Dog with Dreds

Madison doing one of the Hermana's hair-possessed hairdresser!

       HELLO!!! I can't believe it is p-day again. Seriously time flies.  The days seem super long sometimes but the weeks go by so fast. So it turns out that I totally lied. So the first 12 weeks of the mission we do a training program in the morning for an hour.  But if you aren't training or being trained you go out in the morning.   Also, after the first 12 weeks you only have 30 minutes for language study instead of an hour so you have that time as well. Last week was really good. I am sure as I continue to learn and understand Spanish it will just get better and better.  On Mondays we have to get up at 5:30 to put the trash out, but then we do whatever we want. Today we cleaned until like 9 and then we played bitilla (I probably spelled that way wrong) with the elders. It's just baseball with a bottle cap, and instead of a bat we used the end of a broom. So that was fun!  Then we went and got lunch and now I am here! We will probably go grocery shopping later too. We eat most meals together which is good.  Last week was great! On Wednesday we had a lesson and Hermana Dawe asked this woman if there was anything specific she wanted us to pray for.  She then proceeded to pull down her shirt and show us the results of her cancer, if you know what I mean. The people are very open here. It's crazy!  That same day we had a great lesson with a lady named Juana.  She was kind of reluctant to let us in but as we taught we could literally see the spirit working on her.  

       There are SO many dogs here and every dad of every dog must be a wiener dog.  There are a lot of varieties of dogs here but they all have super long bodies and short legs. Super weird.  It makes me really appreciate Lucy.   The dog with dreds (this dog has been following them around since she got there) follows us around.  Sometimes we will be on the opposite side of town and he will just appear out of nowhere.  No one here can say my name. They kind of just stare at my tag, tilt their heads and then mutter something along the lines of Rootch.  Lots of the old ladies here love my skin.  Sometimes they will just grab hand and then pet my arm for awhile.  Sometimes its kind of uncomfortable.  And they always tell me to wear sunscreen and carry an umbrella.  But no worries, I have no hint of a tan line.  Probably because its cloudy and or raining 75 percent of the times.  

         On Friday I saw a legit girl fight.  Here, they fight with bobby pins.  They take the rubber ends off and scratch each other's faces until they bleed.  It's super scary but the people here love it.  On Friday we felt like we should go contact in a certain area and we now have 2 new investigators! hooray!  And they are super great. We have so so many great investigatos.  One, named ludin is a single mom with 3 little kids. I might have told you about them but they are great.  They are all so excited and love coming to church. They are getting baptized on the 8th because that is the youngest sons 8th birthday.  

       On Saturday we had an appointment way far away and then right after had an appointment on the other side of the mountain.  So instead of walking up the mountain and back down we decided to find a short cut.  So we found a little trail and we asked a guy if it lead to San Francisco and he just yelled and waved.  We walked forever on this super sketchy river bottom.  We were kind of scared but we could hear loud music so we kept walking.  We finally saw a trail which looked like it lead to the music so we basically crawled up it  because it was so steep.  We were laughing pretty hard and when we got to the top we were exactly where we needed to be.  We were super proud for finding a short cut until we saw one of our investigators who was sitting with a big group. When we told him where we had come from everyone's eyes got really big.  He told us to never never never go there again. eek!  Don't worry, we will not be going there again. 

        So on Sunday I had to give a talk, eeek.  It took me forever to prepare because I had to translate it but i think it went pretty well! The other missionaries had to give talks too.  We also did the musical number and I played for sacrament meeting. It's pretty great.  The hard thing here is that no one goes to church.  There are a ton of members here but so so many are menos activo.  The next problem is we can't really find them to help them come back because people don't actually have addresses.   Last week we had a couple of tender mercies.  We would just be walking down the street and someone would confront us and tell us they were a member but didn't go to church.  We taught one girl and her uncle happened to walk in and he and his wife were menos activo.  They are now coming back to church! We had 6 investigators come to church and a ton of menos activo. It was so great and I know God is looking out for us.  Yesterday we went out and it started POARING. I have never seen it rain so hard in my life. I actually had to go home and get a sweater because it was super cold. Anyway, I am doing great and my Spanish is getting a little better each day! I actually gave a lesson last week! I probably said a whole bunch of things wrong but I think they got the point. I love you all and hope you guys have a great week and a great last week of school. love you!