April 21, 2010 Papacita mi favorito!

Sent: Wed, April 21, 2010 7:28:12 AM
Subject: YAHOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Familia, I loooooooooooove you!! This week, best week yet! I am in LOVE with my mission. First, happy bday Andrew!! I love you Bro and I am so excited for this New Year for you. It will be amazing!!!!!! I will write you later. Ok so this week has been CRAHAZY, but so fun. First, funny story with the Spanish. So at lunch I was talking to my teacher and the cafe ladies and I saw that we were having baby potatoes which are my fav. They are called papitas. So I go and say really loud OHHHH papacita mi favorito!!! Papacitas son muy ricas!!! Everyone started laughing and looked at me. papacitas are a handsome guy so I said ooooh handsome men my favorite. Handsome men are sooooo delicious!!! bahahahhaa!!!! LOCO!!! It was hilarious but really embarrassing!!! I will never forget the work papitas again!! haha. But anyways, I love my mission so much!!!!! It is the best!

A couple weeks ago, President Steimle asked me if id do him a favor. I said of course and he asked me to be the music director of the ccm so I’m in charge of all the music here and the wonderful ccm choir!! OH boy!!! haha. But it is so much fun. I think its bachi because I told you I used to laugh so hard anytime anyone would sing, because you’ve never even heard some of the notes they will sing here. It is LOCO, but I would not have it any other way.

Being the choir director has honestly been so much fun, but it is also been incredibly stressful. Latins are the best, I love them to death, but it can be incredibly difficult to get them to do things and with my Spanish not being the best, it can be even more difficult. It is a blessing though because it gives me a lot of practice to work on my Spanish. But it’s been so fun. I remember the first rehearsal we had. I announced to everyone that we were going to have choir practice at 130. I show up to choir practice and there’s like 3 North Americans there. I wait there a little while and then was like, oh heck no!!!!! So I went to all the Latinos classes and was like yoohoo! Did we forget about choir practice today¿ They all looked at each together and started laughing and was like oh no non no hermana we were just on our way there. haha.

So I recruited all the Latins to be in our wonderful choir and for our debut performance we had 5 people in the audience!!!! haha. My mission president came up to me after and was like that was the biggest choir I have ever seen, do you give people choices. I laughed and was like nah! I don’t believe in that!!! haha. But I just love these people to death. We are probably the worst sounding choir you have ever heard. Sometimes, after all I can do is just smile and say BUENISIMO!!!!! It is HILARIOUS!!! I just wish you all, but esp Chris could hear it. You would not be able to stop laughing!!! But I would not have it any other way. I feel the spirit so strong when they sing. They epitomize the definition of singing with gusto. No one is ever in tune but they just sing, sing, sing there little hearts out and it is the best ever. Our first performance though I had to pray with all my might before we sang that I wouldn’t start laughing, because sometimes I just cant help it. You could make a movie about it and it just brings me so much happiness that sometimes I just have to laugh!! But no matter what, it’s always great! Last night, we performed for Elder Clark who is the area mission president here. Our pianist stopped playing through the middle of the song, and we had one elder decide he wanted to play his violin so he started playing and the show just went on. I was like oh noooo and was so worried but everyone just kept singing like nothing happened and we did the rest of our song acapella. And I was so surprised it was really good!!! I think its one of those things that you just have to come and see here but it is just hilarious how some things work here. But I just love Love LOVe it SOOOO much!! Oh and please thank President Dupont for me because we are using his music to I will find you my Friend and it is BEAUTIFUL!!!!!

OHHHH family, I am just so, so, so happy. I truly am having the time of my life here. I have always been a happy person, but this time of my life is different. I feel more than happy, I feel pure joy!!! It is hard for me to adequately express but I just LOVE every second of being a missionary! I skip everywhere. One morning it was really crazy. My alarm goes off and I get so excited. I said my prayer got off my bed and I was so excited, I did a kick and was like LETS GO BRUSH our teeth and do missionary work. My companion looked at me like I was loco, but I just feel so much happiness and excitement I cant even contain myself!!!! AAHHAHHAHAHA! It is just so much fun and I can feel the Spirit and the Lords love everyday so strong. I get so overwhelmed with gratitude it brings me to tears everyday. I am so grateful to be here. It is honestly the biggest miracle and blessing of my life and I just love the people and the culture here so much. I haven’t even gotten out of the mtc yet, but I just love the Latinos so, so, so much. They are God’s chosen people and I just feel so humbled and grateful to be able to serve here!!

MISSIONS are the BEST!! Chris and Andrew start praying really hard! haha. Just kidding!!! But I Love everyone so, so much!!!! I pray for you all every night and can honestly feel your love and your prayers here in Guatemala!!! I KNOW that the gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to the Earth. More importantly, I know that each person is a child of God and I know that Heavenly Father loves me. Each night I pray, I feel his arms wrap around me and I don’t need to doubt for one second that I’m where I need to be. The Lord is aware. I wish I had more than 20 minutes to write because there is so much I want to say, but just know that I am soooooo happy and that I am sooooo grateful for all your love and support!!! Prestos todos Prestos mi familia....The church is TRUE!!!!!!!!!!

Love, HERRRMANA!!!!

ps....one thing that is no bueno is my stomach is loco. I think I might have prayed to hard to be able to go to the bathroom because now I have diarrhea!! It is a vicious cycle here of constipation to diarrhea. In the middle of a spiritual thought, I had to run out of the class and go. hahahhaaha. It is crazy but like I said I wouldn’t have it any other way! We have all become really close let’s just put it that way because we really have come to know each other really, really really well. Haha. It’s hilarious. I am learning to love all of it and embrace it all. Diarrhea and all....IT IS THE BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!