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

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

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

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

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.

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?

So here’s us, on the raggedy edge

HI! It’s so good to get your letters! Mommy, I love how you write, you put just the right details so I know what everyone’s up too. I really feel close to you all, and your letters make me miss home, but in a happy, nostalgic way rather than a ‘Lot’s wife’ way. Everyone sounds like they’re doing really well! And it was SOO good to talk to everyone last week. I had my interviews with the Mission President and Sister President this week, and I told them about how I’d talked to pretty much everybody before Hermana Frieszell told me I was only supposed to talk to immediate family, and President says that it’s totally fine if I want to talk to family members like grandparents, uncles/aunts, cousins etc. the rule is just in place so people don’t call their friends/have friends/girlfriends just HAPPEN to stop by the house. So, at Christmas time, I’m okay to say hi to everyone again, I’m just supposed to spend MOST of the time chatting with mis padres y hermanas.
Well, everybody was asking about Erika and El Libro, so I’ve got a little update. She’s been continuing to read it, she’s keeping it in her purse so she can read it at random moments and she says she’s loving it still. She was making a game out of it at school, hiding it in a magazine. During our lesson we had her open up to a chapter to read a verse for us and then we kept teaching her mother Rosa because she didn’t quite understand and when we turned back to Erika she’d finished the entire chapter while we’d been talking. She just REALLY loves the book! It’s so great, but it’s going to be difficult to get her to DO anything about it, I’m afraid. She’s very much a teenage girl. We’re still working on getting her to church. She had her prom this last weekend so she was WAY busy, and she got even busier when her friends nominated her to be a prom queen candidate! I’ll tell you if she wins.
We’re teaching a woman named Veronica, and she is officially my first opportunity to fulfill one of my mission goals. (I want really bad to baptize someone who I just walked up to in the street and started talking to). You see, there are really effective ways to find people like through the members and then there are the two least effective but very, very common missionary methods (Street contacting and knocking on people’s door.) Veronica we found through street contacting!
We were out one morning, trying to get in touch with a couple of people in the apartment complex Imperial Oaks (Where are 90% of the Hispanics in Gunspoint live) and I was thinking about how Hermano Richardson had so stressed street contacting. We all know it’s the least effective way to find people but he told us several times that contacting in the street constantly is one way that we can show God who much we’re really trying. He’ll put people in our path if he knows that we’re going to talk to them, but if we typically just walk right past people without even trying to give them a card, there’s no way he’s going to lead us to one of this precious children. Soo… A few weeks ago I was feeling a little guilty because I felt like we weren’t talking to people in the street as much as we could. And I walked up to the next woman I saw as a result and met Veronica!
She’s a lovely young mom with 4 kids (Karen 14, Jordan 9, Eduordito 4 & Kevin 1) she told us to go ahead and stop by sometime, and that she’s home basically every day all day. We’ve been teaching her for a couple of weeks now and she’s so great! She’s so sharp and really has a strong desire to do what she needs to in order to be in good standing with our Heavenly Father. After we inviting her to church she prayed hard to know if it was the right thing to do. She said that she was alone in her room and in was late and she very distinctly heard a voice say “lleva tus hijos a la Iglesia.” (take your children to church) she tried to figure out if she had fallen asleep while praying and was hearing things but she determined that she was still awake and then she heard it again “lleva tus hijos a la Iglesia.”
Soooo she and her 4 kids came to church! And it was a very good experience, we believe. We’ve yet to talk to her about it too much, but in Sunday school the teacher shared a story about when a man broke into her home late at night and how she saw him walk past her door and her first reaction was to get out of bed or scream, but she felt someone restrain her and she heard a voice say “No gritas.” (don’t scream) and she too had to figure out if she was awake or not and once she realized she was awake she heard the voice again “No gritas”. The robber took some things, including her son’s baseball cap that helped them identify him later. It could not have been more perfectly to have her share that story when Veronica was there! She had been telling us how she was worried people were going to think she was crazy, hearing voices, but the Sunday School teacher (I’ve forgotten her name, sorry) is clearly a very sharp, put-together woman. Not at all unhinged and their stories were just so similar. Amazing. I love milagros… Doy gracias a mi padre celestial.
The Elders are all very curious about this adorable sister at BYU that I keep talking about. Elder Hackett has found competition in Elder Brisco & Elder Perry who are hilarious… here let me give you some vital information about two of my favorite Elders.
Elder Brisco: was a not-so typical skater-boy/teenaged rock-star, whose hit song “Why am I not 16?” won the hearts of millions of miamaids in the Colorado area. He’s one of the funniest Elders around, a real bromista, but he’s also been voted most likely to become a general authority because of his very formal and dynamic way of speaking, as he once said “I’m a bird of a different colour when it’s time to work.” He’s VERY smart, and the first Elder I met when I got off the plane. Assistant to the President. His letters home are pretty funny too, he let us read a little today. This is the Elder whose family moved to Denmark while he was here, so in a few months when he dies he’s headed to Europe!
Elder Perry: Sign-language Elder and one of my current Zone Leaders. He can bend his knees backwards about five inches and once cheated in a wrestling match by using this to get himself an emergency time-out. (He pushed his knee back and screamed until they called a time out and let him get water and get checked out by the physician for a minute, then they finished the match when they figured out he was okay and he won, when he admitted what he’d done to his coach the man replied “That’s sick Perry. I like it.”) The fact that he’s called ‘Perry’ should interest you, my sister, since I know how much you like scrubs. He’s from a big family. His parents had (I think 10?) kids and then they adopted 4 girls from Russia also.
Elder Luke: I don’t know him personally, but I hear he’s really funny too (though perhaps not intentionally) I just wanted to put him on here because apparently his family loves humanity MORE that Elder Perry’s crummy family because his parents adopted FIVE kids from the Ukraine! (That’s what he told Elder Perry)
Elder Brisco and Elder Perry were both lifeguards before they left on their missions and both only ever had to jump in the water once to save infants. (They had to fill out paper work any time they got in the water, so if the person was physically capable of saving themselves, they would just use a pole/lifesaver, but babies need to be rescued.) Both of them told this exact same story to me. They lived/worked in separate states. I don’t remember if Elder Brisco had to yell at the mom, but Elder Perry did.
By the way Jensen, if you want to write to any of these Elders, just use the mission office address and change my name to theirs. I told them that you don’t even write me though, so I’m pretty sure if they start getting letters and I don’t---that’s lame:)
But don’t worry, I understand you’re way busy. And so, so, so many of these stories are better in person anyway. I’ll see you in like… a little over a year. That’s crazy, time really is flying by. I’ve already been out for…. I don’t even want to do the math. I think I’ll start doing like Elder Argyle does and lie constantly about how long I’ve been out. (He’s dying in like… 2-4 months. I’m not sure, because of all the lies, you see, but I think I finally figured out that it’s something like that). He’s always saying “I’m new! You have to help me, I don’t know all this stuff yet! I’ve only been out for like 2 transfers!” but really, he’s been here a LONG time.
Well, I love you all, so, so, so much! Please keep me updated on everything that’s going down in the land of my people. I’m happy, I’m healthy, I’m very blessed, God is taking good care of his servants. The work is good, and I glory not in myself there, but in my God!

Hermana Lillywhite

Paz y amor a ustedes.

Alright, I'm going to keep this pretty short because we need to get someone to give us a ride to the BBQ at president Hansen's house. He's got a surprise for us. No idea what's that about.

We had a hilarious family home evening with Nelly & Carolina and the Obispo and his family. Here's where it's funny, we were waiting for the bishop family for like 40 minutes and in the mean time Nelly's cake started to burn a little. The funy part happens when the fire starts and we're all scrambling around and Carolina is like "Que paso?!" in the other room and I'm just like "Hay un fuego!" and we're all jabbering in spanish and trying to put out the fire in which case the kitchen towel was incinerated. Then the bishop showed up as we were trying to get the smoke to dissapate.

All in all the family home evening went REALLY well. Aside from our eyes watering from the smoke for all of Obispo's lesson. The cake was still delicious:)

Also, we were invited to come over to the Canalas' family's house this last saturday. We thought we were teaching a lesson and then it turned out we were at a surprise party for the daughter and grandson. Very cute. We didn't get to teach the party anything.

Last story: I mentioned on the phone that we went on splits! We went with two of the best hermanas in the ward.

Alright, now, I'm not like turning sacrament meeting into a beauty contest or anything, but two of the cutest young couples in our ward are the Arreollas and the Rostrans. Adorable, alright, like beyond attractive, these's people children need to marry each other, to perpetuate the 'insanely attractive hispanic gene' So, Hermana Rostran went with hermana Frieszell and Hermana Arreolla went with me. Hna Arreolla is sooo tiny and cute, and she tried to dress up like a missionary to do splits with us, but she ended up just wearing something really cute. Blue&pink pokadotted stilleto peep-toes/sundress. So precious. Anyway, we got finished before Hermana Frieszell and Rostran, and we were waiting for them at the Rostran's house when Hermano Rostran got home from late. It was almost 9:30 and I had no idea where my companion was, so we were just hanging out in front of his door.

Hermano: "Buenas noches."
Us: "Hola, Hermano."
Hermano: "Pasen?" (will you come in?)
Hermana Arreolla: "Creo que, no!" (, like "I believe not." Flipping her hair and looking all offended.)
Hermano: "Esta bien," (shruggs and goes inside)
then Arreolla turns to me and says--I'll just translate for time's sake, "A Sister missionary and a married woman! What is he thinking?! I believe not..."
It was SO funny. She's just so little and innocent and adorable. Picture the adorable cheerleader telling off the quarter-back. And there's a missionary there for no reason.

I love my ward. So much drama.

Alright, well, I'm being hurried along, I haven't even gotten to read your letter yet! I'm so sorry that I'm only able to write this tiny-little unspell-checked letter this week. But I'm trying to do like you said and keep better journals. I'm thinking that you'll like the "small plates" I'm working on best:)

I LOVE you! Mwah, mwah, mwah.

Hermana Lillywhite

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.

20 April 2009

Querido Fambly; Handwritten, Mon. April 20, 2009

So, remember the Elder who cast out a demon? Elder Clark? Funny things happen on P-day. Our fearless district leader, Elder Porter, was tired of playing football, so he stopped and was watching the other Elders play football and at two to three minute intervals would yell "Hey, let's go get something to eat!" over and over and over for probably about twenty minutes until we were starting to get annoyed. Then Elder Clark (who's been standing silently next to him the whole time) yells "Hey, We're going to get something to eat" and everyone got up and went to get food (and I laughed. Oh how I laughed).

I guess people just listen to you more when you cast out Demons.

Going back to California sounds amazing! You have to tell me all about your trip; it'll be so fun. I sure love California. I've been dreaming about weirder and weirder things. Shadows of my homeland and themes from out here in the field mingle into dissonance in the steampunk engine that is my mind. Also, there's a lot of Spanish. Bi-lingual dreams. It's hard enough to understand what's going on in English.

I played Basketball again. No injuries, but I think I'm getting better.....

I'm sorry I don't have much to say this week! I made it to the end of my first transfer. I do get discouraged sometimes (Tahiti would be nice) but it never is long before I'm on the top of the world again-totally enchanted by the people I'm meeting and the experiences I'm having.

I love you! Hermana Lillywhite

P.S. Tell Aunt Les THANK YOU!! so, so much for the lovely letter and especially for the awesome CD's! Also, thank you, thank you Daddy for sending me the Fictionpress reviews and for Los Articulos! They are SO so perfect for what I'm studying right now!

P.P.S. I certainly will be writing about my mission when I come home--but, right now, I've got to go LIVE IT!!!

What a Week!

~Hermana Frieszell and I divided our stories in half this week, so you’re getting part of her letter too!
~Hermana Frieszell says:
So great news. Aurora agreed to be baptized! Aurora is a sweet, shy young mother with a 2 year old boy and a new born baby girl. We have been teaching her for sometime. Well we were teaching her and then we thought she dropped us but it turns out that she was just having her baby. So we went back and she still wanted to learn. We have been teaching her for a few weeks now and on Thursday we went and taught her and asked her if she would be baptized. She was a little hesitant as she didn’t know if she would be ready by the 16th but we had her pray right there and she said she felt a good, thumping of her heart. She is so great. We still weren’t able to get her to church but as soon as she goes 3 times she will be baptized.
So we had an amazing week. We taught 22 lessons without even trying and got 10 new investigators and 4 people at church, and 3 baptismal dates.



We are still struggling with getting people to go to church. It seems to be the biggest challenge. However, yesterday we had a pleasant surprise when a family, Cecilia and Juan we are teaching showed up at church. They didn’t seem very likely to come but the member that came with us was very good at talking them into it and they showed up. They have 4 kids and one on the way. The little girl that is 9 is so cute. She was so excited to be there. She had her book of Mormon and it was all used and was so excited to show us that she had it. They also brought their 11 year old cousin and she didn’t understand Spanish very well and wasn’t a very good influence and so they were all like “it was boring.” But that’s just because they had gone to the church of the woodlands and they play video games and have piano lessons there. So lame! That’s not church. But we were so excited to get them to church finally.

With transfer, on Tuesday we got to be a 3-some for a day. Sister Christenson, an English sister who’s companion was going home so she had no companion for that day so she hung out with us. It was fun to be a 3-some. Kind of like a party.

~End of Hermana Frieszell’s thoughts for this letter!
~ME! From here down is Ailsa again!
We've got one lady we're teaching now, Maria Erica, I might have already talked about her a little, she was a referral from one of the members in the English speaking ward, she cleans the building where he works and she had been really impressed by him speaking such good Spanish when he is clearly and very white-bread blue-eyed Texan. Anyway, she had a copy of the book of Mormon in English and we came by to give her one in Spanish and started teaching her. She's SO cute. We can't get her to come to church though (that's always the hardest thing to pull off it seems) she had a wedding this Sunday. She's so sweet though. She doesn't have a very firm base for religious knowledge we think, as she was very surprised when we told her that we were supposed to go to church on Sunday, she seemed to think it was just optional "Extra-credit" or whatever. She asks a lot of questions though, which is good, but it's not like contentious, it's more like genuine curiosity and then once we've explained it so she can understand she doesn't argue the way some people do, she just kind of nods and says "okay."

It might be a bit of journey with her though. She says that God has never answered any of her prayers. We're going to have to talk about that.

We've got two kids we're working with, Daniel and Jennifer Varrera. There's also Orfelda, their mother. She's sais she wants us to teach and baptize her children, and we think she wants to get baptized too. She didn't outright say so, but she says she wants to hear all the lessons too. We think she'd be way into the idea of joining the church except that she's got NO religious background at all. We mentioned a couple of stories from the Bible and she hadn't heard of any of them (Moses/Noah/Joseph/Jesushad12apostlesreally?) but if we could just help her get over her fears about organized 'church' and get her to sacrament meeting she'd LOVE it. Her next/door neighbor and friend Alma Martinez is a less active who I've mentioned before, but she's not been much help getting her friend to church as she rarely goes herself. Still, we're hoping to help them out and get them at church and baptized before the end of this transfer.
Yes, I know Laney-boo is still a rat, she sounds like she’s getting more and more drama-queen-esque as she gets older. Yes, I suppose absence does make the heart grow fonder. She’s so adorably primadona. Tell her she is a GREAT artist, and that she’s only going to get better as she keeps practicing and develops patience. (I can imagine her rolling her eyes here and saying “Yeah, whatever.” Like the fourteen-year-old she thinks she is).
I’m glad my cute little car is better! And tell Jensen that there’s already a picture of Elder Hackett in the batch I sent you. There’s the silly one of the three Elders posing, the short one with the blonde hair is Elder Herrman, the one in the middle with his jacket off is Elder Homer, and the dark-haired one being silly on the end is Elder Hackett. But I DO love that line about the barber. I will use it. Later. Elder Hackett was transferred on Wednesday though, so I probably won’t see him for a while. He was very excited to go back to “Exile” as he calls it. See, here in my zone, we’re right in the middle of everything. We hang out with the Assistants to the President and go down to the office every other day. The President’s house and the Temple are both close by. We’re right in the middle of EVERYTHING, so we see the other missionaries a lot. But there are some missionaries who get sent out to lonelier parts of the mission. Were, it’s pretty much just you and some other mu-cha-cha wandering around the desert looking for people to teach. Elder Hackett likes this set-up a bit more. Still he’s fairly new out here (He’ll probably go home shortly before I do) so I’ll probably see him again sometime.
Pulga is “fun”. I suggested palm reading and card tricks and the other missionaries quoted that “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live” scripture at me.
I heard that Lawyer’s in Love song in the store this morning and thought of Daddy. Our leaders are getting “slightly” better. (Worse if you ask Hermana Frieszell). But I really miss my own leaders sometimes. I feel like we’ve got a really good ward/stake. People listen. It’s not just that they’re speaking another language, at least not any more, because I basically am Bi-lingual at this point, I’m just “shy” in Spanish more so than English. (And my spelling and grammatical skills in both languages seem to be getting worse as my communication/understanding skills get better.) They’re just… I don’t know. I can tell they’re trying and they DO care and maybe that’s all that’s important. They just don’t trust us very much. They should have been really excited about us getting a Baptismal date this week and all, but instead he just demanded to know if we’d thought to ask if she and her husband are legally married. I wanted to say “Duh.”. That’s one of the biggest problems that we have here, yes, we’re not stupid, we make sure about papers and all of that before we extend the invitation to be baptized. We didn’t say that though, we just nodded and said “Si, por la ley.” Meaning they’re legally married, and then he continued to chew us out for a few minutes about how we have to make sure every time that they’re married. Sometimes they just treat us like we’ve got no idea what we’re doing.
Anyway, I miss daddy-Bishop-sir and his unparallel leadership abilities.
Well, once more… some stories are better told in person. I really want to talk about this one, but I just don’t feel comfortable with it yet. Let’s just say I have to eat my flippant words about demonic possession among the people I’m serving. I didn’t think this was going to be a regular thing out here. In fact it never even crossed my mind that I might see and hear things like this with my own eyes… Anyway, I don’t have much time. Maybe I’ll wait until I can talk about it on the phone with you VERY soon!
Happy Mother’s day soon!!!
Alright, now, my hand-written letter this week is going to be really short. More like a PS, but I wanted to send you something cool. At least, I think it’s cool. It’s my correlation sheet from this last week and it is AWESOME. Me and Hermana Frieszell tried REALLY hard this week to make our goal of getting 20 lessons this week. We ended up with 22. Next week we’re going for 25. As a result, the rest of our numbers went up too. So, I just wanted you to see a brief outline of some of the main people we’re working with right now.
I LOVE you!
Hermana Lillywhite

20 April 2009

Familia, Monday, April 13, 2009
Everybody has been sending me lovely paper, on which to write them letters, so I've selected one of each of a few of them to write to you today, This means I'll be upsetting my usual front and back pattern for art.
Jensen! You're going to use my art for your x-box stuff?! I can think of no higher compliment from one as nerdy as you are, my darling-sister-pants. I've been keeping my eyes open for Elders who you should date once they're finished here. The winner right now is one Elder Hackett. He's got that nose you like, loves Zelda and is known for his consistency. (He's eaten a peanut-butter and jelly sandwich every day for lunch since he got here like 8 months ago) and for his thrifty-ness. (He clearly doesn't spend much on food, at least.) Sounds like Prince Charming, amirite?
Seriously though, the Elders here are so fun. Real good young men. But I think you should think about serving a mission yourself before you fall madly in love with someone.

Yep, I've met some quirky people out here. Texas is sort of like Wonderland that way. Oh, I asked Elder Homer about his mom again, I explained about what you said, but I don't know, I'm worried he's giving up hope of finding his mom. I'm going to keep asking him about it though. He's cool, he won't get angry, he knows it's just because we care.
I've started into my missionary library, FINALLY. Once I've read them all in english I'm going to get the spanish set.
I miss LaneyBug so much. At the pulga this last weekend, the stand next to us was playing the Beatles all afternoon. When "Penny Lane" came on I got all teary and had to fight off feelings of *sigh* by flagging down the nearest person to talk to (pulga is like street contacting, I don't now if I explained it before--you know the cell-phone guys who try to get you to stop at the mall to buy stuff?! We do that, but we're not asking for money, Just your soul.) Anyway, I saw pretty Laney-face in my mind and felt all extrano for a minute. She's such a sweet baby. I've had dreams about comig home too! But they are kind of weird. Still, it's nice to see you all in my dreams sometimes.
I'm learning so much out here, it's pretty amazing..not just about the gospel (though, that's kind of..) the bulk of it, and it's related to everything else I learn) I'm also learning how to COOK, (not just bake, COOK) I'm collecting receipts. I can't wait to make you all FOOD!
I'm turning the Yo-Gabba notebook I've got (the plushy one) into a cookbook.
I'm going to send Jensen and Laney letters too--I made a new poem for her book-I'm gonna send a preliminary sketch.
Anyway, I'm out of time again-there's SO much more I want to tell you all.
But...some stories are better in person, I think. 1 1/2 years isn't so long. Love, Hermana Lillywhite

To those in Zion

I do miss the mountains, a LOT. I feel kinda of lost most of the time actually. I never know which direction I'm facing. It frustrates my poor companion to know end when it's my turn to drive, because I still have to ask for directions, every street looks the same and there are no monuments to guide my eye. She's got a 'not-too-helpful' way of trying to get me to learn my way around though. Here's how it works:

*Approaching the intersection*

Lilly "Right or left?" (Derecha o Isqueirda?)

Fries *Silence* (Silencio)

Lilly "Serious. I don't know." (En verdad. No se.)

Fries "What do you think?" (Que piense usted?)

Lilly "Err... We're almost there." (Aaii... Estamos casi alla.)

Fries "Hermana, you know this." (Sister, usted sabe esto.)

Lilly "I don't think I do." (No pienso que yo se.)

Fries *Silence* (Silencio)

Lilly "Alright, left!" (Esta bien, isqueirda!)

Fries "No." (No.)

Repeated about twenty times a day. A veces en Espanol, sometimes in English.
The mountains are like a fortress for me, and it's especially spiritual to remember in context with our ancestors and the work I'm doing here. But, I know that people who move from flat places to valleys like salt lake have the exact opposite dilemma, they end up feeling trapped. Ahhh… my Jensen, she is so cute with her little face and all. Elder Hackett says you should write him, I told him “She doesn’t even write me, she’s not going to write some random Elder I told her to marry.” But I’m glad you’re keeping busy, and hay, you totally did write me this week, and you usually add in an enjoyable paragraph into Mom’s ever so diligent letters… It’s lovely to hear from you all and get news. The other missionaries insist you’ll all forget me. Try not to, okay? By the by with people writing people and such, I’m sorry but the letters for Laney-my-boo y Ginna-gabobin are probably going to have to wait, I’m SO busy right now and I started working on awesome like ‘mock-up’ designs for my ever-longer children’s book for Laney. New characters include Isabelle Orchid, Old Admiral Bones and Rainbow Roadrunner. Also, I don’t know if I ever showed you Fredrick the owl, and I might add in a page for The Stained Glass Orchard, but that’s actually it’s whole entire own story… THANK YOU! By the way for sending me the Castle Mirrors reviews. I swear, I think that is the worst book I’ve ever written, but it’s been my most consistently reviewed considering I finished it and have just been letting it sit there for a couple of years… I’m kind of surprised when it still occasionally gets reviews. I’ll have to rewrite it one day and make it not so terrible.
My car died! Oh, I could cry… it’s such a good little car. At least Laney had an adventure. I hope that they can fix it, I’d feel so bad if I wore it out just in time for Jensen to get it! Poor, poor Hung Car. They can fix him though, make him better, faster, stronger! Very impressive work mommy, you could probably give Jason Statham some seriously epic competition.
SO sad that Jensen missed the demo. But that’s great that Sifu’s having more success with the school! I’ve been trying to practice, but I’ve just got NO time. I should be obedient and exorcise in the morning, but I’ve got to admit, more often than not I’m like “…Read in the Book of Mormon, or exorcise?” and studying wins a lot, but I should take better care of myself. I’m going to get all gross and pudgy.
Oh… err, I’m not sure I should admit to this. I think I saw a little tiny bit of that movie that absolutely EVERYONE has written me about. This movie would be Taken. We were checking up on a contact from an English member. (He served in Peru, I think, a number of years ago and was talking with the woman who cleaned his office building—the lovely Miss Maria—and I think she must have asked him where he learned to speak Spanish,) anyway, it came out that she has a Book of Mormon in English and she can’t read it! So, he offered to have us come by and give her one in Spanish and teach her. The kids were watching that movie when we came over. It was the really intense bit when the girl gets kidnapped too. But we waited for a minute while she looked for the channel-changer, and I realized when he said “They’re going to take you” that this was the movie that a number of people had mentioned in their letters. Looks very much like a man movie. I’ll probably love it in a year and half. Liam Neeson is so adorable.
So, this woman is amazing though, she’s SO sweet, and she was asking all kinds of questions and midway through our lesson her friends came over and her boyfriend got home and everyone just kind of sat down on the couch and listened quietly. It’s interesting how so often it seems like we end up teaching a larger group of people. Once, we were teaching a man on his balcony outside and his neighbor came out on her balcony with some snacks and sat in to listen. People are usually at least “curious” to know, what’s difficult is getting that curiosity to make them want to actually DO something. So often you’ll talk about how wonderful the gospel is and this happens:
“Wouldn’t you like to have everlasting happiness?”
“Yeah!”
“Well, you can! And we’ll tell you how.”
“No, I’m okay.”
Urrgh.
Oh, there’s so much I want to talk about… Some stories are just better told in person. Here’s one that’s ridiculous either way, and it didn’t even happen to me, so I’m kind of cheating: Elder Herrman got to help our Zone leader Elder Clark cast out a demon.
I didn’t think missionaries did that. We’ve been asking questions since it happened and apparently anyone can cast out a demon, but you’re more likely to get the desired result (the ‘casting out’ bit) with a priesthood holder/true believer. If you just say the words and don’t really have any faith to back you up then you’re just going to look dumb. Elder Clark didn’t look dumb though. He’s English, of course, Hispanics typically want their dreams interpreted, they handle demons on their own. Anyway, one of his former investigators called pleading with them to come help her with her boyfriend/husband (or something, this part of the story I didn’t hear from the direct source) The only part I heard was that the boyfriend was freaking out and screaming at her ever since she’d taken her old Bible off the shelf. So, they took him out to the car and he was talking about how this was such a joke and there was nothing wrong with him, but then he started talking about his life and some of the things he’d been thinking about lately and there clearly WAS something really wrong with this guy. Elder Clark decided to give him a blessing, at the end of it he added the proper words for ‘exorcism’ or whatever you call it, (even though he technically wasn’t supposed to touch him if he did that, was he?) anyway, he said he did it wrong, but it didn’t matter because it still worked, apparently. As soon as he was done the guy started shaking and passed out cold. He woke up again in a few minutes and was fine.
I was advised not to tell you this story because it would scare you, but… I’m going to go ahead and guess that you’ll find it more interesting that scary. Elder Herrman had this to say on the matter: “…That was weird.”
Indeed.
Oh, what else… I have a boyfriend. He’s got pretty russetty/blonde/chestnut hair and big pretty eyes and he’s only a few months old and a puppy. His name is Rocky and he belongs to my neighbors, but he’s SO cute. I’m not sure what breed, but he’s going to be huge, you can tell by his big-old dog paws. It makes me miss all the bad little doggies back home. Is Izzy-Cow much recovered form her surgery yet?
I miss the bad kitties too, I can’t believe Tommy keeps fighting with that pretty neighbor cat. Bad things. Diggy is so fluffy and silly, is his bald patch gone yet?
The weather here has been nuts this week. We were at an appointment with our VERY stubborn, very Catholic investigators and their… I don’t even know how many dogs they’ve got, and when we left their front yard had completely flooded. It was probably about a foot deep, there was no escape, we just had to swim to Hermana Porter’s car. (We had taken her with us to be our miembro.) It’s SO nice when members come to appointments with us, then they can talk to them like normal people and we can be like “Look! She’s wearing jeans and tennis shoes and is all normal and adorable and simultaneously filled with the light of Christ, don’t you want to be like her?!”
Arnie is doing so good, but we’re having trouble getting our other investigators to that point. Our one who’s doing the best right now is Aurora. She’s really quiet and for a while we didn’t think she was really interested, but then at our last lesson she just kind of casually mentioned that she’s read all the way up to the end of 2nd Nephi on her own, in addition to the assignments we’ve given her but she wants to be sure before she’ll agree to be baptized. We still can’t get her to come the church though, and that’s a huge problem… I really don’t get why it’s so difficult to get people to just come. It’s not scary! I promise.
I’m only half way through reading your letter, but my companion is getting impatient to leave, so I’m going to have to finish reading/writing later! I LOVE YOU! Kia Kaha
Hermana Lillywhite

Mis Padres y Hermanas y primos y tios y abuelitos! MI FAMILIA!

Extrano a mi familia... MWAH! Les amo, muchisimo.
Did everyone experience a very feliz pascua? I did. I got PACKAGES! Which was honestly so, so lovely! Thank you so much for all the wonderful Easter goodies and for the new paper on which to write more letters to vosotros. My companion laughed so hard when she read how much weight of candy I’d been sent on the boxes. It’s mostly gone already, we gave some to our less-active’s kids and the children in the apartments around us. Also, we tried to give away a little at the Pulga, but I think they sensed that if they stopped for candy they would have to listen to us, so mostly we just ate it that day. I did managed to flag people down though—and in Spanish, none the less “Hola, buenas tardes, usted ha placticado con misioneros antes?” Y el dice “Mande?” and I’ve got him! Yesss, now you have to listen to me talk about the restored gospel and give me your address.
We also realized that although we’d mysteriously run out of chocolate-chips, if you crush up candy bars and add it to the cookie dough, it’s kind of way better than regular chocolate chips. Delicioso. Yes, that candy went to good use. We shared it with the other missionaries as well, but it was just so yummy and we were running low on food, so we ate… probably more than we should So good. Thank you so, so, much Grandma and Mommy! It was wonderful Easter surprise, and helped us to feel a little bit more… normal, for a few minutes.
We must have watched Lamb of God ten times with our investigators, less-actives etc. Trying to help them feel the importance of this last week. I'm not sure it worked, why is it so hard to get people to come to church? We actually offered candy, and we sent members to go pick them up and everything and they mysteriously vanished. Es la vida, pero, que es eso? En verdad. Still, we did absolutely everything we could, outside of violating their agency. I know if we keep trying, eventually we'll see results.
Everything home sounds idylic! I miss those silly ragamuffin kitties and feral rat-boy. Diggy sounds so silly with his bald-patch. ("I'm afflicted with a (Censor*SECULAR*Censor)" but you know:) And bad Tom, fighting with pretty girls, cual es su problema?
That’s funny about Gram and Herbalife, I still haven’t had the opportunity to try some but Hermana Frieszell insists “Oh, you will.”
I see the brand-name everywhere, bumper-stickers and scripture cases ect. I think it’s so funny… That’s so sad about Charlie Young’s farewell, and the Atonement is such an AWESOME missionary subject too. He totally could have tied that all into an Easter message if they’d given him the chance. The dumbest part is that “How can I prepare for a mission?” has got to be the stupidest, most backwards subject to talk about, here’s my answer: You CAN’T.
I’m not saying “Don’t try.”, I’m just saying, “Sorry, you can’t do it—but try anyway.”
You’re going to hit the field and no matter what, you’re not going to be prepared. There’s always going to be a million things you wished you’d done before you left to make yourself into a better missionary sooner. I have yet to meet an exception to this, I’ve meet missionaries who already know the language, like adorable Hermana Dewey who lived in Chile for two years so speaks both English and Spanish fluently, already, she admits that she doesn’t feel prepared to teach people in any language because she understands the gospel but isn’t sure she can explain it to people clearly, then there’s the missionaries (so, very, very many) who can’t figure the language out but have explaining and teaching the gospel down to an art in their own language (which is now useless to them). There’s people who’ve wished they’d gotten into better physical shape, people who’ve wished they had studied the scriptures a little better, people who wished they’d gone to mission prep and people who wished they’d gone out with the missionaries in their home ward when they had the chance so they could start experiencing what it’s like sooner, I’ve meet people who’ve felt like they should have started learning how to talk to total strangers sooner, missionaries who wish they’d taken the time to learn how to cook/clean/do laundry. Missionaries who wished they’d taken the time to break some of those ‘un-missionaryish’ habits a little sooner (swearing/not-looking-people-in-the-eyes/saying ‘um’ every five seconds etc) . Even people who’ve done ALL of this stuff (and it’s a good idea to do all of this stuff) come into the field unprepared. You just can’t really… ‘prepare’ to become a missionary. You just have to do it. Everyone comes into the field with a long list of “things I probably could have done to come into this better prepared”.
So… Do EVERYTHING you can think of to prepare, then go in comfortable in the knowledge that you’re still totally unprepared. That’s my advice.
I’m SO happy Alejandra is going on a mission! That’s so great! She’s going to have such a wonderful experience, and I just know she’ll be able to touch the lives of so many of God’s children out here in the field.
I’m curious, mommy and daddy. My companion has a rather… shall we say… Elitist view on who will be admitted into the Celestial Kingdom and especially who will go to the Highest Kingdom there-in. I’m… a little more ‘happy-bunnies-and-dulces-of-hope’ about it (“Hippie.”- She accuses) I’m not saying she’s like 144,000 about it or anything, and I’m not saying it’ll be particularly crowded, but, anyway, I thought I’d ask for your much valued opinions on this subject, especially on how the ‘ubber-righteous’ of the Celestial kingdom will also be sorted into three categories.
You talked to MANDA! Yay! I love my Manda! I got a lovely package from her &Nafoolio this week too, but of all the lamosity, when the silly UPS man delivered it, I was out working (for a change, she added sarcastically with a roll of her eyes) and instead of leaving a slip or coming back later, or even leaving it on the doorstep(although that’s not safe in gunspoint) he tossed it over the side of this little fence that encloses our ‘porch’ (a slab of cement about two inches wide that we can sort of stand on in order to see if it’s raining or not) it’s hard to explain, but the point is, I didn’t find it for a few days. We’re not sure how long, but when I finally did find it, it had clearly been out in the rain for a while. It was fine, which was awesome and the contents were heaven-sent! So lovely!
I’m so glad you liked the picture card, I wanted to send it to you ages ago, so I’m so happy I finally sent it---I want to keep typing, but mi companera is getting antsie, I’d better finish this by hand! I love you all, Glory to God!
Hermana Lillywhite