12-30-2013: It's already 2014? No big deal

It was so great to talk to you on Christmas!  I'm so glad it sounds like everyone is doing well! :)

 

Sorry I'm a little late today emailing...We got on earlier for like 5 minutes and then one of the Elders that we drive around had to go to Urgent Care for a sinus infection and that took a bit of time.  Unfortunately, he didn't go to visit with my BFF Dr. Tasneem, but I supose other doctors are pretty good too....hah

 

This week was so good!  We got to celebrate Noche Buena (Christmas Eve) and Navidad with the members and we got to eat lots of rice, beans, and tortillas this week.  OH, and tamales. :)  Lots of yummy food, lots of awesome people, just overall AWESOME.  We got to see B y A on Christmas night and they are doing really well!  B is going to be praying about whether or not she should be baptized without A, and they're even inviting friends to church AND A came with B to church on Sunday even though he's basically lying on his deathbed with the flu/cold type of thing.  I've decided I'm going to go visit B and her family in Mexico one day and just hang out with her and pretend to be Mexican.  I stinking love her.  We're actually seeing her on New Years Eve, so we'll probably do a suuuuuper early celebration by eating a little bit of her Choco-flan and talking about Jesus. Otherwise, just the same awesome business that we get to do every day!

 

AND we had 5 investigators at church yesterday! It was really great, and we've been seeing a TON of blessings from the Lord in our work this week.  We also got to see one of our Less Active youth members really understand the Atonement in her life and it was so cool that the Lord let us witness that experience.  Basically, I love being a missionary. 

 

I don't have a ton of time because we still have to go do other Preparation day stuff, but I wanted to say thanks again for all the letters and Packages! (I got the package from Caleb and Michele and Grandma and Grandpa Blood! Thank you so much!)  I'll be sending thank you cards/letters sometime soon, I promise!  I feel so loved.

 

Sounds like the rest of y'alls week went well!  Glad you could say gbye to Emma Watkins, I'm sure she'll be a great missionary.  And glad it was a good Sacrament meeting, and I'm sure Dad that you'll never follow BYU sports ever again....until Basketball season starts... :)

Thanks again for EVERYTHING!

 

Les quiero mucho y que tengan una semana maravillosa :)

Con amor,

Hermana Sangre

12-23-2013: Feliz Navidad (casi)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BUSINESS MEETING:

1.) no skype this year.  Y'all would have to move to Spain or Africa or something if you wanted me to skype you (only missionaries with families outside the continental US can use skype this year) So it will be a phone call on wednesday!  I'll go ahead and call the home phone.  And it actually turns out that I'll be calling sometime between the hours of 1:30 and 2:30 ish, so ponganse listos :) (be ready)

2.) I got your package, Mom (don't worry, I haven't opened the presents yet!) and a lovely card in a mailer from Aunt Sharon! (I'm going to be writing her a thank you note very soon)  I haven't seen the package from Caleb and Michele yet, but I'm sure it will be here soon :) And I'm sure I'll be getting Jake's letter soon, too :)

What a week!  We had some crazy spiritual experiences and really we were in the right place at the right time on multiple occasions.  Last monday night, we had some pretty firm appointments that all ended up falling through at the last minute.  We didn't really know what to do, but then we remembered that some Elders in our ward told us to visit this Less Active sister that just moved into our ward.  We called her up and she told us to come by, so we did!  Turns out--she had been active all growing up and had a really strong testimony of the gospel, until life kind of took a turn for the worse for her and she ended up making some poor decisions that made it really hard for her to feel comfortable going to church.  We ended up sharing a few scriptures and thoughts about repentance and the love of God that really touched her and basically everyone was crying by the end of the lesson.  The spirit was really strong there and she committed to read in the Book of Mormon and come to church on Sunday, and she did both of those things!  She is so sweet and it was really interesting how the Lord works--sometimes when people aren't home, he's really just trying to tell us that our plans need to change. 

We also went to our ward Christmas party!  It was a little different in that it was more like a show and a dinner and the show was the Nativity story (attatched is a picture from the nativity scene).  We helped make the FIVE HUNDRED TAMALES for the ward, and I have decided that making tamales is the hardest thing ever.  When I heard all the steps to do it, it didn't sound too hard, but then we started making them and I wanted to die.  We were only there for about an hour helping, but the other relief society sisters were there from 8 until 5 making them.  Ridiculous.  We got some left-overs, though, so I'm satisfied.  :)

Hurst Nativity!

Our Christmas Devotional was this week with a few other zones in our area, and we got to open the special hand-written letters from our familes and President Carter and Bishop Smith!  That was a cool Christmas gift.  Thank you so much! :)

Well, I suppose I'll be talking to y'all this Wednesday, so I'll tell you then about all the tamales y arroz y frijoles that i'll be eating in the next few days :) 

AND it's so great to read a blurb from each of you!  Dad--our Christmas Devotional last week was our Mission gathering, so that was really fun!  President and Sister Ames made us some Texas Sloppy Joes and potato salad and beans.  It was pretty darn yummy.  Nat--I'm glad you're keeping it real and being too cool since the family hangs out with you and not vice versa...I'll be expecting straight A's this report card, so lets hope Multi brings that grade up those .5 percentage points. haha And i bet you thought you were soooo funny in your card by saying Mom and Dad got you a car for Christmas...I was not as amused. :) Caleb--I'm excited to get the package from you and Michele!  And congrats for being a college gradiate and stuff, I guess that's kind of a big deal, huh. That must mean you actually have to be a grown up now instead of just pretending.  Jake--Hopefully I'll be able to read this amazing letter you speak of later when we check the mail.  Man, don't wear yourself out TOO much doing absolutely nothing and watching Modern Family or whatever other show is cool now.  I'm sure you're just preparing yourself to do that "research" in Las Vegas... Michele-- thank you for keeping those presents pretty!  I don't even want to know how horrendously they looked pre-bowed...haha oh man, those two bobby pins...I'll be really missing them :) thankfully we have a christmas tree (it's pink!) from a member and we'll be putting up some Christmas lights that we found in our apartment later. I expect you to keep up with the "no food left behind" policy!

I love you all so much and I'm excited to talk to you on Wednesday!  Que disfruten sus dias de descanso. :)

Les quiero muchisisisisisisimo

Hermana Sangre

12-16-20: On the Fourth day of Christmas my Investigator gave to me....

I think that's what we're on...but I lose count so quien sabe. 

 

My new companion: Hermana Gwynn! (pronounced Gwen because it's welsh?) She is really cool.  She is from Minnesota (i already asked and she doesn't know the Frazers unfortunately...) and she has been out 6 weeks more than I have.  She spent her first 6 months in the Lewisville area and so now she's here in Hurst the best Stake in Texas!  :)  It makes me feel like I know stuff when she asks questions about the ward and who we're teaching and I can answer in detail.  AND that means that I'm designated driver for this transfer, since I've been here longer, and I find it's not nearly as scary as I thought it would be.  I can actually get to most places we've been to without a GPS.  I am reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaally excited to spend Christmas here because I've grown so close with the members here and the people we're teaching.  And Christmas falls on the day when we usually have District meetings, so that'd be fun!  I really like the district here, we spend a toooon of time together since we're all in the same ward.

 

Updates on the people we're teaching: B is back from Mexico!  She went for some health testing things and she won't get the results back for a while, but she is doing so well!  I love B and A.  They're pretty darn cool.

 

We're also teaching this super cool family named the C family.  They are really interested and want to know what makes us different.  They'll be coming to church this sunday so we're really excited for them!

 

Something crazy, so ya know how we drive around the bike elders to all sorts of meetings and whatnot, well, there's usually 4 of us in the car, and I'm the ONLY one in the car that isn't new to the district/area/stake.  So i feel like there's all this power in my hands with all these newbies.  But it's pretty fun.  One of the new bike elders is brand new from the Mexico MTC, he says that the MTC down there is pretty cool, so I'm not gonna lie, I am a little jealous that he got to learn spanish in mexico...andele pues.  O esta todo bien.

 

Actually, really cool story.  So hermana Dominguez from the ward is super cool and gives us like 5gazillion referrals every time we talk to her, and one day she was a little more hesitent as she was telling us to visit her older friend S who is just kind of lonely and needs some company, but also pretty cranky.  So we asked if Hermana Dominguez would be willing to go with us to visit her, and she was a little nervous because S is suuuuuuper catholic and she thought we'd walk through the door and her friend would start throwing her saints at us or something.  BUT--we went in, got to know her, said a prayer with her and shared a brief, simple message about the love that God has for her and we even sang a song for her (we actually do that pretty frequently, Dad).  S LOVED it!  Hermana Dominguez was absolutely shocked that she let us come back, but I guess we never know which hearts the Lord could be softening and preparing to recieve us. 

 

Overall, really good week this week. 

 

I'm glad that the concert went well and that everyone will be coming in for the Holidays pretty soon!  And it sounds like Mom did really well on her talk this sunday, nicely done :)  Tell Caleb that since he'll be a gradiate pretty soon he should be able to say that he "knows stuff."  Have fun caroling and whatnot tonight, let the festivities begin!

 

Mom-I haven't gotten the package yet, but I'll check today again.  And as for Christmas, we just got a text from our Zone Leaders saying that we will be doing a phone call for 30 to 40 minutes and it's just whenever works best in our schedule.  We'll be talking about that more this Thursday so I'll let you know more firmly when I'll be calling, but it will probably be anywhere from 10:00 to noon Texas time?  I don't remember how far behind California is, sorry.

Before transfers: us and Elder Kaelin from the English District!  Don't mind Hermana Gomez's churro

 

Les quiero mucho, y que tengan una semana maravillosa! :)

Con amor,

Hermana Sangre

12-9-2013: Cold Snap!

Hey, remember that time I got my mission call to Finland...?

yeah, me either.

THIS WEEK WAS SO COLD. Thursday night we had some freezing rain and then by friday morning it snowed a good amount, and then saturday everything that had already fallen snow-wise just froze over, and finally Sunday afternoon it started melting slowly but surely.  I understand why there were probably only 7 people at the game in Dallas...While we were walking we felt a little bit like the movie "The Day After Tomorrow" which was pretty cool! 

Of course, President Ames didn't want anyone driving on the dangerous/icy roads, so our directions were to keep cars parked at our apartments for all of friday and saturday and most of sunday.  We didn't want to just stay in our apartment all day so we usually just put on every piece of clothing in our closet and made the mile trek into our area (our apartment is actually just barely outside of our area, so that was slightly inconvenient.)  But it was super fun and for a second we thought seriously about investing in ice skates.

I kid you not, I wore 2 pairs of tights and 3 pairs of pants underneath my skirt those days.  We were sure to be inside by the time it was dark and the only members that were able to drive in the weather (their mighty SUV dominated the ice) picked us up a few times to feed us and we watched the Christmas Devotional with them.

Chilly...for Texas!

On Saturday, it was pretty cold and our Less-Actives that we were visiting gave us blankets so we wore those over our 12,000 scarves and my trench coat so I may or may not have looked like a hobo walking home that afternoon.  It was actually pretty fun, but I am VERY grateful that we have been given driving privilages for today.  (And don't worry, this doesn't happen super often so I should be fine without a warmer coat.)

Sooooo......TRANSFERS!  It looks like I'll be.........staying!!!!  I will be here in Hurst still for the next transfer and Hermana Gomez is being transfered to Arlington. So I'll be here with Hermana Gwynn (for Christmas!!! I'm so excited!) who will be coming here from somewhere up north on Wednesday.  I hear she's been out for a while and that she's really cool, so that's good!  It's been super fun with Hermana Gomez and I'm a little sad that she's leaving but at the same time, that's how missionary work goes!  And I'm super excited to show Hermana Gwynn how stinking awesome these people in the Hurst 3rd ward are.  (So Mom, you can go ahead and send my Christmas package to the Haltom City address) :)

Because the majority of the week we spent in a 3.5 mile radius around our apartment, we weren't really able to see a lot of our investigators, but hopefully we'll be able to see them this week! 

This week we had some REALLY good turkey Floutas/Enchiladas with NB and A.  I love Mexican food. AND A is doing super awesome.  She is all ready to get baptized, we're just waiting on her Dad's approval :)

Sounds like your trip, Mom, went well and that you had a good time in Seattle with family and whatnot! Also: I may or may not have seen a clip of that fish-throwing thing on an episode of the Bachelor...? I will neither confirm nor deny that. But it looks cool! And I'm glad to hear that all the various concerts went well :)  And I send my love and greetings to everyone you saw there

And don't worry, Dad, I'll make sure to stay nice and warm and healthy and avoiding grease fires whatnot :)

Thank you so much for your love and prayers and everything!

I love you so much!
Hermana Sangre

P.S.

BUSINISS MEETING:

For the missionary plaque, I really like the scripture Moroni 7:47, and yes to Hermana Kate Blood (instead of Sister).  I trust you to pick a picture that looks halfway decent :)

C.T.R.

12-2-2013: It's December?!?!? What happened to November?!!?!!

Hellooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

 

I'm so glad to hear that y'all had a good Thanksgiving weekend!  It sounds like it was absolutly packed with all sorts of fun festivities!  Our thanksgiving we had (drumroll please)...........

 

3 DINNERS.

 

I kid you not. We ate 3 Thanksgiving dinners. One at 3, one at 5 and one at 6:30.  I wanted to die afterwards (of joy of course, but also from eating so much food!) 

 

At 3 we went with the Bike Elders to the B Family, our PuertoRican friends, and they made us some PuertoRican turkey, 2 pork shoulders, PuertoRican equivilants of tamales but different tasting, potato salad, rice, rolls, and Pumpkin flan.  THEN we dropped off the bike elders and went to the L family for round two with some delicious americanized turkey, brocolli, carrots, chile (that salsa was suuuuuuuper spicy), more rice, and some green beans.  FINALLY we went to eat with Hermana T who gave us this huge plate of just a bunch of Mexican prepared turkey and some green bean casserole and Abuelita's Hot chocolate. 

 

Basically, we just ate all day, we went for a REALLY good run Friday morning...

 

Dad to answer your question: we honestly hardly ever have time to eat at home.  Most of the members in our ward live in our designated area, so we have dinners frequently and sometimes we'll even have lunches with our investigators or less-active members. Whenever we do eat at home though, (i know this sounds kind of gross but it's actually really good I promise!) I cook a sweet potato in the microwave and put some salt and cottage cheese on it.  It's filling and I hear it's pretty healthy and it tastes pretty good! I also eat a lot of apples and yogurt. 

 

Speaking of food, we ate with Hna Quezada this week and she made some reeeeaaaaallly good enchiladas with her famous green chile.  It was spicy.  And super delicious. AND we learned how to make "Papusas" from this super cool El Salvadorian family! They're delicious and amazing and I wrote down the recipe so don't worry, I won't forget how to make them ever.

 

I talk about food alot.

 

ANYWAYS, this week was really good, a lot of people were off of school and work and stuff so we taught some good lessons, and last night we even set a wedding and baptismal date with one of our investigators, N!  He's only 19 and he is already willing to make these big changes in his life in order to be a part of this gospel.  He is so golden and open to learn.  We're really excited for him and his family. 

 

And yesterday in church, Obispo Delgado  called 4 new assistants to the Ward Mission Leader and after church we all had a big meeting with the bishopric.  The leadership in this ward wants so badly to see some more baptisms, so they're willing to work hard and make it happen.  We're so excited for all that they are willing to do and really we're seeing a shift in that they see that we are there to help them, not the other way around.  We're seeing a lot more referrals in our ward with people thinking of their friends and family members that need the gospel, and these are the people that are more likely to progress, so things will be pretty exciting in Hurst for the next year!

 

I'm so glad that y'alls thanksgiving week was so fun and make sure to send my love to everyone!  (And congrats to Michelle and Josh!  I got their cute wedding anouncement in the mail and I'm sure their wedding was beautiful!)  And have fun at the wedding this weekend in Seattle, Mom!  I'm sure your French will be wonderful, that's so fun that you'll get to practice!  Try to stay healthy in the season of concerts and music and busy-ness and whatnot.  And tell Jake that 3 weeks is pleeeenty of time to find a lady to bring back to California.  (But I'm so glad you're joking, Dad, about Nat and Jake going on double dates with nat's friends........................................................................................................................................)

:)

And yay for Nat filling out his BYU application!! GoOoOoOoO COUGARS!! *cougar growl* I'm so proud.

 

I'll be sending 2 packages home by the way--one full of Christmas presents that I wrapped in Newspaper we get in the mail :) and one full of extra clothes that I thought i would need but haven't needed lately plus Dad's Birthday present (yes, i realize i'm like a month and a half early). And your calculations are correct, Mama.  I'll know next monday if I'm staying in Hurst for Christmas or if I'll be transfered so I'll let you know then where to send the package. :)

 

Thanks for everything, and I love you all so stinking much!

Love,

Hermana Sangre