Happy Thanksgiving!

Whoo... This week is finally over along with the month of November.

Monday was great fun.  Nobody wanted to talk to us.  I don't think we actually talked to anybody that day.  Which is super weird and doesn't happen very often.  We usually have more things to do and people to meet than we have time, not the other way around.

On Tuesday, we met with one of our investigators, Isabel, who is a sweet little lady.  We can only visit her at 1:00 on Tuesdays and Thursdays because of her husband.  Apparently he drinks, isn't very nice, and doesn't like any church beside the Evangelical church.  Then we spent a solid hour and a half calling the whole branch (excluding single men, families the Elders are working with, and people whose numbers we don't have) inviting them to the baptism on Saturday.  We then went to Argentina's house.  We weren't sure how it was going to go but she was much, much warmer this time around and she even invited us back.  Whooot!

On Wednesday, the mission had a "fire drill" where they decided to test the emergency plan.  We were told specifically not to plan anything from 6:00 in the morning to 3:00 in the afternoon.  So Hermana Newman and I didn't plan anything.  And then at 8:00 in the morning we received a call telling us that "the hurricane has passed" and we were to go about our normal daily activities. ...What?...  We had no plans...  So we decided to just do our weekly planning a day early.  It snowed during our planning.  We finished planning around 4:30 and then had appointments stacked every hour from 5:00 till 8:00 in the evening.

Turkey day!!!!  We raked leaves for three hours, ate a Thanksgiving lunch at a member's house, drove to our next appointment, helped them cook for two hours and then ate another dinner with them.  Then we drove to yet another dinner.  This dinner had forgotten they had invited us over, so they gave us some papusas to eat later.  We then drove to the church, let our food babies digest a little, and then played volleyball for two hours.  Super fun.  Elder Greene and Elder Hitchcock had a competition to see who could gain the most weight.  Elder Hitchcock won.  He gained 12 pounds.  And then he slept it all off.

On Friday, we had dinner with Alma and her daughters.  We ended up eating pizza instead of tongue tacos, which is fine by me.  After dinner we had a great lesson with Jennifer and Perla.  Jennifer was a little nervous for her baptism but she described it as an excited, can't wait, sort of nervousness.

On Saturday, we went to the church and started filling up the font at 12:00pm.  Then we set up the room and made a cute little scripture case for Jennifer's Book of Mormon.  We were super stressed about the baptism because nobody showed up until ten minutes before it started.  Ahhhh!!!!  Super stressful!

The baptism went smoothly and Jennifer was sooo so happy afterwards.  She came up out of the water with a big smile on her face and then when we were in the bathroom helping her change she asked why she was so happy.  At the very end of the baptism she was asked to share her testimony.  She said that she couldn't describe how she felt but that it was soo GOOD.

Right after the baptism, we went to Hermana Pinargote's house for dinner.  She fed us posole with tongue.  The taste buds were all swollen from the water and waving around like seaweed.  :P  We had a great lesson with her family where we asked them to write their testimonies on an index card and put it in a Book of Mormon.  We then asked them to give the Book of Mormon to a family friend.

We visited the Noboa family after the Pinargote's.  We shared two videos with the family and asked Hermano Noboa why he wasn't coming to church.  And he told us.  Now we have a better idea of how to help the family.  Hermana Noboa thanked us for "letting him get how he has been feeling out" as we were leaving.  Sometimes I am surprised at all of the things that people tell us.  I don't know why some people trust us so much.  It is always weird to me when we talk to somebody on the street and they tell us their life story.

Another one of our investigators, Analid, had her baby two days before Thanksgiving.  Hermana Newman and I are going to go over to her house and help her clean up.  I am amazed at how the Relief Society has reached out and helped her.  There have been Hermanas taking dinner over to her house and helping her with her laundry.

On Sunday, we went to our Jennifer's house early to make sure they came to church for Jennifer's confirmation.  Jennifer isn't too bad, but Perla and Danna are usually attached to a phone or iPod.  So, when nobody was watching, Hermana Newman took their iPod and hid it so that they might pay attention in church.  I thought it was a great idea until it backfired and Perla said she wasn't going to come to church unless she had her iPod.  Whatever.  We tried.

We visit Daniela every Sunday night at 8:00.  Yesterday she gave us Hostess cupcakes.  She told us that she had visited her friend and that her friend had given them to her.  I don't think she knows that Hostess is out of business...

And that sums up my week jam-packed full of stuff.  Unfortunately, Hermana Newman's camera thingie is still lost, so we can't send pictures home.  (Mine has never worked here in Maryland.  The library won't read my card.  And it isn't the card reader, it's either the computer or the camera.  Or both.  They just don't like each other.)  So either Hermana Newman needs to get a new card reader or I need to get a new camera.  So, sorry, no pictures this week either.  Maybe next week.