These missionary kids aren't perfect, but they sure try hard. Yay for a poncho!

Oh my goodness, golly, gosh, I don’t even know where to begin. 

This week was a rollercoaster, quite frankly. It all began with teaching an investigator that was selling chicken, but not like you may expect, chicken. It’s called pechuga and delicious to eat - until I saw how it is sold. It is a chicken torso, bones, blood and all. Someone comes up to the stand on the side of the road (flies everywhere) and asks for some pechuga. The lady takes it and gets out these big scissors and starts cutting away at this chicken and then throws the scissors in this bucket that has a ton of dirt, and is nasty, and then gets out a hefty knife from the same bucket and slices it into a thinner piece and then gets out a metal spatula, but on steroids, and starts whacking away at this poor chicken, seriously, with a vengeance. It’s to get it all flat so that families can fry it in their pan, but oh my heart just stopped a little bit. And then she accepts money with her same bloody, chicken, slimy hands and it is just all in one whole slop. Oh my goodness, I was just a little queasy. 

This week was rough, because my comp and I have had a little bit of a tiff. I don’t know if I’ve told you, but she had a tumor in her head right before the mission and they operated and she’s supposedly fine now, but her head aches at times, especially when we’re in the sun a lot or if she doesn’t eat. (I get cranky if I don’t eat, so I understand that one:)), but because of the operation she has a bit of an imbalance of hormones and is super happy, and we are best of friends, and two seconds later I think I am going to see the hulk come out of hiding. She really is great most of the time, but if I do something wrong or if I don’t understand something, etc… it’s pretty rough. I’ve never heard I’ve done something right from her, so that’s hard for me. Bummer. I have felt very inadequate the majority of this week - well, through Friday. Friday we had comp inventory and well, to put it lightly, we unloaded on each other. It was wonderful, because Monday thru Friday was awful and she didn’t want to talk to me and I felt like a total zero and cried in the street and she didn’t care, and yeah, we shared our feelings. She told me I do a ton wrong and that I don’t obey rules and I told her that she doesn’t have empathy for my situation that I don’t understand a lot of stuff and that I don’t like being whistled at in the street and that I struggle with things and blah, blah, blah. She then got mad at me and said I don’t know how far she’s come and I felt bad and said I don’t want to have bad feelings, just to grow. I really want to be friends and asked her if we could and she said, “No”. Yikes, but after that I cried and prayed with all my heart to my Heavenly Father that things could get better. And then we said our prayer as comps and it was my turn to say it and I prayed that I could show my gratitude for my comp and that I could be better and learn more and ever since, we have been friends. Seriously, since Friday it has been wonderful. I am super duper happy right now, and am grateful.

Today was cambios (changes) and we found out that my comp and I are together for another 6 weeks in the same area. Wahoo! There are big things waiting and we will get to spend Christmas here!!!! YAYAYAY, oh my I’m so happy. I love this area and my comp and I are way close and figuring things out together and it’s so good. Yay!

Just a street where we live.

One fun story is that we were contacting in the street and saw a lady shoveling her garden and figured that we could go help her out. It turns out she’s 83 years old, almost deaf and almost blind, but not bad enough to see that I’m a guera and tell me I’m pretty. Haha ,yes, I love her. :) She’s an inspiration and now we are teaching her and she’s lovely. Maria Guadalupe is her name. Ah, I love old people.

We are continuing to teach Irma, the woman who has rectal cancer. We helped her clean and clear out her house this week and turns out, she has a TON of skirts and dresses that she doesn’t use anymore and was just going to throw them all away. WHAT?!?!? Holla. So basically my comp and I have a new wardrobe of awesome stuff. I HAVE A PONCHO. And I love it. And I found the dress I’m going to give my homecoming talk in. It’s the one that is beige and has a funky design in the front – haha - I loooooove it. But Irma is amazing. She has taught me more than we have taught her. She is so wise through her life. She told us how she was beautiful and pompous when she was younger, but now she has cancer, will lose her hair, her husband has left her, and her sons don’t feel any sense of responsibility. Quite sad, but she said how she is learning humility and that family is what’s most important, quite an inspiration.

I saw Cody Banks on TV and it made me more happy that it should have. I can’t believe I thought he was attractive all those years ago...

All I want in life is a washing machine. Mondays are pretty much all spent washing clothes. That’s all I feel like I ever do. My hands are eternally pruny. Thank heaven for the resurrection with perfected bodies and all that jazz.

Our music night was incredible. Actually way better than I thought it was going to be. We ended up playing everything twice, because everyone liked it so much. We had investigators come and it was AWESOME. I loved it, violins and singing and piano. Yeah, we rocked it. 

Our violin players for the concert.

I am doing very, very well. So happy, love this work, love Mexico, and love the people. And yes we bike every day and bikes are THE BIGGEST BLESSING ever. I seriously love them. 

Mexico is amazing - the people, the food, the climate, everything. I am in love with my mission. It’s super hard and I feel really inadequate, frankly, but I am learning so much and I just love everything. 

Love the kids!

DO YOU GUYS KNOW I LOVE YOU SO MUCH?! Because I do. I think about you and pray for you every prayer, no matter the circumstance. I love you more than life and I love Mondays and hearing from you. I love you my family! Thanks for all the pictures - seriously perfect. I hope you’re happy and that you know I am super happy. I laugh and smile every day and thank my Heavenly Father for all of our blessings, cause there’s a ton. Sometimes we just need to look a little harder. But seriously, don’t worry one iota, I’m SO happy.

Love you to the dark side of the moon and back. 

MWAH!!!!

Hermana Anstee :)

A 6:20 am promise because Heavenly Father has a sense of humor, speed bumps are a party for biking, Walter Mitty day dreaming, and an attitude of gratitude.

Hola mi dearest, darlingest familia! 

First of all - Happy Birthday Max!!! I hope you had fun!

Oh how I miss you all so. I’m pretty sure this week was the hardest for missing you guys, not that every week isn’t hard. But boy was this week hard missing you all. But don’t worry, I’m still happy. :)

So for one thing, one week ago we were in a lesson (yes, a lesson with the same old man I kissed. They continue to invite us back. Hahaha – awk, but no worries, no more kissing for me. Dang. Bahaha), but we were there and all of a sudden we heard helicopters and sirens and lots of scary loud noises. We went outside to see what was going on (bad idea in retrospect. Don’t check when you hear scary noises in Mexico) and we learned that they were looking for a man that is robbing people and especially bikes in our area. What? It was a little freaky because we looked up and saw the helicopters (3) and to our right was the feds of Mexico and to our left was our nice little bikes, but I still feel safe and I’m not too worried, but we do hear a lot of crazy stuff is happening here in Mexico. There are like 30 students that are sequestered by the government (?) and everyone thinks they are dead now. Bienvenidos a Mexico. (Welcome to Mexico.) 

We had a capacitacion de zona (training) with two zones and Presidente Egbert came and talked to us and it was absolutely incredible. We listened to a talk by President Holland and he talked about why missionary work is so hard, that many times missionaries (including myself) wonder why missions are so hard if this evangelio (gospel) is so true. Why the only problem we have isn’t that of developing pneumonia from being in the water baptizing people all day long. The answer is because salvation never was easy. For 18 months I get the chance to feel a small bit of what the Savior felt in his life, to be ridiculed and made fun of and shut out and understand a bit more of His life. That salvation of souls never was easy, and that He suffered, and that it is hard to change. Oh my goodness it was so good. I’ve thought about it a lot this week. And then we also talked about an attitude of gratitude because it’s Thanksgiving in the US… (No we don’t celebrate it here, but everyone knows about it and asks me what is the meaning behind the holiday. I try to explain it, but I always just end up saying that we eat a lot of food on this day. :) Hahaha. That’s the most important part, right?)… But Holland’s talk was so good. Hermana Egbert had papelitos (slips of paper) with questions for different things that we are thankful for and ours was a person. I, of course, said my compañera. And she said me and actually cried. WHAT? I had no idea that I was a good companion and that I actually helped her out. She said that she struggles a lot with animo (encouragement) and being happy and working hard and that my excitement and animo por la obra (encouragement for the work) helps her a lot. Whaaaat? Everyone cried, including me and Hermana Egbert. It was awesome. I love my comp and am nervous for cambios (changes) next Monday - I could be leaving my area! Ah! No!

Being brave and playing the piano!

We also had a lesson with a recent convert (Janet) and it was AMAZING. She started telling us all about the people she is now teaching about the gospel and her enthusiasm was infectious, and afterwards, I felt like we could just baptize the world! Have another Noah experience, but where people don’t die of course. But oh, it’s just amazing to talk to converts who are now bringing others into the gospel and the work just goes on and on and on. It’s freaking awesome. 

It rained and I didn’t have my handy dandy jacket. (Sorry dad - what a disappointment) and normally I’m so prepared. But we were soaking wet and we have a picture of us I believe... but it was more hilarious than anything. Haha. In the morning it was complete sol (sun) and no clouds. Once again, bienvenidos a Mexico. (Welcome to Mexico)

I can’t count the number of lessons I’ve taught sitting on a bucket or on the ground.

We had one day that was really hard. No one. I mean, no one. NO. ONE. Was home or could listen to a lesson. That morning we accidentally slept in a little bit (obedience is key here...) and we went from house to house, knocking and there was no one. Our day was completely planned. Everyone knew we had lessons planned with them and no one was there. Finally, exasperated, we knocked on one more door. No answer. My comp and I were doing the whole not-sure-whether-to-laugh-or-cry kinda deal. A bit of both I suppose. We started dancing in the street. And then I looked up at the sky and talked right to God and told him that if He let’s these people answer the door and listen to us I will never sleep in any--- 

the door opens. They let us in. We teach a lesson. I put my alarm for 6:20 in the morning. 

Oh how our Heavenly Father has a sense of humor. 

Geez.

So my dear family, my desire to be outside and active and quite frankly, on a river and in the mountains grows every single day. Every Sunday or conference I doodle mountains and rivers and kayaks and sailboats and knots and the works. Oh my goodness, I miss it so stinking much. So I have a favor to ask - can you guys start planning activities for the summer of 2016? Yeah? Gracias. :) I love you so much and am so excited to run rivers with you again. Seriously, I dream about that a lot. Funny how that works, huh? I am excited to backpack and simply be with you again. I love you so much, more than words can describe! 

Sometimes I feel like Walter Mitty - daydreaming about you guys, or about being active outside, and the like, and then I am supposed to give my bit of the lesson. Uh, what? Some days are worse than others, but a lot of times I day dream sobre estos cosas (about these things) and it’s so hard to focus. Haha, oh Walter... I feel ya.

So a few days ago I saw 4 large people on one tiny vespa and then we fit 8 large men into one tiny little car - Mexico to a T right there.

I know that my understanding of the gospel is growing. My testimony is growing and I am learning more and more about the gospel itself, like, that Noah is the angel Gabriel. What? For reals, right? Who knew... and my Spanish is also getting better and better every day. When I tell people I’ve been here a month, they are generally shocked. Haha, wahoo. No longer do people tell me that I don’t speak Spanish and no longer do I not understand and just say thank you so much! Bahaha, I am getting a bit more of the hang of it. 

P-days are super busy. We wake at, well, I wake up at 6:20am (my comp sleeps in) and I exercise from 6:30am to 7:00am, then I shower and get ready. At 8:00am we have personal study. From 9:00am to 10:00am we have companionship study. After that we go to the store and buy all the stuff we need and then we clean our house from head to toe in manners I didn’t know existed. (Squeegees for the floor - who knew?) And then we wash our clothes by hand and it’s exhausting. Haha, but I love it. We crank up the Motab and EFY music and have a mini-mormon fiesta with the two of us. Then it’s 4:30pm and it’s time to write you guys until 6:00pm. Then it’s off to work and teach some more! We generally have 3 lessons to teach every Monday and then it’s in our casa (house) at 9:00pm. Yay for P-days. 

Today we played soccer as a zone. Haha, I sure felt like a gruera - so bad at soccer compared to them. It was way fun though and WE ATE LITTLE CAESARS PIZZA!!! I felt right at home... but it was fun to bond with all the elders in our zone and to be outside and active. Looooveeeeed itttt.....

No package yet... who knows? I will now start to pray. :) Haha.

My pictures are pathetic this week, I am super duper sorry. It’s just all the same every week, every day and we are constantly going from one thing to the next and contacting in the street and ugh... I will do better. 

Music night is this Saturday and I’m super pumped. I’ll let ya know how it goes and TAKE PICS! :) Haha. 

I am asking my companion a ton of questions and feel like I’ve lived in Ecuador. Haha, it sounds lovely. 

To line up lessons, we just ask when the people are free and sign them up. Haha, it’s not too complex. Sometimes we do knock on doors if we have time or if we feel inclined to, and generally it’s pretty successful. There was an orange car in front of a house, so of course I told my comp I ´felt the spirit´ that we needed to knock on that door, and turns out, it was the spirit and it’s a lady that’s a nurse and is now a new investigator!

I love it here and I love you guys so stinking much. Every day I appreciate the little things, like the clouds here. They’re amazing. Not a silver lining, but an electric pink some nights. Oh, it’s lovely. And speaking of how it goes, I am absolutely doing great. I really love having a purpose every day and talking to all the different people. I love biking in the streets because it’s crazy. There are speed bumps EVERYWHERE - seriously every 200 yards I bet there’s a speed bump. It’s a party for biking. :) I try to jump them when my companion and no one else is looking. :) 

Can you find Captain America?

Hey - could you send me the lyrics to “Delaney Talks to Statues” and the song that dad sings on the river? Something like “Sailor Man, Where Ya Gonna Run To? Haha. I was thinking about those songs while I was missing you, so I was thinking about them a lot, I suppose. ;)

Know that I love you so very, very, very, very much and I am super excited to skype, and write, and all that good stuff. Thanks for all you do. When I thank Heavenly Father for my blessings, you three are first on the list. (People ask me if I have siblings and I tell them well, I have a dog and they laugh. Then I tell them that my padres like him more than me. Haha, it’s a good time.) But truly, I look at our family picture every day and thank my lucky stars (Heavenly Father) for you three, every moment of every day. Thanks for being you all. Mwah times a million.

Love you to the dark side of the moon and back.

Hermana Anstee :D 

P.S.

Oh dad, I love you so much. Tell the boys at the station I love them and don’t tell anyone, but there are maple donuts here. :) Shhhh I might buy one every once in a while. Bahaha. You are amazing dad and thanks for always writing me. I can’t wait to talk to you three on Christmas and to see you face to face! Mwah times a bajillion! Love you so much more than words can describe!

(Your brown-eyed girl)

Oh no… her brain isn't working - so she kissed an old man, oh no... she found ice cream, and good news, she's becoming "MacGyver" (better known to us as "Cathy Cooper")

Ummmm ? Not sure what to say.

PADRES!!!!

Oh my gosh, I am so freaking excited every Monday and I am just dancing while cleaning our apartment, and my clothes, and screaming inside because I just love reading emails and writing to you. Oh. I just love you so much.

So there is so much to say! Ah! So much to do, so little time. Well, I guess I’ll start with a highlight of the week, I FOUND ICE CREAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yep. Ice cream people. The church is still true. So basically wanna know what I have been eating for breakfast, lunch and dinner? I’m sure ya’ll can imagine.

So this was once again, a very insightful week and I always feel so incredibly blessed each and every day. We went to teach a family and it was just the mom and her two kids. She was talking about how they have 0 money. I mean, 0 money. They are living off of basically 15 dollars that they have. It made me cry when we were biking on our way home, because I feel so incredibly lucky and the lady was absolutely desperate. She was saying how all that matters is that her children eat and we offered to pay her to wash our clothes, but she said, “No,” so we came up with the idea that we would buy food for them in exchange for washing a few skirts. Oh she is quite strong willed in doing it all by herself, but so sad. Oh man it is incredible how people live down here. Each and every day I feel so incredibly lucky.

Switching gears, one super funny thing that happened is that we were eating in a home and it was a super old couple. Super funny and blunt too, because we were all talking and the father said öh y la gordita...¨. Bahahhaah gordita means fat lady in Spanish. So he was referring to her as an old fat lady. Bahahaha. Oh I just love them. They are hilarious. And he also only referred to me as hermanita guera. Oh mannn, it’s great.

So there are so many pregnant ladies. Random, yes. But seriously. And so many that are nursing and I am not quite sure how to handle myself, because well be teaching a lesson and they’ll just start and all I can do is think about the episode of modern family where Gloria kept doing the same thing. But ohh geez, that’s the biggest culture shock of this week. Seriously. 4 ladies. Awkward.

So turns out that WE GET TO SKYPE FOR CHRISTMAS!!!! I’m so stinking excited, but I’m not quite sure how to go about it or how it works. If you wanna look into that if you have a spare minute and I will ask around, but no guarantees I’ll understand it all because the directions will be in Spanish. Bienvenidos a mi vida – (welcome to my life.) 

So I helped strip peppers of seeds and my hands stung afterwards, but my comp was cutting onions and she was crying like a baby. Haha suuuper funny. She’s really sensitive to pica, so we don’t get much exposure to that and her reactions always crack me up. She puts one pinhead of salsa on her enchilada and she has to guzzle her water. Hehehe Ecuadorians...

It turns out that my piano playing has inspired a music night. Don’t know if I told you last week, but our missionary activity for the month is going to be a concert night, by both missionaries and members, for absolutely the whole world. So you guys are invited. :) But also I have been asked to play the accompaniment for the relief society Christmas program and they are kind of expecting me to just come up with notes to play out of thin air. Haha. No one quite understands that I need to practice. But hey, if I play awful maybe I wont be asked to keep playing! ;)

These pics are of a noche de hogar (Family Home Evening) and the family played a game based on faith. It was really fun. There are voices telling you the wrong ways to go and one simple voice that tells the right way. It was a riot. We must walk with faith.

So awkward experience… Oh my gosh, so the culture here is to kiss on the cheek and a handshake or a hug depending on the person, right? (Still trying to figure it all out with different people - normally I just go for it - full on hug and all the works and watch their reaction. Heehee) but for the men it’s just a handshake right, because the whole deal with missionaries, and men, and distance, and yada yada yada. Well we went to go teach a nice old couple and it was late and I was tired and all that stuff. Well, I went to give a handshake to the nice old man and he pulled me toward him for a firmer handshake and I KISSED HIM ON THE CHEEK. WHAT? Oh my gosh, my mind doesn’t work anymore. And the face of my companion was of complete astonishment, and bewilderment, and disgust, and I don’t even know. Oh my that lesson was a complete waste for me. All I could think about is WHAT THE HECK JUST HAPPENED? But afterwards, my comp and I laughed and laughed and laughed about it. Bahahaha. Oh my I need help.

So I got my flu shot. Yay.

The dog chased me again. Boo. 

But my skirt stayed down and I quickly out-biked him. Boo-yah.

So in our apartment there are some things that don’t really work very well and we struggle with. Like whenever we take a shower, we have a flood in our bathroom big enough to have a baptism, as well as, anytime we try to wash our clothes. But this week I said, “NO MORE!” And I got out my handy dandy leatherman and fixed it all and I got out my super glue and duct tape (what more do you need?) and put in a pipe found laying around and now the water is routed to the drain. Awww yeah - Cathy Cooper status! ;) Oh and my comps bike fell over and the chain fell off track and she started crying, because we were in the middle of nowhere and I just happily told her to hold the bike upright and I fixed the chain. Her face was priceless. Haha. I love stuff like that. Some of that happiest moments, well, besides all the spiritual ones of course...

So in the pics, there are ones of my comp and I with lipstick. Haha. An investigator just loves us, so she gave us some grandma lipstick she sells and grandma perfume on a different day. Oh I just love her. She’s hilarious. She was praying for a sign from God for a new, better church when we knocked on the door. Yep, the church is true.

So I do have a question - how is the cactus doing? There are a ton of little ones in window sills and it makes me quite happy when I see them.

Oh and as far as Hermana Ortiz goes, and her parents, small discrepancy that I have now figured out is different. ´padres´ in Spanish is parents and ´padre´ is dad. It turns out her mom emails her every week, but her dad hasn’t emailed her. Still sad, but better, because she always talks about writing her mom and telling her this and that so I have been confused... oh the difference one little letter makes.

I have not gotten the package yet... :( and people have come from Pachuca up to Bosques, but nothing for me... who knows? Sorry, but boy oh boy, if it comes... you will know!!!

I really don’t need much of anything for Christmas - just to talk to you guys will be the best thing ever. Anything I would really want I can get here. And… there’s ice cream! What more could I need? Hermana Ortiz doesn’t need anything in specific either, but I will just get her some sweet thick milk stuff (sorry forgot the name in English) in a can and some cake and she will be happy. Haha I just love her.

I will work on more pics. It’s just hard because every day is the same – lessons, lessons, and more lessons. But I will work on getting a nice one. :)

The climate here is incredible. I wear my sweatshirt in the morning and have my jacket with me during the day and put it on at night, but during the day I wear my normal short sleeves and am comfortable. It’s lovely. And at night it is cold, but I bundle in blankets and am a happy little bug in a... rug? We buy water out in big jugs - everyone does, even the locals. It’s been good. It just tastes funny.

I love you guys so very, very much and I think about you every day. Hug each other for me and know you are in my every prayer and every thought. The strongest part of my testimony is that families can be together forever. I miss you like crazy, but I am truly loving my life here. Every day I thank Heavenly Father for the opportunity to be here in Mexico. Every day I laugh. Every day I smile. Every day I hear Mexican cantina music and love it. Oh all of my dear family and friends out there, I love you all more than I can possibly describe. Thanks for everything - emails, updates, gifts, all of it. I love you all so, so, so much!!!!!!!!

LES AMO!!!!

Hermana Anstee :)