Hermana Blood: 11-18-2013: Hello Beautiful Family!

Hello beautiful family!

Drum roll please........my hand has been unwrapped! At my appointment last wednesday Dr. Tasneem came in and we all jumped for joy and shouted halleluia and whatnot because my hand just looks so dang beautiful. She said I needed to let it breathe and I no longer need to go back to check up with her! As much as I think she's a rockstar and such a cool person, ain't no missionary got time for going to the doctor! SO i am officially healed and 2-handed once again. Opening water bottles is soooooooo much easier and now everyone thinks I'm the coolest person ever. It's no big deal, really.

Thank you so much for the package! It arrived in safety on Friday and I immediately devoured the banana bread, don't worry :) I figured it usually takes about 3 days for packages to get from CA to TX, so have no fear. ALSO: I thought that the boatneck shirts would be in my box set aside for winter clothes, but if they are nowhere to be found, really do not worry about it! I'm sure you have muuuch more important things to do than run around looking for some shirts, so really, no te preocupes.

This week was great, of course. We taught some lessons, we saw some members, we ate some Mexican food. It's like missionary heaven! This week we had a lesson with one of our Investigadoritas, A. She is young and her mom is a recent convert of 2 years. They come to church basically every week, and she even had a part in the Primary Program. She's suuupper cool and wants to get baptized, but her dad, who works out of town for weeks at a time, is a little hesitent. He wants her to be able to make this decision for herself with the right amount of information, so we're going by and helping her understand the principles of the gospel.

We also had a fiesta for Thanksgiving with the ward on saturday! It was super fun and we cooked a turkey! The food was DELICIOUS and they even mixed in some American casseroles in the midst of the rice and beans :) Everyone (except the missionaries) danced their hearts out to some Spanish music and gave thanks in their awesome Spanish-ward way. I wish I had pictures of the craaaazy amounts of food, but alas, I forgot. I will, however, attatch a picture of our in-house-chef Elder Taylor preparing the turkey that we cooked. Preparing a turkey does NOT look appetizing, but the finished product was delish.

Elder Taylor dominating that sick-nasty looking raw turkey. It was delicious.

AND this past week we had Zone Conference! It was super good and spiritual and all the missionaries in our zone got to talk with our Stake President specifically about his plan for how he wants our stake to participate in the work of salvation. He's an awesome guy and so excited for the missionary work we are doing in this area. A quote that someone said in the meeting that really struck me was

"Softened Hearts do not soften the blow"

I'm pretty sure some famous person said that, but since I don't know who, we'll just say it was Elder X. Anyways, it was a call to repentance for me to be even more bold. We're asking people to make changes in their lives and we need to do it unapolagetically because we KNOW for a fact that their quality of life can be better if they commit to follow Christ.

Also, I think I've seen Sister Ram before, but I haven't officially met her. I'll make sure to say hi the next time we have a big meeting! SisterGomez knows her and gives a glowing report :)

Man. I love being a missionary. We get to wear cool nametags and everything! I'll send some pictures for this week in a few minutes.