August 22

Woot! Ok, English....odd. Ok not really :) I am able to understand it a lot better now, as in I can figure out what words I don´t know....I may have said that last week...oh well, I can understand better than last week by a few words, my speaking still needs work though. This last week was Hna. Arincibia´s cumpimes. It´s the day they arrived in the mission, por ejemplo, mine is the 25th. Which is this week. Yay! ALSO! Happy late anniversary! YAY!!!! and Laura and Steve´s is this week! YAY! That´s really all the enthusiasm I can get through an email, but I hope you feel my love and happiness. So yeah, 3 whole months in the mission, pretty weird eh? We have a zone conference tomorrow in Centro, it´s...I think Centro is a city but I´m not positive. Anyway, I´m excited for that to see what we all need to work on as a done. The work is hard because I don´t know what else I can do to be better. That sounded really cocky....I don´t know, of all the things that I am doing wrong, that I need to be doing better. Yes, that´s better. So hopefully I´ll get a better idea of that tomorrow. We don´t know when it´ll end so we´re having a hard time setting citas. Today we´re going to go teach Juan Carlos again, he´s the man we met in the middle of the street. He has a drinking problem but is working to overcome it. He says he can tell there is something different and special about the people in our church. The first day he attended the chapel, I think he was in the foyer the whole time but afterward two of the hermanos went and were talking with him and he poured out his whole life to us. He´s a really sweet guy and I can see this changing his life forever. We´re also going to go by some menos activos and give them an invitation for the 2nd of Septiembre por un noche de hogar. We´ll be watching the Joseph Smith movie and I think the ward mission leader will explain more about the apostacy and the need for a restauración. It´s so funny to me that we´ll be teaching about the restauración and people will say they understand when we say that after Christ and His apostles died, the gospel was distorted and the priesthood power was taken from the earth. But then they´ll say that their pastor or whoever has the power from Christ and we´ll be all....no, he doesn´t, remember, the apostasy......It makes me laugh sometimes but we need to help them as much as we can so that they understand que pasó. Other things that make me laugh: Hola! Somos missionaras de la Iglesia de.....O, no quiere nada? Verdad? Vida Eterna? No? Ok...we´ll just teach you later then.... Or the little hand wave that can either mean that they don´t want to listen or that they´re going to get the keys to the door. I haven´t figured out which is which yet. And the amount of dogs here. There are SO many dogs, and Hna. Vaughan wants to take them all home. I love my mission roomies! It´s so fun with 4. I also love when people see Hna Clark´s name and say it´s hard, and then see mine and are all, AAAHHH MUY dificil! I ALSO love when we have citas! It gets hard tocar-ing doors and getting the same little wave time after time. A member told me that half the people that do that think we´re Jehovah´s Witnesses. I´ve not had enough interaction with them to know how to fix that one yet. But when people actually are like, yeah I´ll listen! come on in! It´s so great! Or even like yesterday, it was La dia de los niños so people were at home and together and stuff, which is great for sort-of-ish contacting but you can´t teach them because they want to disfruitar the time with their family, but you can usually tell when people actually do want to listen and when they´re just rejecting you in a more polite way. But they love it in the end! It´s not easy but living this gospel is SO worth it. It´s like Pres. Packer´s talk last conference, it´s not easy to be a latter-day saint because we require people to actually do something with their salvation, it´s a process that isn´t set by one day or one act. I´m not going to be perfect when I get off my mission, I´m not automatically saved because I´m doing this work right now, everyone has their agency and that is something that will never be taken away. We can give it up, or to the control of something else, but I´d rather follow Christ than be lead down by an addiction to drugs. People need to know God. They need to know He is and that He loves them still, that He speaks to us through a prophet today and that if we pray to Him, He will give us answers through the Spirit and through the scriptures. Really, that´s what we need to do: Read, pray, and renew our covenants/keep our covenants.
Yes, good :) Love the gospel. I thought I knew how to do that before, now I know I´m still learning.
I´m so happy to see the pictures of Hawaii! It´s sounds like so much fun and so warm, it´s supposed to get colder this week than it has all winter...yeah. Animado all around. But! I´m still happy! Hna. Clark keeps me smiling with random awesome things that happen. Hna. Vaughan let me use one of her hats and it was small for mi large head. I put it on and Hna Clark looks at me and goes....You look like a pirate. Yes, it was a happy time. It´s getting easier to talk to people and easier to walk down another street of doors we may have knocked before.
Yes! Sibs can write me at this address, I´m pretty sure anyone can write me from email but I can only respond to family via email. I get actual mail once a week on Tuesdays and can write on Mondays (which doesn´t mean anything because I only have so many addresses in my book because few have actually written me). But it´s all good! The Elders say you have a dead year so I may as well get started on that one and let all my friends get married all at once. yes, it happens. Chiste. Creo que mi password is the same but I´m not sure, if not you can get into my email and change the facebook password, yeah, you have all the power as far as my home affairs go :) Oh, I also thought to tell you about crackers, cheese and jelly, try it. It may change your life as far as those three things go. What else have I eaten here..this torte stuff that was wonderful, it was flan on bottom with pudding stuff and cream stuff and cake stuff and chocolate frosting stuff on top. It was probably SO good for me ;) ALSO This thing with....it´s a pizza, only the crust is a very thin steak. Yes. wonderful. Lots of crackers here....yeah, it´s all good so far, just in case you were wondering.
I love you all and keep me updated as to what´s going on! Thank you for doing that already! How´s the extended family doing? Anyone have any advice? Oh, and tell Steve Clark I have not forgotten about the less active members! And tell Jim I´m not wishing away a single moment. Tell Grandma and Grandpa that I love them! Hna. Clark´s grandpa just died and it brought me back to knowing about life being short. Give the family big hugs from me and tell them I love them. Love the people you´re with! It makes things go SO much better! It´s hard to love people that don´t want to have anything to do with you, but it´s important that you do. I wouldn´t be able to serve if I couldn´t at least try. Love is the answer, at least for most of the questions in my heart :) I love you Momma, so much. Enjoy this time of the year in Utah!