Caminando, caminando, y mas caminando

Tess's letter from Roy, Utah April 30, 2013

Hey guys!                                       

Thanks so much for sending the two letters, my uke, and the Cajun trail mix (it's almost gone already though because the other hermanas have been eating it too because it's so good). I loved the pictures too- especially the one of the creepy sculpture of Chloe's face, and the one of dad holding Rustin next to the old one of dad holding baby Rustin. Classic. I also really like how the family room looks with the new curtains, and Chloe & Olivia's new beds look so awesome! I'm impressed. The sympathy card from the vets was really sweet too. I'm glad you got the financial report finished too! Keep up the good work, madre. Oh, and happy almost birthday!!!!! I'm so excited to Skype you guys on Mothers' Day- I have no idea when or where we're going to do it but I'll make sure that it's after 11:45. 

So as you might have guessed from the subject of the email, we've been doing a ton of walking this week (well, on second thought you probs didn't guess unless you googled the word caminando or something). But yeah, we literally walked for 5 hours yesterday. I'm not exaggerating. We do love it though because it feels good to be outside and be exercising, we wouldn't be able to find enough to do all day if we did have a car, and the weather's been pretty much perfect this week. You guys should see the ridiculous tan-line I'm already getting on my feet from my shoes even though it's only been sunny for like 3 days. I'll have to send you a pic of them once it gets even sunnier. We still struggle finding Hispanics though. Yesterday I think we actually found 3 or 4 people while knocking for the English sisters who cover the same area to teach, so that's cool. We're still doing great as a companionship though, as you can tell. I'm so lucky that I get to hang out with one of my best friends all day everyday for 4 more weeks at least because I'm sure that's not how it's going to be with some other companions that I'll be getting. We've been doing pretty good at focusing and working hard when we need to, but we laugh a lot for sure.

So some crazy things have happened this week. The Valero family (the mom, dad, teenage daughter, and younger son) accepted baptismal dates for May 18th!! I don't know how that happened (well I do, it's the Spirit) because when I was teaching them with Marcum it seemed like they were way further away from accepting a date because they still had a lot of doubts and a lot to learn, but I'm so excited for them! They went to church again this Sunday too, and I think it went pretty well this time. As far as mine and Herm. Hales' investigators/potential investigators go, it's been a bittersweet week. We were able to have one lesson with Hermana Avila, and we watched a video called Finding Faith in Christ. She liked it and all three of her daughters were there with us too and were able to bear their testimonies to her about how they've been able to change through Christ & His Atonement, and the mom talked about how she has seen a change in her girls, but she wasn't really super touched or anything and we're not really sure where to go next with her. I guess it's kind of hard for her daughters because their dad is really not a fan of the church and he kind of pressures them and gives them a hard time because he thinks they're putting the church above the family, but we're doing our best to encourage them to keep moving forward and not let him get to them too much. Anyways that's about it as far as the Avilas go. 

Melvin, on the other hand, has been doing so amazingly. We were able to teach him four lessons this week- the Resto., The Book of Mormon, The Plan, and The Gospel- and three of those were on three consecutive days in a row because he just kept telling us that we could come back the next day and teach the next lesson. He's such a funny guy and he received it all really well but he's still kind of in just the research mode and keeps saying that this is just one of the options that he's checking out. He has been praying every night though and we were actually able to get him to come to church this sunday! He went to the singles ward and he only stayed for Sacrament meeting because he was feeling sick, but I think he enjoyed it. When I said that this week was bittersweet, the bitter part I was talking about was in reference to what I'm about to say. Last night was our last lesson with Melvin because we have to turn him over to the Elders in the English program due to the fact that we're supposed to be teaching in Spanish, and we weren't able to get his Spanish-speaking parents involved like we'd hoped to. The Elders came to our lesson on The Gospel of Jesus Christ last night and it went pretty well. I think he'll get along with them pretty well, and the coolest part was that while Melvin had already committed to baptism if he found out that the things we taught were true, the Elders were really good and were able to get him to prepare for a specific date- May 25th. We're quite sad that we don't get to teach him anymore but we're excited for him and the progress he's slowly making. Hopefully we'll be able to be here for his baptism, but we might possibly be in Argentina by then.. maybe.

That was pretty much the most eventful thing that happened this week. On Saturday though we were actually finally able to find a service project to do. One of the members in our area had a bunch of work to do in his garden and so he asked if we could help. We spent 4 hours shoveling rocks/dirt, pulling out Bermuda grass, and wheel-barrowing some mulch around his front yard. It was awesome and we got a great workout out of it (I'm still pretty sore in my shoulders and lower back).

One thing I've forgotten to tell you guys about is the food! All six of the hermanas get to eat dinner at a member's house every night, which is incredible because the Branch is so tiny and some of them don't have a ton of money. I was a little scared when I first got out here because I'm not the hugest fan of Mexican food (unless it's Americanized like Chipotle or Costa Vida, of course) but a lot of it has been delicious. My favorites so far have been Tamales, Sopeis (I probably didn't spell that right), and I forgot what it's called but it's a dish from Argentina that's kind of like chicken-fried steak and it starts with an M. I eat way more than I usually would at dinners though because they really love it when you like their food and eat a lot of it. Sometimes I've even had double dinners because Hispanics that aren't even members will let us in and feed us even if we're about to go to our dinner appointment, and we usually just eat because it gets us in the door and they like us a lot for it. There's a few things that I don't particularly enjoy though and that would be Mole and corn. I really just don't understand what the heck Mole is supposed to be and why they love it so much, but I usually pretend to like it. And obviously you guys are aware of my corn-phobia and so I've probably eaten more corn in the past month than I've ever eaten before in my entire life. Hopefully the Argentines don't love corn as much as the people in the Branch do.

Anyways, that's about all I've got. I hope you all have a fun week at school, work, and with whatever other crazy things you're doing. I love you! Happy almost birthday, again!! 41 isn't too bad (;

<3, HermCrawf

PS- Tell Jenna I finally got her letters, that I guess I forgive her for forgetting to mail them, and that I'm writing her back today

We decorated the door to our new room last P-Day. I think it describes our companionship pretty accurately.

 This is just our board where we write out all of the potentials, investigators, places to go, etc.

My weirdo companion in her famous cheetah-print pajamas

This is the stuffed animal and Middle Eastern wafer thing that the Muslim lady Sausan gave me that one night. Herm. Kreutzer and Conrad went and visited her a couple days ago and they said she's doing pretty well!

Herm. Hales and I are so entertained by the littlest/dumbest things because we don't have access to normal forms of entertainment, so this is a pic of our giant bowls of pudding that we had for dessert one night.. it was pretty much the highlight of our week.

My own personal touch to the wall above my desk

 Another pic of our new room- I finally get to use my own bedding!

Hola!

Tess's letter from Aril 23rd, week 4 in Roy, UT.

Well I'm sure you guys have been anxiously awaiting hearing how this week went with my new comp. and everything. I'll just start out by saying that it went a lot better than we thought it might after getting the news last Tuesday! 

So Hermana Hales and I have our own area now- our trainers each gave us one stake out of their areas for us to work in. The only investigator that I got to keep from the old area is the Toledo family, but she hasn't answered her door or her phone in weeks so we don't really know where to go with that one. We also got the Avila family, which is a part-member family that we've been really close with since we first got here. They have three girls (20, 18, and 15) and a boy (17), and all of the girls recently got baptized within the last couple years. They feed us dinners a lot and we usually have a lot of fun with them. The parents (who only speak Spanish) haven't been very interested in the past, especially not the dad, and the brother has a lot of questions and isn't really wanting to change or anything right now. Herm. Marcum and I did have a good conversation with the brother, Eddie, one night a couple weeks ago about faith and prayer though, so Hermana Hales and I are just going to let him know that he can ask us whatever questions he wants and just try to be his friends. The mom luckily really likes us and her daughters think she might be more ready now so we were actually able to set up a time tomorrow to share a message with her- we're pretty excited! 

The only other potential that we got was this guy named Melvin (22 ish) and his parents, who speak Spanish but aren't really that open to our message. Hermana Hales & Kreutzer met them a couple weeks ago and Melvin is quite the character. He's very witty and sarcastic but he's also a hypochondriac. He believes in God but he doesn't really go to any specific church and he's interested in finding the truth so he's letting us teach him. We had one lesson with him this week and it went pretty well- we just established expectations and taught him how to pray. We were supposed to have one with him yesterday too and teach him the Resto but he didn't answer, so we're going to go back tonight and hopefully he'll be there.

Other than that though we've pretty much just been exploring our area and knocking all day everyday this week. We don't have a car so we get to walk everywhere which I really like, except some days it randomly has been super cold and windy when we weren't expecting it so we've had a couple days where we struggled with the weather. It's definitely been hard to be "training ourselves" because we still feel like we don't know what we're doing but we've been surprised at the success we have had with door approaches. We haven't found very many Spanish speakers at all, but the few we have found we were able to get to know a bit and then set up appointments with them to come back and share a message. They haven't actually answered the door when we come back, but we're just happy that we're able to do that much at this point. 

The most frustrating part about this week though has been the amount of inactive members that we run in to everyday. It feels like 80% of the people we meet while knocking is an inactive who hasn't been to church in a while for whatever reason. It gets exhausting to have to try to remind these people of all of the blessings that come from attending church such as being able to renew their covenants and to try to help them see the big picture again because they usually just say that they'll think about it and maybe they'll go back some day. It's just a little bit depressing because we can see and feel that they're not really happy, and that unlike the majority of people in the world they actually have all of the keys to happiness right in front of them with the gospel but they refuse to take advantage of it. 

Anyways we still have hope for the area and have definitely been enjoying our time as companions. It's been so relaxing to be with Herm Che because we're already such good friends that I don't have to try and force things like I kind of did with my old companion. After this week I'm not really worried about the whole possibility of hating each other after this transfer because we work surprisingly well together and are able to pretty quickly resolve any little problems that come up. It's going to be a tough transfer as far as the area goes but I'm excited that I get to go through it with her. 

So we also got two new sisters this week. It's been kind of crazy living in a house with 6 girls, mostly because (until yesterday) we've only had one working shower. Yeah. But the new sisters are awesome! Herm Kreutzer's new comp is Herm. Conrad from Spokane, Washington, and Herm. Marcum's new comp. is Herm. Gaines from San Fransisco. They both have a lot of energy and are really excited to be here. On Saturday I actually got to go out tracting with both of them by myself because our companions had to go to a baptism in Logan for a lady who had been investigating the church for 6 whole years. I had a car and we drove around to some references in each of our areas and then did some knocking too. I was impressed by how good they were after only being out a few days! Hermana Gaines is hilarious when doing door approaches, and it's hard to describe why, but just to give some background info on her she's pretty much a scientific genius (she's only 20 but she could've graduated from BYU this year with her degree in Physics- she and some other physics students were working on disproving Einstein's theory of relativity just before she left) but along with her genius-ness she has a personality comparable to Tiffany Coon's, meaning she literally always has a smile on her face and just really loves talking to people. She's pretty much in love with knocking and just wanted to tell everyone that God loves them. Hermana Conrad, who's more laid back and calm, and I were so entertained the whole day by her never-ending energy. 

We didn't find a lot of hispanics while doing that but we did come across one of the coolest ladies I've ever met named Sausan, who was very Muslim. She told us she didn't really have time to talk because she had to take a test online and her internet was down so she was freaking out, but she told us she wanted to get us something before we left because she really respected us for what we were doing as missionaries. So she went and got us these delicious wafer bar things from the middle-east somewhere and water bottles, and she started talking to us about she loved that we were putting God first in our lives. Then she asked us where we were from and we told her Washington, California, and Arizona, and to our surprise she starting tearing up. Apparently she is having a hard time figuring out where to move and those three states are the three that she's been debating between, so she told us that she felt like God sent us to her. We talked to her for a while after that and she was so sweet, she cried a couple more times throughout the convo and her little daughter Sariah also came out and gave us each one of her stuffed animals. It was awesome. 

Anyways apparently I'm almost out of time. I'm so sorry about the Nellie thing. I hope you guys are doing ok and that you're not too sad. I'm trying not to think about it right now but I'm sure it'll hit me tonight, but I know I can get through it with the comfort of the Holy Ghost and Christ just like you guys can. I haven't gotten the package that you sent me yet, but I bet it will come soon- thanks so much for doing that! You guys are the best, I love you. Wish Herm Che and I luck this week. Hopefully we'll be able to track-down some more Spanish speakers! 

<3, HermCrawf

First transfer... What the???!!

Holy crap. Well.. We just found out what's going to happen for transfers and you're not going to believe it. I'll get to that later though. 

First of all thanks for the emails! That's so sick that the lax team won the tournament in Cali. I hope Chloe won her election too! Those fools would be making a big mistake if they didn't pick her. I'm also glad to hear that you survived tax day at work, it must've been crazy! We heard about the Boston marathon thing too and we're trying not to get too distracted thinking about it but it's hard not being in the loop. We're praying for them though. I hope there aren't any more deaths and that nothing else like that happens while I'm out. Anyways it's been a pretty good week. 

We had lessons scheduled with both Daisy's this week but unfortunately they both got cancelled. It kind of sucks because we were excited to be able to teach them and check up with them but we rescheduled for this week so hopefully those go through. We actually just found out that they're good friends with each other too, which makes the story even that much better. Another pretty cool thing that happened this week was our lesson with Marixa. She's this really cute young hispanic mom who has three little girls. She speaks Spanish and English but she prefers speaking English because that's what her daughters speak with her. Kind of like the Daisies, she's looking for what church to join because she wants to raise her daughters well and for them to have a relationship with God. We taught her and her daughters the Restoration and it went really well. At the beginning of the lesson we talked to her about following Christ and about how she could do that through baptism, and right away she accepted the invitation to be baptized as she came to know and feel that what we were teaching was true. She could feel the Spirit during the lesson and said that some of her questions had been answered. At the end, my companion decided to invite her to be baptized on a specific date (this is where it gets interesting). So when she said the date she accidentally had her days mixed up and invited her to prepare to be baptized on April 13th, which was just TWO DAYS later, and the girl actually accepted without hesitation! So like 5 minutes later my comp realized what she had accidentally done. We thanked Marixa for being so willing and brave, but we changed the date to May 4th instead. Haha it was an awesome experience and I hope she's able to be ready by the 4th. 

Another  cool thing that happened this week was that we got the Valeros- the mom and 3 of the kids- to church on Sunday! We were hoping the Daisies would come too but they didn't make it. The Valeros were a little late but they were able to catch the end of Sacrament meeting and hear a few testimonies, and then they stayed for the next two classes and it was so fun. It was probably a lot for Hermana to take in because she never really has gone to church and the Sunday School lesson was kind of complicated and not basic doctrine or anything, but I think she liked it and hopefully they'll come back next week! One of her daughters really like young womens though and is excited to go to mutual today. Those are the most interesting things as far as investigators go that happened this week. 

So back to the transfer stuff: we actually moved yesterday from our basement in Clinton to a house in Roy that we get to ourselves. There's going to be six of us in one house. It's a nice house, but elders have been living there for years so it was a bit filthy when we got there. It's going to be weird having to buy our own food and stuff too- I'll probably be getting into better shape again because I'll be eating way less. 

So the big news is that I won't be with Hermana Marcum anymore. Both she and Hermana Kreutzer are getting one of the new girls to train and we're not going to be in trios. The reason that we're freaking out is because that means my new companion is none other than Hermana HALES. What the???!! I love her a lot and we're best friends but neither of us know spanish, we've only been out 3 weeks, we have no idea what we're doing, and we joke around so much when we're together that I have no idea what's going to happen when we have to try to focus and do real missionary work. Also I'm worried because our personalities are so similar that we share the same weaknesses so I'm not really sure how the balance between us is going to be as far as when we're tracting and teaching.. It will definitely be a memorable transfer, that's for sure, and we'll have a blast. It might be pretty rough for a while though. 

So that's what's happening for transfers and it seems a bit impossible right now but I'm sure Heavenly Father knows what he's doing. Herm Che (BTW "Che" is an Argentine word that means dude and every time we tell people we're going to Argentina the first thing they talk about is how everyone calls each other Che all the time there) and I will be needing all the prayers we can get, so keep 'em coming por favor! I love you guys and I'm going to send some pics now! Also, if it's at all possible could you send me my ukulele? Herm Che can play it and we actually did a musical number at a church event using a uke that we borrowed but we'd like one of our own so we can keep doing stuff like that! Oh and if you do send it, could you throw in maybe some Cajun trail mix or something? (; Thanks for all you do, and don't worry about me too much!

<3, HermCrawf

My MTC district on our last day before we left for Ogden

Herm Che and I on the train to Ogden

Herm Kreutzer, Hales, and I in front of our old house (the one in Clinton)

Herm. Kreutzer is the one in the pic. We tried to fit a bike in the back seat of our car and needless to say it didn't work out too well

My comp (well, old comp), Herm Marcum

Checking out some of the animals in our neighborhood

This is me getting creative in my search for new investigators

 I found a new investigator!

Candid shot of Herm. Che and I about to start tracting while our comps were in SLC

Us holding a piece of the Nauvoo temple!

Herm Kreutzer had some troubles while trying to cook a pizza

 On our way to meet with the consulate

It snowed yesterday (stupid Utah) and our car's battery was dead so we ate popsicles while waiting for the elders to come jumpstart it for us

Our zone leaders: on left is Elder Richardson who's from Scotland and has the coolest accent, and Elder Dodge is on the right

We found a dead mouse outside our window and we named T-Dawg after the black guy in Walking Dead.

The Two Daisies and Tess's True Heredity!

Tess’s letter from Roy, Utah                                                         April 9, 2013

Hola otra vez, gamberros (yes, that does mean hooligans BTW- it's my fave palabra en Espanol)

Well, week 2 in the mission field is officially over. It's pretty loco that in a couple days I'll have been gone for 2 whole months. Thanks for all the emails, letters, and crazy stories! I'm glad everyone's doing well and that Nellie's ok! This week we finally got some more info about our Visas as I'm sure you're aware because of the whole lost license thing. Haha sorry about that, I seriously lose everything and the other Hermanas make fun of me for it as well as claim that it's rubbing off on them because they're starting to lose stuff too now. Anyways on Thursday of last week we went down to Salt Lake and got our fingerprints taken in preparation for our meeting with the consulate today. It was extremely stressful because they had to be done a certain way without any smudges or they'd be rejected by the consulate. I had to do mine over again because one of them wasn't the right shape and I took the longest but it's all good because the consulate approved it this morning so my visa papers are officially in! 

Today we all got to talk to him and he gave us a brief summary of what the weather and stuff was like in the different parts of Argentina and then he let us ask questions (we had to be careful though because if the questions were too religious he might deny certain people their visas). The coolest thing to hear though was that in his opinion, Mendoza is the most beautiful part of Argentina. It was also cool because our whole district, minus Elder Connolly, was there and we got to hear about how things are going with them in the field. As far as the actual Visas go, what they're telling us is that we'll probs be in Utah for like 2 more transfers before they come, which isn't too bad. I'm having a lot of fun here and we're meeting/teaching some great people. 

Conference was awesome! We did have tickets for the Sat. morning session but our investigator couldn't come so we had to give them away. On Saturday though my comp. and H. Hale's comp. went to both sessions because it's the last conference before they go home, and so I got to chill with Herm. Che (that's her new nickname) all day. I freaked out when I saw Nea on the screen singing in the BYU choir and I almost lost my focus because I was thinking about my BYU friends, but don't worry, I pulled it together once the talks started. Herm Che and I went proselyting together for a little bit but we were kind of freaking out because neither of us really know what we're doing, nor do we know how to carry on a convo in Spanish. We ended up knocking on the door of this one lady who was a member from Nicaragua. We had fun chatting with her (in English) because her husband actually helped build the Nauvoo, Newport, and Sacramento temples and she showed us a bunch of pictures of him building it along with an actual stone from the Nauvoo temple that she had. A funny thing about that was that her husband isn't actually a member- I guess he thought he had been baptized but when they checked his records he wasn't, so he got offended and refuses to get baptized now even though I'm sure he knows that the church is true. The lady was really sweet though and she told us how happy she was that we showed up when we did because her visiting teachers hadn't stopped by in a while and she had just gotten knee surgery so she was in pain and needed someone to talk to. 

After that it was dinner time so we didn't have to try to tract anymore but we had a fun day. My favorite conference talk was also the one by Cardon who talked about forgiveness and how changing through the Atonement isn't expected to be instantaneous, but that's it's a process, and it's not the end of the world when we slip up a little. I think that's something important for us to remember, as well as something that's good for investigators to understand. We had another appointment with the Toledos again this week but when we got there the mom wasn't home but we met her 16 year old daughter and were able to teach her and Kate (the 9 yr. old) a little bit about Christ and the Atonement. We have an appointment with the Veleros tonight and I think we'll teach them the Restoration, but we might not have time if they watched conference and have a bunch of questions. We'll see what happens! 

Something really exciting that happened this week too is the story of the two Daisies (two ladies named Daisy, that is). So a while ago a lady in our branch, Hna. Aguirre, informed us that she was going to have her nonmember friend and her daughter over for FHE on Monday and that she wanted us to come and teach her about the Restoration. She didn't want us to have her address or to call her before because she thought it would just be better if we waited until Monday to meet her. So that night we were knocking some apartments and we came across this really sweet and friendly lady with a young daughter, she seemed interested and so we set up an appointment with her for later in the week and then when we asked her her name she said it was Daisy and we were kind of freaking out thinking that we might have come across the same lady that we were going to meet that Monday. So when Monday rolled around we went to the FHE and came to find out that it wasn't the same Daisy, but that both Daisies actually live in the same apartment buildings and we had knocked on both Daisy's apartments but the one who the lesson was with wasn't home and didn't answer. Anyways the lesson was one of the best I've ever been in. She was so prepared by Heavenly Father it's not even funny. She had met with missionaries before but unfortunately the Elders had only really talked to her about baptism and the Book of Mormon without really explaining the Restoration, so she was frustrated that they kept asking her to get baptized without teaching her about the reasons behind it. Also, she said she feels really peaceful and happy when she reads the Bible but she hasn't felt that same spirit in any church that she's attended and she's been searching for it for a while. We were able to go over the Restoration with her though and she just absorbed everything, was asking awesome questions, and really wanted to receive revelation about whether it was true or not. It also really helped to be in the Aguirre's home because they each shared their testimonies, helped teach, and really helped bring the Spirit into the lesson. Daisy gave a great prayer at the end and we could just tell that she's ready and we're excited because we know that she'll be able to get her answer because we know she'll put in the effort to pray, read, and come to church. She has a lot of faith. Her husband is Catholic and we haven't met him but she says he's less interested though he'll still listen to us so I think we'll teach him the Restoration this week. 

Back to the other Daisy (the one we met while knocking), we had a lesson with her and her husband a couple days later. We just kind of got to know them more at the beginning and they're super nice, and then about halfway in we realized that a miracle had happened. So when Hna. Kreutzer and Marcum got into this area they looked through the area book (which wasn't very well kept) and found this story about a couple who the Elders had found that had an epileptic daughter. I guess the daughter wasn't doing well the night that they met so the Elders gave her a blessing and were going to come back and teach them another day but then they got transferred and weren't able to. They didn't write down any name or address though of the couple so the Hermanas had been searching for them for weeks with no success at all. During the lesson we had with them though, they started telling us that same story and they told us how their daughter had improved a ton after that blessing and they had been waiting for the missionaries to come back and teach them more but they hadn't come in weeks until we randomly met them while we were knocking! It's pretty amazing. Our lesson with this Daisy went pretty well too because she's Christian and has a lot of faith and belief in Christ but she was looking for more and didn't really know where to find it. We taught them the Restoration too and she really took everything in and also said that she's looking for a church where she feels more peace and joy. At one point in the lesson she even stopped and said that she could feel the spirit right then without us even asking, which was amazing. She might have a harder time committing to come to church though because she wants her husband (well they're technically not married, like most of the Hispanic investigators here, they just call each other their husband/wife) to come with her, but he's a little more attached to the religion he grew up with and isn't sure if he wants to come to ours or anything. Based on her faith and desire to find something more while going to church though, I'm sure she'll get there on her own and will gain a testimony of the truth too. 

As you can see it's been an awesome week as far as lessons go and I'm not too sad that I won't be going to Argentina for a little while longer because great things are happening here in Roy. However, next transfer might get a little cray because 8 new Spanish speaking sisters are coming into the mission but there are only 7 trainers. There's a lot of talk about what might happen such as visa-waiters having to train other visa-waiters, zebras (which is where Spanish and English sisters are companions and you have to switch between teaching in Spanish and English or something like that), and there are other rumors but what we do know is that we'll most likely all be in trios. We'll probably have to move too, which sucks because we love our house and not having to buy our own food! It's kind of exciting though that things are changing so much and I'm sure everything will work out fine even if it's kind of crazy for a bit. Lots of leadership things with the sisters are changing too, so we'll see how that goes. My comp and I get along pretty well, and I really love Herm. Che's comp too. The only thing that's happened between me and my comp. though is that we both love music & singing, but our taste is pretty much the exact opposite- she likes classical opera stuff that's all emotional and dramatic... and I don't, haha. So what we've decided to do is just not talk about music ever, and it's working out well so far! She also hurt her ankle this week and she's been in a lot of pain so that's kind of slowing us down a bit, but it's all good. 

Oh yeah, something else that's funny that has been happening is that 3 different Hispanic people have asked me if I'm Hispanic/South American. One was a lady in the branch who's from Argentina, and she said that I look like I'm from Mendoza because of my hair and skin color. Another was this lady in the branch from Ecuador who says I look exactly like her friend who also is from Ecuador. And the third one was a nonmember we taught who asked why I'm so much darker than my companion and asked me where my ancestors were from. It's funny because my friends always tease me for being tan and say I look Mexican but I've never heard it from actual Hispanic people! Hopefully when I get a lot better at Spanish aka Castellano I might get mistaken for a native Argentine! That would be sweet. Anyways, that's about all I've got. I'll let you know next week what's going to happen for the next transfer. I hope you're all doing well still and you haven't forgotten about me yet (it's cool if you do though because I'm trying to forget about me too). I love you guys! Nos vemos.

<3,

HermCrawf

PS- I had a lot of pics to send but I can't do it this week because we didn't have time to run by the house and grab my card-reader, so you'll get them next time

Note from mom: 

Several years ago Tess and I had this joke about her being half Ecuadorian because one time her seminary teacher was telling the class about his beautiful grandchildren. His son married a woman from Equador and as he was trying explaining to the class what beautiful color of skin they had he looked at Tess and said, it looks just like Tess's! Haha! 

Tess is teaching the gospel!

Tess's letter from her first full week in the field.                  April 2, 2013   Roy, UT

So much happened this week there's no way I can write it all in the time I have, but I'll try to talk about the best parts. First of all I love my new Branch! The Hispanic people here are so friendly, open, and straight-forward- I love it. Even though most of the time I don't know everything that they're saying I can tell that they're amazing people and they really care about the missionaries. In our branch there's a good mix of members from lots of different countries (Chile, El Salvador, Argentina, Mexico, Ecuador, etc.), and its been fun to talk to them about their traditions and about Argentina at the dinner appointments we've had with them. One thing that's been a little different for me is that every lady/girl we meet automatically gives us a hug & kiss on the cheek instead of a handshake. You guys know how I feel about hugs (my roomie Nea Bleker especially knows what I'm referring to) so that's taken some getting used to, but I've come to really love a lot of people in the branch so it's really not that weird anymore. 

We had the coolest activity with the youth in our branch this Saturday. A couple weeks ago they got pretend mission calls in the mail to places like Italy, Vietnam, and Brazil. On Saturday they reported to the "MTC" at the church building with their suitcases, got their pictures taken, got their name-tags, got their companions (the real sister missionaries got paired up with a new companion too), and then we had language class where we learned how to speak a few phrases and pray in the language of the country we were called to. We had gym time too after lunch where we played dodgeball with basketballs.. Yeah it was a little sketchy and slightly dangerous but we had fun and no one got too hurt. After that we had a bunch of other classes too about how to teach lessons, get to know people, ask good questions, etc. and then the kids had to go out and apply what they learned at a dinner appointments at the homes of branch members. They loved it and I think it got them excited about serving real missions some day. 

As far as the missionary work that I've been doing this week it's been hard but I'm learning so much. Since we're relatively new to the area we're still trying to get to know people but we do have a few to teach who have a lot of potential. I had two lessons the second day- the first was with the Velero family. They are such a sweet family- religion has never really been a part of their lives but they really want to know the truth about God and about what this life is all about. We taught them El Plan de Salvacion and one of the best things about them is that they listen so intently to everything we say and we can tell that they really want to learn and understand because they ask really good questions and made sure their kids are listening and learning too. There's still a lot they need to know, feel, and do, but I really think they'll get there. We also taught the Toledos- a part member family whose young daughter wants to get baptized, the dad is a member but is inactive, and the mom is Catholic. We taught them "El Evangelio (Gospel) de Jesucristo" and the mom was pretty closed off at first but towards the end we could tell that she was becoming a tiny bit more open and was starting to consider maybe coming to church and seeing what it's all about. We have another lesson with her tonight and hopefully she opens up a bit more so we know how we can help her come closer to Christ. I think she and the rest of her family will get there too though. 

The rest of the week our lessons kind of fell through or got rescheduled, but we knocked a lot of doors, trailers, and apartments and had some great conversations (as well as some not-so-great ones, of course). Obviously going around and talking to people I don't know about the church and about Christ is quite a bit out of my comfort zone but I'm forcing myself to do it because I know that there's no other message that these people will ever hear than the one I have to opportunity to share with them. It's difficult but I'm getting better at it every day and I'm starting to enjoy it more and more. 

One thing that's also really been amazing to me is how good Heavenly Father is at knowing how to time things perfectly and prompt us to do certain tiny things throughout the day that don't seem significant or purposeful at the time, but looking back it's obvious that we did certain things because of the Spirit and without doing those things we wouldn't have been able to talk to the people that we needed to or catch certain people at the exact right moments. It's pretty crazy stuff and I know that none of it is coincidence. 

My Spanish isn't doing so great though because a lot of the people we meet end up being English speakers and so I don't get to practice my Spanish much, but I'll be fine. I could have it worse- Herm. Page (from the MTC) whose in St. George isn't in a Spanish speaking area, she's working in the visitors center. Anyways, Easter was awesome too. Thanks so much for the package- that "clucking" bunny is hilarious and the trail mix is delicious. We also got Easter baskets from the Russels (whose house we live in) and then the family we ate dinner with was so cute, they had us do an Easter egg hunt in their backyard. 

Herm Hales is making me include her in this letter right now so just in case you were wondering it really is the best getting to talk to her every day. That's about all the time I have. I have 2 lessons tonight so wish me luck! 

Good luck with work, Mom & Dad. Tell Rustin, Chloe, and Liv to stay out of trouble. Also tell Anne I'm so excited for her!! 
I love you guys. Ciao!