama, but it's a play on the phrase "haste que la muerte nos separe", "Until death do us part"/"Until money do us part" it makes more sense in Spanish and is a clever title. I might look it up when I get home. The other big one is "Corazon Salvage" (savage heart) and I think "Sortilegio" (Sorcerer) just ended but that was pretty huge. We occasionally have to know these titles. Especially when teachign children about the law of chasity. Aylin actually inturrupted us once and said, "Oh, okay, entounces, no debamos hacer nada que esta en los novellas?" (Oh, okay, then we shouldn't do anything that is in soap operas?"

Very good Aylin!

I'm sorry that Jensen and Laney aren't feeling well! That bites. President told me I should start taking multi-vitamins to improve my damaged innume system. They are dang expensive is what's lame. So to make it more fun, I got the princess/flinstones gummies. It was equally expensive but whatever, I jsut relaly don't want to get sick again. Why does Laney get strep every five seconds? Poor baby... That's good that they were both able to go through with the test and do well. It's true, Sifu has this method of sort of 'pre-failing' people. But not in a mean way, just in the way that he figures out before hand if you're going to pass or not and tells you to test or not to test depending on what your performance will inevitably be like. That way always the reassuring thing for me about testing, was that, i knew he wouldn't let me do it unless I could pass. It made it way less stressful. Still a little ominious. I definately remember looking at the clock saturday morning the week before and thinking to myself, "In exactly one week from now... I'm going to be in so much pain."

Good times.

Pobrecita Penny Lane. She'd awesome though, she doesn't need to stress.

Man, I can't believe that it's just about summer time. Or is it summer time? Chispas, I don't know. They're already selling Raspas on the side of the road, I think that makes it summer.

Bonco sounds like a blast! I'm so looking forward to your letter. My companions and I always love reading the comics.

According to president Hansen--with regards to Elders in missionary leadership having revelatory dreams concerning the missionaries in their districts/zones, "You are a worthy Priesthood leader. It'll happen."

Sweet.

I want a revelatory dream, but I'm pretty sure it's unessecary for me right now. My life is kind of awesome. Actually, my life is so awesome that I'm occasionally paranoid that something really awful will happen to me soon. After all, every story with a tragic ending seems to start with "It seemed like she had everything..."

Gulp. I'm doomed.

Really though, everything is going VERY well right now. In my new area, and in my old area! Bearcreek 2 had a baptisimal date for the various people that I taught over there for almost every weekend this transfer. *faint* I worked SO hard, and then I got transfered before I could be there to see it... but that's okay. Hopefully, I'll be able to go back. Yesterday, we jumped back over there for Kathy's baptism. I'll send pictures... Bearcreek 2 has this cool thing that happens. At just about EVERY single baptism, some nonmember whose attending, decides they want to get baptised. Yesterday, it was Kathy's father. Everybody was all emotional, it was a beautiful experience, and I'm so glad I got to be a part of it!

Remember how I told you that when I told Hermana Blanco that I was from Maryland she just said, "Oh. That's nice." and I was like, 'Yep. You're from Maryland.' hahaha, well, turns out she just wasn't really paying attention, because Hermana Blanco (who is now called Camila, since she's not a missionary any more) heard that I was born in Maryland she said "REALLY!? My parents where just telling me the other day that they remembered some Lillywhite's who had a little baby about my age!"

Remember the Blancos? They apparently remember you! And baby me. Que precioso!!!

She's really a sweet person, she flew back to Texas after only being home for less-than-a-week to go to the Mexico/Angola soccer game with some recent converts who bought her a ticket. We got to see her a couple of times while she was here, and she was all adorable with her skinny-jeans and her Coach bag and a fancy phone and cute hair and everything. Sigh. I used to be cute. Me hace un poquitito trunky to be honest, but not as much as my poor companion. ("You're like 6 months out, you can't get trunky yet!" / "You're dead! Why AREN'T you trunky?! LOOK AT HER!")

I went from being in a very young district, filled with missionaries who were newbies, to a half dead/half done district. Elder Porter (my first district leader) is going home this transfer and then me and McGary go down together next transfer, so the rest of the district makes fun of us mercilessly for being 'ya muertos'. We're probably the three least-trunky people in the district is the sad part.

Anyway, it was really fun to see Camila and hear all about her adventures as a normal person.

There was a tragedy with the family she was staying with though. One of men there was working on the house and there was a horrible accident and he lost his middle finger. They rushed him to the hostpital but couldn't reattach it, so now he's got this gnarly finger, and he won't keep the bandage on because it bothers him... he seems alright though. Cheerful, to say the least, he was teasing his daughter by touching her plate with the stump and she was like "NO LO HAGAS!" and he would just giggle.

We all drank topache (sp? I'm pretty sure I'm spelling it wrong) accept minus the bottle of tequila, since that would be very, very bad. Even without the tequila we were suspicious of the length of time that the pinapple is stored. We asked the Bishop and the Stake President though and they both assured us that topache is fine. No alcohal. We drank a lot, because it's delicious. We also played "Loteria" which is sort of like Bingo but less lame and not for white people. It was a lot of fun. I won: )

There were no more 'up your pony' moments, although my whole district wants those T-shirts.

Man. So many stories, but I'll probably leave it at that. Most of them are better told in person.

I LOVE and miss you all like crazy glue. Besitos y abrazotes!

Hermana Lillywhite

What the Houston Chronicle doesn't know.

Querida Familia Mia,
It was SOOOO nice talking to you all last night. I miss you like crazy, but I’ve got to tell you things couldn’t be better right now and I’m blissfully happy in my new area with my new companion. I wanted to tell you this one story about her, just because I know how much you love prophetic dreams mom, but also just because it’s a great story that reveals a lot about my companion. So, as I mentioned (and as the article in the Houston Chronicle mentions) she’s a convert and the only member in her Catholic family. Her parents are separated, she told me she’s never even seen them kiss. It sounds like they’ve been apart for a long time. She has a younger sister who’s just graduated (miraculously: ) from high school and who lives with her mom and her mom’s boyfriend and a dad who is probably the one who’s the most against her involvement in the church. They were NOT happy when she joined and they were even more upset when she wanted to serve a mission, but since then, everything has kind of settled a bit into this area where they are mas o menus comfortable with it. Sort of.
(SIDE NOTE: Cute story about her mom. Her mom was at work a few months ago and her work mate came in crying hysterically, and she was like "What's wrong?!" and her friend said, "My son's joined the Mormon church and now he's going to go be a missionary and I don't know what to do!" to which her mom replied, "Honey, my daughter did the same dang thing, and it's going to be alright, don't you worry." the kid just got his mission call to Peru. Her mom sounds like she's way nice. A very fun, sweet person... just not interested in religion.)

Anyway, so she’s tried talking to them about the church before, but they typically just get mad/don’t care even though it’s part of her soul etc. you know how it is. And when she went into the MTC there was this incident where her companion got to call home Christmas Eve for some reason (usually missionaries are not allowed to call home on Christmas in the MTC) and so the guy at the office told Hermana Taets that she could call her family too since she had to come down there with her companion. She tried calling home and left a message for her mom, but her dad didn’t pick up. She left and figured she’d get to e-mail him again next P-day (she hadn’t heard from him in almost a month) later that day she and her companion got called down to the office again to take care of something, and when she was done they were just leaving when a worker stopped her and said, “Let’s try your father one more time.”

So she called her dad and this time he picked up. He was a little panicked—he’d been expecting her to call Christmas day and had been planning to wait home all day by the phone for her to call. He said he hadn’t gotten a letter from her in three weeks, and they figured out that something was wrong with his e-mail account which is why neither of them had gotten each other’s letters. She burst into tears on the phone, which of course led dad to ask, “What’s wrong?! What are they doing to you? Do you want me to come get you?!” So, she had to explain that she had only gotten to call him by chance and that she was just so grateful to be able to talk to him.

She shared this story a few weeks ago in district meeting, and Elder McGary whipped out his planner while she was bearing her soul and wrote something down, which she thought was kind of weird. Then, the other night, while the four of us (Elders Porter y Mcgary/La Hermana Taets y Yo) where on our way to visit a recent convert family (when I told them the story about how I learned to drive a stick) Elder McGary goes… “I had the weirdest dream last night,” then some guy raced by on a motorcycle and both the Elders were far too distracted (Elder Mcgary loves to ride motocross) to continue the thought until we got to the Petinos, but once we got there he said again, “I had the weirdest dream last night, and it was all about you Hermana Taets.” O.o.

Usually not something missionaries say to each other, but I refrained for giggling because he was being way serious. He said, “Do you remember at our district meeting about Tender Mercies when you told the story of getting to call your dad in the MTC?” and she was like, “Yeah…” and he explained that he’d suddenly gotten a very strong impression that her family would be sealed in the temple one day. In this life even. He didn’t know how to tell her, so he decided to keep the impression to himself, he wrote it down in his planner. Then, Friday night he had this dream that she and her family were getting sealed in the temple.

He wrote it down in his journal in more detail and she asked if she could read it, so Sunday morning he photocopied it for her and ripped the page out of his planner to that said, “Un dia la Hermana Taets y su familia sera sellada en el templo.” He also had the exact same dream Sunday morning.

You’ve kind of got to know Elder McGary to appreciate this. He’s NOT a ‘revelatory’ kind of person. While telling the story of how he had the dream again he started it with, “So I woke up at five and when I saw the clock, I was like, ‘Sick! hour and a half more sleep, right on!’ and I rolled over and was out and then I had the same dream again.” He’s just such a guy. But, as I pointed out to Hermana Taets, he is her Zone Leader. I’m not sure if that means he’s entitled to receive personal revelation on her behalf, but I suggested she ask President about it. This kind of stuff doesn’t typically happen to Elder McGary, he says. It was strange too, because there were some intensely personal details in the context of the dream that Hermana Taets had never told him.

Reading his journal entry about it was especially amusing since he ends it with, “One day, maybe I’ll tell Hermana Taets about all of this, but I know she’ll think it’s weird, so I don’t know… Aside from that, life is cool. We’re going to the Petinos tonight, it’s gonna be sick! So yeah, all’s good with me. Peace, Elder McGary. “ But then he cracked and told her about it a few hours later. He and Elder Porter are awesome zone leaders. I need to send some pictures from the ‘Pulga Training’ that they did last week. They were trying to encourage us all to ‘embrace the culture’.

My new area is really tight. As far as people go, it feels like a cross between Gunspoint and Crosstimbers, kind of on the ghetto side of life. But the ward is like Louetta, and I’m seeing elements from Bearcreek as well, so it’s kind of like all my areas combined, but then with its own unique flavor as well. The people here are SO kind. The members are great, everyone seems very willing to help. We’ve meet some great new people this week and we’ve got some wonderful investigators who are progressing rapidly. I hope I’m able to do some good here!

I was sad to hear about my car, but I can’t say it surprises me. Poor Wong Fe Hung was getting pretty battered by age. Such a good little car he was… Weird that the engine exploded though. Is that the car equivalent of a heart attack? I want to see the pictures so I can make my own little memorial : (

I watched Rachel Ray make ‘blue mashed potatoes’ with ‘blue burgers’ once and it looked way good. Maybe we’ll have to try that. The garden sounds lovely. I also can’t wait to play with that bad kitty. I’m thinking about where we should go for dinner as a family… La Cae (sp?) is a fine suggestion and so far it’s winning just because I’m not sure the offer will come up again. Also, I don’t know what it means in French but in Spanish it ALMOST means The Fall, except it doesn’t at all. But I’m open for other suggests and I suppose it’s not necessary to figure that out just yet.

Well, I’d better get going, I still need to write my letter to president and then we’d better get out of here. I love you all like crazy and I miss you all like Buster misses his left hand. MWAH!

Con Carino, Hermana Lillywhite

"You're not the only one, who is your father's son."

FAMILIA!

Hermana Christensen is so ready to take over the whole city without me.

Big news this week is that after 6 months in Bearcreek, I’m getting transferred to 10th ward, Fairbanks area with Hermana Tates. She’s the same age in the mission as Hermana Christensen. Her trainer is going home Wednesday, so I’m going to be greenie breaking again! I’m really excited to go to a new ward, but I’m going to miss Bearcreek a lot. Still… this is a good time to leave. We’re finally starting to see a little bit of success, so now I can go before I screw it up.

Seriously though, Olivia, one of the women who we’ve been teaching finally accepted our ‘proposal’ (that she just go ahead and get married to her husband and then Baptized) and ever since then we’ve been making wedding plans! I’ll have to come back for the wedding (June 5th) and her baptism (June 6th) but it won’t be too difficult since Fairbanks is really just down the street. She came to church yesterday and so did her husband and we have a lesson with them both tonight. Yesterday at church she was talking with the bishop about booking the building and getting the license and everything and she’s got her sister working on invitations. We’re so excited! And so is Olivia, you can really tell that she’s developed a strong desire to follow the commandments and the Lord.

I did have some wonderful mail this week, so I’m holding off on sending the sad-face pictures. Tell aunt Les that I’m sorry and she’s not chopped liver: ) I haven’t mentioned her letters publically in a while—partially because I haven’t gotten her letters recently, but we might be going down to the office tomorrow… maybe, so I might be able to pick up any mail there. If not, I won’t get any until next week, because that’s just the way that transfers work.

This question may seem totally removed from all relevance, but I’m trying to come up with as many names of real people as possible from the initials G. B.

So far I can only think of Gerard Butler and Gob Bluth, but I’m sure there are many—probably many, many, other people fictional or historical or still living who have those initials and if anyone can think of them off the top of their head—do tell me.

I’ve learned that I’m been correct all along in the ‘immediate-family-only’ e-mail thing, so never mind about what I said last week.

Immigration has indeed become a hot topic around here too. One of our less actives (unprovoked) declared to us with great pride and zeal that she’s been in this country for 23 years and (has never learned English) BUT she came in with proper paper work and she’s been a legal resident the whole time, never once has she violated the immigration laws and she’s seen the blessings that come from it and she’s also seen the difficulty that her illegal friends face, on account of being illegal. A few of our other, not-so-documented-people who we visit are very upset. But for the most part the attitude seems to be, “Bring-it-on!-you’ve-got-nothing-on-me!” which is also something unique to this area. Usually most of the people we’re working with are illegal, but in this ward, people are pretty good about having their paper-work in order.

Our ward mission leader told us a funny story about how he had to take the citizenship test when he was serving as a missionary in Idaho about 20 years ago. Apparently he couldn’t remember the names of any of the Supreme Court justices and was kind of amazed that the question was even on the test. He nearly failed, but everything worked out for him, partially on account of the testing advisor being sympathetic to the church.

It’s really getting bad out there isn’t it? At least that’s what everyone is telling us. Politically it’s getting more and more divided and hostile and basically ridiculous and people are legitimately scared. I think you’re definitely right that we’re seeing the fulfillment of all those prophecies in The Book of Mormon.

We do have Kohls here, I’ve never been… I was under the impression it was a kid’s clothing store, but it sure doesn’t sound like it from your description. I’ll probably refrain from buying any more clothing on my mission, and continue with this money-saving trend I’ve started where I just take dying missionary clothing and wear that. It doesn’t always fit perfectly, but it looks good and has already survived someone else’s test. I’m not going to be bringing back much clothing—but don’t worry mom, I will bring back all of YOUR clothing that I took with me, though, I’m not going to lie, it is a little worse for wear. I don’t think anything I own is fully intact anymore.

I’m not crushed that we won’t go snowboarding. There’s no snow or mountains in Texas, so I’m not sure how we’d manage anyway: ) I hope you guys will make a trip out to Texas with me sometime. I’ve got some sealings/missionary farewells/post-paperwork baptisms I might get invited too and I’d love to have company for the trip! Although, mom might have to avert her eyes when we’re driving/walking around. There are SO many stray animals in this city. That’s crazy that Lauren gets home before I do! But you’re correct—it makes sense with the way transfers work in her mission. Since she came into the MTC during my… I think 6th or 7th week, that means that her transfers would be about 2 weeks removed from mine and… whatever, it works in my head. I actually still have never written Lauren, I thought about it a couple of times, but I sort of feel like we’re in contact because I get to read her letters that you forward me, and I’m pretty sure she gets mine as well… It’s pretty awesome that we got the chance to serve our missions at the same time. Her letters are always a real inspiration to me, she’s doing some much good over there in Argentina! It makes me excited to go out and work for another week.

Uncle Dan and Uncle Filly’s Honduras trip sounds so FUN! I love Honduranians . They are always so funny. Especially Victor and Hermano Medina. This reminds me. I need to learn to talk in Vos.

Don’t worry, I will be cooking when I get back. I’m not sure how good it’ll all be. I’ve learned how to make a lot of things, but most of it to be made well, requires a great deal of practice, which I haven’t yet devoted to it. So… Most of my cooking for you, might qualify as ‘practice’ more than anything. Salsa Verde is amazing, and I actually can make that myself now. As spicy as you want it. That’s one of the few things I’ve learned to make that I feel pretty confident it. It’s sooo simple and it tastes so much better homemade.

This “The Ark” thing sounds suspicious. Is it in the same genre as “The Garden”? The Michael Mclean musical? Ooooh Michael Mclean. As my companion once said “He is kind of a freaky genius… but. That Concert was just a little too special for me. I was honestly worried I’d accidentally joined a cult.”

I’m confused about the Garden. The actual Expiacion song is basically brilliant but what the heck man, it goes from being an allegory to literal to an allegory again and most of it’s just seeds and trees and mill stones singing and you know what—the land lord kind of has a point, it’s his property. Then again, I’ve already expressed my contempt for the soliciting laws, so maybe I’m actually with the Gardener after all. What a rebel I am.

He’s responsible for so many songs that make up the soundtracks for the movies we’re supposed to occasionally watch with our investigators.

Anyway, I’m sure Ameer will do very well… I don’t suppose anyone is going to tape it for me?

I’d better get going… The word count is informing me that I have typed 1,391 words. Eer… 2, 4, 5…. I can’t keep up with it for some reason.

I love you all deeply, from the bottom of my heart and I am SOOO excited to call you on mother’s day. I hope it’s alright if I do that calling early in the morning to let you know what time I’ll call later that night thing, just since I still don’t know what the word is on that. HUGS AND KISSES AND HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!

MWAH, Hermanita Lili

P.S. My companion has just informed me that “The Ark” is a Michael Mclean original, to which I replied, “Good heavens, I was joking.”