sweeter than manjar

well

THIS WEEK WAS MY BIRTHDAY IT WAS SO FUN AND ALSO WE DID SO MANY THINGS BUT I DONT HAVE A LOT OF TIME SO THIS IS GONNA BE A SHORT LISTY TYPE OF EMAIL

so monday

pday

basically nothing

i dont remember

maybe something

tuesday

we worked and worked and went places and did things and had lessons and stuff

wednesday

we had district class and my district leader bought a cake for my birthday

District Leader - Elder Castillo
Zone Leader -Elder Christiansen
Elder Cuadra

but the tradition is to bite the cake

and then they just shove it in your face

and i had three people helping with the effort

and i was very cakey afterwards

but it was a really good cake let me just tell you

also we had a noche de hogar [night at home - family home evening] and it was way awesome and also we had a lesson with *Ana, the old lady that we know from the preexistence, and she accepted a baptismal date! she wasnt able to go to church on sunday because she was in santiago, but we hope to see her this week! she is precious and beautiful and perfect and i love her <3

thursday

we went to the temple with *Rafe and *Polly and *Val and *Ira and Paulo! and it was super great! and there was another pair of missionaries there and one of them was from castle rock and it was super crazy and we talked about colorado because

well colorado duh

On the bus to the temple

Paulo - singing on the bus

and then we had another noche de hogar! and i gave the lesson

or was that 

no

yeah i gave the lesson and it was really fun and great and i love the gospel and PLEASE ALWAYS REMEMBER TO PRAY AND READ AND GO TO CHURCH

and on friday we had a suprise zone conference! and we talked about missionary things and had a really good lunch and then in the nighttime we went with Paulo to teach one of his friends and her boyfriend and it went really well and we have a lot of hope for them

saturday

we had coordination and then we also went and visited *George, our investigator that lives forever away, but he doesnt really seem to be progressing, nor does he want to progress, so we are thinking about dropping him. It's always sad when you have to drop somebody, but the people are like fruit. Sometimes they just arent ripe enough yet; we cant hurry them to grow and ripen; we have to wait until they're ready

and sunday

well

sunday was super cool

cos we got to take the sacrament which is the MOST IMPORTANT THING THAT YOU CAN DO ALL WEEK PLEASE ALWAYS DO THAT

Hermana Schomburg and Hermana Petramalo
on the way to Relief Society

and also

it was the anniversary of my birth

i've been alive for 20 years

what the heck

The only time in life that she wasn't smiling, I think.

but anyway, we were going to have another noche de hogar, right, so we were gonna do it in Paulo's house but that wasnt gonna work so then we were gonna do it in the house of some awesome members but they disappeared so then we were like, let's just do it at Alan's house (he's the right hand man of Paulo) and so we show up

and there's not another woman

and we have a rule of course that you have to have another responsible adult of your same gender in the house with you when you do a lesson or whatever thing

and so then

Christian and Alan left in Alan's car in search for a woman and Hermana Chavez (from the other companionship in Curacaví) was calling like crazy to get a woman and i was just sitting there like 'well if we cant find a woman let's just go do something else like check on other investigators or somethinig' and they were all like 'NO' and i didnt understand anything and then all of the sudden Christian and Alan come back with one of their cousins or something that didnt know what was going on and we start to go in but Christian tells me 'wait you have to go in last because youre the talles' and i was like

what

and then

they covered my eyes

and then i realized

and then we walked in the house and i didnt see anything and then they took their hands off and i saw balloons and happiness and JUST ALL THIS HAPPINESS I LOVE THE MISH SO MUCH AND THEN THEY ALL SANG HAPPY BIRTHDAY IN ENGLISH TO ME AND THERE WAS A CANDLE INVOLVED AND LIKE IT WAS JUST SO GREAT AND THEN THEY WERE LIKE SPEECH SPEECH SPEECH

and so i told them with 100% sincerity and from the very bottom of my heart

that there is no other place that i would rather be than here to celebrate my 20th birthday

i love the mission

i love this gospel

i LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY SO MUCH I LOVE IT I LOVE IT I LOVE IT 

it's hard sometimes

and also i'm really tired sometimes

and also it's like 100 degrees this week

but i love it

there is nothing sweeter than the gift of the gospel, not even manjar [something really yummy]

and that is the little tiny testimony that i have to give you today; sorry it's so short and sporadic, but that's what you get!

i love you all and hope you have a great week

CCCCCCCCCHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

A "giant knife type thing" that she found
under her bed when she arrived in Curacavi.

She has learned to love mate.

Curacavi countryside

Reminiscent of Colorado's Western Slope