Hey Mom!!!
But oh my gosh , Lathen wearing glasses??? I can't even imagine. He's gonna be just like Stew! You'll have to send me a picture for sure.
Also, I wish I could see Bella play some field hockey... I won't even be able to do that when I get home... but it sounds like she is having a good time! Other than that one girl... but good for Bella to deal with her. Lowkey would think it was hilarious to have Bella get in a fight!! But it's better to not. You can tell her about my experience with Callin... the nice people are always put with the more annoying people, but hey it's good for us. And that is awesome that she made select strings!! And for the piano! Does she still like the violin? Or is she gonna quit in highshool?
Oh man though that fire sounds nice... I miss that... we have a fireplace in our house, and I've been building up the newspaper so that maybe we can use it. Now we just have to find wood... but also it still gets to the 80s during the day, so I don't think we'll be needing a fire for a bit. I really just want it to be cold... maybe not like cold cold, but colder.
This week was SO great!! It was one of those weeks that made me excited and happy to be a missionary!! Like, I have a great life. So, for this week I thought I'd get creative and tell about my week by going through what we do on a daily basis. I apologize in advance for my inability to be creative, but hey, I'm trying!
Anyways, every day I wake up at 6:30 and then we exercise for 30 minutes. this week I was un poco lazy, so my workouts weren't as great as they could have been. But Hermana Feveryear and Hermana Eppich and I have come up with a good workout plan for the next week! So we are excited for that, and hopefully we will be able to stick with it... it's harder when it gets colder out...
But then around 7:15 we get ready for the day and plan what we are gonna do for that day. And then at 9, we start our studies. We have personal study, companionship study, and language study. Personal study is always great. Right now I'm focusing on reading the Book of Mormon and finishing it by the end of the year. I still have like half left, so it's a good bit, but I can do it. Currently I'm in 3 Nephi, which is when Christ appears to the people in the Americas. It is so cool to learn more about his teachings and to get to read that account. I want to study other things as well, but right now I'm just focusing on the Book of Mormon and getting that done. But I also like to study topics, and I want to start reading in the new testament. So if you have any good ideas of what topics or other things I can study, send them over!!
But we have personal study for an hour, and then companionship study for an hour. This is awesome cause me and Hermana Feveryear get to read some things together and talk abut what we learned and what we liked. We also get to share the things we learned during our personal study. I love this time, cause Hermana Feveryear has some pretty awesome studies and I love hearing about what she learned. But then we work with what we have learned, and try to apply that to the people we are teaching, to see how we can better help them understand the importance behind the things we are teaching. And that is also for an hour. And then we finish with an hour of language study. I usually read the scriptures in Spanish which is a good time. It takes a while though, because I am going through and reading and highlighting the words I don't know and looking them up. It's a long process, but it is helping. I also practice some other things and look at the grammar and sometimes listen to Spanish videos and such. But that is also a good time. There are lots of studies, but they are all very good!
After we finish our studies it's about noon which is lunch time, which I always love cause, you know, food. But after lunch we are out for just about the rest of the day visiting people! Sometimes we visit the members to get a better relationship with them so they can help us in our missionary efforts to find more people we can teach. So we visited some of the members and it was so fun. They are all sooo loving and kind to us! It's fun to be able to get to know them all better and have that better relationship with them. But we visited a lot of members this week.
Some other people we visit are the people we are currently teaching. Right now, we are only really steadily teaching 2 people, Gabe and Juana. they are both lovely people! But I want to talk about Gabe specifically this week. Because of exchanges we had last week, I missed the lesson we had with Gabe, so it had been like almost 2 weeks since I had seen them, and usually I see him and his family much more than that. So it was REALLY great to see them again I loved it. I love them! They really feel like my family away from family. We had a short lesson with Gabe, and then we hung out with them a bit and caught up. Their little girl, Marta, painted my nails pink sparkly cause she really wanted to. Totally my style too, right? Those came off the next day... haha. But the thing I've been working on is really being Gabe's friend. Cause like I feel really close with his wife and kids, but I want to be that close with him, and I want him to know that I care about him and am his friend. And I really feel like that is happening! so that made me really happy. Especially cause Gabe is a cool dude! So that made me super happy and was probably one of my bigger accomplishments of the week.
And with the time we have left after visiting members and the people we are teaching is we go try to find more people to teach! That is sometimes walking around and talking to everyone, even if it's awkward cause it usually is. And so we try potentials that missionaries have left the names of of people in the area who might have interest. That is the harder part, but it's still a good time! You get to talk with a lot of people, and meet so many cool people! The thing that was really nice about this week was that we had our car back, so we could go places faster, which means we had more time to talk to people and do missionary work! iI's pretty great to feel productive, and like I'm actually getting work done.
But between all the visiting, we get dinner around 6! Usually we eat at a member's house which is super fun cause great Mexican food and great people. But one night we didn't have a dinner, so Hermana Feveryear and I decided to go out to eat, cause we had a lesson coming up and didn't have enough time to go home for dinner. So we went to a local burger and shake place and it was good! But while we were there, we decided to mess around and go on a pretend first date, cause those are awkward and funny, so we were feeling like shaking things up a bit. I realize that's weird, but hey missionaries are weird. We have to have our form of entertainment somehow. also, I was a perfect gentleman. just saying.
And then after visiting everyone, we get back home around 9 and get ready for bed and are in bed by 10:30! I usually write in my journal, but I've been bad at that this week, cause I've spent a lot of time talking with the other hermanas. And that isn't a bad thing! I love talking with them and hanging with them! It's always so much fun! I feel like in college I never had super close friends where I would genuinely just love talking to and could talk to them for hours. So it's so fun to have that kind of experience now. Like, this is what it would be like to have great roommates. But I love all the hermanas so much. Hermana Eppoch and I are so similar it's crazy. But it's so fun. She is so awesome and a really great friend. I'm gonna be so sad when she leaves the mission in December... But I'm also glad that i got the chance to know her.
But yeah that is about how the day goes! but now for some random thoughts I couldn't fit in :)
So first, in my personal study one day, Christ was talking to the 12 men he just called to be his disciples. He was telling them to preach to all the people that all would have the chance to hear about Christ and his gospel. And he told them not to worry about temporal things, like what they would drink or wear or things like that, because God would provide a way for them as they continue to do His work. I have found that to be true for myself! People are always SO kind and giving to the missionaries! Sometimes people will see us at the story and offer to pay for our groceries. It's just cool to see that as I continue in my missionary purpose, to invite others to come unto Christ, God is there, and he is watching me and taking care of me.
The other thing is that with the new transfer of last week, we have some new people in our district. now there are only 2 other elders, and us 4 hermanas. so it's kinda small, but fun. Hermana Feveryear and I seem to keep running into the elders though. It's kinda funny, especially when you just see them driving down the road. But we're homies with them, so it's a fun time.
And one last thing. I have yet to talk about the weird food I ate this week. and this week the specialty is: Calebaza con leche (pumpkin with milk). Shat they do, is they cut up a pumpkin, get rid of the seeds, throw it in a pot with sugar and some water, and let it sit. The pumpkin gets soft and sweet cause of the sugar. After it's soft, you take off the skin and put it in a bowl with milk and eat it! iI sounds really weird, and looks even weirder... but we had heard many people talk about calebaza con leche, and so we were excited to try it. It was not too bad. Like better than I thought. If t was given to me though I'd eat it again, but idk if I would go out of my way to eat it. I'll send pictures of that. It's quite the sight to see.
Also, there are so many pomegranates out here! The trees are everywhere! There is this one less active we are working with, and we went over to his house the other day and he gave us 12 pomegranates!!! It was crazy, cause those things are expensive and he was just giving them away and still had so many left! I wish I could send some to you, but I guess instead I'll just share with you :)
But it was a good week! Sorry for the lengthy email... I feel like I always do that, but hey I got a lot to say!
Anyways, I hope that you have an awesome week and that you are getting hype for Halloween!! i know i am!!
te quiero y te extraño!
Kiley
Hermana Atkinson
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