Easter Weekend

04/02/2013

Well hullooo!

Easter sounded like it was fun! I was definitely sad I didn't have anything to hunt for though.  It's all good though.  My Easter was awesome!  We had the biggest sacrament meeting in history which was way awesome.  I think it was over 3000 people, but some of them were in overflow room.  Bishop Causse was there and spoke about the Atonement, which was way good.  He had a pretty sweet French accent.  Then we had a sisters meeting with just the sisters in our branch and the branch president and his wife and the wife of one of the counselors.  It was way awesome.  Definitely one of those self-esteem boosters, telling us we're awesome and better than the elders pretty much.  Haha but the wife of the counselor spoke to us about her mission and it was way awesome.  She was telling us how much we'll bless our future families because of our service and how that we'll learn things that we wouldn't have been able to anywhere else that will make us better mothers.  It was powerful.  And then we had testimony meeting with our branch (without the sacrament which was weird).  But I bore my testimony!  In Spanish!  It was scary but defintely a good experience.  So then we had our evening devotional with Sheri Dew.  Holy cow, she is one powerhouse of a woman.  She just speaks with so much passion and I love it!  So that was awesome.  And then for the Sunday night video, we watched the character of Christ by Elder Bednar, which was the talk he gave at the MTC on a Christmas morning, but I'm not sure when.  I don't know if you can look that up somehow but if you can, then do it.  It was incredible.  He is so deep and everything he says is just packed with so much meaning and implications.

I'm jealous of your Easter dinner though!  The food here is starting to all taste the same.  Ugh, the worst is the chicken that they use in the salads and the wraps.  Ohhhh lanta, it's gettting pretty gaggy.  Except since Easter was fast sunday and we have to fast for 24 hours, dinner tasted pretty good.  Still doesn't compare to a Bytheway ham and potato and orange roll Easter dinner though.  How was Brenden's birthday?  I'm sure it was pretty special.  Nothing but the best for Brenden!  Also, how is he doing?  I got his letter but he didn't tell me anything about that.  Mostly he talked about the good deals on groceries he was getting.  Hahaha I loved it.

Thanks Mommy for the Easter packages!  I gave them to all the elders in my district and then us 5 sisters shared the last 2.  We had lotsa fun with it, especially the little blowy things.  And Hermana Rawlinson has been sick the past few days, so she's enjoyed the Easter bunny tissues.  Also thanks to everyone who has written me letters!  Getting mail here is like Christmas morning, only better.  So muchas gracias!

Morgan is married nowwww!!!!!  Ahhhhh!!!!  Congrats!!!!!!  I want to hear all about it!!!!!!!!

So the Spanish is coming along.  Sometimes it's frustrating in lessons knowing what you want to say but not being able to express it the way you want to.  Hahaha but we've had some pretty good mess-ups as a district.  The other hermanas told our investigator Octavio that Christ suffered for our fishes.  And I told him that God loves himself.  So it's a work in progress for sure.  Hahaha we struggle but it's fun.  Except I feel like I'm an inbetween state where I can't speak English very well anymore, but I'm still not fluent in Spanish.  Soooo hopefully I can get out of that lil' limbo.

Oh my goodness, the other day, I came out of the bathroom stall and Hermana Thomson was like OHHH HERMANA!!!!  and grabs my skirt and pulls it down and I was just like what the heck.  Well turns out, the back of my skirt was tucked into my garments so I was flashing my behind for the other sisters in the bathroom to see.  Hahaha it was pretty embarrassing, but I'm just glad I didn't walk out of the bathroom like that.

So for fun here, we collect empty toilet paper rolls.  It sounds like the dumbest thing ever, because it is, but it's so entertaining!  It's a challeng every time we go into the bathroom to see how many we can find.  We're up to 41 right now, I believe.  Our goal is 100- we even wrote it down in our planners because a goal not written down is just a wish.  It's pretty exciting.

Okay, I hope Katie Smith is reading this right now, but I definitely told my class the story of the Cheerios book, Mono y Yo.  Hahahahaha it was amazing.  "Mono y yo, mono y yo, fuimos a ver...... PINGUINOS!!!!!!"  Probably not that funny either, but after being here for so long, you just find ways to laugh and have fun.

Oh.  I hate these blasted shoes!!!!!!  They're giving me calllouses on the back of my heels and they're splitting!  Stupid danskos.  They're supposed to be "the most comfortable shoes ever" but they're definitely not.  Plus, they're so chunky, I feel like they're weighing me down.  I notice I walk so much slower in them than my keds or running shoes.  Ugh.  They better be worth it once I get to Ecuador.

I still haven't heard anything about my visa, but I also haven't asked.  I think they've forgotten about me.  One of my friends here told me a sister went to the Peru MTC last week so pretty sure they're just going to leave me here.  Which I really hope they do.  I really wouldn't want to leave my district, and especially my companions.  None of my district have their visas yet.  Today we had to go to a 3 1/2 hour meeting so all of the missionaries going to Argentina could be re-fingerprinted.  It's lookin like they'll be reassinged but we'll see.

Yeah, I'm pretty much over my cold.  It only lasted a few days.  Haha but i'm pretty sure I went through like 200 tissues, not even kididng.  It was bad.  I don't know how I could produce so much mocos.

So the other day, Hermana Thompson had to go to the doctors down the road, so we got to go into the real world for a while.  It was so exciting!  And the weather was absolutely gorgeous so it was double happy!

Our room is crawling with ants.  Honestly it doesn't bother me because I know I'm going to be dealing with much much much worse.  But there's been a few times I'll put on my garments and an ant will be crawling on them.  Mostly I'm just confused as to how they got there.  Oh well.  Hopefully we can get some spray or something to get rid of them.  If not, it's good practice for Ecuador.

Well, I just hope you know that I love you all and I'm so grateful for all your support!  I know that this Gospel is true and it is the only way to live with our Heavenly Father again someday.  I know that God loves each and everyone of us individually and personally and He will always answer our prayers, even if it's not how or when we want it to be.  I know that Christ suffered for all of our sins, pains, heartaches, and sorrows, and He understands perfectly what we go through.  I know that the Atonement is real and we should be partaking of this incredible gift each and every day.  This gospel is incredible!

con mucho mucho amor,
Hermana Bytheway