The Field is White: Week 4

First off, Happy Halloween! And Happy belated Birthday to Moriah! And in response to news that Opa's melanoma was successfully and entirely removed, YEAH!!!

1. Would you like me to send cookies again? How many people are in your district?

I would love cookies:) We decorated the cookies that you sent me today and they were just so cute! There are 9 people in my district, and last time there were enought cookies for me to share. I jsut don´t know how long it takes them to be delivered. I think you can also order Krispy Kreme donuts too. It´s seiously the best feeling in the world to get mail and packages:)

2. How has the weather been? I've been watching the weather forecasts and it looks like it's gotten warmer...I hope you're not still getting cold at night...

It has gotten a lot warmer. Today it´s hot! And it feels sooo good! It hasn´t rained this week which I´m glad about and the nights have been warmer, too. I took off my extra blankets.

3. Have you gotten to play the piano again?

Nope and I kind of hope I don´t have to. lol

4. What are your Sunday church meetings like? Have you gotten to speak yet? If so, what did you speak on? How did it go?

I have not gotten asked to speak yet. We have a Relief Society meeting and Sister Pratt (the President´s wife) teaches all the sisters at one time. Then we have a district meeting/devotional thing that is supposed to be like Sunday School and Elder Scott teaches something from Preach My Gospel. Then we have sacrament meeting and they divide us up into sectors and each sector has a different topic. They announce those on Sunday for the next week. So everyone prepares a 5 min talk and when we get there they ask 6 people to speak. Everyone gets so nervous when they are about to say the names of the speakers. lol. So far I haven´t had to speak! Lucky me! But apparently everyone has to get up during testimony meeting next week...

5. What has been the most inspirational thing that has happened this week?

I had a really good experience with Elder Erikson this week. He was pretending to be an investigator and I was supposed to be teaching him, but he was really difficult and I just couldn´t teach him anything. So being the not-so-confident person that I am, I'm like¨"I´m sorry, I just really don´t know what to teach you." Everyone in my district knows that I really don´t like talking to people and that I would rather just never say anything (lol) so he just gave really good advice and said something to the effect of: "You are a missionary. People can´t judge you as Hermana Gisseman. As long as you are following the Spirit, then they aren´t even your words, but the Lord´s words and people are judging the Lord, not you. People won´t be baptized for Hermana Gisseman, but for the Lord." I just thought that that was really perfect advice for the moment. Too often I doubt myself and don´t trust enough in the Lord and in the authority I have been given.

6. Who is your favorite person in the scriptures right now? Mine changes depending on what I'm reading...but right now I'm loving Captain Moroni.

I still love Abinadi, but I just got to that part in the scriptures. lol

7. What is the funniest thing that happened this week?

I actually wrote down funny moments so I would be able to answer this question. Hno Hernandez (who doesn´t speak English) tried to say "love" in class, but it came out as "lub" because in Spanish "v"s and "b"s so then we are like, no it´s "love" and he tries to make the "v" sound and totally spits all over his face. It was really funny. Also one of the days it was cold last week, we went outside because the power went out and Hna Brugman had a coat and I was shivering so she wrapped me up in her coat too and we were like a 2 headed person walking around and that was interesting. lol. I just love her!

8. How are things going with Hermana Whittle?

They are going better. A lot better. I think she likes me now... but I don´t really know. lol. But she talks more which I really appreciate. I wish she would jsut tell me whawt she thought of me, but whatever. I am just going to assume that she likes me now. We get along well and laugh and talk but I don´t know. I just know it´s a lot better than it was and I am grateful for that!

9. How is the language coming along? Is your district speaking Spanish more than 5% of the time now?

Um... yeah, it´s going well. I still haven´t learned anything new, just how to speak I guess. We are trying to do better at speaking. Some days are better than others. lol. It´s going to be a huge shock regardless when I go to Honduras in 11 days! WHAT?!

10. Besides going to the temple or having a baseball game, what else do you do on your P-Days?

Today we had haircuts! Hna Hernderson (Anchorage Ak North Stake, used to be 2nd Ward but now it´s called Airport Heights ward in the Maplewood chapel) is a certified beautician and has graduated hair school so she trimmed our hair today. We played a volleyball game as a district. It was so much fun! We decorated cookies. We are going to paint our nails and just sit and talk probably. Temple P-Days there is like no time for anything. Oh and we do laundry.

11. How are things going with your investigators?

They are going well. One of them is about to commit to a baptism day. We just got another one--Amanda, who is really Hna Valdez, our night teacher. We teach her tonight and so we don´t know a ton about her yet, but the other companionships that have taught her said she is really nice.

12. How is your health?

I am fine!

13. What can we as a family do to help you, support you, and encourage you?

I don´t know. but I still haven´t heard from Brie. I need to know how America's Next Top Model is going. I really love getting letters. I got a beautiful picture from Aliscea this week and it made my day!

14. Do you feel like a missionary yet? ;-)

Nope lol

15. What is that thing you sent a picture of that has a red frame and red legs....it looks like a mirror, maybe? (LOVE all the pictures you sent last week, by the way. Hna Brugman looks like she's SO much fun and the kind of person you will be friends with for life!)

I love her so much! She´s great! The red thing with the mirror is a fire hydrant believe it or not. Weird, huh?

16. Do you know that we love you and are SO proud of you?

Yes:)

17. What has been your favorite part of your MTC experience so far?

I don´t know...probably getting to spend time with the best hermanas ever and having the best teachers!

18. If you could give advice to missionaries getting ready to leave for the MTC, what would it be?

Use all of your time wisely even if your district doesn´t want to.

19. What has been the spiritual highlight of your week? What have you learned about yourself this week?

I really am terrible at asking questions to get to know/discern people. I really just can´t do it. I need to have more confidence in myself and in the Lord.

20. Are you still reading Jesus the Christ or have you finished it? What did you learn/are you learning from it?

I am still reading it. It´s like 800 pages and I´m on 550, I think. It´s just all so good! I read an interesting part this week that said Christ never exercized His power for anything unnecessary. Like when he raised Lazarus from the dead He asked that the stone be moved from his tomb and then after he arose, He asked for the wrappings to be taken off of him. He could´ve done all of those things with the power that He had, but He didn´t. I thoguht thtat was really interesting.

I don´t know my plans yet, but my packet said I would be leaving the 11th. What do you want me to do with the Disney pics on my camera? Did you download them all to the computer already? What about my phone? I would really like to keep the same number.

I see more and more cute clothes from ASOS here like a hot pink skirt with a belt and some pleat things at the tope...so cute.

I had some chocolate here that was so good! It was jsut like Ferrer Rocher (idk how to spell that) the ones that Mom likes a bunch but they were made by Kinder and it came in a bar instead of a ball of chocolate. It was delicious!

I timed my mile with the watch I have now and I ran an 8:30 last week and a 7:45 this week! TERRIBLE lol but what do you do at such high elevation. lol

I have now sewn 2 things and I feel so domestic. I had to fix a pocket that Mom sewed on my skirt and my laundry bag got a hole in it. So far I am not impressed with those bags, but oh well.

I tried ranch dressing on pizza this week. Something I swore I would never do! They served leftoever pizza on Wednesday (every Tuesday we get pizza) and it tasted kind of like soap...so I put ranch on it and it was actually pretty good!

I really can´t believe I have been here for a month! Like what?! Days are long and weeks are short! I´m really nervous about actually going to Honduras.

Coudl you send me color remover? Hna Whittle washed our clothes on the wrong cycle and my dachshund pajama pants got some pink on them. I am really not a happy camper about that but, at least nothing else was ruined.

Sorry my emails are jsut really random. AfterI answer questions I just kind of throw other things I had thought of at the end. lol

te quiero mucho!

Hermana Gisseman

With Hermana B -- I just love her!

Our district playing baseball on P-Day last week.

Hermana B and me

I got in the closet cubbord to try to scare our elders when they came in the room...it kind of failed but was super funny anyway

The girls in my district

Our district at volleyball today

Hermana B and me (hee hee)

I don't know if I sent this pic before but I really like it

The package Mom sent this week

I can totally wear my grey skirt as a dress! (Note from Alyssa's Mom....yeah, because it's a convertible skirt that is meant to be worn a either a dress or skirt! LOL)