Another great week in El Paso

Can I just say that I can’t believe Hollister is baptized! He looked so adorable in those pics. Holy cow…super proud of that kid!

Last P-day at Grandpa’s we went to his atrium to take pictures because transfers were the next day. He has fish in this little pond in there and I caught one and was holding it. All the other sisters were like freaking out and wouldn’t be around me after that until I washed my hands. It wasn’t like I was trying to touch them or anything. I don't know why that stuff just doesn't gross me out, haha!

 Grandpa's dog I love- named Puppy!

At the Diaz’s that night, we cut this weird bread thing that had baby Jesus hidden in it. It is a weird custom, but it was fun!

 

We helped with transfers on Tuesday. I was able to drive my cute little trainee from Las Cruces to El Paso to meet her new companion and  they are adorable together. A girl I came in with trained her new companion. I know they will do great together. Also, we got a new District Leader. He is interesting…very full of himself. We will see what happens!

 Our group before transfers.

We did some weekly planning today, even a little with Hermana Ochoas. Dang, she is funny and is from Colombia. They call her La Negrita…maybe you can figure out why. She is hilarious and you can hardly understand her, but she is super sweet and a returned missionary. After dinner we were able to visit Magali. Sophia is definitely still “the key.” She is such a special little girl and super smart. Magaly has two daughters, Magali and Sophia. We think we have the perfect hermanamiento for her, Hilda de la Pena. She is the cutest single lady with a 10 year old daughter and little boy. After that we went to the library to make copies of the progress record and had a little correlation with Hermana Torres. She is a ward missionary who helps out a lot.

This week was a weird one with Mary Thompson, our super solid girl. J The first lesson we had this week was HORRIBLE!!! It was super awkward and one of our members went off on her in a bad way. Thank goodness it was only that night. Later this week, we watched The Testaments with Mari. We think she was expecting us to bring someone with us this time. Anyway, she loved it a lot. She said she hadn’t read a lot in the Book of Mormon, yeah right! She was in 1 Nephi 18. When people say they read “pocito.” That always means they didn’t read at all.

Thursday was such a great day! We had members out with us basically the whole day. We feel very good about our work even if things don’t go as planned when we have members. We went on a long run, but had to walk the last big hill. It was just too much. I have been eating delicious egg white omelets in the morning really trying not to cook it with salt or butter. It actually turned out all right. J We left early from the apartment to be able to meet up with Adrian. We were able to get a member referral while we were walking up and down the street. Other than that, we basically just taught Susannah. She is such a good woman and wants the best for her kids, but she has got to make some choices about what she is going to do. We had a great lesson with her. After that we met up with Hermana Torres. I LOVE HER!! She is awesome. Her hair is HUGE, haha. She is quite a talker too, but she helped out so much in the lessons.

The thing I would want to remember most from that day was our lesson with Sandra and Hermana Torres- it was so great. We talked about the Book of Mormon and using that to find out about our church. Edwin, who is 5, has been very, very shy. He likes to hide when we come, but he is starting to open up. Cute little Joel who is 11 isn’t as shy, but still a little bit. He is so great too. He totally understood what we were teaching and was answering questions. Cute little Edwin guessed right when we asked him to point on the map where he thought the Book of Mormon happened. It was so cute and then later we were talking about the Book of Mormon and he raised his hand and said, “Es verdadero.” You have to understand that this kid hardly even talks to us. It pretty much brought me to tears or “lagrimas de gozo”. J  We still have work to do with this family, but we are getting there.

Later we had dinner with cute Hermana Holguin as well as the Torres family. Hermano Torres just lost his wife. For that reason, dinner was a little awkward but got better as the night went on. Hermana Holguin was telling us about when her mom died how she and her sisters had to take over the cleaning, cooking, working to support the household. She wasn’t very old at the time.  She was talking about how she would cook things and if her dad didn’t like it he would throw it and make a huge mess. I was pretty shocked. She said that he was very sexist.  I thought I had heard her wrong so I asked her to clarify.  I thought I heard her say they cut her dad’s nails, and you know what? They even did that. I can’t imagine any daughter wanting to do that, haha. It was something we all laughed over.

On Friday after District Meeting we got to do service at Grandpa’s! It was so much fun and he helped us with our Spanish. He has tons of awesome stories. We helped him in his backyard. He loves to garden.  I  even got a lizard!  Sorry this is kind of random…he also has chickens and rabbits so it’s my kind of place. J I love outside pets. We were also catching cockroaches and feeding them to the chickens.  Let me rephrase that, I was catching cockroaches and feeding them to the chickens! J Then I caught a chicken. I was having such a great time!

Rudolpho is doing awesome! He is basically rocking it! He said he got a new job and wouldn’t be able to come to church but he showed up anyway! Also he had read a ton in the Book of Mormon and LOVES the bishop.

 

I can’t remember if I told you about our investigator Bobby recently. Bobby wants a laptop. He called us about it and said, “Now,I’d really like a laptop. Y’all can help with out with that right? I never got to really learn but I need it to be free…” Remember that this guy is pretty old and from South Carolina. We told him, “Um, we can ask people, but can’t promise you anything.” We honestly didn’t know what to say, because who just has a laptop that they want to give away? Anyway, later he called and left a message describing what kind he wanted, an HP or Dell, as well as how big, a 15 inch screen, because he can’t see very well. Then he also said, “And can I get a printer to go along with that laptop?” OH my gosh, we were dying. He is a very funny guy, but he was totally 100% serious.

On Saturday we got up and did a very good and hard work out. We did our usual run and a few other things. After breakfast and 15 minutes into personal study, Sister Fallentine couldn’t take it anymore. She felt horrible. She has been sick ever since and now I am getting it. We have fevers on and off…I am SOOO sick of getting sick! This is ridiculous! The ward has been super sweet sending us soup while we are sick...they care about us a ton!

Lately I have been reading Jesus the Christ in Spanish. I absolutely love it. The beginning was super slow and really difficult, especially in Spanish, but I am reading different parts and it is so interesting. Kind of random, but you all should read it. :)
Hermana Jauregi came out with us this week as well as her two kids. Temo is so funny. He was so set on not coming in with us, but we needed him to go visit Sandra and her kids. We ended up having a very sweet lesson with them. Hermana Jauregi has been a member for 4 years, and is super strong and solid. She bore beautiful testimony and Sandra listened intently. Joel is one smart little kid. He gave us our opening prayer, remembered exactly how to do it, and then answered questions right and left about stuff. Edwin was also just as cute as can be. It took them awhile to open the door, and I think it was on purpose. Sandra was expressing her concerns about how if she keeps learning with us she will HAVE to become a member. We told her no she won’t have to, but that once she learns all of these things it is what she will want to do.

Birthday gift for Hermana Fallentine from a member- and I got one too!

It was another great week down here in El Paso…I love you all terribly! Should have a baptism on the 25^th with Mary Thompson and then hopefully Rudolpho and his family after that, and then Sandra and her cute family. I love the idea of me being away from you all right now, so that they can be together forever! J