December 20, 2010

hey there cute fam-

thanks so much for the emails, i am so glad to hear that things are going well and that you are getting everything pulled together for the holidays and i am glad to hear that you have the new tree all put together, so sad we had to put the other one to its grave last year after many years but this one will function much better for you old folks with the pre lit lights haha. to answer your question i did get one of the boxes!!!! thank you so much, i will be well makeupd and will enjoy my treats and of course the great socks for next winter.... i am boiling right now though.

well it has been a good week, we had our christmas mission conference on friday which was really great, always gives me more motivation is a great recharge. one of the senior mission couples talked at the very end and it was really cute. they were only called to serve english speaking in the offices for 6 months but when they were here they were assigned to serve in a ward that is struggling a bit and were sent off to serve a full time mission.... no spanish and all. they struggled to give their testimonies in spanish but it was really so sweet to hear them. we had a lunch with everyone and they served us stuffed chicken and sent us off with a bag of goodies... yummmm. got to see all my old comps and hermana thompson brought me stuff from some of the cute families i taught in maldonado. the calamaris family, of richard and paola, made me a video with new baby claudio, and the moirera family sent a letter that was so sweet it put me to tears. we were teaching ¨the abuela¨ and she was baptized a few weeks ago and sent me a letter to tell me all about it. hermana thompson keeps me up to date every week with a letter about the old area, i love those people and miss them tonz!!! speaking of that i was in church yesterday just chatting with someone when i caught a familiar face out of the corner of my eye, it was my DOM of my old ward in Maldonado, or the member who is in charge of helping with the missionary work within the ward, and then right behind him was his wife and baby!!!! they had taken a bus to come and suprise me and bring me a christmas gift. made me cry like a little baby but i was so so happy to see them, they are a family that will always be really close to my heart. so my christmas has been filled with some really great suprises already.

well if its not chicken pox..... its fleas.... yuck, yet another adventure. we have a flea problem right now and i look like i am back to chicken pox. there is someone from our ward that is going to come and spray our house tomorrow while we are out working so everything can settle while we are gone. guess its a big problem during the summer in this area because of the tall weedy grass and the heat and humidity... they reproduce really quickly. the problem started a few nights ago and i could feel them crawling and i was scratching like mad so i finally got up and tore the sheets off my bed and just laid on my matress. good thing we are getting it taken care of because we cant sleep with them either!!!! well guess its another adventure to add to the book.

well we found this really cute woman named clarita that we are teaching... haha honestly i dont know where it is going to go. she is a beautiful old woman that is about 75 with white hair and blue eyes. really i think that she just likes talking to us but we will see. we went to visit her this morning and she came out to the gate in her swim suit. while we were saying the closing prayer she started out with a prayer and then she just started saying... well i have no idea.... she went totally off topic, and then she started having a conversation with her eyes closed and her head down and then out of no where just opened her eyes and started talking, cant really explain but it was really cute and funny. i still had my eyes closed and head down until my comp nudged me and clarita was in full conversation with us. but ya she is adorable. we have found some really great families that were great contacts as well that we are going to go back to this week. things are really rough and slow right now but i am trying to work on my patience. i read this talk by one of the church leaders named Elder Uchtdorf called Continue in Patience, highly suggest you look it up and read it, its amazing. i have probably read it at least 7 times now and have needed something different from it each time. He says ¨Patience is the ability to put our desires on hold¨ I am truly learning to accept the Lord´s will and timing, i fall short every time but i have to be patient with myself as well. i know that as long as i am doing my part 100 percent that everything else will come with the Lords timing.

well cute fam, cant wait to talk to you. i tried to send a little box off to you today but when we went to the correo someone had broken in over night so they were closed... and i took that as i dont trust the mailing system here for this box to get to you so i am giong to save it until i get home.... sorry charlie, but its really great so i dont want it to get lost in the mail. but anyway, love you tonz, miss you always, and cant wait to hear your sweet voices. send foxy a smooch and tell her she is allotted a few barks. love you millions and zillions and trillions- monkey