Week 49 -- Getting Ready to Paint!

The fungus on my arm is going away. The Doctor at church is graduating medical school this year and he's pretty smart and I trust him and he can actually see my arm in person. I asked Hna Marcia if what he told me to buy was good or not and she said that it is good and my skin been getting a lot better so don't worry... the hair falling out is still a major problem and I'm not joking when I say that my ponytail is soooo thin..... it scares me. I think that I have lost like a third of my hair but that may be over-exaggerating... .but I don't know what to do.

We did NOT have changes. So I am still comp menor (junior companion) while all the other hermanas in the mission are moving up. I was really upset but such is life and you don't always get what you want. There must be more I need to learn about being a follower, not a leader.  I'm so happy that I'm still here with Hna Marcia and Andrea:)

The ring I bought last week is thin silver and it makes a rose... I should just take a picture. And I bought several movies last week...Captain America 1 and 2, Despicable Me, one of the X-Men movies, and Thor, I think.  I don't really remember.  But I've got a nice movie collection to bring home with me.  :-)

1. How is Hermano I doing? 

 

Well, in between getting an answer and having his baptismal interview he talked with some testigos (anti-Mormons) and lost everything. He decided that he only believes in the Bible. So if it's not in the Bible he doesn't believe it.... so a complete 180 from where he was. We had an appointment with him and the elders came and it did not go well....  

2.  Your description of your area helped me to visualize it...but how big is it in terms of square miles?  I'm wondering about how much you walk every day.  I've thought about sending you a pedometer so you can measure your walking, just out of curiousity.  What is the size of the 1st edition and 2nd edition?  Are they like equivalent to a subdivision in size?

 

Yeah, they are like a tiny subdivision. You can walk lengthwise the editions in 2 minutes, and the other way lIN ike 5. So they are really small and it's laid out in a grid system. 

3.  Who else are you teaching?

 

Actually... not many people. We have Hermana S and we found a new sister, Hermana Z who is really cute. And a guy named E, a teenager who I think is really just interested in learning English but he came to our Noche de Cine activity at the church where we watched the film The Testaments and he came to church so we're going to try to visit him.There's potential as long as he doesn't try to flirt with us, LOL. But really we are looking and looking for new people.  

4.  How is Hermana S doing?

 

She is doing really, really well. She wants to get baptized, she knows it's true. She's reading in the Doctrine and Covenants, Moses, and 1 Nephi... like, who does that?! She wants to get baptized and then she can go on the temple trip with our ward on the 26th.... But she is just so pilas (awesome). She made us dinner the other day, too. Enchiladas Honduran style. 

5.  What did you do for P-Day today?

 

We went to San Pedro with Hermana Marcia because Hna N needed shoes really, really bad and I wanted to buy paint for Hermana Marcia so we can paint her living room and other rooms in her house.  :) It's the least I can do for her since she shares everything that she has with us. And so it was fun to just be out! And we ran in to missionaries from the San Pedro Sula East mission which was funny. 

6.  Are you ready for us to send you some new workouts for your exercise book?

 

Perhaps... I hardly exercise now which is terrible but I'm so exhausted... 

7.  What miracles and tender mercies have you seen this week?  Answers to your prayers?

 

Well, I found apiece of paper from when I was sick and had to go to the doctor during my transfer with Hna U and I actually weigh a few pounds less than I did when I left... so I have been freaking out about weighing more... and apparently I really don't. I have gotten fatter though, I think I've just lost muscle. But it made me feel better that I weigh less, LOL. But seriously, I don't know...this week was a rough one. But Hermana Marcia did go with us to San Pedro which was great, even if it was for her, because we wouldn't have been able to go without her. 

8.  How has someone else blessed your life this week?

 

Hermana S made us dinner and on Sunday at church the teacher asked her if she felt like she had recieved answers to prayers and she told about how she had been praying at the beginning of the year that she could find a church to go to and how we found her.  :) That made me feel like the work we do really is important and that there really are people waiting for us. 

9.  How have you blessed someone else’s life this week?

 

Buying the paint for Hermana Marcia.  :)

10.  What was the best thing that happened this week?

 

We had a Noche De Cine (movie night activity) with the ward and we watched the movie The Testaments. We had a lot of investigators and menos activos (less actives) there which was great. It was a rough start... but in the end we got everything working and we made popcorn and juice and people really liked it. And we got lots of contacts out of it, too! 

11.  What was the funniest/funnest thing that happened this week?

 

I don't know... 

12.  How was your Fast Sunday yesterday?  Do many people in your ward/branch bear their testimonies?

 

It was actually one of the best testimony meetings that I have ever been in. And one of the youth, Hermana Marcia's nephew, went out teaching with us for like 20 minutes this week to go contact his friend and he got up and bore his testimony about how we ended up finding 3 more people to teach and how he just felt so excited to do missionary work and it made me so happy. We weren't even with him that long and we did contact some people and they rejected us and he didn't say anything, but to him it was a really big deal and a huge testimony building experience. So that was so sweet. And a lot of people had good things to say about the Noche de Cine that we had and said they felt the Spirit so strongly and that it helped strengthen thier testimony that Christ lives. 

13.  What did you do for your district meeting and zone meeting this week?

 

We had a testimony meeting since there were changes and people left. Not many from our zone had changes which was nice, LOL. 

14.  What was the spiritual highlight of your week?

 

I think that Hermano I wants to know the Bible and I realized that I don't really know it that well.... so I set a goal to read the New Testament in Spanish so I have been doing that for part of my personal studies and I love it. And it's really easy to understand in Spanish so I feel like the Lord is blessing my language skills a lot because before it was really hard for me, but also that my ability to remember and to study the New Testament has grown and I'm finding scriptures for people and it's so cool. But I feel like my study means more because I have motivation, if that makes sense. 

15.  What did you learn from your personal study this week?

 

Oh, well, I talked about that a little bit... but I liked the parable of the wicked husbandman or something like that where the guy opens a vineyard and hires laborers and they kill the servants, so he sends more servants and they kill them, too. So then he sends his son. So that is like how God sent prophets and the people rejected them. Then He sent His son, and they killled Him, too. But then in the parable it says that He would call other servants in time, and that's like the restoration of the gospel and how He did call prophets again when the time was right... so, yeah, the restoration is in the Bible. :-)

16.  Do you know that I love you SO much and I miss you?

 

Always. 

17.  What was the most beautiful thing you saw this week?

 

The little puppy.... it was so cute. 

18.  Did anything unusual or strange happen this week?

 

Well, Hermana M got a new puppy since her dog died and it's so cute, but I think that it died today which makes me sooo sad. I was petting it and it started seizing and my heart was just breaking because I love little dogs. And it was so cute but we haven't been back to see it so I don't know... but it was really sick.  :(

19.  What are you looking forward to this week?

 

Painting Hermana Marcia's house!!!!! 

20.  What was the best thing and the worst thing you ate this week?

 

We ate a Mexican dish with pretty much soggy tortilla chips, but it was WAY good! So I tried to write down mas o menos (more or less) the recipe but we will see if I can make it when I get home, lol. The worst.... I don't really remember. Oh, and today I ate an icecream cone from McDondalds....chocolate cone with chocolate ice cream with oreos on top...for 15 lmps which is less than a dollar. Yeah, I'm lovin' it. 

21.  How do you think your understanding of the Savior and his divine mission has changed since you've been on your mission?

 

I don't know that I really understood the love that He had. Well maybe a little, but I think that I can feel that more on my mission and feel His love not only for me, but for other people. And I understand more that we don't have to be perfect, that He really will help us. That He will make up the difference, no matter how far short we fall. So it's okay to make mistakes and to fall and get back up again, to learn and to try. He just wants us to be happy. 

22.  How are Amy and Melissa doing?

 

Really well! Amy's going to train next change. Melissa has been a sister training leader... they are just so great. I have really good friends. 

If you're sending a package, you could send Mio, and if you could just send recipes for Andrea in an e-mail that would be better...because Andrea keeps asking me for them. Any recipes that are simple because a lot of American stuff here is expensive so it has to be really homemade stuff but whatever you want to  send like cake, cookies whatever. But she really wants recipes. Yeah, 11 months now... 

Love you! 

Hermana Gisseman

No pictures this week = sad missionary mama!

Week 48 -- Another Baptism and I Hit 11 Months Tomorrow!

Hola!!!

Well, there are transfers this week but we won't know until tonight if one of us has a transfer so... yeah, I don't know. I really don't feel like I will be leaving at all but if I did I think that I would be soooo sad. I love Hna Marcia and her family and Andrea and just all of them are so great... and we have some great people we are teaching but we will see....maybe next week I will have exciting news for you or things will just be the same haha...

As for the Disney trip... I want to be able to go to all the parks. I don't care where we stay although I do like the moderate resorts better but after living in Honduras I think anything is nice. In fact, I was happy when there was free toilet paper in a public bathroom today! And I would like to go to 'Ohana. But other than that I don't really care what we do as long as we go together.  :)

1. Did E get baptized this weekend?  How is Iris doing?  How is Hno I? E did get baptized this week.  :)  All the jovenes (youth) from the church were there to support him and they have youth activities on Saturdays here and so after the baptism they all went and played water balloon volleyball and he said he had a lot of fun and it looks like he already has friends. And there was a cake at his baptism which made me happy! Iris is really happy that E got baptized.  He's a good kid. Hno I... oh, goodness. So he got an answer that the church is true and we had a cita (appointment) with him and he was supposed to pray about September 6th (this Saturday) to get baptized and he felt like he got the answer that he needs to get baptized but he has cold feet about the fecha, so we read about the Brother of Jared in Ether and how sometimes the Lord makes us wait and make our preparations before we ask Him to help us. So his preparations would be coming to E's baptism and having his baptismal interview and obviously still pray. So we are working with him but he doesn't want to feel pressured and he still doesn't want to mess up after he gets baptized so we will see if it happens this week or not... He keeps coming to church, even on his birthday!

2.  Tell me about one of your days from this week.  What did you do, where did you go, what did you teach in lessons, who did you meet with, etc.? 

 

This question is not that exciting because we pretty much do the same thing everyday, lol. We wake up at 6:30, we exercise por un ratito (for a while). Then I shower and eat and study, then we have companion study and then we leave at 10 am and the mornings pretty much suck so if we don't have correlacion with our mission leader or other meetings we have citas (appointments) but no one is ever home in the mornings and if they are, they are all making lunch and it's the hotttest part of the day. So we walk around and visit a few menos activos (less active members). Then we come in at noon for a little bit of language study and then we go down to lunch with Hna Marcia. We leave again at 2 pm and we usually have citas every hour because we don't have enough people to have citas every half hour and we talk a little bit much, so yeah.... and we come home at 8 pm. I will try to explain how our area is. So the area is like a big rectangle. So imagine a piece of paper but look at it like landscape style... fold it in half hamburger way (????), and then fold it in half again. So you end up with 4 equal long rectangle sections. The first rectangle section from the left is the 3rd edition (???) of the area, the next section is the 2nd edition and the next is the main section where we live. The section on the far right is San Miguel and in comparison is very tiny. The church is at the very top of the paper between the 2nd and 3rd editions. Now above that piece of paper are two other colonies (neighborhoods?) that are A LOT smaller than our area but they are full of richer people and its harder to teach there so we usually walk around in the victoria, the first and the 2nd editions.

3.  What did you do for P-Day today?

 

We were supposed to go to the beach! But no..... so we didn't do anything. Hna N needs new shoes so we went to a tiny mall that is in Choloma and didn't have any luck there. I tried on a bunch of somewhat cute tops just for fun but nothing fit me, or they were too see through, lol. But I also tried on my jeans today... yeah.... they fit in the waist but they are now really, really tight everywhere else.... so I don't know that I will wear tat size anymore when I get home.... so sad.  We went to the mall but no luck... and now we are here... so that's pretty much all we have done today, lol.

4.  How was the conference with Elder Alonso?  How did the musical number(s) and the choir do? 

 

IT WAS SO LEGIT! Elder Alonso is pretty scary, actually. He just says what he thinks and says it like it is and calls people out and, wow... he's really intimidating and I would never want to talk to just him, lol, but he had lots of good stuff to say. So he didn't really come with anything prepared, he just answered our questions so it was a big Q and A thing. But we went with half the mission. We sang the song and we didn't even get to practice it all the way through with the other zone before he got there...so that made me really, really nervous but it ended up being good. Elder Alonso made a joke at m,e though, because i was trying to get the choir to sing louder so I cupped my hand behind my ear right to sign to them to sing louder and he said, "we should really take this hermana to get her hearing checked because she doesn't hear anything!" and then he said, "well, it was a nice musical number even if some people came in a little late or a little too early at times....": Ugh! Well, sorry....everyone should try directing missionaries in a musical number.!Anyway, I really liked some of the different perspectives that he shared with us. We read the parable of the good samaritan in Luke 10 and how it represents Christ. He had people do practices teaching it but they all talked about service and so he stopped us and we went through it. So when it talks about the man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho it symbolizes leaving the premortal life and coming down to the earth. And the theives are temptations and Satan and how sin leaves us half dead and unable to do enything for ourselves. We can't take away our own sins. Neither could the other two men on the path take them away, they didn't have the authority. But the third man, which would represent Christ, can. So Christ healed the man with oil and wine. Oil would probably be olive oil and we know that the process of making that oil is comparable to the suffering of Christ as well as making of wine which symbolizes His blood. And He paid the price for us with his suffering but in the end if there is more left to pay, He will pay it. So I had never thought about that parable in that way that Christ was the good samaritan but I never saw how perfectly all the symbols and imagery go together. So yeah, I really liked that and he said that in our scripture study that we should look for the plan of salvation and the atonement in everything. Other example... 1 Nephi 1:1... if you look at it from a plan of salvation perspective, Nephi is talking about being taught by his Heavenly Father in the premortal life and that his works here on earth are being written in the book of life.... interesting. But it was cool. Elder Alonso really knows what he's talking about... and he talks like he knows Christ. I want to be able to (one day) speak and teach and testify like that.

5.  How is Hna S doing?

 

She's is doing well.... she realized that her "husband" is holding her back. She cannot progress or get baptized or anything unless he does too since they are together. So she didn't come to church because she felt bad and was making a point to him that he has to change. So we were really worried yesterday. And we had a cita with them with a family in the ward who is really becoming friends with them (thanks for befriending Diana...it REALLY, REALLY makes a huge difference!!!) and it turns out he started smoking again and it really upset Hna S. So they are going to see how things go for 2 weeks and if they are good they will get married and then baptized but if they aren't so good they will split up and stop living together and Hna S will get baptized and hopefully he will too, but the plan is that in the next two weeks they will get better and get married! But it was a really good lesson with them and they both need patience with the other one. But there is no doubt in my mind that they will get baptized.

6.  What miracles and tender mercies have you seen this week?  Answers to your prayers?

 

E got baptized without any problems and there was cake and he even gave us little hair scrunchies as a thank you which was really sweet. And Andrea came back! I don't remember if I told you but they went out of town for a week to San Pedro and we came home to a dark house all week but they got home and have been here so it feels like home again.  :)  

7.  How has someone else blessed your life this week? 

 

Familia M (the family that is befriending Hna S and her "husband") gave us some really, really, really good cake!  They bought it from a bakery and it was soooooo gooooood!!!! So that just made me super excited, haha.  I got a little bracelet from Hna P for my birthday and Hna A sent me a picture of the two of us with a sweet note:)

8.  How have you blessed someone else’s life this week? 

 

Not sure.

 

9.  What was the best thing that happened this week?

 

E's baptism went really well. But I really loved the conference and I got to see Hermana V and I just love her so much! She is so great and I think that my time in Santa Rosa with her will be some of my favorite memories:)

10.  What was the funniest/funnest thing that happened this week?

 

We bought water guns and have been squirting each other at any time possible, haha.

11.  What did you learn in church yesterday?

 

I don't know... it was really hard to pay attention because they were talking about food storage and family home evening... two things that don't really apply to us right now so I kind of zoned out a little bit and I was waiting and loooking for Hna S the whole time and they didn't come.  :( But Hno I did come which was good! And E was confirmed.

12.  What did you do for your district meeting and zone meeting this week?

 

Elder G talked about using the Book of Mormon more to help in conversion and it was a good lesson.

13.  Have you had any ideas of pranks or practical jokes you can play on Elder S to get him back for putting the lizard in your hymnbook?

 

We squirted him with our water guns!

14.  What was the spiritual highlight of your week?

 

The conference with Elder Alonso.

15.  What did you learn from your personal study this week?

 

Lots of stuff that I don't remember at the moment.... but I read the Liahona magazine a lot this week and that's always a good read. I finished Jeremiah (finally).

16.  Do you know that I love you SO much and I miss you?

 

Always

17.  What was the most beautiful thing you saw this week?

 

There was a realyl pretty sunset so i took a picture of it for you.  :)

18.  Did anything unusual or strange happen this week?

 

Well, it's been happening for a while now... but my hair falls out like nothing else! It's quite ridiculous! Maybe I even said this last week, I don't remember... I'm almost afraid to wash my hair now because it falls out so much and I don't know if it's because it's hot or stress or what...I don't know...but it's gross. And I have fungus on my arm but don't worry, there's a doctor in our ward and he gave me a cream for it.

19.  What are you looking forward to this week?

 

Transfers.  I don't think that we will have them but the zone will change and new people are always good to get to know.

20.  What was the best thing and the worst thing you ate this week?

 

We ate really gross baleadas last night.... I don't know why the tortillas were so weird but they were not good and the cheese tasted old, like smelly feet!

21.  How do you think you’ve grown personally and spiritually in the last few months?

I think that...well, I don't know.... I feel the same. But I think that I am learning more patience with myself. Maybe I still need more patience with others, lol, but I think that I am more hopeful in the fact that I can change and that really I will have all the time that is necessary because God wants me to succeed and He will give me the opportunities I need to change.  I don't know if that makes sense, lol, this email is long and I've been typing for a while.

I got cards from Gena and Mom! Thanks! I won't get any mail this week because of transfers.... there is never mail the week before transfers.

Oh, and after transfers when the newbiew get here we will be a mission of 223 missionaries. WOW!

Tomorrow will be 11 months on the mission!  Wow!  Seven months just seems like such a long time sometimes. l love the mission but it's so dang hard. And when I put my jeans on today I didn't have my nametag on and I just looked like me, like just Alyssa. And sometimes I miss just being Alyssa.  But I know I'm where I'm supposed to be!

Love you!

The pedicures we got last week


My watermelon fingernails from last week

 

Beautiful sunset...made me think of you, Mom!

 

 

I made this book....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At E's baptism

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 47 -- A Baptism and My Birthday!

Thanks for all the Birthday wishes!  I got a birthday package from the Swansons, and cards from Bishop Clark, Coach K, and Grace Clark this week.  Thank you!  I am so spoiled and blessed.  Thank you SO much!

1.  Tell me about your birthday!  Did you like your gifts?  Do they fit?  Do you like them?  What did you do? 

We celebrated my birthday on Friday. So my companion actually didnt feel well and we went back to the house a little bit early and waited for Marcia and at like 7:30 she got home and we made brownies (like American Betty Crocker ones) with Nutella on top and a fruit pizza and Marcia made her hamburgers which I really like. Then we opened my gifts!!! I LOVED my skirts! They were so cute and I loved all my gifts, actually! I got a scarf and a really cute tiny wallet crossbody from the Swansons. Andrea sent me a hilarious book (haha!) and the lotion you sent smells really really good. I love the earrings that Brie sent. But, yeah, I don't remember everything because it was like four packages, LOL, but I loved it! And Grandma and Papa's box had a bunch of shredded paper in it and Marcia ran up and threw it in the air and then we had a shredded paper fight and there was paper EVERYWHERE as you can see in the pictures! Then for my actual birthday we had ward conference so I had to play the piano... and afterwards we ate more cake with Marcia. And then we ate cake with Iris since she got baptized and Angi, her niece who is a member and she has like 10 years, painted my finger nails to look like watermelons, lol. And we had dinner with Israel and he told us that he prayed and felt like he got an answer so that was a miracle! And, yeah, I wanted to watch a movie so when we got home we watched "The District", how exciting, hahahaha. But, yeah, my skirts fit. I haven't tried the shirts on but I'm sure that they will fit just fine. 

2.  Tell me about one of your days from this week.  What did you do, where did you go, what did you teach in lessons, who did you meet with, etc.? 

This week we had divisions with the Sister Training Leaders. So after our district meeting on Tuesday we went home and waited for them... and waited for a good hour and a half. So we missed the 2 citas (appointments) we had that were real appointments and it was our first day getting back to work so everything was scattered and weird.....so we left at like 4 pm and visited a menos activo and her daughter... and we read a scripture with them and left because really they aren't progressing.... then we found some new folks and we left pamphlets with them and set appointments to come back and explain.... and we stayed in this colonia (neighborhood) whose  walking distance from one end to the other is 5 minutes... it's TINY!  We try to talk with whoever is outside and who isn't moving because it's creepy and hard to contact people who are walking towards you.... 

3.  What did you do for P-Day today? 

Hna N and I went to get pedicures today!!!!! But they are different as far as the atmosphere.... there were lots of cockroaches and they don't have massage chairs.... but whatever. My feet feel nice now, lol. It's funny because the style here is to wear your toenails realllllly long which is weird... so I asked her to cut mine and she was like for real? LOL. Then we went to Fesi (the stake center) to practice for the choir I'm directing this week.... and I had to transpose the song into a different key which was hard but I did it and I felt like a boss. I think the Lord is blessing my musical abilities a lot.... then the stake president bought us pizza for lunch and now we are here! 

4.  How did the musical numbers go at ward conference yesterday? 

Three musical numbers but I only played for two of them and I also played the hymns. It wasn't that bad. 

5.  How was ward conference?  Did you have investigators there? 

It was pretty good. I felt a lot better after my playing the piano was done. We had six investigators there so that's more than normal. And Hna I got confirmed!!!  Hna S and her family came and E, and Israel:) 

6.  How are Hna I, E, and Israel doing?  And Hna S and her family? 

Hna I got baptized!  We didn't fill up the pila as much as we should have so when our Mission Leader got there he turned it on so it was on for all the talks.... UGH. But anyways, I shouldn't complain because she got baptized and now she's a memeber and she's just so dang cute! And E came to church so now he will get baptized this Saturday:)  Israel came and we challenged him to get baptized on the 6th of September (wow, it's almost September) and he is supposed to pray about that. But he didn't say so there is definitely a change there which is really, really good! And yeah, Hna S is so pilas and ready to get baptized... she just has to get married but doesn't want to yet because her boyfriend drinks and used to do some not great stuff and she just hasn't seen a big enough change in him yet... but we are getting there.... so, yeah, the people we have who are progressing are so pilas! 

7.  What miracles and tender mercies have you seen this week?  Answers to your prayers?  

Israel got an answer to his prayers!!!! That's pretty huge and Hna I got baptized and the ward conference went well and it was a pretty good week.  I think that's a miracle in itself.  When we were on divisions it started pouring rain during a cita. but it stopped when we were about to leave and didn't come back all day! 

8.  How has someone else blessed your life this week?  

Marcia! She is jsut so dang cute! And the little party she threw for me was just so nice. I felt like I was with family. And they took a ton of pictures so I hope they all upload.

9.  How have you blessed someone else’s life this week? 

I don't know. I think that this week I was a little to impatient with everyone since I had to prepare for the conference, the other conference, and divisions with the sister training leaders, and I'm old now and so on and so forth...I should probably look for ways to serve more. 

10.  What was the best thing that happened this week? 

My little birthday party with Marcia. And Angi gave me a rose for my birthay. It's so cute! 

11.  What was the funniest/funnest thing that happened this week? 

I don't really know.... probably Marcia throwing the paper everywhere

12.  What did you learn in church yesterday? 

That I actually really love playing the piano.... 

13.  What did you do for your district meeting and zone meeting this week? 

We talked about questions and how we can ask more effective questions. And Elder Scott always makes us do practices and I hate them and I never talk so they all think I suck.... not really. But I hate practices and I just...ugh...can't do them. 

14.  What was the spiritual highlight of your week? 

I don't really know.... I think it was Hna I's baptism.

15.  What did you learn from your personal study this week? 

I was reading in Jeremiah and in chapters 42 and 43-ish there was a group of people who asked Jeremiah to pray to ask the Lord something and they were like "we promise that whatever the Lord says we will do!" and so Jeremiah went and prayed and it says he got an answer 10 days later (which shows we don't always get our answers right away) and the answer wasn't what the people wanted and he told them that if they went to Egypt that they would die pretty much and then they got all bent out of shape and went to Egypt anyways and didn't listen to the Lord. So I thought that was interesting because as people how often do we tell the Lord that we will do whatever He asks and then when push comes to shove we don't do it?

16.  Do you know that I love you SO much and I miss you? 

Always! 

17.  What was the most beautiful thing you saw this week? 

All my birthday presents... heehee!

18.  Did anything unusual or strange happen this week? 

Not really....there were a lot of cockroaches in the beauty salon that did our nails though.... 

  

19.  What are you looking forward to this week? 

The conference with Elder Alonso.... I'm leading the choir for that, too!  We're singing an arrangement of "I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go" and I'm also leading the hymns

20.  What was the best thing and the worst thing you ate this week? 

Best thing... cake. Worst thing was some club crackers with mayo on them.... I hate mayo! But I think I will be a soda addict when I get home... we literally drink it everyday, haha. 

Just so you know, our mission is 70 percent Latino and 30 percent gringos.... I can't believe Becky Rhoden is home already and that she really went skydiving!  Wow -- that's crazy!  I feel like I have s much time left to go but I guess it will go way too fast.  I really don't have that much time left.

Hna U said she got a package from you this week and she loved it.  :-)

Thanks for all your love and support! 

Hermana Gisseman

(Aaah...I'm so old now!)

Shoes that I bought

Experimenting with hairstyles

They decorated the door for my birthday!

 

One of the elders drew these

Hna Marcia made hamburgers for my birthday

And fruit pizza and real American brownies!

Opening gifts

Hna I with her family at her baptism