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 :)