Hola! July 4, 2011

HOLA! July 4, 2011

It's been a good week! On Saturday we had a special 4th of July presentation and of course I cried a little when our flag was presented and we sang the national anthem. Yeah, it happens, always. but on Wednesday we got two more groups of sister into our zone! Now there are 14 of us and Hermana Vaughan just got called to be the new coordinating sister! She is a little worried but I don't think anyone else could do as good a job at loving the girls. She has a way of expressing herself to you that you know she loves you and cares deeply about......a lot. She loves the people here, she loves the people in Argentina she hasn't met yet, she's a great example to me and I know she'll do well at her new calling. In these groups of new sisters there are four sisters from my Belmont ward! yeah! I know! One of them, Hermana Gilland, is in my zone! it truly is amazing how timing is so important. I've met and seen so many people I've known and have a lot of connection with people that know other people I know and it's just crazy how that comforts me so much.
On Sunday we went to church and had a great fast and testimony meeting. The fireside that night was Jenny Oaks Baker who did kind of music and the spoken word kind of performance. It was really good and I remembered her from Stadium of Fire last year, she got hit by a firework...THAT was fun. Oh! Yeah, after the presentation on Saturday, they gave us ice cream and permission to stay up later and watch Stadium fireworks! It was really great to be there with all these missionaries. The hermanas and Elders Mikesell and Gravelle stayed together to watch, we're not sure where the other Elders were but they told us we had a better spot for the fireworks....
Oh! Ok so this week was Hermana Vaughan and Elder Alder's (and Jack's, no I didn't forget. He probably doesn't care though ;P) birthdays. The Elders made a piñata out of a box and duct tape and hung it from a tree, don't worry, we have video footage of the whole thing. Elder Alder punched it and it went up into the tree, so Elder Mikesell told Hermana Vaughan to give him a boost to get up the tree. This may have been the funniest picture of the week. But they both had a great day by all accounts.
Oh! Your phone letters work. I got two and the first one just said "testing my phone" :D It made me smile. So how'd the vacation go? We didn't get any mail these last few days because of the 4th so if you've already told me....I guess I'll read about it soon! And I'll figure out my end of the Post Mart thing. That'll happen later on this week. But the Temple is officially closed! But fret not, we get to go and clean it! Yeah! Clean the Temple! The cleanest place ever and we get to clean it! I'm very excited about that. We only have a few weeks left here and I'm so excited to meet the people and teach them about the restoration of Christ's church in our time. It's amazing here, don't get me wrong this is no walk in the park, but the greatness of it trumps the hard parts. Part of the presentation on Saturday was they showed us a map of the world and then had little animation missionaries running around it to get to their field of labor. it was so great to see missionaries dotting almost the whole world! That means the Gospel is being taught and hopefully accepted but people. Shall we not go on in so great a cause? I love that scripture in D&C, Courage....on, on to the victory. I love you so much and I'm so grateful for your continuing letters and packages (you think I would have caught on by now ;) ).

I'm trying to think of other things to tell you but I guess you'll find out if I have later seeing as I only have 4 minutes left to do this. Tell the boys (the boys in my family, not the random other boys you may or may not be finding for me) that I love them and I'm so excited for them to be here. The MTC has shaped me in such a way that very few other things could have and I'm so grateful for that. It really is what you make it to be, and I'm not through with it yet! I'm very happy. Oh! The hermanas have requested pictures of our family, if you could send some that would be great, and I'll order some from my digital hopefully today.
I love you! Hermana Aubrey Pixton