More pictures here.

"...He'll Testify. He says he's been to Texas, and it's the only place to be."

Dearest darlingest queridita familia,

I'm glad I'm not hurt too. And it makes me smile to think of Jensen's excitement at my home-coming being compared to her excitement at the release of an awesome movie. I am kind of like an awesome movie in some ways that I've failed to see as I've written that sentence. Anyway, I am also excited to see you all again too. And to see the Harry Potter movie. Me and Jensen will be reunited in our high-pitched squeals about movies as they are released soon enough. Wow, we sure seem to be having a lot of baptisms in our ward recently. I can only remember going to 5 convert baptisms in my entire life before my mission, and it sounds like we've had several this last year. That's exciting. Or maybe I was just clueless and not paying attention to what was going on around me. I very easily could have gone to a couple hundred and just not really understood. Now I get it though. It's a big deal, and it's very exciting.

I LOVE ward soup party! That was always my favorite party. It's just like every other ward party we have, except with delicious, delicious soup! The soup you made, kind of sounds like I would eat the whole thing before we ever even got it into the gymnasium to share with the ward. My poor car. Pobrecito carrito. I'm glad he's all better now. Adorable little Hung Car. I'm happy you are all taking good care of it.

I can't believe Laney is reading legitimate novels now. That's so exciting. She must be so grown up... crazy. It's good you got rid of those extra channels if it was costing so much. The more I think about it, the more I think I might just elect to just have a way nice TV and an impressive library of movies and no cable at all. If there's a show on TV I want to check out, the lest I could do is be social and find a friend who has cable and wants to have a party and watch it with me, and then if I like a show, I can spend the movie I might have used to pay for cable on the box-set. There's probably a flaw in this plan somewhere, but I don't see it yet. Maybe when I actually watch TV again, I'll think of what it is.

Lauren's letter this week had we laughing pretty hard. Mission dreams ARE the weirdest things. I had a psychotic one last night. Mom, if you want to give me an interpretation of this one, it'll be appreciated: basically I dreamt that the prophet announced a sign for the world. In a nutshell this prophecy went like this: 'This afternoon, at approximately 3:42, it will begin to rain blood from the sky. This will come as a sign unto the world that the war has begun (I don't know what war this is referring to. All the significant ones are sort of going on all ready) there will be many who will try to deny this sign. But I prophesy as the Lord's representative that it will come in such a way that none shall be able to deny it.'

So, an emergency mission conference is called and President Hansen brings the whole mission down to the Hafer building, and gives us instructions to stay calm and pray for a confirmation and for the Spirit to bring us peace. Seems logical right? I mean, he only warned us about this so we wouldn't freak out. So, we wait for this sign to come, and sure enough at exactly 3:42 the sky opens up and great drops of blood begin to fall. But it's not just raining outside—blood is pouring from the ceilings inside the houses, in the closets, underneath the precautionary umbrellas that the Elders are holding out for us, and pretty soon, everyone in absolutely drenched in blood. It goes on for a few minutes before the blood is slowly mixed in with water and it turns to normal rain and then stops.

Like I said, psychotic-missionary-dream. As it was all ending, I remembered thinking to myself, 'Hijole, I wish I could watch the news right now.'

Anyway, this week was charming. I can only think of 3 of the twenty appointments that we had that was actually scheduled in advance. Everything we had planned this week fell through, but we had a lot of random 'teach where you find, find where you teach' experiences come up. We had some great experiences and some heartbreaking ones. Including a cita with an investigator in which we were planning to teach La Palabra de Sabaduria (word of wisdom) that he rescheduled three times, and stood us up for all three, then we tried to drop in twice by surprise to teach him... So, we tried to teach him the Word of Wisdom FIVE times this week, and the last time we went over, we couldn't teach him because he was drunk. I knew he needed that lesson. His mother is a less active member of the church. She says he doesn't drink much. Hence why he got so smashed after just a couple of drinks.

Elder Frost and Elder Manship found a man who claims to worship the devil and also drinks. Elder Verhs and Elder Conrad found a woman for us to teach (a very white bi-lingual matriarch of a very Hispanic family) who has a lot of questions about the spirit world and believes what we've taught her about it, but rejects the idea of modern revelation, so she wants us to only teach her out of the 'Real Holy Bible'. We're preparing a lesson using bible scriptures to teach about the spirit world, and that also simultaneously teach about the great apostasy, so that we can help her come to understand WHY modern revelation is important. She seems like a rational person. Aside from the gigantic sparkly Santa Muerte with cash offerings and the baby Jesus in the fireplace. But those might be her husbands. We'll baptize him too:)

We have been teaching a really wonderful family who kind of what to adopt us. They said they always wanted daughters (they've only got too sons). If only we could get them to come to church.

One of our former investigators, Elena, surprised us this week by calling one of the members and asking for a ride to the church. We explained to Elder Frost that she's been to church four times already and has had just about all the lessons, so if we could start teaching he again that would be incredibly awesome, since the only thing that was keeping her from getting baptized was that she and her esposo, still weren't legally married, but then she left him and moved out of our area which is how we lost track of her and she ended up as a former investigator. Anyway, he asked us if he should interview her for baptism, and then, I guess she just straight up told him “I want to be baptized on the seventh of February.”

Hopefully, we'll be able to help her keep that commitment. She's still struggling a lot right now. But she's keeping more of the commandments of God and trying hard to improve, so hopefully she'll keep that fecha! We'll be praying for her.

This week, there was a lot of talk thrown around about whether or not the Holy Spirit testifies of truth in the form of artwork. Some would argue that it doesn't make sense for the truth to be testified of in the middle of something that is essentially a lie (art). But I sort of go with the V for Vendetta phrase 'Artists use lies to tell the truth, politicians use lies to cover the truth up'. I remembered that line from that movie at some time last week. And the awesome bit with all the dominoes. And I tried to recite what I could remembered of his 'V-words' monologue right at the beginning of the movie. “In view a humble vaudevillian veteran cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the ?vestitudes? of fate...” I couldn't remember the rest very well at all.

Anyway—the point is, I'm going to have to go with yes. The Holy Spirit testifies of truth where truth is found. Why else would Jesus teach in parables? Did all of those parables actually happen, or is it possible that his use of parables confirm this little theory of mine that as long as you acknowledge the fiction in the piece, the truth can shine forth?

Just sayin'.

This conversation actually started because of an incident in Sunday school class that I remembered from the year before I left, when Sister Singleton mentioned an article written by an ex-member woman who had said that she first began to doubt her testimony of the church when she felt the exact same feelings that she had come to recognize as the Holy Ghost while watching Beauty and the Beast with her daughter, and she realized that it wasn't the spirit at all, it was just good feelings. I remember raising my hand and saying, “I'd like to submit that Beauty and the Beast is true.”

Anyway, so, we were talking about this and the following decisions have been reached.

Beauty and the Beast: truth, beauty, love, kindness etc. (The Elders also voted Belle as the most attractive Disney character, inside and out. Pocahontas gets second place. Gaston wins for most weak-sauce villain. Dude, she's not your type. She's far too intelligent, if you ever did get married, she'd figure out how to manipulate you in about three minutes and you'd both be miserable forever. See those three blonde triplets over there? That's more you, just go pick one. All three maybe. Also, the wicked step mother in Cinderella was pretty weak as well. Geez Cinderella, just leave. She's not going to do anything about it.)

Hercules: elements of the preexistence seem to be eluded to, along with a heavenly parentage and “En serio, I can become a god one day?!” (Hercules won for the sisters in the same category of most attractive. Tarzan got an honorary mention. As did Jane for the attractive category. Charming accent.)

The Hunchback of Notre Dame: Clearly testifies of the Apostasy. Anyone watching it, who is paying attention during the hellfire number is bound to suddenly be like, “Hey... you know... I'm pretty sure the catholic church does not get their authority from God.” (Frolo wins in the villain category. He's a creepy priest who secretly worships the devil, and I seem to remember some Esmeralda coveting.)

Lion King: Prophets are essential and their guidance will lead us the reign in righteousness. Also, it's Hamlet and Kimba the White Lion combined in a blender.

“Far longer than forever...” -Eternal families

“Deliver us!” -duh.

Save Ferris! (Doesn't testify of anything we could think of. It's just a funny movie.)

“So here's us, on the raggedy edge.” -Clearly all about Agency and Freedom.

Also, “This sticker is dangerous and inconvenient, but I do love fig-newtons.”

Alright, alright. Talladega nights was pretty much just silly, although there was that split second moment when everybody is talking about their own personal favorite version of Jesus when inside myself I sighed and was like, 'Wow. That's kind of exactly like the apostasy. And also. The Book of Mormon is awesome.' I still think that whenever somebody mentions that scene. The rest of the movie is kind of ridiculous, but I'd say that moment at least emphasizes a need for modern revelation to help man discover the true nature of god. Ignorant people make up their own gods conforming with their own personal wills and vices, etc.

This was an interesting discussion. Thought I'd share. Several people got in on it and tried to justify their favorite movies. We're still working on Waitress for Elder Conrad. I'm sure it testifies of something good. That's a great movie.

We had Temple this last week. That was incredible. I love going to the temple. I bought myself some presents as well. Including the soundtracks for Prince of Egypt and the Swan Princess that were being sold at the church bookstore there, for like 4 dollars each. I can't actually listen to them as a missionary, but they're normally like 18 dollars each (the owner found them in bulk somewhere and was trying to get rid of them) so I figured I'm ship them home. I'm putting together a book of stuff to send home, letters and unneeded winter accessories and those two CDs etc.

I also found not one but TWO cheesy Alma 17-? romance stories about Ammon and Abish or the Princess he refuses to marry. Did not purchase. Do not plan to. I can't read them anyway, and I'm not real sorry about that. I still do kind of want to make a very epic, big-budget, artsy film about the story of Ammon, using very little dialogue and long beautiful shots to tell his epic story. Who's the guy who was responsible for all the prettiness in that movie 'The New World'? Do you think he'd take pity on my project? Somebody ought to do some decent movies using the Book of Mormon. 'It could be a way powerful conversion tool!' -Hna. Christensen.

There will not be much romance in my movie. He's a messenger of God for sobbing out loud.

...He's busy.

But don't worry. Abish and the Princess. And the Queen. And all the other women in the movie, will be gorgeous, so as not to lose our male audience. Ammon will be pretty too. Como no?

Alright. I've talked of nonsense long enough. Just to reassure you that this isn't what's on my mind all the time, I do want to let you know that I'm happy and excited about life again. Although this week had all that craziness that I explained about the citas falling through, it really was a pretty incredible week. It's strange having P-day on Mondays, being the day after Sunday, since Sunday, is always such a dramatic day. I typically go from miserable to elated about fifty times on Sundays. It's the end of the week when we see how all of our work that week has effected, or hasn't effected the people we are teaching. Every less-active, recent convert, or investigator we see in church, is call for a massive hosanna shout and every empty seat leaves one feeling empty themselves. It's pretty exhausting, and if there's a baptism that night (which there was last night, the Elder's investigator Juana) then the stress
and the joy is all combined into a cocktail of terror that leaves one wanting a nap and a hot bath.

So. On Mondays, I'm frequently not-quite recovered from all this. Which I think makes me write like a crazy person. But, that's why we have Preparation-day. (And because we've got to do our laundry sometime) ...we need to recover from the damage of last week and prepare for the upcoming struggle. It doesn't always quite do it's job though... Typically when six o'clock rolls around, I feel a little like that boxer who's sitting in the corner, sweating and bloody and looking not-quite up to the next round, and then the bell rings and it's time to go!

Speaking of time to go, I'd better get. I love you. I miss you like Buster misses his left hand (another show we're trying to find a gospel relation with, tell me if you think of any).

MWAH!

Hermana Lillywhite

Attempted MansLaughter

Yeah, I usually wouldn't be able to write to you today, but since we've started doing our e-mail and laundry at Ashley's (with permission from president, of course) I get to e-mail you today! GREAT week. Okay, actually it was pretty stressful and we had a lot appointments/members cancel on us last minute, or just not even show up. It was pretty frustrating.

I know how important it is to have members with us at our appointments, but being an HOUR late, because we're waiting around for our member is just ridiculous. If them being late was unusual, I wouldn't complain, but it's not. It's pretty typical actually. But an hour is too much. As Hermana Christensen put it, “Well it's acerca de tiempo!”

Debbie, Tony and Shannon got baptized which was the highlight of the week. The service was gorgeous. English wards are so formal. They were so happy, and looked like a family of angels. I got a picture to send you all when I print out pictures next.

Here actually it's much left to comment on for this week... Zone meeting was very good. President Hansen shared some remarks that were very appropriate, I think exactly what I needed to hear. Hermana Thomas had her surgery on Friday. I don't know how it went, so I'm going to write her today.

Also, my companion hit me with the car yesterday. That was fun.

Well, actually it was terrifying for the couple of seconds before I figured out I wasn't injured—after that though, it was just hilarious. Poor thing, she was utterly convinced she'd killed me for a minute, but I'm fine. I'm sore. Very nearly bruised and that's about it. It's this silly backing thing that we have to do. Whoever isn't driving (obviously me, yesterday) has to stand outside and signal with your hands if it's okay to go/which way to turn. But it was dark and hard to see.

Yeah, so, aside from that, there isn't much to share... we've been doing a great deal of finding lately. So everyone who were teaching is brand new and just learning to walk on baby-feet. I love them all already, and I'm pretty sure they're all getting baptized though. Maybe not this transfer, but soon enough. Hermana Christensen seems to have a knack for finding people, in addition to her attempted manslaughter of my person, she has many talents. Whenever we go knocking we seem to find a new investigator. Good people too, very solid. I hope we'll be able to help them.

Home sounds charming. Yes, do tell me how the silly 2012 movie goes. During our lessons, I typically ask if they've got questions, and I've been frequently hearing “Is the world going to end in 2012?” to which I usually respond, “Well, I'm not sure, but I'm going to take a confident stab at no.”

One of our little recent converts in this ward Jaquelin, was very seriously concerned...

“But, the Mayan calender ends! Why didn't they make anything more after 2012?” -Jaqu.

“Well, they had to finish sometime!” -Me

“What do you mean?” -Jaqu.

(To put things in context, she had just brought out her new “Cute & Cuddly Kitten Pictures” calender to show us what kitten pictures had been chosen for our birthday months. She's 10.)

“Well—it's like... say the Mayans really liked kittens, okay, so they decide they're going to make a cute kitten calender and they take their ancient camera and take like billions and billions of pictures of kittens and then they start to make a calender, but they're still eventually going to run out of pictures of cute kittens with which to assign months for this calender, right?” -Me.

“Oh.... okay!” -Jaqu.

“Yeah, and you know, they couldn't just keep making calenders forever, eventually somebody's going to be like, 'Wow, okay, we're covered on calenders for the next couple dozen centuries, we can probably give it a rest and do something else for while, I'm sure there will be time sometime in the next two thousand years to make some calenders for after 2012,' I mean, they're an extinct civilization for sobbing out loud, they wasted they're time counting up to 2012 in the first place, they could have stopped ages ago and it wouldn't have mattered for them anyway, why should it matter for us?” -Me.

“That makes sense... so when is the world going to end?” -Jaqu.

And then, we moved into a rather brilliant lessons about the millennium, and left little Jaquelin much less frightened about 2012, and looking forward to the second coming, rather than fearing it.

I think my understanding of the 2012 theory is inherently flawed. But that's okay, I helped a 10 year old girl get a good night's sleep and had her imagining Mayan kittens, so all's good.

Anyway, tell me how you like the movie.

3.6? Good work Jensen! Ra ra ra. Si se puede!

I got Sifu's word about the Kung Fu test. Sounds intense! You know what else sounds intense? The political climate. Urgh. Kind of glad I'm missing it.

Carmen! Ooo, cool! I was totally thinking about Opera this week. I don't remember why. It had some relevance... Anyway, that lame that the musicians sacrificed a good show for their own selfish reasons. Three minutes? Honestly? How totally unprofessional and without keeping in the spirit of art and beauty and love. They should be thoroughly chastised.

I'm so sorry about your tooth, that sounds painful. Sad too, that you couldn't even get a hold of your dentist... Something like that needs to be handled quickly.

Well, I love you all and miss you terribly. I'm looking forward to mommy's letter this week in the mail.

Os quiero mucho,

Hermana Lillywhite

2010

Hey family! I am very well, I went to see the doctor this week and he gave me some stuff to start taking and scolded me for not properly medicating myself before now. I already feel a lot better, so I guess he had a point. Aside from ill health this week has been really great. We lost all our top investigators in just the space of a few days, (moving to Mexico/Oaklahoma/dropped up) but we had some success knocking and contacting referrals and now we have a great deal of new people to work with who I'm really excited to teach! Hermanita Christensen is incredible. She's a fearless sister, ready to take on any challenage and we've got a lot of the same taste in everything. She was going off about how much she loves Meryl Streap and 30 Rock and I thought of Jensen.

Oh! That reminds me. Last week, after I was done writing you, Ashley woke up and came out of her bedroom and was humming to herself, "01189998819901197253." Turns out she's a huge fan of the IT Crowd and the Mighty Boosh and all my shows that I left behind so I could serve God. Once again, thought of Jensen. You'd dig these people, they are adorable!

Hermana Christensen had a dream that she taught and converted First lady Laura and President George W. Bush. She said that she some how ran into them here in Houston and gave Laura a Book of Mormon, then a few days later they got back into contact with us and asked to be baptized! Then I had the same dream, except it was Hulk Hogan and his wife (ex-wife?) and I was giving them couple's counseling, but also preparing them for baptism.

I also had a dream that Michelle Obama started insulting the Prophet (it wasn't Monson or Hinckly, I think it might have been Benson) durring a press conference, because of some false accusations that were being put against the relief society being a secret organization to overthrow the government. So, I went to lay the smack-down on the first lady, but then I woke up before things got violent--but man, she made me mad. I don't have anything specific against Michelle Obama really, I seem to remember being annoyed with a couple of stupid comments she made in the past, but I don't really remember what they are now. And I might be mixing her up with Al Gore's wife. It has been a year, after all, since I read a newspaper or watched the news or listened to talk shows etc. I don't know anything about the current situation, so this whole dream came completely out of left-field. Whatever, it made my companion laugh, so that was fun.

Your trip to California sounds wonderful mommy and daddy! So does that mean daddy's all recovered from his pneumonia? Once again, I love the food. It sounds like Meredith has married into a very nice family, and so has Tanner for that matter:) San Clamente sounds dreamy. I've got to admit, I'm slightly devistated that that Sea Cliffs place was sold, remember how determined I was to becoming wealthy and eccentric and buy it myself? My dreams are dashed... Oh well!

Dracula's Castle is still for sale, right?

I'm really looking forward to those two weeks of paradise with you folks. Although, I'm not so much looking forward to the gigantic presipice of nothing that follows those three or so week after I get home from my mission. It's alright though... I think I might take your advice and just figure it out when I get back. I can't really devote a sifficient amount of attention to it now anyway. I just wish I'd put a LITTLE bit of thought into my post-mission plans before I left. Do you know if august-september is too late for me to apply to Graduate school at BYU for the Spring sememster in 2011? I don't really have money or anything, so I might want to get a job and work on that for a bit anyway, but I would like to get on with my studies before too long.

I'm glad that you got the opportunity to visit with family. And various missionaries:) Our mission President was just stressing the importance of asking for refferals from everyone, so we've gotten a few new people to teach as a result of that council.

I'm reading Jesus El Cristo for my language study. I've read it in English which makes reading it in Spanish a lot easier. I doubt I'll finish it before the end of my mission, but I've made a goal to finish before the end of the year. It's the only real new years resolution I bothered to have, since I think I'll actually fulfill it, which will be kind of amazing. Maybe I'll read it while lying on the beach in my swimsuit in august. Probably. I also want to read Crepusculo (Twilight in Spanish) and the Harry Potter series.

Ashley is preparing to get her patriarocal blessing this next Sunday. We're suberbly excited for her. Hopefully God will let her know she's supposed to go on a mission, since us telling her this seems to have little influence. She typically just shakes her head or makes up some excuse like "I'm so NOT sweet and innocent. I can't be a sister missionary!" But she can and she should be. She's got her albedrio though, but hopefully upon reminding her of that she'll go to the Lord in prayer and then make the right choice. She's our source of knowlegde on the outside world. She's told me about two movies: Legion and Daybreakers, neither of which she's seen but that she thinks look interesting/like I would like them. Don't really know what either of these are aside from one of them being about vampires and the other about angels, which is a fun contrast.

Shannon and Christopher got married. The wedding was small and thrown together at the last second, but really quite lovely. It was a nessecary step for Shannon to get baptised this saturday with her mother Debbie and father Tony. (This is the family I met on Thanksgiving who the English Elders are teaching). I thought about Meredith and her wedding which was going on the same weekend and hoped you all were having a really wonderful time.

I'm loving it here, but I do miss you all a lot. I hope everyone is well and happy! MWAH! I love you!

Hermana Lillywhite

Hermana Christensen

My new verde verde is Hermanita Christensen. Wednesday night last week all the Spanish sisters in the mission gathered to take the new sisters greeny-tracting (knocking doors their first night) but on account there being a demand for missionaries to attend a combined 3rd&5th ward party we just ended up driving all the way down to tickle downtown to take them to this party and meet some of the ward members. Hermana Christensen came with me and Hermana Russon in our car to go down there, (this is before we knew I was going to be her trainer) so she got to see me in traffic/when people don't give me proper directions and invent exits for me to take off the freeway), which may not have been the most uplifting experience—but the party was awesome! (depending on who you ask) I thought it was awesome, because the Castillos of 5th ward were there, and I love that family! I met the mom on memorial day last spring and talked with her for a while and she asked to met with the missionaries in her area and now she and her mother and her seven children are all members. And Alicia and Janet and Yolanda came (three of my recent converts from 3rd ward) and Alicia's tia who just got baptized and who I haven't gotten to see since the first time I met her when Alicia brought her to general conference (my last week in Crosstimbers) and Luis! Another one of my recent converts. So I was like “YAY! Everybody came!” but pretty much nobody else besides them came, so everyone else was pretty sure the party was a failure. We still took pictures and had a blast, and I got to talk with everyone who I haven't seen in ages for a while, before we had to run back down to the mission home to get the girls in before nine.

The next day we had breakfast at the mission home and then President announced who would be training who, then we got to go to the temple and then (on account of it being new years in Texas which means drunk people and fireworks, we were under orders to be in by five o'clock. Hermana Diaz made us papusas. Awesome. And Tamales. With banana leaves. Yum.

Hermanita Christensen is ADROABLE! 4'11” and blonde with big blue eyes. She was a cheerleader in high school and is just a lovely little energetic thing. She's so excited to work, and the girl's got NO fear. I'll just be like “...You should probably talk to that guy,” and she's like, “Okay.” and there she goes. It's amazing. She's so determined to speak Spanish and since there's that whole lack of fear thing, she just does it, and talks, even if it's not totally correct, she just speaks and tries her best and people are understanding her. She's going to be fluent in no time, I'm positive. She's from Royal City Washington and she constantly has to tell people, “No, no, it's really not anywhere near Seattle.”

She's a great missionary ya.

Well Steven got confirmed this last week, he almost didn't because he was too terrified to get up in front of everybody in sacrament meeting, so the bishop made arrangements to confirm him in his office with just his mom and a couple of people there. It worked out great and he's got the gift of the Holy Ghost now.

I'm doing great, entounces... Oh! Remember my pink pillow-case that's covered in mini Salt Lake temples and cute little babies and girly stick-figures? The one that I got in my Mission-Prep class? Turns out that Hermana Christensen's aunt is the woman who draws all those little stick figures. Hermana recognized the pattern and was like “That's my aunt's drawings!”. Very funny.

Pregunta: What is a 'Charismatic Christian?'

We knocked on some woman's door (frequent activity for LDS missionaries) and she answered and said “Sorry, I'm a Charismatic Christian.” and slammed the door. Let's lay aside that completely contradictory nature of the whole situation and just examine this practically... Que quiere dicer ESO?
I'm pretty sure I'm a Charismatic Christian. I'm a very Charismatic Christian. I've got charisma for miles, what does that have to do with anything?

I know, I know. It's some sect I know nothing about. We were both just a little confused however.

It must be so weird not having kids running around por todos lados en casa. Jensen's at BYU and Laney's at school. Poor daddy in bed! And mommy at school too. But I'm glad you are all still trying to have some fun. I'm excited about the existence of the Sherlock Holmes movie. And New Moon sounds like exactly my kind of girl-fest. Didn't I already explain to you mom? That brilliant thing about the Twilight series is that there's NO plot until the fourth book and then they throw everything at you all at once. And somehow it works for me. A very well written, creative first-person narrative completely devoid of all traces of plot, except for a couple of nods to Jane Austin and the Bronte Sisters. Up until book four that is. Then it develops it's own plot so fast it kind of smacks one about the head and shoulders. It's a bit uncomfortable for people who are not inexplicably madly in love with the story like me.

Good for ginna on her grades! That's so cool that you guy get to go to Meredith's wedding. Please send pictures! I'd like some shots from the Kung Fu test too. I like to see the carnage.

Well, not much else to report on this week. I got some awesome letters from people recently and some SWEET Christmas presents. Thank you to aunt Nuggie and uncle John and Kat and Daniel! We are disfrutaring a lot in all the goodies and little, incredibly useful presents. And thank you to Aunt Les and Aunt Missy and Filly for your presents! And I just got uncle Dan's letter, I'm way excited to hear from him... I still need to send out my belated Christmas greetings to everybody. Hopefully I'll get the chance to do it today. As this is getting ridiculous.

Last little bit of good news! Remember in that weekly breakdown that I gave last transfer, who I mentioned teaching the Medina's inlaws at Thanksgiving? And then I threw up as soon as we left cause I was all sick? Debbie and Tony and their daughter Shannon, have all just gotten their interviews for baptism yesterday. It was awesome. I just remembered the first time we taught them...

“So, we teach in Spanish, and go to the Spanish congregation, but there's some very nice young men who teach people interested in coming to the English congregation, if y'all would like them to stop by sometime and talk to you a little bit more about this.”(motioning to the pamphlet I just handed them)

“Yeah, yeah, I think I'd like to hear more about this.” -Debbie

“Sure. They can come by.” -Tony, “But... you know... We're catholic. So...”

I just smiled big and said quietly inside myself, 'Not for long.' (sinister chuckle)

Okay, so it can' be that sinister since I'm wishing for their eternal happiness and salvation and that they might receive the opportunities to enjoy in the blessings of god in this life and well as in la vida venidera. But I just like the comic-book imagery. We are trying to take over the world, you know.

It was a really touching experience to speak to them again on Christmas Eve. There had been a huge change in them, and you could see how they were just so full of hope and joy now. The Elders officially love us. Elder Frost when he interviewed them said he was totally blown away by how prepared they were and how spiritually sensitive they were. They've been able to pick up on how everything that's happened to them in connected. How God has been leading them to this place at this time to make this decision. It's so beautiful. I'm so happy that I could be involved in helping them find the truth. Their baptism is scheduled for the 16th. I'm really looking forward to it!

I love you all. Mommy, I miss you all like crazy too. I can't wait to see you all again, but I know I'm in the right place and I'm doing what I should be doing. 6-7 months isn't really all that long when you think about it. I hit my year mark this week. That's nuts. I still remember exactly how it felt when I was walking away from all of you and I was saying to myself, 'Don't look back, you're just going to sob louder. It's okay, just keep going.' and then there was this other voice that you like, 'You won't see them again for a year and a half, turn around!'

Man, it was rough. But time does fly. 2009 is over with, and with 2010, I'll be back home with all of you!

I LOVE you my family!

"Congratulations on your recent conception"- Hna. Hoskins

Familia!

I love you. Getting to talk to you on Christmas was the best Christmas Present ever. I hope not knowing when I was going to call didn't make things too stressful for you. Next time, I think I'll call that morning and let you know when I'm going to call later, since that's apparently totally legit. Transfer News: I'm staying! I get to stay here in BearCreek, probably for two more transfers, I'd guess... But little Hermana Russon is leaving, she's going to go to LittleYork to be companions with my old companion Hermana Bastian. I'm sad that we only got one transfer together, but I'm really looking forward to this next experience. I don't know who my companion is yet, because I'm going to be training one of the new sisters coming in on Wednesday. And President doesn't assign our trainers and trainees until after he's met them all/prayed about it. So, next week I'll be able to tell you about my new companion. I'm way excited to train, I think it's going to be a blast. So far, I've been very blessed with amazing companions. So, we'll see how this goes. My MTC companion Hermana Gurney is also going to train. She gets to White-wash train in her baby-area—meaning the area she served in when she first got to the mission—Westgreens, I'm so jealous! I'd love to whitewash City View, but they've only got Elders serving in that ward now... They took the sisters out shortly after I moved to CrossTimbers last summer, so I probably won't get the chance, but I can imagine she's as excited right now as I would be if I got to go open up the City View sisters area. Elder Herrman is also training, so when we all get together to meet our Greenies, it's going to be a bit of an MTC district reunion. Very fitting, I think.

The subject line is what Hermana Hoskins said when she found out I was going to train.

Christmas sounds like it was really wonderful! I had a great Christmas here. One of the happiest and most meaningful of my life. I didn't get homesick at all actually, I looked forward to getting to talk to you all on the phone and after I hung up, I was a little sad for a split second. But then I saw that dad had hung up at exactly 59 minutes and 59 seconds and that made me laugh. Hurray for exact obedience! And I remembered that next time I talk to you isn't really all that far away. This was the long stretch of months and it's ya llevar acabo-ed. How's that for horrible Spanglish?

We had a wonderful dinner with Ashley and her mother. I got to hear funny/terrifying “Drill Sergent Stories” from her days in the army.

Getting to play with the family is so priceless though. I'm really looking forward to getting to see you all for Christmas next year and spend it as a family. But no... I actually didn't get legitimately homesick, just a touch nostalgic, we'll say. Our Christmas P-day was wonderful. I already told you a little bit about that. I'm not sure when Hermana Thomas is going back, but I'm sure she'll be fine. She's got a large chunk of good saints praying for her and she's a strong/righteous person, so whatever happens, she'll be fine, and hopefully she'll be back out here with us in just a short while. When I described to Ashley how I'd been trying to at least cry silently during President's prayer (and then failed miserably) she said that was exactly what happened to her when she started coming back to church and working through the repentance process. Every Sunday in church as they passed the sacrament and she couldn't take it she would try to at least sob quietly, but it never worked and people always stared. But the experience helped her gain and more profound appreciation for her baptismal covenants, and now that she can take the sacrament again, she doesn't take it for granted.

I loved Jensen's description of the movie Avatar as “Ferngully on Steroids”. I think I'll have to see that one when I get back. And Ferngully. I don't remember much about that old movie, except that I liked it a lot as a kid until I was old enough to start getting annoyed with the unintelligent, irrational conclusions reached by some of our adorable environmentalist brethren and then it just made me exasperated.

And Sherlock Holmes sounds pretty slick. Holidays and movies always go together... I was so happy when the Zone Leaders told us we could watch the Peanuts Christmas special. I loved my presents from all of you and I especially loved getting those letters from you folks. I think that was the best gift I got to unwrap. I'm happy, I'm healthy more or less and I'm so excited to be out here doing the Lord's work! I love you all like crazy! MWAH.

Hermana Lillywhite

Hermana Salsa

Merry Christmas!

Familia!

First off... announcement... Steven got baptized last night! YAY! And His less-active older sister came. It was a wonderful baptism, though it was nearly a bit of a disaster. Poor Hermana Russon was a little stressed. I was too, secretly, but I didn't let it show, because no body needs two panicked sisters at a baptism. It was just a problem with the whole program not showing up for a few ages, and also we had no baptismal jumpers for Steven. He's 12, but he's really tiny. We ended up using an adult jumper and just rolling up the sleeves. Then, the only other jumper we had (the rest were dresses) had a broken zipper when Pompo tried to put it on. So he was struggling with that in the bathroom for a little while, trying to beg safety-pins off of people and stuff. In the end it all worked out though. He got baptized and that's what's important, and his less-active mom is making lots of friends in the ward.

La Hermanita Diaz just got home from her mission to Argentina. We got to talk to her a little at the Christmas Party Saturday night. “Raro.” was all she kept saying when people would ask her how she felt. Raro is like weird. She looked a little bit uncomfortable and out of place. I was watching her saying to myself, “Aww... that's going to be me one day. How cute.” We made arrangements for her to come out with us this week, and when I pulled my planner out she say it and was like, “Oohhhh. I miss that.”

These planners are amazing. So efficient and practical. I said the other day that God himself probably designed them, and I wasn't being cheeky, I actually think these planners are a product of revelation. But everybody laughed, and I was like, “No. I'm serious.”

FELIZ NAVIDAD! It's Christmas this week. We are SO excited! This has been a really wonderful, oddly warm Christmas season for me. I told Hermana Russon about the Stained Glass Orchard Christmas story that I've got in mind to write when my hands are untied and fate returns the quill to it's rightful place in my hand. I clearly have lost all my writing skills, and will need to be periodically reminded when I accidentally use words that don't exist in English. All this great Christmas music that you folks sent me and also that I discovered here, has got me piecing together a soundtrack for the motion picture. Which is a little strange, since I haven't even written the book yet, and have no funding.

What's the song called on the CD you sent me...? Track 6? Really gorgeous rich baritone voice and the lyrics are a narration of when the Angel told the shepherds to go to Bethlehem? “Prepare and go, the Angel said, to Bethlehem...” Something a long those lines. I feel like it's familiar to me, but I can't think where I've heard it before. Probably as a special number in church or something... anyway, I REALLY love that song.

Home sounds so brilliant. Everyone's continuing in their common vocations in life... rescuing animals, singing Christmas songs, repainting the bedroom. Actually, I managed to impress some of the Latino men I've taught, because they'll occasionally talk about how difficulty tiling is and then I just shrug and say, “Yeah. Been there, done that.” in Spanish. I definitely do remember when we took on that particular project. I bet it'll look gorgeous, I hope you all have a little fun working on that.

Yeah, I remember you mentioned about dad's sabbatical. I thought only professors got sabbaticals? If you guys do decide to go to the grand canyon or something, do send me pictures. And be careful. I keep hearing stories about people falling to their deaths recently. Tenganse cuidado.

I ended up sending off a little Christmas package last week for y'all. I don't know if you'll get it until today in the afternoon or tomorrow though, just because of the high quantity of mail etc. Holidays, ya know? Plus, I didn't send it priority. But it's just got this rather nice picture of ME that I thought you would appreciate on an artistic basis, and plus I'm in it looking quite snug in the Tejas snow. And you can see my nametag. I really like this picture. Ashley, who works at Walgreens, developed our footage and then decided to redo the display, so now there's a bunch of pictures of missionaries hanging up in the foto department at her Walgreens. She says people sort of look funny at it sometimes, and she just chuckles and takes their money.

There's also a copy of a CD that I've fallen in love with. Track #11 is particularly amazing. I love it, because it's very much a Christmas song, so I think about Christmas and my savoir... but it also sounds a lot like the Violin bit in Serenity to me at the beginning. Plus it's quite dark and rich. Mmm. Sounds like chocolate to me. But yeah, I don't know when you'll get that. Or if you'll get it. Tell Chantal I got her letters, and I'm working on her Christmas package. I'm sending her the same CD and a Book of Mormon, that she must cherish forever. I'm also nearly complete with my story-summary-notebook, which I told her she could have while I'm gone, since she asked about what ideas I've gotten while I'm on my mission, I figure she might like to read them herself and send me her thoughts on my righteous madness... But first, she's getting a Book of Mormon for Christmas and a Jenny Oaks Baker CD. So is Brighteyes. I know it's not really a surprise if I write what their getting in here, but hey. I'm a missionary. What did they think they would get from me this year? I might actually wrap them up in paper and then write IT'S A BOOK OF MORMON! On the wrapping, just so the surprise is really utterly ruined.

BABY RATS! I love little ratties. I'm glad the kitties are more or less being good about the new pets. Diggy is so silly. I can just picture him sitting, totally serene and gentlemanly inside of the rat cage with the little sillies playing with that ridiculous fluffy tail he's got.

The Christmas program sounds charming. Silly Laney. Give her a kiss for me. I feel like me or Jensen did that once too? Did we? I wish I could hear you all sing! I was trying to figure out if any of the songs on that CD were done by daddy's chior.

Good job in school Jensen! Let me know what her final grades are. Would you do me a huge favor and PLEASE please please, TALK with Mr. Darcy before I get back?! That is, assuming that he hasn't moved back to England to marry someone named Elizabeth or Jane or Georgina. I love hearing of romance. So delightful. The thing I'm going to regret about this attitude is that someone will probably hold me to it when I get back, but I'll worry about that later. For now. I'm Hermana Lillywhite. Soy misionera.

Good luck on your Kung Fu test Jensen! And tell Chantal I said MWAH as well! You'll both do great. Send pictures of the carnage.

Well, I'm just going to end my letter there. There's tons more I could say, but since I get to hear your voices on FRIDAY! YAY CHRISTMAS! I'll just leave it here. I LOVE you and I miss you, but I've felt it again and again. I'm here for a wise purpose and this is exactly where I want to be this holiday season. Besito and besito.

Happy Christmas! Hermanita Lillywhite

RIP MEMO

One of my investigators died this last week: Memo, who was very old, and I never actually met the man, but he enjoyed drinking, smoking and reading the Bible, he was living with a family who we're still teaching, because shortly before I got here, he moved out and we weren't able to get back in contact with him until he was checked into the hospital. But then he died. It's very sad, but he was very old, and as we explained to the children Alison and Jorge, his name has just been given as a referral to missionaries in the spirit world, and they're going to finish teaching him all the lessons so he can get baptised too. I can't get a straight answer as to who this man was in relation to this family. He's apparently not a family member, but just a close friend who was staying there for a while while he looked for work.

I got everybody's packages! Thank you to Aunt Kim, and Mommy and Daddy! I had a very happy Birthday with lots of fun stuff to open! (Mom, I didn't open the stuff that was marked X-mas, was I supposed to wait? I'm so curious! Am I supposed to open everything in the box, or wait...?) And Aunt Kim's donnescitos for me and my companion were adorable!

The CD worked great and I love your selections!

This last week was really amazing. We had sister's P-day which was SO much fun. And very inspiring as well. We had a sister's conference that night with just us Sister Missionaries (And the presidency and the Assistants and a random husband of the singer who was really nice...) Mostly just us girls though.

Tuesday we went on exchanges with the English sisters. That was very fun. Sister Hoskins wants to learn Spanish so badly. Both her parents speak Spanish (mom's Hispanic and her dad is a returned missionary who spoke Spanish) but she never bothered to learn... but she was way awesome.

I got to go to the temple for my birthday which was amazing, and wonderful. And then Friday we had the huge yearly service project, Navidad en El Barrio, which was SO fun. Just about the whole mission was there to put together gifts for underprivileged children. It was a blast.

Not to much else to report on, this is going to be a short letter this week, but I'm really happy to have gotten to hear for you guys today... And I loved getting those packages! I had a very happy birthday and a very happy week, and I especially appreciate you guys remembering my birthday. I'm way excited to see those pictures!

MWAH! I love you. Hermana Lillywhite

Snowday!

Querida fambly,
Home sounds so lovely! I was warned repeated that I was going to get really homesick for the holidays, but so far, I’m very much fine. I miss you guys, and it sounds like you’re having a wonderful Christmas season, but so am I! I do wish I could see little baby Bella playing with the Christmas tree. You should probably send me some videos of Christmasness at home si quieran. I love that Laney used the line from Miss Congeniality, that is so her. The treats you’re making sound amazing! Yummy, yummy… Mexican dulces, are NOT that great, but luckily, they recognize that and usually will finish meals with more Americanized desert or fruit. Which is good. Because you can’t eat rice pudding or tamarindo for every meal, and not enough people know how to make flaun(sp?). I don’t think I spelled that right, but you know what I mean.
Poor daddy, I’ve been kind of sick too. I think it might be allergies, actually. I’ve never had them before, but apparently a lot of people develop them when they move here. I love your paragraph on Jensen, it so embodies her completely. Excellent writing. I’m glad she’s being cute and taking care of herself. Gina-ga-bobbin, you’re probably going to have to reteach me a ton of Kung Fu. I remember very little, it’s a problem.
I’m glad you liked my card mommy! I wanted to wish you a happy Birthday in time, so I hope it got there fast… I also meant to write you a happy birthday note before, but I forgot, because I’m silly. So… HAPPY BIRTHDAY! YAY!
Everything sounds lovely and homey… They keep us very occupied during the holidays, I think as a way to put off any homesickness that might arise, especially among the newbies. So, this week—today, actually, we’ve got an activity and a conference with ALL the sisters, which means we’re probably going to have to do some P-day stuff, like shopping, tomorrow. We’ve also got service tomorrow, interviews & probably planning on Wednesday, and then… guess what I get to do on Thursday?
TEMPLE DAY! What a great present for me. I am so excited that we get to go to the temple for my birthday… I had pretty much forgotten all about it. So, before, the exciting thing about Thursday was that we get to go to the temple. I just now, as I was writing this, remembered that it’s also when I turn 22. Crazy. I feel old. I also look, dress and talk like a tex-mex church-lady. Gosh. I sure grew up interesting.
Friday, we’ve got Navidad en El Barrio (Christmas in the Neighbourhood) Barrio is also the word we use for ward, but this isn’t actually a church thing. It’s a community service project that we get to take part in… Next week is more or less normal I think (Which is good, cause I’d like to teach a little this month) and then the week after that, we’ve got two pdays… regular and then mission p-day, and then temple as a mission, then another community service thing and then Christmas.
Crazy month.
They don’t want to give us any time to think about anything, I think. Which is probably really good.
Alright… well, news and stories. I’ll just do highlights: Last P-day, we went to go do our Laundry at Ashley’s place, and when we came over, she was sleeping on the couch and then she told us about her night/early Monday morning. She’d gotten a call from a co-worker at about 2 in the morning and he asked her to please come pick him up because he was drunk out of his mind and couldn’t drive home. She’s pretty sure he didn’t even mean to call her—probably thought he was talking to someone else—but she went to rescue him anyway, and after she’d loaded him in the passenger seat she was like, “Okay, where do you live?”
His response, before he passed out was, “I don’t know… Houston?”
So, she took him home, tucked him into her bed, read him a scripture, which he didn’t remember, and then slept on the couch until we showed up a few hours later.
Just… just imagine, waking up hung over to find yourself in a strange house where two missionaries are sitting cross legged in the living room studying “El Libro de Mormon” & “La Santa Biblia”. Maybe it’s mean, but I kinda wanted to mess with him and just speak Spanish for a while, for an added measure of surreality. I didn’t though, I was very polite and we introduced ourselves formally after he finally woke up a few hours later. We talked to him a lot about missionary work and the gospel while Ashley got herself ready for work. They left the house together after Ashley’s mom got home, and apparently talked about the gospel the whole way home. He admitted that he is looking for the truth, and that he thinks everything we were talking about was interesting and he would like to know more. He’s gringo though, so we can’t teach him… but I now his missionaries and they’re great, so I don’t mind giving him away to them.
We spent the rest of P-day waiting for our Laundry to get done and watching “The Book of Mormon Movie” which Ashley had on VHS.
Oh. My. Chispas. Y. Hijole.
HOW DID THAT GET FUNDING?! HOW DID A COUPLE OF HALF DECENT ACTORS PARTICIPATE IN THAT, I ASK YOU!? Who is… responsible? I must, have them brought before me forthwith.
Alright, so Kirby is always fun, and there was something weirdly appropriate about him as Sam, but mostly it was just WRONG. And Pilote (I don’t know the actor’s name, but he’s Pilote from El Cordero de Dios) is such a good guy, why was he involved?! Nephi’s a good looking man and all, but geez… the whole thing was just so… It was just wrong. I felt like I’d been battered and assaulted after it was over. I really lament the possibility that any non-member ever saw that.
Because, let’s be honest… It’s kind of fun to go all MST3000 and watch bad church movies with active members, but people can NOT think that, THAT is what the Book of Mormon is like. Nephi was so whiney. Huge. But he acted like a little girl, and his nasty brothers were so unbelievable… And acting was bad. The writing was AWFUL. The sets—well, it was Utah, so it wasn’t bad except for being recognizable. Artistically, I just had a huge problem with it. I would have done everything differently. Every single shot, from the beginning to the end. Different angle, different actors, different costumes, different… all of it. The daughter of Ishmael… hijole, let’s just not get into the romance. Let’s not. That was uncomfortable.
Aside from all that, I liked it.
Actually, it did help me appreciate the awesomeness that is the book of Mormon in comparison to the horridness of the movie in which they tried so hard to depict some of it. Which, is good, because it got me all geared up for Zone Conference last week, which was all about The Book of Mormon, and how great it is.
I’ve NEVER read the book of Mormon like this before. Before my mission, I loved it, and I loved reading my scriptures, but now, I just eat it up. I’m actually depressed sometimes when I have to spot reading. I’m almost to the war chapters in Alma. And I can’t believe how enthralling the story is. I’ve always understood it, I think, but sometimes the strange words were awkward, distracting, but I’m so used to it now that it just doesn’t bother me. I’m so into it. Jensen. One day, when we are both insanely wealthy and eccentric geniuses, we shall have another go at cinematic depiction of some of these stories. It shall be awesome. Work on sketches and story-board. NOW!
So yeah, Zone Meeting was amazing. It was all about using the Book of Mormon more in our teaching.
We have a new baptismal date… Lauren is a cute little girl who we just met last week. She’s got friends in the ward, but she doesn’t speak Spanish. She wants to go to the Spanish ward anyway though, because her mother does speak Spanish and her mother will probably start coming to the Spanish ward. It’s not a problem in the young women classes, since there’s minimal Spanish among the younger people, but in Sacrament meeting, she needed me to translate. It was intense. I just had to lean over with my mouth by her ear, tune into whatever was being said at the pulpit and go into this kind of trance, just filtering the Spanish in through one ear and letting it come out in English. It was very cool, but I’m not sure how well I did. I didn’t really have time to think about it, I just had to talk. No time for correction/etc.
There were a couple of moments when I’d miss a word because they’d talk quietly, or someone would cough or a young child would start screaming and I’d usually get totally derailed and just have to try and pick up the strain again… I’m pretty sure there were a couple of moments like this, “I know that Jesus Christ is my Savoir and that he died for my sins, and I know that God—BABY screaming, that was a baby screaming, sorry, what’s she saying?! Oh, yeah—we are all God’s children and the Gospel is…” and I’d just say the interruptions like a talking subtitler or something. Hilarious. Lauren seemed to find it pretty amusing too.
She’s so great. Her parents want us to teach her because she’s supposedly a ‘problem child’. She’s twelve though, and adorable and very nice. I think she’s just been through a lot. She’s moved all over the place. When I first met her, I remembered this line from Jane Eyre, when Mr. Rochester says something about Jane being like a little bird that is afraid to move too suddenly for fear of being struck, or something like that. That’s Lauren. She’s very still.
We’re working with her mom too. She thinks that she’s already been baptized. We’ve yet to explain that without the Priesthood… No vale. Next lesson: Authority/The Book of Mormon is so great.
It snowed on Friday! I’ve got pictures of me being dorky in the snow. And some video of how Texas looks like Utah sometimes. It’ll be part of my Merry Chirstmas stuff that I send to people.
Well, I’d better say goodbye, we’ve got to get going so we can make it down to the mission home for the activity. I corazon all of you.
Missing you, and giving lots of cyberoisty hugs! Paz & Amor a vosotros.
Hermana Lillywhite

Monday-Sunday Breakdown

It sounds like you guys had a great Thanksgiving. Mmmm. I love food. I think I’m going to have to think about these letters a little more… I think I know exactly which teacher to ask, but I’m not sure how to get into contact with him…
Okay… where to start?!
Usually, you may have noticed, I don’t do a day by day accounting of my time here, just because it usually takes SO long to try and explain everything, since all the actions of the day are results of long, long preparation in advance and foreshadowing… but, I’m going to TRY. It might work this time, since I’m new to the area.
So…
Monday: Wrote you charming folks, very fun, then went and played with the English Sisters in our Zone. I’ve never had English sisters in my zone before. They’re hilarious. We went to the home of a member in their ward, and I took tonz of covert pictures of her house, her daughter is an artist and she’s done all the decoration herself. Gorgeous stuff. She taught us how to make lip-gloss and bath salts and sugar scrub. It was a very fun and girly day… We’re around Elders so much that I forgot how being girly can be a blast too… Then the Bishop ditched us for the family home evening we were supposed to have. Everyone forgot to tell us it was canceled, but it was okay, because we sat and chatted with the man who was doing some painting on his house and he seemed very interested in the church. We gave him the address and hope to hear from him soon…
Tuesday: In the morning we had an appointment with Ashley. Ashley is a less-active girl in the English ward who isn’t allowed to meet with Elders anymore on account of them continually falling in love with her. She’s ADORABLE and nineteen years old, and fascinating. Her life story will be a book; probably written by me. She started reading miracle of forgiveness and spent about forty-five minutes telling us how horrible she felt and how she couldn’t finish it because it was too depressing and making her feel even worse than she already did about what a terrible person she is. (She’s not a terrible person though, she’s actually really amazing.) Anyway, she literally threw the book away from herself dramatically and claimed she’d never pick it up again. We got her to agree to finish it by December 7th. The anniversary of Pearl Harbor, which she appreciated because she’s in the Army. (Or, she was in the army, that’s part of that amazing life story though, and I might have to explain all that later…)
Anyway, then we had some lessons fall through, which was lame because we had Hermana Medina with us, and she’s the best member missionary. But, it worked out alright because we ended up running into a family (Castillo) we’ve been trying to get back into contact with for a while. They were NOT doing well. They were about to get kicked out of their apartment and had no food and no money. We prayed with them and promised that we’d get them some food, at least.
So, our next lesson is with their neighbor and she just happens to have a couple pounds of rice/bread/tostados/cans of food etc. that she’s trying to get rid of, so, we had a quick lesson on generosity, and then she gave us a ton of food to give to the Castillo family. They were sobbing. Everyone was pretty elated and it was a wonderful experience for our Thanksgiving week.
We had several more lessons fall through that day, but we ended up doing a lot of good. We gave the Elders a ride home (they’re on bikes) and they gave us two referrals to check out the next day. It was a great day, but I was actually pretty ill… coughing so hard I was making myself sick. I ignored it though and now we move on to…
Wednesday: More stuff fell through, but we checked out those referrals the Elder’s gave us.
On our way there some guy very obviously checked us out, “Looking good ladies.” (eyebrow wiggle)
Eww. I was just about to give him a card but I was so shocked I ended up just standing there dumbfounded. I’ve never felt less cute in my entire life. I try to rock the ‘church-lady’ chic as much as possible, but seriously sir, what is your deal?
Hermana Russon and I got a pretty great laugh of it. Got lost in this huge apartment complex and found a burned down laundry room (why do the laundry room’s always burn down? Is it the crapy dryers in this state?) The first one explained to us that she had told the Elder’s to go away, but since they didn’t speak Spanish they didn’t understand her and so they wrote down her information as a referral for us. We offered to share our message anyway. She accepted after a minute of explaining that she’d catholic and she’s going to live and die a catholic… But we’ve heard that before.
She mentioned part-way into our plactica that she has a Mormon friend who just moved into the apartment complex next door, and that she came from Utah. We didn’t know of any new members in the area so we asked for her address and name, and then the doorbell rang and the son of this member happened to be outside. We asked them, “Are you guys looking for the church?” and he said, “No.” he corrected the information the woman had given us and said that his mother was home right now.
So, after our lesson, we went to meet Isaura, she opened the door and immediately burst into tears when she saw us. She was wearing a green tank-top over some very new looking garments. She invited us in and explained that she had just gone through the temple right before she moved here. She’s a recent convert to the church and is living with her daughter-in-law here in Houston right now. She’s got no way to get to the church building, no job, no car, no clue and she’d just been praying that someone could help her figure. So, we arranged for her to get a ride to the church. She showed us her collection of books. She loves to read Church literature and is part way through “El Milargro de Perdon” as well, and will probably be starting “Jesus El Cristo” pretty soon here.
Then, on the way home, Hermana Russon noticed some people struggling to pack up a car on the side of the road and suggested we stop to help, so I pulled over and we walked up to these people and they gladly accepted our ayuda. We started chatting with this one woman who was curious to know all about us. Her name is Maria Ester and she’s fun. She practically runs this fellowship and was telling us all about her beliefs and asking us questions about ours for about 40 minutes.
My favorite part was this.
“Do y’all believe in the gathering of Isreal?”
“Uh… Yeah.” (me, smirking, trying not to add, ‘that’s what we’re doing right now ma’am, wanna be gathered?!’)
Part way into this we both had the strong impression to give her a Book of Mormon. We did so, and she started asking us, “You mentioned that Jesus Christ visited the American people, where is that part?” so we marked 3rd Nephi 11, “Where does it talk about Faith?” so we marked Alma 32, and “Are there any prophesies about our days?” so we marked a number of chapters with that one, and then, “Where’s there a discourse on Baptism?” so I marked Mosiah 18.
Then, Hermana Russon, being amazing like she is was like, “There’s a promise in this book… right here (opening to Moroni 10) that if you ask God, he’ll tell you if these things are true, and he’ll give you a witness of them.” And Maria Ester folded the page over and said, “I’ll be sure to read that first.”
We had some more amazing lessons and turned in a little early on a result of both of us now feeling pretty crummy physically. I feel so bad, I think I got my companion sick!
Thursday (THANKSGIVING!) : Breakfast at Ashely’s. She made us an AMAZING meal. Blueberry muffins, pancakes, bacon and sausage and then some amazing tex-mex with tortillas. SO good. We enjoyed this feast and she started to tell us her story of how she really became converted to the church. She was baptized when she was ten, but fell away rapidly and remembered NOTHING and was pretty bitter as a result. After that she lived in Mississippi. You know. That place where missionaries aren’t allowed to go because they still occasionally get tarred and feathered? Anyway, she started her religious search when she was a little older as a teenager and before she joined the army. As she was telling us her story, I was repeated reminded of Glen Beck. She kept saying things like, “I did NOT want to be a Mormon!” and talked about all the deep questions she had and how she actually got kicked out of one church that she was going to for a while for asking too many deep doctrinal questions about the war in heaven and the role of Lucifer. She told us the whole story… which I’m still working on slowly since it’s quite long, but she’s really cool… for our lesson I pulled out my copy of Glen Beck’s conversion on CD and was like, “You need to listen to this guy”. Turns out that she LOVES Glen Beck, she’s been listening to his show for years, and her mom was listening to him even before he got famous, but she’d never heard about his conversion. So we listened to it and the whole time she was like, “THAT WAS TOTALLY ME!”
It was great.
We also watched a few scenes of the Testaments in Spanish and made fun of the dubbing while I parroted back the best phrases of the movie, like “Yo se tu nombre” and “DONDE ESTA MI HIJO?!” “Si tu no lo sabes, quisaz ya no sea tu hijo!” and we spent entirely too much time there, but poor Ashely was all alone for Thanksgiving because the rest of her family left town and she had to work from like 2 in the afternoon until who knows how late… so we spent some fun thanksgiving time with her before she had to go work and it was all very pleasant.
We had lunch with our ward mission leader and his adorable family. I started to feel pretty headachy and miserable, but toughed it out and ate tons while playing Mexican train with Hermana and two of the girls. They’ve got a very big, fun family and the Elders came too, so it was a great time. Then we had an appointment with Isaura. It was really nice to go over to her house. Her room is like a little sanctuary. She’s got all her books and her church music going and her window overlooks the little pound at their apartment complex. We visited with her for a while and made last minute plans for her debut at church… then, we were supposed to go to the Medina’s house for dinner. The Medina’s are those awesome member missionaries I mentioned.
By now, I was feeling really sick, but I felt like we were supposed to go to their house and like we couldn’t just go home. So even though I almost threw-up twice on the way there we showed up and met with the family and chatted for a while with them while I TRIED to eat but failed on account of being so sick.
It was good we went though, because part-way into it some in-laws of one of the kids showed up and Hermano mouths to me, “No son miembros” (They’re not members) they only speak English too, so some quick operations were put in order and they sat these people right in front of us and were like, “HAVE YOU MET THE MISSIONARIES?!”
“Err… no.”
We told them all about what we do and bore some powerful testimony. The spirit was very, very strong. As we were about to leave they asked us for pamphlets and how they could learn more. So we supplied them with some good stuff, and they were like “Well, we’re catholic…” but remembering the way they said it made me remember that line from ‘The Conversion of a Catholic Priest’ talk that I was listening to a while before, where the missionary responds to that same statement with “Sir, we’ve just shattered your faith so significantly that you just said that to reassure yourself.”
Good day. Powerful testimonies… Then, We got in the car and promptly pulled over after half a block so I could throw up a little.
Friday: District meeting was pretty groovy. We’re still sick, so we didn’t do much else that day except teach Stephenie, an amazing woman who’s just getting back into the church and whose husband is planning to get baptized as soon as he get home from Mexico in about a month and a half… we tried to do planning for the week, but we were both so ill we just ended up sleeping for most of the day—in between frantically running between half a dozen other appointments that all fell through. But. We saw a frog. He was big and squishy and I petted him and it felt weird.
And, I got an idea for a vampire novel. Hermana Russon picked out the name Phillip Graystone of Coventry for our main vampire hero. She is so cute. A little innocent thing, she’ll probably never read the book, or if she does it will be the “Hermana Russon edited version” that I will make specially for her and other sensitive readers who don’t need a lot of violence and intensity to keep their interest.
Saturday: Zone meeting, which we pretty much missed because part way into it my poor companion just about fainted and so we went out to where she could lie down and I wrote a rather brilliant little essay on why missionaries get sick and what the spiritual implications are, and I think I’ll have to share that with you later, because although it is great, it’s also long and this letter is already turning into a novel and I haven’t even gotten to the best part yet!
So, That night we decided to check up on our investigator Elena who last we heard had to cancel our appointment for work and because she and her husband got in a huge fight and she kicked him out. (they’re not really married, and she said it was because she’s sick of him doing drugs and drinking all the time) so we went by to see how she’s doing, but she wasn’t there, HE WAS! Edmundo was at their apartment, alone, drunk and crying hysterically because actually, what really happened is that Elena left him and took the kids and all of their possessions, so now he’s got no clothes, no furniture, no car, and he just lost his job and is depressed out of his mind, so we just sat there with him and let him cry for a really long time. We taught him a little, but I don’t know how much he’ll remember. I think it was just good that we were there, he kept thanking us for coming by and apologizing for being such a wreck.
We called his fellowshipers (The Medinas, who are sort of like main characters in my life right now) and told them about what was going on…
Sunday: Good day to come to church, all the lessons and everything was amazing, I could talk about them for a while, but I’m seriously running low on time and space… Anyway, Steven and Jackie came, a less active mom and her 12 year old son who’s going to get baptized as soon as we can finish teaching him all the lessons. Isaura and her nieto came with the Alvareses who also spoke in sacrament meeting and did a great job, and then the Medina’s brought Carmen and her two kids of the Castillo family who I told you about earlier. It turns out that while we were sick/in other appointments, the ward really stepped in to help them. They used the food they got to make a bunch of tamales and they sold them and got enough cash to pay the overdue rent. Huge blessing. And then like half the ward went by to visit them, so they FINALLY came to church. We’re hoping to give the whole family baptismal dates soon… so, that night, there was a baptism. I was playing the piano and Hermana Russon was leading the music, and then low and below, the Medina’s show up with Edmundo who looks sober and isn’t crying anymore.
It was a BEAUTIFUL baptism. The spirit was amazing and everyone was in tears. This woman is one of the Elder’s investigators and her whole family has been members for years and her husband finally got to baptize her. It was a very touching story.
So then, after she was baptized we went back into the relief society room for the rest of the program, but Edmundo was missing and so was the principios del evangelio teacher. We left to go find them, and walked in just as Hermano was explaining to Edmundo that he can get baptized as soon as he feels ready and that he just needs to talk to us about it. So I briefly explained the other requirements for baptism and then the Bishop came and told us to join the rest of the ward please. I sat down next to our district leader who asked me, “Do you want me to interview Edmundo for his baptism?” I thought he was joking at first, but after the program they both disappeared and when we found them, they were having a baptismal interview. So we straightway went and told Hermana Medina and there was much rejoicing and tears.
Edmundo was crying, he knows that this is the answer he’s been looking for and that this is how he can have a better life.
So. That pretty much catches you up on my week. It was a pretty cool week! I didn’t really get the chance to explain everything, or in very much detail, but I wanted to give you an example of what my days and weeks are like, since I really feel like my letters don’t do any of it justice… I LOVE being a missionary. I love Texas, I love these people. I LOVE the Lord and his work and I am so happy to hear from you guys, because really, that’s what it’s all about. You are my motivation to help these people a lot of the time, because I just look at their lives and I can see how much their missing, and I have it. I have exactly what they need. I’m out here doing this so that they can have families just like mine. So they can raise their children in a home with the true gospel of the lord supporting every step. I mean it when I say I miss you all like crazy, but that’s one of the main reasons why I love this so much, is because I love you and I miss you, and I want these people to be able to have the same eternal perspectives for their families as I do with you!
So… this letter is a little monstrous, but it does a pretty good job of hitting some of the highlights of my week. I didn’t get homesick at all this week, which is good, because I’d been warned I might. I hope you’re all happy and well, and doing as good as it sounds like you are. Os amo, besito, besito, BESO!
Hermana Lillywhite

Welcome to Bearcreek!

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

Transfered Again!

Hey family! Super fast letter this week, but there’s an explination.
My big news for this week is I’m being transferred again!
I’m headed to ‘the land of milk and honey’ as they call it. Katy Zone. Bearcreek area. My new companion is Hermana Russon, she’s adorable and still new. She’s actually the newest sister in the mission, aside from the Hermana who’s coming in Wednesday. She’s only been here two transfers. I’m her second companion in the field which either makes me either a ‘greeniebreaker’ or a ‘madrina/godmother’ depending. I really don’t know what else to say—this week was good, but crazy. We’ve found a lot of people recently and now I’m being sent away, so I’ll probably not get to teach them again.
Hermana Bastian is going to be companions with Hermana Gurney, and Hermana Willis is staying here, and Hermana Green is coming to be companions with her. It turns out so that a lot of my companions are companions with each other then. Very fun.
I love that you referred to Victor as a Mayan Prince. He’d love that. I think that’s very much how he sees himself. And how he acts. He’s really sad that we’re being changed up. He threatened to get a ball and chain to keep me and Hermana Bastian here. And Maya sounds really cool, I think I understand now.
I’m SO sad, I can’t see any of the cool stuff that Jensen has ever sent me. Every time she tries to send me one of her videos, I CAN’T open it. I don’t know what the deal is. I really want to see this tea-party! And the dancing bag of flour and everything else she’s tried to send me, but I can’t figure out how to get it to open. It’s very depressing. I’m happy to hear about your recent attempts to be more girly. I hope they are satisfying and fun. You need to try and talk to Mr. Darcy. Tripping on his front porch is totally acceptable.
Your getaway sounds like it was a lot of fun! I love the food. Still, I always love the food.
I’m glad to hear that my stuff all made it home… about those pics, maybe don’t put all of them on the internet. Especially not the ‘9 months’ tradition shots with the belly. Very silly stuff.
OH! My BYU grauduate packet arrived. It’s freaking me out a little. I guess I’ll have to look into working on that check-list, right?
I can’t believe I’m leaving so fast! I feel like I just got to Louetta and already it’s time to book it. Crazy. But I’m excited to check out another part of this amazing city. And to be companions with Hermana Russon. I hear great things about her. She seems very sweet. We’ll do a lot of good.
I’m so excited to hear about all the sisters who are leaving on their missions! It’s honestly the greatest thing. I’m so excited for them to go out and have these same experiences. It’s inspiring and wonderful, beyond description.
Another short letter:) I’m sorry again. I know that it must seem like not a lot’s happening. Don’t believe it, a lot is. It’s just hard to explain sometimes. I’m pretty sure that when I get back I’ll never shut up. Also, another explanation, it took me like an hour just to open my e-mail. Myldsmail is freaking out again. So I’m just about out of time already. Very lame.
I love you all so much and I miss you!
Hermana Lillywhite

Ailsa Mission Pictures

More pictures HERE.

Guess why July 28th is important.

Alright, I prayed about it, took it to the temple and talked with President and I’ve decided to go ahead and take the option of staying the extra transfer. So, my official date for when I’m coming home is July 28th. I’m super happy to have this time to serve the lord, so I want to stay as long as I can without actually screwing up transfers. YAY! So, make a note of that everyone.
Que es Maya? Why is Jensen playing with it? Is it fun? Que es? Thank you so much for the recipes and the funny comics! And for the inspired Job Scripture. I love that the sisters dressed as nuns. I wish we could get away with that, but no… hehee.
Laney’s drawing of dad made is great! I love how she label’s everything. So detailed. She’s a very good artist too.
Did you get the first package I sent as well? With my Ipod and stuff? I don’t remember you mentioning it, so I’m a little worried that it never made it home… If It did, know that I’m not sure the Ipod works any more. I tried to get it to start up again, and it did a couple of times, but then it just stopped working… So I don’t know what the deal is.
Please enjoy the pictures! And the videos, I’ve got some good ones on there.
We took our recent convert Victor out with us to a lesson for the first time last night. He did GREAT! He’s going to be such an amazing missionary. He’s got no fear to talk to people, and he shared a powerful testimony. It was really amazing to see. I think, I might have to make a trip back here in a year to go to his farewell… And Maria and Goyo’s baptism, as we’re all still waiting on the divorce to go through.
Aside from that, I don’t have much news, but I really love hearing about home and everything that you are all doing.
So, Jensen refuses to date her whole life and then meets Mr. Dracy? Typical. Not allowed to get married Jensen, until I get back, but you should probably ask Mr. Darcy out. “You’re English, right?” isn’t bad, but let’s see if we can’t top that. A job at the creamery sounds like fun. I wish I had more to say, I’m sorry, I promised myself once that I’d never become one of those missionaries who scribbles three lines home every p-day. I just really can’t think of anything else to say!
So, Grandma and Grandpa wrote me. I guess that Grandma is doing well, I’m so glad. And she gave me fun family news. I’m super excited for everyone.
I guess I could tell you all about food—it’s always one of my favorite things in your letters. I’ve been learning how to kind of cook for real, having had a couple of companions who knew how to cook and then a couple who didn’t. Real Mexican food is pretty different from Taco Bell, but I still like Taco Bell, weirdly enough. I had Papusas yesterday from an El Salvidorian. AMAZING! I must learn to make them. It’s simple enough, but easy to go horribly wrong. And then we had some tostados covered in pico-de-gayo (sp?) and avocado. Then some fun sort of taquitos that were filled with mashed potatoes instead of meat. Interesting, I liked it a lot. I’ve learned to make some pretty great salads, and Hermana Forsling loved it when I made her capreze (sp?).
Oh, and I have to make my district leader cupcakes because he finally agreed to call us on the phone and say “Hello Angels!” and then we answer back, “Hello Charlie!” but we all had to make him a separate treat. So worth it.
I’m sorry again, for this short, lame letter, but hopefully getting all that stuff from me earlier can make up for it. I love you all so much, and I missed you a lot this week. I had some weird post mission dreams. Very strange. I’m not sure how I feel about going home. Sometimes I feel happy and sometimes I feel really sad, and sometimes sick… But one thing is always the same: seeing all of you again is going to be a very sweet experience. I LOVE you. I’m working hard, and praying hard, for all the people of this city, and for all of you.
Love and kisses 7 HUGGLES! ~lovin’ you lots and lots~
Hermana Lillywhite

Yay!

Dear Fambly!

I’m so sorry you have a cold mommy! That’s awful… I started to get one this week, but I killed it before it could form… guess how. It’s pretty weird actually, I downed a ton of super spicy food. Two members made us soup with tons of peppers and suddenly I’m all better. I’ve heard that before, about eating a pepper to get rid of a cold, I think it might be true. Halloween sounds like fun. I LOVE Halloween. We get so many people asking us what the church’s stance on Halloween is. There’s a lot of confusion, especially in the Hispanic culture. But I still LOVE dressing up and eating candy, and spookyosity, so Halloween is for me. I’m glad Laney wore that 1870’s costume, I wants pictures! It’s such a great little outfit. I’m glad you had a lot of trick-or-treaters. I worry that it’s not becoming cool to do that, but tradition is so fun… Go beg for candy kids! What movie did Chantal and Jensen watch?
I can’t believe it’s November already either. I feel a little crazy to be honest. Such back in May right now.
I’m sorry that you’ve got no ‘free’ nights daddy! But you’ll be blessed for the work LINDSAY WASN”TA MEMBER ALREADY?! Dang, I missed that. We’ve got sisters in the ward now? Rock on. That’s okay about not telling—sometimes it’s better to keep in super secret like that. In my last ward, there was a baptism were the only people who knew were the guy getting baptized (dry Mormon for years, coming to church every week with his active family but refusing to get baptized) he finally decided he was ready. The only people who knew about it were the Sisters who taught him, their district leader (because he needed an interview) The brother baptizing him and his father in law. He got in the fount after another baptism and his wife burst into tears when she realized what was going on. I don’t know what a carbon fiber rear derailleur is, but I know what $735 is! I’m so sorry! Is that a fancy bike bit? That’s awful, I’m so sorry daddy.

Mommy, you’re costume sounds amazing. I LOVE Halloween. I think I’ve said that a couple of times, but not being able to dress up has made me realized that I LOVE Halloween! I’m dressing up as much as I can for the rest of my life, I think. I wore my English Nametag for a little while on Halloween and pretended that my costume was to be an English missionary. My district leader looked like he might shoot me. You’d like my district leader now, I don’t think I’ve talked about him or anyone much lately, because we always seem to be running late on P’days here (like today, again) but I’m sending the camera card home, hopefully today, and you’ll be able to see him on some pictures and videos and you might get an idea about his personality. I’ll have PLENTY of stories about him and all the other Elders in my districts later, I’m sure.

Thank you so much for that story about the minister. It’s wonderful to remember how the Holy Ghost can and does touch all of us and can give us spiritual promptings. At times, I get so frustrated with leaders of other faiths. It’s hard to be all lovely about it when you’re out here, because they just prove to be such a problem. But it really is true. In the end, they’re just doing what they think is best, and if they continue on that path then they’ll eventually make it home.

I made a list of topics…

OH! IMPORTANT! I need a recipe for Lemon marang pie/ banana. I I don’t remember which, or how it’s spelled, but my Companion needs this recipe by next week, and there is NO WAY that her family will ever respond to her request for one, so I thought mine might be able to help us.

SAN CLAMENTE 2010!!!! EPICOSITY! Yes. I reacted all crazy in real life last week, but I was super mellow in the email for some reason. I am so looking forward to being beach-bums. I made a list of happy-thoughts, that are specifically post-mission, in order to vencer the sadness that sweeps over me whenever I think about ending my mission. It’s not good to be all “lot’s wife” about it, right? I’m happy here, and it’ll be hard to leave, but if I trust in the Lord than I know that I’ll have a lot of amazing experiences later in life too. Like San Clamente

Remember when I once compared a couple of Elders I knew to Paul and Barnabus? Well, I still do that a lot. I’ve met a LOT of Book of Mormon characters out here. I’ve definitely met a Nephi and a Jonathon, and they other day I decided that my District Leader is pretty much Phinieus? (SP?) from Numbers. I’ve spaced on his name, but it’s something like that.

I love it when people look at me like they can see three very muscular Nephites standing directly behind me with their arms crossed.

I love you and I miss you all. I’m sorry my letter is so short again this week. I got totally giped, on account of time today and only got about 30 min to read and write my e-mail… it’s very sad, but hopefully things will be a little better next week.

MWAH/ Hermana Lillywhite