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!
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