Poor Poor Nuecez!!

 

Hi mamma!!!

How are you? GUESS WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it snowed last night!!! it is 32 degrees outside right now and it is SO cold!!!! oh my goodness gracious it is cold! but, its much better than the 112 degree weather. This past week was fun. I was sad to see Hermana Facer leave cause we got along so well, and she was the Hermana that i shared clothes with hahahaha but she goes home in 5 weeks and is gonna bring her clothes to the church before she goes home for me :)

 

So i have a very funny story. This past week we were out doing some tracting in this trailer park (cause thats where all my people live) and all of a sudden we hear this LOUD bang of drums and then some shreeeeeeking like indians and this cloud of smoke come up in the air about 20 trailers down. so naturally, of course, we book it over there to see what in the world was going on and you'll never believe what happened. So, before i go on with the story, a little bit of hispanic background. Majority of hispanics worship the "virgin guadalupe". shes kinda like the virgin mary but the mexican virgin. Virgin Guadalupe has this baby named Juan Pablo or something like that (its 2 mexican first names for the name so good shot that thats the actual name of the kid). But they put her above Jesucristo and even the Virgin Maria(mary) and she's just huge for most parts of Mexico. Ok, so now that you know that, i'll continue on. So, we rush over there and we find this HUGE group of mexicans (probably about 25) and they're dressed up like indians. I'm tellin ya, if we had a picture of the Lamanites, this is what they would have look like back in the BOM time. All dressed in this indian get up and they have bows and arrows and are jumpin and hollerin and shoutin random spanish words, which i dont even think were real spanish cause i have a native as a companion and even she didnt know what they were chanting. (hermana barrett is a little spaniard) So anywho, back to the story. Theres this HUGE picture and statue of the good ol' virgin guadalupe and they're dancing around her with drums and weapons. We sat there for a good 15 min just star struck of the stupidity that was going on. It was the most random lamanite-like ritual ever! I tried to take pictures, but they came out kinda blury cause they wouldnt stand still for even a second. But, it was so funny to see!

 

Another funny story for ya. Welp, remember how i would NEVER put gas in my car and i would almost run out and get stuck (and the occasional times i actually would run out and be stuck) welp...nothin has change. We ran out of gas yesterday. I forgot to look at the gas gage on saturday and half way through our SUNDAY(day we CANT get gas) i realized....."we're doomed". Sure enough, we ran out of gas and had to call a member to come get us. There was NO way i was gonna call our district or zone leader cause 1, i would never hear the end of that one. 2, i was not gonna let that one get back to President. and 3, i wanted to prove that i could get us out of the pickle that i got us into. So, a member came and got us and we went back to her house and she gave us dinner and we made cookies. Its actually a part member and we are teaching her husband, his name is Ivan. So, it turned out to be a great night cause we got a lesson with him and he opened up so much. He's gonna get baptized on the 15th.

 

We continued to have a great week and again, beat mission records. This is the 4th week in a row now!! woohoo!  My mission is FLYING by SO SO FAST!! OH SHOOT! guess what i did this past week, I am a terrible person. Mom, I KILLED A SQUIRREL!!! that dumb animal came runnin out in front of me and i hit him! twice! the poor thing, i ran him over with my front and my back tire! poor poor Nuecez. (that means nuts in spanish and since i killed him, i decided that he deserved a name. so, his name was Nuecez). I made us take a moment of silence after. We drive the elders around everywhere and everytime they see a squirrel, they always yell at me to watch out and not hit it. They're never gonna stop teasin me for that.

 

We had a lesson with some guy this week and it was a really good lesson!! His name is Bulmaro and he totally understands our message! The only thing is...we gotta teach him how to pray. We asked him at the end of the lesson if he would say the prayer and he says "well i pray differently than you, is that ok?" and we told him to go ahead and pray and oh my....this is what happened after.

 

"Let us all take a moment and meditate for God."

"Let us all take a moment and meditate for Jesus."

"Let us all take a moment and meditate for the Holy Spirit."....

 

and then he goes on with his pray and says, i kid you not, a 5 minute prayer and then asks us if we would like to add anything into his prayer and Hermana Barrett says "si....amen". but, he wasnt finished. He went on for about another 45 seconds and then we did some more meditating and then he closed it in the name of Jesus Christ. So, at least he's got that part down, closing it in the name of Jesus Christ. We just gotta work out the rest of the kinks when we go back for our second lesson with him. And of course it was all done in spanish, so we meditated for Dios, Jesus and el Santo Espiritu. he's a funny guy. He seems pretty interested too! Well, i think thats about all for this week.

 

I am very excited for christmas! And i LOVE driving around (when we have gas) and looking at all the christmas lights :) Some housed here even have that ball i have! So, everytime i see  it i say "thats my ball!! thats my ball!!". The elders we drive around and my companions now know how much i appreciate that ball of lights i have back home and my love for bright christmas lights!! Well, i love you! I hope you have a GREAT week and are safe!!!

 

Hermana Powell