LETTERS! Hay dos! cha-chacha...

(MY MISSING LETTER FROM AUG. 31st! I accidentally sent it to Toddlillywhite@totallynotevenareale-mailaddress.com which was very silly of me, but at least the e-mail and everything is working alright. I’m just a dumbbunny.)

Fambly,
Stake conference this weekend. What a rush! Sadly, this may be my last stake conference in Spanish, since they announced that they’re taking three of the wards in the stake (including the two I’ve serve in) and meshing them up with the English stake down the pike. NO idea why they didn’t just split the stake in two. It’s MASSIVE. There are like 15 Spanish wards, (well, 12, now) and they’re all HUGE wards. Anyway, so, the stake conferences from now on are going to be in English with ‘spanish-rooms’ in the building where there with be translators (probably us).
It was a great experience, three of the speakers were English, so they had a translator come up and translate the whole talk. It was very fun, and funny. Hispanic people are so casual, whenever he couldn’t think of the English word in Spanish he’d just look into the crowd and say, “Como se llama?” and like twenty voices would shout out the word he was searching for, from this massive crowd of Hispanic people. So fun. President Hansen spoke. He bore his testimony in Spanish (and did very well) but his talk was in English with some random Spanish words thrown in for funzies.
Then, I had the WONDERFUL experience of getting to go to a very special Baptism. Do you remember the Ecuadorian family I told you about ages and ages ago? The one when I requested help in finding a handsome, sweet, funny, smart Spanish speaking return missionary who would like to marry an adorable spunky Ecuadorian lady with two small children a mother and two teenager sisters to take care of? Remember her? Her name is Carolina and she and one of those teenaged sisters, Marisol, just got baptized last night. It was WONDERFUL. I think I owe Elder Dorian cookies or something, because he came into City View to take over after Hermana Frieszell left and he’s really trying hard to find and work with all the people who we were teaching there. It was SO exciting and I’m so happy I got to come and see them finally get baptized, after all the months and months and months… I think they were like my second lesson with investigators ever. My first week here I taught them. Nelly and Maria Jose still need some time, but I know that mi Padre Celestial has been preparing them for a long time to have this. I’m sure it won’t be too long before I get to go back for another baptism for this family. I’ll be sending pictures soon.
Hermana Frieszell’s parents came to pick her up—their spending about a week down here in Texas, we just went to Breakfast with them, for P-day. They’re super sweet, nice people. It was cute to see them trying so hard to communicate with the ward members in spite of the language barrier. I even got to jump in and translate for a second there. Very fun.
But Carolina and Marisol’s baptism was perfect, beautiful. I was so happy to go. They are so happy! The ward has really stepped up to the plate to help this family. The little kids are so cute and I’m positive that Nelly and Maria Jose will be joining them soon.
I sure do miss you guys, I hope everything is well. I’m so sad to hear about Grandma’s heart! But that’s good that they were paying attention enough to stop it at the last minute. I’ll be praying for her. Laney will like Mr. Evan’s class, it’s good to hear about them. That’s so cool that Alejandra gets to drive to her mission with her mom! I’d love that so much. Yeah, we had to do the same kind of thing with a guy in the other ward. He wasn’t legal either so they had to take him straight to the mission by car. I LOVE Complete Works-Abridged, it’s so hilarious. Have fun and tell me all about it please! Jensen is such a little stress-buggy. Jensencita. CHILL. It’ll be okay, I promise. Her classes sound like fun… Mommy, you must tell me all about school and your class and how prospy is doing these days!
I loved getting your letter from the campout. It did smell like campfire—very fun, and it sounds like it was a great little trip. I’m glad to hear that you and missy and Sarah are enjoying Sifu’s class! I remember coming home covered in red marks. That was soooo divertido. I love hearings about you all having a blast, I do hope you’re taking every chance to enjoy yourselves thoroughly. The article about Gary Ceran was really inspiring too. I’m glad to hear that he’s still working hard, I know he’ll be rewarded for it. Are they almost done with those blasted malls yet? What’s the deal? I got into a rant the other day about that whole situation because somebody made a comment about political leaders in Salt Lake and the church and it got me off on Rocky Anderson and then the sky bridge and the mall and what a ridiculous design the gateway is and a lot of other subjects that probably aren’t even connected, but seemed relevant at the time. It’s amazing I still remember stuff like that after they shoved another language in my head in nine weeks. I do think I may have forgotten how to walk in high heels at least. Which is an unnecessary skill at the moment anyway.
I don’t think there’s anything left to talk about right now… Just that I owe some serious pictures, but it’ll probably have to wait another week, since we don’t have the miles to go to Walmart. We’ll just have to shop at Food Land, as suspicious as it is.
I adore you all with your lovely, lovely faces and celestially sprinkled spirits!
Hermana Lillywhite (todavia una poca rara)

Dearest Darlingest Fambly Whom I Heart Mucho,
I miss you!!! I felt soooo sad all week thinking that you hadn’t gotten my letters! Sister Chestnut gave me a call last Tuesday night to let me know that there was an issue with my letters. But, the issue turns out to be me just not having a brain—so there’s the letter that I accidentally sent to a non-existing e-mail address above. And I’m very, very sorry. Muy sorry.
This week we had zone conference and some more fun, fun things. We’re going to play softball today. I really like softball a lot I decided. You stand there at the base and everybody moves in real close and starts to yell things like “Here’s the out!” then you swing and miss at a murderous ball for a few minutes until you’re out, then you sit down and write in your journal until the inning is over and then stand in a field for a few minutes and avoid the white ball and it all starts over again. Softball is cool. My kind of sport.
Actually, I’m finding I actually do enjoy sports a lot more than I realized I did. I’m just no good at them! And playing sports as a missionary is a little weird. I’m not sure I give my full approval. But hey—I’m going to play today at least.
Oh wow, so I do have a little bit of cash! Cool. I need to be smart about this though. Working at the school itself sounds like a good idea… and if I can get into BYU I could try to work at the MTC. Every return missionary applies, and few get the job, but I might as well try. Otherwise, those options you talked about sound really good. Tell daddy I’m sorry if I’m spending too much! I’m really trying to be smart about it… I think I might need to warn you in advance about this week though. We’ve got temple this week and there’s a couple of investigators/recent converts who need presents, for their belated/upcoming baptizes. I’m going to TRY to be prudent, but yeah… also, The church has asked us to buy the new translation of the Spanish Bible that they’ve just put out. I don’t know how expensive it’s going to be, but they are THICK books. I saw the “cheap-give-away” copies and they’re way better bound than the other books we give away because they’ve got so many pages. So, I’ve got to pick up one of those and some other stuff as well…
BABY KITTEN! Ahhh! CUTE. Cute.cute.cute.cute.CUTE! She sounds AODRABLE. I want to cuddle. Send me pics pronto! I must bask in the cuteness described.
Kimber sounds like it’s turning out to be really wonderful! How many students do you have in your class? That’s so cool that Jensen and Shazi got to share their experiences at the school. I can’t think of any really great stories right now, but if they come to me later I’ll tell you about them. Oh! It’s already come in handy to know the hook-dates on my mission. Good stuff. You’re going to do great, and I bet you can help to make the school a success.
That’s sad about Sister Noyes and Brother Davies, but I’m sure they’ll have the support of the ward and daddy to help them and the families. Pancreatic cancer’s very painful isn’t it? It’s hard to see people suffering, but we’ve got an advantage in the church of having an Eternal Perspective. Still, that’s pretty terrible, but it won’t last for any longer than it’s supposed to and eventually, everything will be alright.
That’s funny about those dreams Alejandra’s mom had about her, also very revealing and interesting… I love hearing about people’s dreams. Some missionaries get exasperated and start mentally rolling their eyes when an investigator/member starts talking about their dreams, but I love it! I know that God speaks to us through dreams. And often times, the spiritual language of dreams is very personal. It’s funny sometimes, sure, but it’s also sacred revelation for these people—so that’s very neat. I’m glad that Alejandra and her mom are doing well. This is a rough time for both of them!
My stock of thigh-highs seems to need constant replenishment, but it’s gotten better since Sister Hansen made a new rule: we no longer have to wear ‘medias’ (Nylons) unless we’re in a situation in which the Elders need to wear their suit-jackets. So much of the time I’m actually wearing those little footsy-sox underneath my shoes! You know, the kinds that just go around the foot, and not even up to the ankle? It’s hard to find kinds that stay on, but the ones they sell at Kroger and Fiesta just hanging around are pretty good. I’m wearing a pair with ‘ositos’ (little bears) on them that Hermana Castillo gave me from her last trip to Fiesta. So… If you happen to come across any of those, por favor!
As for my opinion on kitty names, these are all REALLY good. The only real reason to use Luna or Bellatrix is to keep in the Harry Potter theme though, since Bastet & Miss Moppet are such GREAT cat names. Bastet is nice and intellectual. Also, any Goth kids will think we’re one groovey Adams-esque family. Miss Moppet is totally classic. But Luna also has some “kitsch (sp?) cache” with the anime crowds who remember Sailor Moon and her little black cat Luna… and Bellatrix is awesomely Harry Potter and also a round-about reference to Helena Bonham Carter, who is awesome… I don’t know , these are some fine choices. You’re probably going to have to give her all of them, but in what order?
Well, I’m going to keep this letter shorter today as well, just because you’ve got my letter from two weeks ago too! And also because I’m hoping I’ll get to chance to do some hand-written funzies today while I’m hanging around in the dug-out.
2nd Nephi 31… Excellent choice
Tengo bastante amor para vosotros. BESO!
MWAHMUCHO/Hermana Ailsa Chrisitan Lillywhite

Querida Familita Mia,

No se si eso (aqui, por arriba) es correcto. Creo que, si, pero mi espanol es de los estados unidos, entounces... nunca se!

I'm so sorry I didn't write yesterday! It was laborday, so all the libraries and everything was closed. But the happy news is that I get to write to you today! YAY! Felizidad por la vida, AIIIAYAIAIAYY!

I really am excited today, I don't know why, I think it's because of the extra day, I was extra excited to hear from y'all. I'm always way stoked to get your letters, but today, I just feel like I'm extra excited... So, I'm confused, I thought Jensen got a solo room to herself, but you've mentioned Luma as a roomate of hers? Explain:) Maybe she lives right next door or something? Anyway, that's excellent that she gets to make some new friends, and ginna-ga-boobin, I'm SO happy that you like all your classes. They sound boss. Especially the movie-watching one:) I've got to be honest my little sister, I still don't think movies are evil. I'm probably not going to be able to sit down with you for a month and watch all these shows, like you've been saying, but I don't think it'll be too weird to watch TV again... you just have to be EXTRA nice to me, start me out on milk. Disney movies... Pixar! Ya know? Then we can slowly ease me into romantic comedies and some action adventure... SLOWLY though. Anyway, Luma sounds nice! Is she in any of your classes? Your other classes sound like they're perfect for you as well. You'll do awesome! Just keep working hard.

And mommy, your class will be great! I can already tell from hearing you talk about it. It's going to be so cool. Those kids are way lucky to have you. I certainly will be praying for you! And for your adorable kimber-prospy students. If they give you guff, just tell the kung fu teacher and he'll beat them up. That's what the other teachers did when we were bad.

Yeah, there was a thing brought up about money the other day... OH yeah! Guess who is in my district now? Elder Lang! The one from Aunt Nuggie & Uncle John's ward. We were talking and it turns out that my companion and Elder Lang are basically set up already for after their mission. They've got cash/jobs/schools, everything lined up. So me and Elder Lang's companion, Elder Remmington, were being kind of quiet and then he just goes, "I'm broke." and I just sort of nodded and was like, "I think I might be broke too." and we had a good laugh about it. I don't actually know if there is any money for school for me when I get back... I guess I can always work for a while and save up. There is bound to be a job for a bi-lingual hypergraphian with a bachelor's degree in English, right? But I really do want to go back to school... I just realised I'll probably have to try and figure out a couple of details about that at some point.

Laney is so silly... half finished homework in your desk, huh? Silly rabbit. She's so cute, I miss her face and her sillyosity. How's she liking school so far? Any fun new friends?

Choosing your fast day in a forty-day fast as fast sunday is cheating!But it might have worked... good idea, haha. That's a really cool idea, I hope you guys see some success for your missionaries. They sound like great Elders from what you've told me. It's hard in some of those areas, but that doesn't mean you can't have success. Oooo! I want to see Uncle Dan in MacBeth!So cool. Totally unfair... they'll just have to do it again next year, says I. I'm glad he's happily working away on a new script--I can't wait to read it, and the old one! [redacted].

Was that Museum movie cute? I saw a poster for it a couple of times, so I knew it was coming out at least, which is more than I can say for most movies. (It's so weird to be all cut off sometimes). Yummy... food and gelato. I haven't heard from Chantal in a bit, what's the deal, babs? Que estas haciendo? Tell her I said that.

Yeah, the weather is unbareable. It was REALLY hot yesterday too, but we had fun... You'll never guess what President actually let us do... we went to a Baseball Game!!!! Coolest P-day ever. It will probably never happen again, because SO many missionaries were there. It was funny. You could just look across the stands and see all these white shirts and ties with little nametags (I think Hermana Forsling and I were the only sisters who came though). We ended up on the bigscreen alot.

It was a way fun game, Astros vs. Philies. The Philies pitcher has a real attitude problem, but so did a bit of the crowd (The parts that weren't occupied by scores of missionaries). Aside from that it was a way fun, wholesome game of ball! Completely with cute little kids and dogs and sportmanship and all of that. I'll be sending my ticket and the funky astros apron they gave me home to you folks to charish. I like baseball, I realised. It's really fun!

There were like dozens of flyballs too. A few came right close to us but we never caught one. By the end I figured they should just hand one out to everybody in the crowd as there had been so many. I don't know if the game was on TV or anything, but if you can find any clips of it, you might see me, or some of my homies (I don't know if it's inappropriate to refer to the Elders as 'homies') in the crowd. WAY fun game. The Astros won!

That's such a wonderful story about Katherine and Matt! I love that. It's so sweet... That's a nice mission President who would allow that too. President Hansen would probably okay that too. At least, I'd hope so. He's strick on some things and not-so-much on others, so it's hard to tell. But that's soooo cool! Lucky Elder:)

Well, this week was pretty chill. Well, not really, actually a lot happened, but you know that whole 'some stories are better in person' thing, I've mentioned? This was one of those weeks. I didn't find out that my companion can do cornrows. And there was an adorable incident in which one of our recent converts, Antonia (15) stole the keys to our car and set off the alarm when we were standing outside next to the car, looking for the keys. She's such a joker. It was pretty funny.

This week is going to be zone conference! I'm super excited. Zone conference is always so uplifting. This has been a pretty battered transfer so far, but I know that hard times come and go. And we'll be fine, we're in the lord's hands after all.

I LOVE you all, os amo muchisimo! I hope everything is as lovely and prefect and the same as it sounds. I miss you all a lot, but I'm so happy! And I know it won't be long before I see you all again and get to touch and hear and smell you too:)

Kissito, Hermana Lillywhite

Eighteen months, baby.

Phew. I’m beat. My favorite member got arrested for unpaid parking tickets, but everything’s been sorted out now. We were worried she might run into immigration problems, but since her paperwork is actually being dealt with right now, they didn’t try to deport her or anything, and she’s a trooper. She made friends with all the toughest Hispanic ladies in the cage and described how the police trembled in fear when she was released a few hours later. (I think I already sent you a picture of Hermana Castillo once, and some of her precious children.)
We also enjoyed a lovely ‘goodbye-Elder-Meade’ dinner appointment with a family that are members of the ward in spite of not being members of the church… (waiting on divorce papers to go through in Mexico so they can get married legally.) Their oldest child has already been baptized though, and we get to start teaching the second oldest just in time for her to get baptized Oct. 8th; her eight birthday. It was a very fun evening. I tried to get footage of Elder Meade getting his face smashed into a cake but it didn’t work out. I do have pictures of the aftermath.
We’re working with some WONDERFUL people right now. It’s stressful, but it’s soooo rewarding.
Oh! It’s transfer week, and the only reason I didn’t bring that up sooner is because my news is boring: I’m staying and so is my companion! Actually, very few Spanish missionaries changed at all, except to regulate some things that were made wonky by sooo, so many missionaries having to go home this week. But everyone who wasn’t leaving was basically just left alone! And then they paired up the companionships who lost someone—or made them trainers. Very slick transfer, which is a little unusual for president. But I’m REALLY happy that I get to stay here for at least six more weeks with Hermana Forsling. It’s her second to last transfer and she’s praying that they’ll just leave us together/here, until she dies. There are so many wonderful people here, I could honestly spend the rest of my mission in this little apartment in the ghetto and be perfectly happy. But—I said that about Gunspoint too, so I guess the lesson in to trust in the Lord that wherever I go, or wherever I don’t go and whoever I’m with/not with, is all for my good.
It’s the last P-day for a lot of missionaries, I was expecting something big, but I guess they decided to keep it pretty low-key. We’re just going to get food at a BBQ place here called The Hungry Farmer and say our goodbyes and then maybe play some sports if we don’t just spend the whole time reminiscing.
Funny moment of the week:
*Hermana Forsling notices some black marks on the back of Elder Meade’s shirt*
“What happened?!” –Hna Forsling
“Two years, baby.” –Elder Meade
“…Did you just call me baby?” –Hna Forsling
“I’m practicing.” –Elder Meade.
“Don’t practice on sister missionaries.” –Elder Brady
Best district meeting ever.
I assure you, we got a lot of work done and had some wonderful spiritual moments as well. I’m such a softy these days. Remember how I cried pretty easily before? It’s gotten SO much worse now. I try to keep it under control, but seriously… Don’t know what to do about that.
Hugh B. Brown, Profile of a Prophet and God is the Gardener—I think I remember listening to this at Kimber years ago. Hermana Forsling has a copy on tape that we’ve been listening to. Good stuff—powerful. Also, I think I forgot to mention before, daddy—THANK you for the talks/articles. I really can’t get enough of this, don’t hesitate to send me more goodness.
Apparently Phill Collins recorded all of the soundtrack from Tarzan in Spanish. According to the new music guidelines that President set, it’s not okay, but it’s still something I’m going to want to participate in later. Tarzan in Spanish. Sweet.
Mommy, I LOVE that poem you sent me. It’s gorgeous and it’s so true. Just in keeping with my newest theme of every lesson “God loves and knows you”. I’ve decided that this is a simple truth that has been completely and utterly lost on pretty much everybody. No matter what we’re teaching, we always figure out a way to trace it back to that. It’s amazing to see the light in people when this precious reality starts to come into them. It’s so taken for granted by us as latter-day saints. And that story about President Monson and Uchtdorf is hilarious! I love it, totally warms my heart. It sounds like it was a very wonderful and busy Sunday. I hope that Grandma is doing okay, I’ve been praying for her! Let me know how everything goes.
I sure do love and miss you all bunches… sorry this letter is so short this week! But there’s not much more that you need to know except that the church is true and that this message we have is the most wonderful, most important thing for all the world and I know these things because I have felt the truth of them por medio del Espiritu Santo.
Love, Hermana Lillywhite

Hola! Did you say hello? No I said hola, but close enough

Familia,
Phew, I’m sleepy. Luis was baptized yesterday. It was a very stressful day. All the elements were combining against us to thwart our plans for helping Luis receive a remission of his sins, but after frantic phone calls running por todos lados del mundo and some fervent praying/begging we were gifted with SUCCESS! Luis is very excited, he looked so cute yesterday. He’s twelve and small for his age, so he was practically swimming in the jumpsuit. I’ll send pictures soon.
Aside from that, I’m not really sure what to report on this week. It went by SO fast. Elder Meade said some more funny things… I can’t remember what they were though, but it definitely had to do with tracking down Elder Bone (he prefers Elder Hueso, but is very white)’s girlfriend when he goes home in nine days. He and Elder Remington wrote a song about her actually. She hasn’t written him in a while, so the titled it, “Kirsten, write this Bonehead.” It’s sure to be a hit someday among miamaids (Damitas) all over the western front.
Two former missionaries from our zone got married. Like. To each other. It’s quite the scandal actually. Hermana Forsling was companions with the Sister, while the Elder she just married was their district leader. So, she’s pretty weirded out by the news, along with everyone else who knew the two of them. I think they make a cute couple actually, but I greatly disapprove of the clothing they’ve got on in their engagement photos. Why are crocs trendy? Why, I ask you? I mean if you really think they’re all that comfy, fine, but don’t take pictures! Why would you ever want evidence of that? And engagement photos, really!? Our ward mission leader and his wife also met in their mission when he was her district leader, so they think it’s the best thing ever. I just don’t understand.
I went on exchanges with Hermana Frieszell and that was REALLY cool to get to hang out and work with her for one more day before she goes home. She’s not happy about her time being up at all. She didn’t want to talk about it and didn’t bring it up at all except right before the exchange was over and then she just said, “Okay hijita… what of my stuff do you want?” I think she’ll be happy though. She’s just a super hardcore missionary who’s pretty sure there are a few hundred more people out there who need to be converted.
I’m taking some of her clothes and one of her Spanish books that I enjoyed reading.
I’m so sad to hear about your short/triste visit to San Clamente! How sad… it’s just not the same without everybody else there, is it? I’m glad you guys got the chance to go for a few hours, but seriously… we’ve got to figure this out so that we can have our family reunion thingy in San Clamente like before. Somebody get rich! Jensen?! Can you do anything about this? You’re clever, go make money. You’ve got the looks, you’ve got the brains, let’s make lots of money…
I really thought that I’d forget all music that wasn’t hymns, but no, random little snippets of songs come back to me at little intervals. The other day it was dépêche mode.
This movie (Lost in Austen) sounds like EXACTLY my kind of thing. Geez, I am such a girl. I really want to see it, but you’re right I’ll enjoy it fabulously with all of you in like a year. Time sure does go fast. Somebody pointed out to me the other day that I’m approaching the half-way point and I just about had a heart attack when I did the math and realized that they were right. Crazy. I can’t believe that, I don’t feel like I’ve done nearly enough… I guess I’ve just got to keep improving—work harder, proclaim the gospel to every creature and all of the goodness of life!
It sounds like your visit with the Lillywhites and our whole Californian branch of the fambly went way groovy though. I LOVE islands, I’m so jealous. And mommy, to your question about Hermana Forsling being familiar with In and Out Burger, my companion replies: “I’ll have a cheeseburger with no onions, fries and a chocolate shake, thank you very much.”
There are no In and Out Burgers here… It’s very sad. There is a suspicious looking “MR. BURGER AND SEAFOOD!” on Jensen street. We once saw a man on a horse trot up to the door, dismount and tie the horse up outside so he could go get himself some quality fast-food from the ghetto. It was an amazing moment in my life.
I’ve never eaten there.
I love it when you tell me about the food! I LOVE food. It’s a problem, I think I’m gaining weight. They told me it would happen. I don’t understand how, as I’m on my feet so much.
Anyway, I LOVE your nice long letter and hearing about your trip, it sounds like it was REALLY fun. That’s really sad about the ward not paying attention to the cute little white-haired man… Being just plain friendly is an important part of missionary work for full-time missionaries and everyone else.
Wow, I can’t believe everyone has to go start school again! It seems like it just got out… well, good luck to everyone! Work hard y’all. I don’t have much time left, so I’ve got to get going, thank you SO much for the nice long letter, it’s so good to hear about everything back home, I look forward to getting the San Clamente carta. I hope it wasn’t as miserable as you made it sound and that you were able to enjoy yourselves a little. I agree about the ‘not-beach’ bodies with all the tattoos and navel jewelry. What is that?! I got in a conversation with a ‘missionary’ from another church who had a large tattoo of a naked woman on his arm and was wearing a Santa Muerte shirt. I gave him a card, but he wouldn’t give me any of his information and he just wanted to debate, so I pretended not to know what he was talking about. If he ever gets baptized he should get the tattoo removed… or at least go buy her some clothes.
I heart you all with all my love. I hope everything is as pleasant and summery as I imagine it in my head! Live life, be cheerfull! MWAH! MWAH! Good luck back at school and work and life everyone. I miss you all like you were chocolate. Besssito.
Hermana Lillywhite

slightlylessdrama

Dear family,
This week was REALLY amazing. Junior is making great progress. I got to have a very awkward law of chastity lesson with three teenaged siblings, and that was actually a lot of fun… Luis did not get baptized on schedule, but it’s okay, we think we can help him resolve his doubts in time and take this important step. We’ve got some great new people we’re working with and all in all, everything is going quite nicely.
Remember how I have special powers sometimes? Well, the second I realized that another Elder was going to have to come in and replace Elder Geldmocker (I still am not certain how to spell his NAME) I immediately selected from a group of like… well, I don’t actually know how many Spanish Elders there are, but there’s a LOT, and I totally called it. Elder Poole came to replace him. He’s going home at the same time as Elder Meade, Elder Briscoe, Elder Luke, Elder Cypert, Elder Argyle, Elder Drysdale, and Hermana Friezell—so basically all my friends plus a couple of cool people I really wanted to serve around but never got the chance, on account of them being so OLD! And Hermana Forsling is getting up there too… along with Elder Rost and Elder Dorian (who I’ve decided is Daddy, when he was a missionary). We’d better get some cool people out here soon. Anyway, Elder Poole is an interesting fellow. He’s a convert and everyone says he’s got a very interesting conversion story, but that it’s better when he tells it. I’m not sure how I predicted his Emergency Transfer to our zone, but I think he and Elder Rost will be a legendary companionship (for about two weeks before he goes back to BYU to do whatever it is people who already have their Doctorate do after their missions, get married to the woman responsible for his initial interest in the church, if I’m hearing the rumors right.) Elder Meade has a similar story, except that he’s not with her anymore, and also his story involves him being the lead singer in the band at his old church (yep, one of those) he has pictures on him as his Christian Rock-star self with long curly hair, and I guess he had a beard to at one point. (When he visited BYU for a couple of weeks). So, the other missionaries are all doing well, besides going crazy on account of being on their way home.
I’m so happy to hear that you performed a wedding in Spanish, daddy! That is so cool. I wish I could have heard it! Awesome, chido. We’re really hoping to have a wedding soon so we can get two of our investigators baptized…
Also, THANK YOU so much for the package! I needed more thigh highs and inserts and I certainly needed millions of candies! Yay dulces! I think that’s what I squealed when I opened it. Also, I don’t know if I ever said thank you Laney-boo for the newsletter! And all the clippings were really fun. I’m surprised to see that The Mighty Boosh performed at comic-con, I remembered that they started playing it late-night in America shortly after I left, but still… That’s cool about New Moon too, I saw a poster in Walmart the other day and was fairly jealous for a split second of all the silly people who get to see it before me! I also tried to watch a trailer for the next Harry Potter movie in Chile’s a few weeks back, but Hermana slapped me and brought me back to the world of “Soy misionera! Voy a trabajar en el campo de Dios, VAMOS!” I’ve got to be honest, I don’t feel a gut-wrenching aversion to pop-culture, still. I know missionaries who do, and I respect their feelings by not bringing it up/not getting stranded on the way out of chiles or walmart, but still… do not personally feel a sickening “DE BABILONIA!” electric shock when such things come to my attention. Does that mean I’m a bad person? Hermana Forsling says ‘No’, but Hermana Friezell says ‘Yes’.
Anyway, thank you SO much for the comics and goodies and the big bright lovely, wonderful package of LOVE! And especially thank you for the conference on CD! I’ve got this last session on DVD in Spanish, but I’ve really been wanting to listen to it English for my personal study sometimes. I really appreciate the Lauren and Cody’s letters too, and the talk from you, daddy! I have the best family ever, pretty sure: )
I think some people (especially people you like to make analogies and ties things together) often make spiritual connections with secular things. For instance, I LOVE that that Elder used Alice in Wonderland in his talk, it’s an excellent point and I’ve read those books, so I know that they are chalk-full of other really wonderful tidbits like that. Things that could be easily applicable to gospel subjects. I think it’s a great idea to use that same line for class, mommy. If you haven’t read Alice in Wonderland or Through the Looking Glass, borrow my copy. They’re very short books and there’s a lot of good stuff in there. The Cheshire Cat is quite wise if I remember correctly.
Anyway, the point is, I think that stuff is important and inspired too sometimes. And I’ll always remember that one teacher at the MTC who applied every gospel principle to Rocky effortlessly.
Oh, before I forget… HAPPY BIRTHDAY JENSEN! MWAH, MWAh, MWAH!!!!! I give you nineteen kisses! You’re all adultish, how silly of you… I’d recommend not getting any older, unless you want to serve a mission, then you at least need to make it to twenty-one, but after that you can stop. I’d recommend stopping, in fact.
~Estas son las manunitas que cantaba al Rey David, hoy por ser tu dia santo, te las cantamos a TI!~
FELIZ COMPLIANOS!
Everything sounds so fun back home, I’m glad Jensen and Chantal are carrying on the tradition of funfunfun. Jensen don’t get discouraged about the animation program! Just work hard and apply again in April! And if you talk to a counselor and pray a lot I’m sure you’ll be able to find a solution. Remember, your heavenly father wants you to be happy and successful and he’ll help you out, you just need to ask and work hard and be patient!
I hope ya’ll are enjoying the river, give my love to the fambly! I do so miss them… Daddy, I’m sorry you had a rough Sunday! I loved your reference to the conference talk, it’s one of my favorites! There’s so many people who need to hear that talk… I’m going to print it out and give it to them, good call. Thanks for the reminder!
Anyway, I don’t have a lot of time today because we’re going down town to play… I love you all SO much, and I miss you like crazy, but I’m cheerful and I’m joyful every day and I’m SO glad I’m here, about my father’s business. I so adore you, my lovelies. Sorry this letter is so short, there’s a lot more I’d like to say, but I got to go!
Love, lovey-love-love, Hermana Lillywhite

whatadramatic7days

Mom, you are absolutely right about the whole, cycles and waves thing, because although the last couple of weeks were rough, this week was AWESOME. Chito. Or chido, I don’t know, I’ve only ever heard people say it, and the Spanish ‘d’ sounds kind of ‘th’y sometimes and ‘t’s sound like ‘d’s so sometimes I have no idea which of those letters is actually in this word I’m using. Anyway, that’s just awesome in Spanish. Point is: this week was amazing.
It was looking like it was going to be a struggle at first. We had an Elder in our Zone who had to go home because he almost died. Elder Geldmocker. (I think I’m wrong on how to spell the name, but that’s how it sounds) He’s gotten some kind of an injury in the MTC and not gotten it properly taken care of and then he came out here and it kept getting worse, but he wouldn’t tell anyone anything about it until he couldn’t walk anymore and had to be rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery to remove a 2 inch-wide, foot and a half long blood-clot in his leg and a ton of dead muscle. He still doesn’t know how serious it was an neither does his family, because the President hasn’t told them yet and because he’s all drugged up (last I heard, that’s probably different now) Anyway, he’s missing a huge chunk of his leg now and has to go home, but they say he’ll have full use of his leg in about a year, which is a MIRACLE considering how bad this is. They asked up to fast and pray so he wouldn’t DIE, but they really weren’t expecting the possibility of a full recovery. So, the whole mission fasted and prayed like crazy and he made it through the night, opened up his cute little eyes and looked at his companion Elder Rost and said in a very ‘out-of-it’ way, “Did you do anything fun last night?”
“Kind of. I prayed for about five hours and didn’t eat anything and cried a lot.” –I’m sure was Elder Rost’s response. (Elder Rost has been voted most likely to be prophet one day, by the whole mission, FYI. He’s going home this transfer, along with the Elder Briscoe, who was voted most likely to be a general authority.) These are not formal ballots just so you know.
So, now, Elder Rost is temporarily companions with a Member who’s leaving for his mission soon, and Elder Geldmocker is going to go home in about six weeks when the doctors allow him to leave his hyperbaric chamber.
We FINALLY got Emily confirmed! And we got her brother an interview for his baptism. Triumph… what a battle that was. And, Junior (Eduardo Junior) the brother of Patricia and Antonia, finally agreed to talk to us. We gave him a Book of Mormon ages ago and have been trying to get him to open up to us, but whenever we ask if he wants to have a lesson, or wants to talk to us he always refuses and goes back to listening to Insane Clown Posse and Korn, redoing all of Pink Floyd’s stuff. We refused to give up on the lad however… anyway, we finally got him to talk to us. He’s read like all of first Nephi and started into second Nephi and he loves it! When we asked him to come to church, he agreed and then he actually came!
I think he’s a got kid… he’s just got a way crappy life and lives in the ghetto and is really angry, but he’s got a shot, especially with his two sisters to help him out.
And our home is Ghetto. Let me tell you… Just this last week I’ve taught lessons to drug addicts and prostitutes. We had somebody get up to go meet his dealer in the middle of our lesson. We had to explain to a woman that the Holy Spirit definitely did not help her find the keys to the car she was trying to steal from that man. There was a big old party last night covering about three blocks in totality where we had a couple of appointments and the cops came and periodically arrested people.
And one of the less actives we’re working with is a really awesome high school senior/football player, who’s afraid to leave his family alone in the house because there’s a group of other high school kids trying to kill him because of some way ancient grudge with his older brother, (he insists they’re not in any gang he knows of, they’re just cholo-wanna-be punks). They attacked his mother already and hauled his brother off to somebody’s house to mess him up and he broke in and threw him over his shoulder and beat people on his way out of this place. Crazy life this kid had. So, his family is kind of afraid (especially his mother) for him to not be around to protect him, and the police apparently do nothing here, accept occasionally arrest people at loud parties and turn on their lights so they can run red lights every five seconds (which I see ALL the time). But he still needs to come to church. He’s just really confused about life and desperate. He started talking about how everything will be better when he gets out of school because then maybe he can get a job somewhere far away and get his family OUT of the ghetto. We told him about BYU and the football scholarships and how he still needs to go to church as going to church will help you out with all of that.
So. Life is going really well. We’ve got a LOT of work to do, a lot of people to work with… We’re making progress with all of them. I’m doing really great right now actually!
We had Zone conference (the meeting with the three big zones close by, which is about 64 missionaries, and President & Sister Hansen) And our 70 was going to be there. Elder Villareal. I’ve heard him speaking before when I was invited to Zone Leadership training/meeting thing, a few transfers back (Since sisters aren’t Zone leaders outside of the temple square mission—correct me on that if I’m wrong, some people have said that there are sister zone leaders in other missions too—anyway, there are no sister zone leaders in the Texas Houston Mission, but they invite a lot of us to come to the leadership meetings at random so we can help them out, and since there’s only like… I think 16 Sisters in the whole mission, with about a hundred and forty Elders. It works out that you’re more likely to go to Zone Leader meetings as a Sister than you are as an Elder. Which I find amusing.)
Anyway, Elder Villareal is a great, powerful very Dr. Kimber-esque speaker, accept that at this particular Zone Conference, he confused about 64 missionaries way bad.
You see, President Hansen spoke to us first, then had to disappear for a while, to go find out about and held poor Elder Geldmocker (sp?) (because all of that was going on at the same time) for a reason I’ll expand more on later—and we were left alone with Elder Villareal for about three hours. So, the first half on Zone conference, with President Hansen, was all about the Love of God, and how so many people just gloss over that in their lessons and in their LIVES. They know that God loves them, but they have no idea what that means, and they don’t really feel that it’s true. Or, they just straight up don’t really know that their Father in Heaven actually loves them. So President Hansen was talking all about how we need to help people understand this principle and show how it ties into everything else, as the whole reason for everything that we teach and everything that we do in life. It was REALLY great. Then Elder Villareal got up and basically started to refute a bunch of President Hansen’s teachings and showed us a lot of scriptural evidence to suggest that God actually only loves people who aren’t sinning. He said it like this, “God doesn’t love sinners. It’s like you with your groups of good friends, if one of them starts behaving in a way that’s contrary to the standards of the group, their kicked out.”
So… This is all much more complex than I’m making it sound, and I don’t think I’m going to be able to explain the conclusion we finally came to about what Elder Villareal really MEANT to say, without llevar a cabo-ing all my time here, but the summed up version of this is that our zone conference in short felt about like this: 2:00-3:00 “God LOVES you, so much.” 3:00-6:00 “Actually, he doesn’t really love you all that much because you’re a sinner.”
And 64 missionaries went back to their campos to work, feeling very confused and questioning their testimonies.
I know this wasn’t his intention, but that’s pretty much what happened.
But, it turned out to be a good thing, because then I went home and for the first time in my life actually asked God if he really loved me. I’d never questioned it before, so I’ve never bothered to ask him.
Hermana Friezell is ending her mission this transfer, along with most of the other missionaries who I love (All my friends are OLD!) In her parting testimony, she says she thinks the reason why missionaries grow so much on their missions, and why they come back with these unbreakable convictions about the gospel is because we all get told, every single day, by everyone and everything around us that we’re wrong and we’re stupid and we should just go home. And all that battery that our testimony takes out here is what makes it grow. When we doubt, and are able to overcome that doubt, it fortifies the base.
So, then, I was randomly selected, two days later at Zone Meeting (Just our little zone of like 20 people) to share my testimony about Heavenly Father’s love, specifically. My concluding remarks were basically just that even if God can’t show us his love because we’re far removed from him, it’s still there. He loves the vilest sinner in the world exactly the same way he loved that person when they were born pure and innocent however many years before; exactly as he loved them when he was raising them as a loving father, in the world before this one.
The next day, in District meeting, we decided to openly discuss what exactly had gone down at Zone Conference and basically check to make sure that everyone in our district had made peace with this and was no longer struggling with doubts as a result of that rather interesting 3 hour meeting with Elder Villareal. They asked me to go first, so I said “Well… I already cried hysterically and shared my feelings,” to which Elder Meade replied brightly, “I remember that!” and we all laughed and I was incredibly depressed because Elder Meade is going home with almost everyone else I love at the end of this transfer. Anyway, I summed up my thoughts again and then Elder Meade made a really interesting point. He said that God can’t directly be with people when their sinning because… he’s God, but that’s why he has US. Missionaries. And Saints and other good people, who are none-the-less sinners, and capable of going down into the dirt to show these people God’s love by proxy. I’m pretty sure this is what Elder Villareal was trying to say, it’s just that his way of saying it was confusing.
I’m SO glad to hear about all of the goodness back home. Your dinner with the Candiloras sounds like fun! And yes, and hour and a half is way too long to hang out, but that’s about what happens with dinner appointments sometimes. I think the official rule is no longer than an hour, but a lot of the time, you get there and they’re still cooking or something like that… time management is one of the hardest things. I’m sure they were stressed, that’s probably why they left without teaching anything. But still, it’s way good that you were there and able to visit with them. I sure do love and miss that family, they are such good people. Really wonderful folks, I’m praying for those missionaries with you.
That’s so fun that Becca and Megan came to visit! I love them, so much. And I miss them. I was going off about Serenity the other day and Hermana Forsling called Serenity “A Utah thing” (She’s from LA and greatly dislikes Utah.) So I had to correct her and let her know that there are plenty of sophisticated Californians who dig Firefly as well, citing Becca and Megan as ejemplos.
Thanks for the monies… and Lucille Childs is SO sweet! I’m going to write her a little letter today, I think I’ve got her address in my book here, if not, I’ll just send it to you and you can give it to her? Raging Waters! No fair! It’s so HOT here. I’m dying for a little raging waters… I’m glad everybody had fun, I’m making sure to collect all the promises of fun things from you!
I’m way looking forward to my package too, I’m going to try not to spend too much money this week (we’re going to the temple Thursday and I’ll be tempted to buy everything. I need to get some fabric today to make a case for my English scriptures, and I think there’s some other stuff I might need to get from the little distribution center there… but I’ll try to be thrifty.) Everything sounds SO lovely back home, are you excited about teaching Kimber soon?! What do you think of the curriculum?
I really love and miss you all A LOT. But I honestly can’t believe that it’s agosto ya. Time flies, and I think it’s because I’m truly happy, busy, engaged in the harvest of the Lord etc. I love you all SO, so much. Sorry, this letter is a little long and random this week, but there’s so much more I’d love to say, but I’d better get going! OH! I just remembered as I was typing that… remember that woman who had that problem that I talked to you a little bit about on the phone on mother’s day? Well… She got baptized YESTERDAY! I couldn’t go down to see it on account of never having taught the woman, but I was still so overjoyed to hear that she was ready to take that step. Her story is so amazing to me. I can’t wait to torture Elder Herrman for details when he gets off his mission six months after me.
Anyway, I LOVE you. Besito, besito, besito and glory to God!
Hermana Lillywhite

Let's hear some chatter out there!

Hey! The pics from Alice look great—I dig it. Anne Hathaway looks beautiful, and of course, Helena, my love and I like the girl whose playing Alice. Do I even need to mention my undying love for Johnny? Probably shouldn’t. I’m a missionary you know.
This transfer so far has been a little strange. A lot of the missionaries who were around when I first came out either went home, or are about to leave. So some of the mascots of my mission so far are starting to get all trunky and lame. Some of them are awesome right up until the end though. Like Elder Rowberry, who was an Assistant when I came out. He just went home. He does that thing kind of like Buster in Arrested Development with giving random backrubs, except not creepy. Anyway, he walked up to the Elder Next to me the Monday before he went home and was rubbing his shoulders and then he looked down at me and just said, “I’m sorry. I can’t touch you.” I laughed and he laughed and then muttered something like “Just a few more days…” and walked off. The other Elders and I watched him walk off, a tired broken shell, losing all yet gaining himself in the process… it could have been a very deep moment except that then a bunch of them laughed and Elder Meade added, “Few more weeks! Yes!” As he is next to go home.
I don’t know how I feel about these new kids who’re coming in. None of them are as awesome as the Elders who are leaving right now. I’ve been assured that they’ll get more awesome as they llegar a ser better missionaries.
This last week was pretty rough again, my Hermana Forsling is still ill and we think we’ve figure out I’ve got some pinched nerves in my back that are causing random pain at inopportune moments. Like in the middle of lessons. It hasn’t been a problem yet, but it’s really annoying. Also, Emily, who’s pictures I still haven’t sent you, has NOT been confirmed yet. She was supposed to be confirmed two weeks ago, but Babylon is calling and yesterday the excuse was fishing. I don’t know what we’re going to do… Pray a lot. And try to explain to her, again, with power and authority, WHY she needs to come to church every week and keep the commandments of God; with love and boldness, but not overbearence. We’re working with such great people right now though, I really feel like they all have desires to know more and to be in good standing with their heavenly father. Our big success of the week was getting a inactive woman and her less-active son to church! They’ve been making excuses (some of which are pretty good) for why they can’t come for ages, but we finally got them in the building, all spiffed up and greeting old friends too.
Also, a dry Mormon couple just moved into our area. They were already in our ward, but they had to move, the rent was too high, so they came over to our side of town, and are crammed into a little apartment/casita thing. It is way too small for how many kids they have, and two more are on their way up from Mexico. Eight people shove into two little bedrooms… Anyway, they would have been baptized ages ago, except that their not actually married and can’t get married on account of the woman having a husband who is SOMEWHERE in Mexico, she has no idea where, and the divorce is taking forever to go through. The second the paperwork is final, they’re going to get hitched and then baptized. She’s there are church every week with this army of kids. One of the boys is baptized and the two girls coming up from Mexico are going to need to be taught and baptized too when they get here. This is a really sweet family, I’m so glad that I get to teach them.
I’m glad you liked the pictures! I was going to send more, but I left the disk home on accident… I need to send my whole camera card soon.
That family, the Castillos, are SO funny. We went to drop in on them Friday night and got a big surprise. Hermana Pidwirbecky! I haven’t mentioned anything about her yet, but she was one of the last sister missionaries in this area before they switched it to Elders only. They just BARELY re-opened the area with Hermana Forsling the transfer before I got here. Then the whole masked-ET deal happened, and I ended up here too. So, we hear about Hermana Pidwirbecky ALL the time. She’s the missionary who baptized Hermana Castillo and I think 2 or her children. (Roberto, the one who looks like Sokka, wouldn’t have anything to do with the church until last September when Elder Lowry and Campbell showed up.) she’s still got one son, Mario, who’s, I think 22 or 23, who won’t ever listen to the missionaries, and usually hides in his room when we’re over.
Anyway, Hermana Pidwirbecky was visiting! We were really confused to see this unfamiliar car in their front yard and then Brendita squealed all excited “Porgque hay tantas Hermanas?!” when we walked up. Anyway, Hermana Pidwirbecky forced Mario to listen to us. Which we greatly appreciated. He’d come out of his room to say hi to her (I think he used to take discussions with his mother when she was baptized like 3 years ago) and Hermana Pidwirbecky was like “Sit down you big baby it’s not going to kill you to listen.” He actually participated in the lesson too. More so than his active LDS family. (Roberto & Reyman son bromistas.)
Fun, fun. I like this muchacha.
So, we had a little help that night. And we’ve meet some new investigators this week who are all very special and wonderful and I can’t wait to work with them some more… But seriously, times is hard, yessir.
Roberto got into a fight this week at mutual too. But we’re pretty sure it was the other kid’s fault… Javier is a boxer and a martial artist, like Roberto and depending on who you asked Javier either gave him a friendly hug from behind or tried to put him in a headlock and a fight broke out. At church. It was pretty bad, we heard about it from a bunch of people, including non-members. Anyway, one nice thing about this was that the parents seemed to all kind of wake-up a little. A bunch of the kids had been off at EFY or youth conference or los dos, and when they came back we were all shocked to see a couple of families sitting together that NEVER do usually. Teenagers bore their testimonies and a bunch of the guys cried, and the girls with attitude expressed humility. Very nice. Javier also bore his testimony and started to cry, then asked for forgiveness from the ward for anything he might have said or done to offend them.
So, the ward seems to be changing and growing together as a lovely family… I’m excited for the youth. Since, I’ve got to be honest. Before this last Sunday, I would have told you that this is one of those wards with the way-scary clichish youth that need to be smacked around by the Holy Spirit a little. There was an especially huge change in one girl in particular.
Anyway, so that’s what’s going on with me! Back home sounds lovely and idyllic, except for the presence of rattle-snakes! That’s really terrifying! Don’t go wandering around in the woods. Were you very close to it? because it sounds like you were. Were you really far away from immediate medical care? Is there such a thing as ‘single-serving-anti-venom’ that could be shoved in a first-aid kit? Nobody is allowed to be bitten by venomous serpents while I’m gone, okay? There’s something in the Bible about that. It must have been fun to see Aunt Nuggy & los ninos. I sure miss them, and all of you of course.
It is HOT. It’s so tempting to swim sometimes. You’ll be out tracting and you’ll notice somebody has a pool. (Well, that’s a lie, nobody owns pools around here unless their drug dealers, but you see them at hotels/apartment complexes sometimes). Anyway, you’ll see water and… well, we’re trying to be good and not drown. Hermana Forsling always asks me if we can go swimming and my response is usually “Yes darling, when you go home in November you can swim.” Which makes her angry, as she does not like being reminded how close she is to dying.
Is Kimber curriculum. fun? Sometimes random facts come back to me. They’ve been nearly useful before too. I really want to see this slideshow! Somebody send it to me, PLEASE! The sixth movie sounds like a lot of fun. I’m glad they left in the part with the birds… I’ll try not to be too jealous. But, Ginna, you go ahead and geekout for me, okay? You have to do twice as much geeking-out with me not there.
Well, I’d better get going. Hermana Forsling is part of an All-start basketball line-up between the 3rd ward and 10th ward missionaries. I’m going to go be a cheerleader for 3rd ward. (Which means I’m going to read Jesus The Christ on the stage while they play and occasionally clap in acknowledgement of superior skill. Sports are fun and all. I’ve figured out what I don’t like about them. TALKING. I don’t like the ‘chatter’/’hustle’ junk. It’s so annoying. Let’s all just get tired and sweaty and talk later. These guys are chatterers… silly verbalosity. Totally unnecessary for proper battle. Random sound effects and giggling I approve of, but chatter. No.
I LOVE you all so much. I’m working hard. Not discouraged in spite of the roughness. I know God is giving us the help we need and that we’re with the people who need us. Tengo muchlurve para vosotros. Besito.
Lovelovelove/Hermana Lirioblanco

A New Transfer Begins!

Dearest familiares,
Have I mentioned yet that I am officially a master of Spanglish? I speak Spanish, sure, and I speak English, but when it’s just me and my companion, other Spanish-missionaries or certain recent converts, we all automatically fall into this third wonderful dialect, a fusion of the two idiomas. The best is when you tack on English endings to Spanish verbs. IE “So she dejared the guy and was saliring out the house when he’s like ‘que es eso? Te quiero!’.”
I’m also picking up some weird southern stuff too. “I used to could surf, but now I’m a missionary.” And since I’m living in the disputed ‘most-ghetto’ part of Houston, I’m having to at least learn to interoperate certain phrases and words that white people usually don’t use. I completely forgot the other day that white people typically don’t walk up and kiss each other, and I really startled a pair of English Sisters by swooping down on them.
The English members they were with looked a little alarmed too, but they’d heard me say “Hola!” and saw the Jesucristo badge and basically just rolled their eyes like, “Esas Hermanas... todas son locas.” Except they don’t know Spanish, so it was more like, “Girlcrazy.”
I’m NOT learning pure Spanish is the sad thing. There’s too much of a mixture of people here, so I’m picking up all kinds of stuff that’s exclusive to certain lugares. People correct me all the time, but the different people (depending on where they’re from) with contradict each other frequently. The Bishop is sixth ward said that we should basically just use what’s in the text books, because it’s the most universal ‘pure’ form of Spanish.
I’ve GOT to send you all the picture card soon, it’s getting so fun and full. Also, I need to send back my Ipod so it can be rellenared. I meant to send it out sooner when I sent that package last transfer, but totally olvidared the whole deal. I’m going to try to stop the Spanglish. Transfers are this week and Hermana Forsling and I are going to stay here in Crosstimbers for six more weeks. Next transfer is going to be a big deal just because SO many missionaries are going home. Since I’ve gotten here the question frequently comes up between missionaries, “When are you dying?” (meaning when do you return home) and the typical response is that this missionary rolls their eyes and says “I’m dying with everyone else.” When they say that, they’re all talking about this next transfer. We’re losing a lot of missionaries and we’re not getting very many in for a bit… should be interesting.
This week was very busy. We taught a lot of lessons and found some new people and… We had a baptism!!! It was very exciting. Our investigator Emily, was baptized yesterday. It was wonderful and lovely, but a little sad just because her brother was supposed to get baptized with her, but changed his mind. He came though and agreed to a date in two weeks! YAY! And her mother was there, which I know meant A LOT to her, because the rest of her family is not supportive at all. We’re working with the mom too, but she’s got some word of wisdom problems and she’s afraid to come to church. She says she’s “not ready.” Which is very sad, but, I look hopefully on the fact that she’s taking it all very seriously. We’ve talked a lot about baptism and we know she wants to do it, but you kind of have to go to church first. And keep the commandments of God. We’re working on it.
Emily’s excellent though. She was so excited and so prepared… I feel really lucky to have been trusted with teaching her and her family.
Aside from that, this week was kind of slow. I had a very strange dream about being invited over to a member’s house to try and teach their friend who turned out to be a serial murderer. I can’t figure out whether I was trying to get away from him, kill him, or baptize him. It was a bit of a mess in my head.
We taped Elder Meade playing Pacabel’s (sp?) cannon and singing “The Black Parade”. It works perfectly. I think we should have somebody’s parents put it on YouTube with the tag “Mormon missionary performs My Chemical Romance at Baptism”. It’s misleading since he did it after it was over and mostly everybody had left, but Emily would appreciate it at least.
She wasn’t along at the baptism either, some friends of Patricia and Antonia were baptized too, a family of 6! (minus dad, who was there to support his family but didn’t get wet). The Zone leaders have been teaching them even though they live in OUR area. This is fine, since it was a member referral to them and they had originally been teaching them at the member’s house in THEIR area, but when they found out that they lived in our area and were friends with our recent coverts, they sort of, kind of, maybe, very blatantly forgot to mention it to us, and we had to find out from Patricia and Antonia. This is how the conversation went.
Antonia: “My friends are really excited about the baptism… but they’re kind of confused about some stuff.”
Me: “Oh yeah?”
Antonia: “Yeah—I was talking to the mom and she’s all like, ‘sometimes I don’t’ get what their trying to tell me’ so I told her how you guys always explain everything real good, and I said it was too bad you couldn’t teach them.”
Me: “Well, missionaries always teach the people in their area, you know why?”
Antonia: “Cause we live close?”
Me: “Silly girl, yes, that’s part of it, but the other thing is that we’re assigned to work in specific areas so we can teach the people there… I was supposed to come here and met you! And guess who assigned me?”
Antonia: “God.”
Me: “Exactamente. And your friends live in the Elder’s area, so they’re given the same ability to teach and receive revelation for the people in their area as we are for the people in our area.”
Antonia: “…But they live over there.” *points”
Me: “…Where?”
Antonia: “Behind the school.”
Me: “Huh.”
Antonia: “Is that your area?”
Me “Sure is.”
But, the happy news is that we now have a new family of recent coverts to teach. And their recent convert/part member too, with a couple of members who live real close by and love to go with us to lessons. So, all is well in the ghetto. The Elders were pretty embarrassed when we called them out for hiding it from us. We’ve been teaching a lot of less-active and recent convert lessons recently. The one huge problem I have with being in Houston Zone verses being in North Zone where I was before is that HZ is so concerned with baptismal stats that they tend to work really, really hard to baptize people and then they just most on. Hermana Forsling and I don’t dig it. We’ve decided to go be damage control for this ward for a bit.
Life back home sounds so wonderful. When do you start work at Kimber mommy? Have they made you go to any kind of summer-training thing? How’s the weather? Is dad biking a lot? Is Laney all grown up? Is Jensen ever going to finish… um… a multitude of stuffs? Also, I never got to see those short-films you know! And, I haven’t seen drawings from her in ages, and this new clip-show sounds hilarious! Yo queiro ver! How are mis padres doing!? I’ve decided I have the best parents ever. I knew it before, but out here in the field, that fact is reaffirmed every day.
It sounds like my silly friends and cousins are being taken good care of. How’s laughing stock? Still funny? Am I every going to get that DVD? I paid for it like a year ago and they said they’d get it to me when they got copies! Remind them. Poor Shazi-kins, why is she wandering around looking like a boy?! She’s not a boy, she’s a pretty, pretty girl. I can’t wait to read Dan’s screen play. I was tempted to get him to send it to me, because he as much said he would on the phone at Mother’s Day, but I figured I should try to follow some rules. This whole obedience thing is kind of new for me, but I think I’m… well, I’m working on it! The biggest problem I have is getting to sleep on time. We’re always in bed by ten-thirty, but then somebody will giggle and someone else will ask “…what?” sleepily and this always seems to start a long story about some memory of that day or other. And sometimes we hear stuff outside and then have to get up to move the couch in front of the door and get some knives. Better paranoid than dead, I figure.
We figured out this week that they… for SOME reason, decided to put the two most intimidating sisters in the mission together. Appropriate that they sent us into the ghetto too. It’s all very fun. In turn, they just put Hermana Thomas and Hermana Blanco together, which means that the two smallest and most adorable sisters in the mission are also companions.
What’s this about John Cena being bizarroworld Matt Damon? I went to the pulga last week and there were John Cena shirts everywhere and then Hermana Forsling got a package with some articles shoved in between rice krispy treats… Anyway, the movie looks fun.
I don’t hear much about the outside world, as you can probably tell from that last paragraph. But the political stuff sounds awful. Poor Sarah. Poor USA. What’s to become of us? Hermana Forsling says that by the Jewish Calendar it’s only been about 1600 years since Christ died, so we might have another 400 years before any likelihood of the millennium comes about. What are your thoughts?
We’ve got a barbeque today. Should be groovey! I LOVE you all so very much. Do take care, and tell that silly Laney-bug to work on a newsletter!
Hermana Lillywhite

sweetsweetTRIUMPH!

Dear Family,
What an EXCELLENT week I’ve had. Do you happen to remember Veronica? The woman I found on in the street my first transfer here? Yesterday, she and her two children who are old enough were baptized. I got to go back to Sixth Ward to take part in the program and see the miracle go down. I will send pictures as usual, it was BEAUTIFUL. Utter triumph in motion. She cried, I cried—there was a lot of crying. And babbling “gracias” and hugging. She’s such a sweet, humble person—I feel so lucky that God trusted me to teach her. But we didn’t even really do anything, she was so prepared—before she ever met us, she was being prepared to receive the gospel.
It was a really great day.
And her children are such angels, Karen is almost fifteen and gorgeous, she always has a flock of about 12 young men sort of hovering a few paces behind her just watching her sit there are look adorable. She’s a lot like her mom though, sweet and kind and very in tune spiritually. It’s too bad it sounds like she’s had trouble making friends with the young women in the ward. She’s so shy and their all really loud and crazy… but they like her and a lot of them came to the baptism. All the young men showed up. The over-sixteens all tried to earn the privilege of baptizing her. She had Elder Herrman do it:) Jason is eight and he got baptized too. I LOVE this kid. He’s such a good son. The two weeks near the beginning when she didn’t come to church she said he was asking her “Aren’t we going to go to church? You told the sisters we would go… Mom, I want to go to church.” he’s a way sweet kid. He was so excited to get baptized. And his little brother Eduardo (who’s only four) was so into it. He was watching the whole thing from over the edge of the fount with a big smile on his face. Her baby Kevin is really well behaved, he loves it when we sing and just stars at you with big black eyes. So sweet! I love this family… now we just have to work on dad. He seems nice (I’ve only met him once) but he’s done the reading assignments with Veronica before and she thinks that with time he’ll open us to the idea a little more. He didn’t come to their baptism, which was really disappointing,
That’s the big news of this last week… Other than that, the week was still awesome. We had exchanges—I went down to Louetta with Hermana Bastion who came out with me on the plane. The two of us had a lot of fun together—I really think I’d enjoy being companions with her sometime. I had to go to a ‘drop-lesson’ though. (A lesson when the missionaries and planning to say, “Bye. We’ll probably visit you again sometime.” and disappear mysteriously into the night to fill their record away under “former”.)
I am generally against ‘drop-lessons’. I know their necessary sometimes, but as a general rule, I like to at least stop by once a week to see everyone who is still WILLING to let us inside and listen to us. And this particular guy, I actually know personally, which made it even more uncomfortable. Hermana Frieszell met him last year when she was serving bi-lingual in… I think Navasota or maybe College Station. They taught him once and it was a really memorable ‘not-cool’ lesson, in which their ward mission leader, who was with them, argued with him for about an hour and a half, while poor Hermana Frieszell and her companion couldn’t get a word in edge-wise to calm the situation. They left and didn’t ever go back… then, during one of my first weeks here, working the Pulga with Hermana Frieszell, this guy walks up with his friend and the two of them start flirting, so we get him to give us his new address and Hermana Frieszell writes a big “SEND ELDERS, NOT SISTERS!” note next to the address. Then she turns to me and says “Of all the people I never thought I’d ever see again in my life…” and re-tells me this story that she’d just told me, but now adding “AND THAT WAS HIM! RIGHT THERE!”
Crazy.
So.
Then… I met this guy again at a Zone conference, he was there for the mock-teaching session. We had me and Hermana Forsling, with Elder Meade and Elder Richards, and we were supposed to take turns and the Elders went first. But there was no teaching, Elder Meade and this man (His name is Ediel, I think) just sat and argued for like a half-hour, while we wondered what we should do to stop this, as we were supposed to have already returned to the conference…
So, the guy’s really contentious. And, I just happened to go on exchanges to the area where he is, on the night the missionaries are planning to drop him. (The silly referral people did NOT take Hermana Frieszell’s advice and went ahead and gave him to the sisters in that ward. Which is silly, because they have two sets of Elders nearby.)
So… we were just supposed to drop him and leave, but I decided to go ahead and be that crazy ‘missionary-on-exchange’ who screws everything up, because I figure, we can’t be repeatedly running into this guy without a good reason, right? So… I ended up, sort of, kind of, maybe arguing with him for only like forty minutes and in such a way that was not contentious and tried to settle his doubt. He finds the idea of modern prophets distasteful. This is the same subject that he’s continually argued about with everyone else.
Anyway, it kind of worked, because, for once, I think—I finally saw him speechless and at least seriously thinking about what I’d said, rather than just getting angry. And Hermana Bastion didn’t actually drop him, she just refused to make a return appointment. He kept asking when we’d be back and she said “I don’t know, in a few weeks… when you’re ready to listen.” and wouldn’t actually pull the trigger.
So… mission accomplished. Ish.
I’m not sure how much I helped. But it was interesting. Maybe I’d get transferred there someday and can beat him over the head with that two-by-four of the holy spirit that Hermano Anthony mentioned.
The fourth of July was fun. We didn’t stay in all day—we had to be in at 7:30 though. We had the Pulga in the morning. Some guy tried to get me to simultaneously teach his son everything about God and go out with said son, which was entertaining but uncomfortable. I think he just wanted him to behave better and thought a majorly religious girlfriend would help. I also think he thought I was about twelve, because his son was probably thirteen.
After Pulga we went to visit some members. Their converts of a couple of years and we ended up getting into three very different doctrinal discussions. The oldest son has decided he likes what other religions believe about hell and wants us to explain how emotional/mental turmoil is really worse than physical torture. We explained pretty clearly and he started to sort of see our point even if he wouldn’t admit it. Then we had to convince them all that they really want to go to the celestial kingdom and that the terrestrial is really not that great, we promise.
Sister Bastion has a funny poster that I’d really love to have a copy of. It’s really subtle, just a picture of the two actors who play the devil in the temple films standing together smiling with a note that says something like “Just a friendly reminder to visit the temple!” quite hilarious.
Ask Grandma and Grandpa if they remember the Anthon family at all… Because Dr Anthon is a podiatrist here in Texas now and he totally knows the Lillywhites! Apparently he was very much in love with Kim when he was 5-6 years old. He lived next door to Grandma & Grandpa Wade? in provo? He referred to daddy as “That little guy” so this was a VERY long time ago.
Oh yeah, I was having some trouble with my foot, so I went to see a podiatrist. Hence the above story… but it’s fine now. Pretty sure it was just a pinched nerve. It was really annoying for about a week, but I started icing it every day and if it keeps giving me problems he says a steroid shot will probably fix it.
Aside from that… I’ve got a note about how I need thigh highs. And the inserts for my shoes are getting pretty manky and crushed and useless… That’s all I can think of.
That’s SO good for Nick. I’m glad his mission was such a positive experience for him. Assistants to the President… in MY somewhat limited, but not-all-that-much experience, are typically some of the nicest, wisest and funnest Elders in the whole mission. I love it when we get to serve around the APs and I look forward to when they come to visit. So, that’s way good for him that it sounds like he’s grown so much.
How is everyone?! Your trip to St. George sounds fun. Sorry about the lame bikeride daddy, but cool that you met a nice Samaritan. I bet I’d like the play, and I think I remember the trailer for UP. Looked REALLY cute. I sure do miss you all, and Grandma and Grandpa and trips to St. George. I totally want to take a spin in that little car when I get back. My companion is teaching me a little about cars. I’m probably a bad influence on her, because she says so. She had left behind her days of sneaking out and street racing in downtown LA and I keep asking her perfectly innocent questions like “What if I’m looking for a real, good, little car… stick, and affordable?” and then she goes off on “OH! I remember when I won 4,000$ in a(insertmakemodelyeariknownothingaboutcarssoicantprobaberlyimmitateher).”
I LOVE you all, so, so much my lovely, wonderful, beautiful family. I can’t wait to see all these pictures! I know, I know, you all look the same, which is good, but I. want. PROOF!
Mwah.Mwah.

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