Chicken Hearts Anyone?

Sooooo...  Where to begin.

On Monday a week ago, Hermana Newman and I went to Five Below, which is kind of like a dollar store but for five dollars instead of just one.  It was great.  From 6:00pm to 7:00pm was spent trying to find somebody to talk to.  We did end up talking to one of our less active recent converts.  (There are, unfortunately, a lot of them in this branch.)  She had just turned 12 and so we invited her to Mutual the next day.  (In Maryland, Mutual is on Tuesday instead of Wednesday.  Weird, huh?)

Tuesday we went to Mutual expecting to meet the less active girl and two other investigators there.  They all bailed on us.  Ahhh... teenagers.  Oh wait, that's still me!  :)  We went over to another less active member's house that night and ended up helping her niece and nephew learn English.  They have been learning for about the same time I have been learning Spanish and they are sooooo good.  Wow.  They have been learning it on the fly in school because they just moved here from wherever they are from and their parents don't speak English either.  We just thought we could help them and they would help us.  It feels good to be told you are doing a good job.  So that's what we told them.  And it's true anyway.

Wednesday we met with loads of people.  We also had one of our investigators tell us that she wasn't interested right then, but that she will call us when she is.  Things were just too busy for her just then.  We have been having the hardest time finding people who have jobs (and therefore have cars and phones and all of that jazz -- i.e., have the ability to actually progress) and still have time to meet with us.  I think it's great that all of these people are soooo hard working.  I also think that some things are more important than work and money.  Things like family and fun.  If all you do is work to support your family and never have time to talk with them, soon you won't have a family.

Enough Hermana Crotzer rants about people and time...

On Thursday, a lot happened.  But I'm going to skip it so I have time to write about other things.  :)

On Friday we finally got hold of one of our investigators.  We thought that she had been ignoring us or that something awful had happened.  Turns out she was just really sick and couldn't meet with us.  Which is sad that she was sick.  But she still wants to talk to us and learn from us.  Also, her boyfriend is being deported.  Which is sad for her.  But now she can be baptized.  That is an upside.

Saturday morning we were out exercising and we were chased down by this guy on a bike.  It was soooo freaky.  We were cooling down from our run,  i.e. we were walking, and we heard this really, really creepy voice say, "Good morning S-----"  (We aren't sure of the last word.)  So we looked around and it was this guy on a bike.  But he had turned the corner and so we thought we were fine.  A few minutes later, Hermana Newman turns around and says, "Hermana, he's following us."  So we walk faster.  And faster.  And then we run.  We didn't want him to know where we lived, so we ran into a random apartment complex.  I don't know how, but we picked the ONLY apartment complex with a little nook to hide in.  Thank you, God.  Soooo much.

Later on Saturday we went to an investigator's baby shower.

I didn't think it would be such a big deal but it was HUGE.  And at first Hermana Newman and I thought it was in a Baptist church.  Yup, Mormon missionaries in a Baptist church for a baby shower.  Why not?  We also went to a birthday party and ate a gazillion papusas and got a bunch of referrals.   Missionary work is great.

Sunday, I got to eat my first organ.  Chicken hearts.  Yummy.  At first, I wasn't going to have to eat it.  I had one in my soup and so I just flipped it out of my bowl, into my napkin, and then whisked it into my pocket while nobody was looking.  But then halfway thorough dinner, Hermana Newman plopped one into my bowl and said, loudly, "Hermana Crotzer, you need to try one of these."  The member heard her and said that, yes I did need to eat it and that I would find these in Argentina.  Ohhh... Hermana Newman was going down after dinner.  Here is a picture of the one that I hid in my pocket.

The one in the picture is a nice one.  You can't see all of the little valves and stuff.  The one I had to eat, I could count the chambers and name all the parts.  Bleh.

Oh, and the tacos we ate with this chicken heart soup:  Those weren't just any tacos.  Those were tongue tacos.  MMMMM...

Yesterday I got to go to Baltimore.  Whooooo!

We went to the National Aquarium with the Ellicott City sisters, Sister Jeffery and Sister Johnson.

It was awesome.

Earlier this week, it rained for two days straight.  As in, 48 hours of rain.

And...

That's all I've got.

Hermana Crotzer

p.s.  A random fun fact:

I got permission to change my last name so that people can actually say it.  I dropped the "t" so now it's Crozer.  Cr-oh-ser.  Hopefully.  There is a possibility that my name will still be impossible to say and I just wasted four dollars on a new name tag.  If that is the case, I will continue to go by "Hermana".  Just thought I would tell all of you because it is fun.  Not really important.  Just fun.

Our Crazy Week

This last week has been really, really crazy.

On Monday we visited with the Rivera girls and watched the Restauracion [Restoration] with them.  They have been investigators for I don't even know how long.  Before I got here.  They were having a problem with the cable that connects the TV and the DVD/blueray player and so Joseph Smith and all his buddies were blue smurf people.  But the Riveras took it quite well and were very mature about it.

Tuesday we had our first phone call lesson with Lucy.  She just moved here and is a recent convert of 3 to 6 weeks.  And she is awesome.  We also had a lesson/party with one of our less active members.  Her friend/worker is leaving to go back to Argentina for about a month and Hermana Casas invited us over to say good bye to her.  We had a great lesson about the Book of Mormon and we gave her a copy and then ate cake.

Wednesday was Elder Green's birthday so we had dinner over at Presidente Flores' house.  All five of us missionaries.  You can see all three of the elders in the picture along with Presidente Flores.  Elder Green, the birthday boy, is sitting in the chair receiving a cake.  Elder Dutson is the one in the red tie sort of standing in the middle.  And you can just see Elder Greene in the corner taking a picture with a red camera.  Because Elder Greene is diabetic and has been put on a strict diet, we ate a lot of vegetables and meat.  The only wheat-y thing was the cake.

Thursday we met a new investigator that the elders were handing over to us.  We all shuffled into her house at 10:00am  (when we normally should have been planning) and taught her a lesson together.  Then we had to get Hermana Newman's fingerprints.  That was fun and it took alllll morning.  We also had a lesson with Aivy, one of our less active members, who told us that she wanted help understanding the Book of Mormon.  She told us she was going to read it so that she could help her kids.  Yay!

Friday we did our weekly planning which was supposed to happen on Thursday.  We got a little busy on Thursday.  Uhhh... we also met with a potential investigator named Analid.

On Saturday, we had arepas, I think that is how you spell it, at Fabiola's house for breakfast and then we toodled on over to the church building to watch general conference.  Hermana Newman and I watched it in Spanish.  The Spanish elders watched it in English.  Those slackers.  :)

Sunday was more or less the same, except we ate dinner instead of breakfast at Marcos and Fabiola's house.  I don't know how we ended up eating at their house two days in a row.  The elders watched general conference in English again and we watched it in Spanish.  Elders Green(e) say they have no guilt about watching it in English but Hermana Newman and I felt it was important to support our branch.  And we can read it in English when the November Ensign comes out.  Did you know that Richard G. Scott can speak Spanish?  He translated his own talk.

Next week is transfers.  Elder Dutson is leaving us but the Elders Green(e) are staying.  Argentina changed its law and so Hermana Newman and I might be getting our visas in a few weeks.  AHHHH!

For this next picture:

Can't see anything?  That's right.  It's 6:30 in the morning and we're running.  Good thing you can't see my peeling face.  I can't wait for daylight savings.  And yet, I can.

Here's what it looked like later on:

Until next week --
Hermana Crotzer

Editor's notes:  The Restoration is a video / DVD that depicts the events in Joseph Smith's life that led to the restoration of true church doctrine such as was taught in Jesus' day.  If you would like to see a copy of the video, you can view it online here.  But there won't be blue smurf people in this version.  :)

The Ensign is a church magazine published once a month.  In it, you can find articles on a variety of spiritual topics, including messages from the Church presidency and others.  You can read it online (click on "Current Issue" on the left hand side of the page or "Other Issues" for past issues).  The November issue (when it comes out in about 3 weeks or so) will contain a transcription of all the talks that were given in this past weekend's General Conference.  Also accessible from this same web page are the Liahona, an international version of the magazine available in a variety of languages (should you prefer to read your religious magazines in, say, Bulgarian or Finnish or Croatian); the New Era, an English-language church magazine designed for youth (about ages 12-18 years of age); and the Friend, an English-language church magazine for young children.

"Transfers" normally occur every six weeks and are the re-assignments of the missionaries to new locations and/or to new missionary companions if the mission president decides that changes are to be made.  Catherine has written before that there are no other Spanish-speaking areas (or Spanish-speaking sister missionary companions) in her current mission area, so it sounds like she will remain with Hermana Newman in their present location for now.

A Busy Week!

Ummm... Pues [Well], I guess I'll just start with Monday.

Last Monday, we drove aaallllll the way up to Reisterstown to see a less active member, Hermana Merchan.  We got there, and she told us that she had to go pick up her son from school.  So, right after we got there, she let her dog into the house and then left us there alone.  Her dog was crazy.  Not just a little crazy but a lot crazy.

We were scared it was going to give itself a heart attack.  He was breathing heavy and biting us if we didn't pet him and then biting us when we did.  BBAAAHHHH!!!  Crazy.  But then Hermana Merchan came back and we had a wonderful lesson with her home teacher, who she scheduled to come at the same time as us.  Sure, why not have the church people all over at the same time?  Just get it done with.  The lesson was actually quite good.  And she invited us back, so we just need to find another ride.

On Tuesday and Wednesday we met with this really nice lady named Eve.  We only taught her two lessons and we will never see her again, but she said that now that she had talked with us, she wanted "to know more about God and stuff."

On Thursday, we met a new member in the branch [congregration].  She just moved to Maryland from Texas and is a recent convert of three to six weeks.  She says six weeks, the elders [male missionaries] who taught and baptized her said three.  But that is beside the point.  She is AWESOME!  Unfortunately she lives kind of far from the church building and she doesn't have a car, so it is impossible for her to get to church without relying on somebody else.  But she hasn't found a job yet and so we are trying to get her to find a job and a house closer to the church.

On Friday we taught Zuleyma again and I also had my first double dinner.  For our lesson with Zuleyma, we re-explained the spirit world using the scriptures.  Alma 40 and 41 are amazing for explaining this.  Zuleyma said that she understood that we knew all of this stuff, we just had a hard time explaining it in espanol.  Awww, thanks Zuleyma.  We didn't think our Spanglish was that bad...

For my double dinner, I ate with the two families in the branch that give you the most food.  I was stuffed and about to pop.  The Mora family gave us this soup and hot dogs.  And because I haven't learned how to say no, I ended up eating two hot dogs.  Then we went to Hermana Cornejo's house were she gave us this HUGE slab of chicken and a HUGER serving of potatoes and beets smothered in mayo.  

In other news, one of our investigators introduced us to her boyfriend.  (She has a husband and kids back in Honduras but is living with this man here.  Esposo [husband] is a funny word to Hispanic people.)  We were all excited because he was interested.  But he got arrested for driving without a license and he might get deported because he is here illegally.

We can't decide if this is a blessing or not.  Now this investigator can get baptized because she is living the law of castidad [chastity], but her boyfriend is being deported.  Maybe.  Arrgg.  Sometimes missionary work can be frustrating.

We also watched the Sociedad de Socorro [Relief Society] broadcast Saturday night.  In Spanish.  And I understood most of it.  It was interesting to watch this part of General Conference in Spanish.  The picture below is all of the branch ladies that came to watch the broadcast.

On Sunday we had one of our investigators come to church AND a baptism.  She said she liked it.

Today, Monday, Hermana Newman and I bought papusas just because we could.  And they were tasty.

My last picture is a bumper sticker we saw this week.  :)

And now I'm done.  :)

Hermana Crotzer

Editor's notes:  A "less active member" is simply someone who is not attending Church regularly.  Catherine mentions that in order to visit the lady in Reistertown again, "we just need to find another ride."  Catherine and her companion do have a car assigned to them, but missionaries have limitations on the number of miles they can drive each week.  In order to conserve mileage, it is very common to ask a church member to accompany them for a visit and give them a ride to more distant locations, so that at the end of the week they have not exceeded their mileage limit.

This coming weekend (Oct. 5 and 6) is General Conference weekend, which Catherine references in her message above.  During general conference weekend, Church members and others gather worldwide in a series of two-hour sessions to receive inspiration and instruction from Church leaders.  The talks by these Church leaders are broadcast live from Salt Lake City and may be viewed online.  If you have never watched General Conference, you might tune in this weekend.  The quality of the talks is exceptional.  On both Saturday and Sunday, sessions begin at 10am and 2pm.  Each session is unique, featuring different speakers and topics.  The president of the Church, Thomas S. Monson, will speak on Sunday, Oct 6th, during the 10am session.

More News from Baltimore

We went out with our mission leader and his daughter last night.  It was really good except for the fact that we got home at 9:50pm.  TWENTY minutes AFTER curfew.   (If I could draw stuff with the computer, I would draw something like that one picture where the guy is holding his face, screaming in horror.  AHHHHH!!!  We were 20 minutes late!!)

Look what we found at Wal-mart last Monday.  It's a Harry Potter shirt that has a cape.  I'm pretty sure I would have bought it if I wasn't on a mission.

Sometimes it gets really cold in the apartments in the morning.  What Hermana Newman DIDN'T get in this next picture is the two jackets I have over my feet.  And I was still cold, so about three minutes later, I got in my sleeping bag, hopped back over to the table, and studied while bundled in my sleeping bag.  It was nice and warm.  :)

This past week, there were strange bubbles in our wall and they were multiplying, so we called the maintenance guy to come and take a look.  Turns out it wasn't anything deadly or dangerous.  The paint was just bubbling from the weather.  He decided to re-paint our apartment.  So we took the beds apart, stuffed them in the closet and then left.  (We can't be alone with a man, even in OUR house.)  We got home really late and didn't have enough energy to put the beds back together.  So we just slept on the floor.  Yay!  A pretend sleep over!

Later that night, after I had already fallen asleep, Hermana Newman decided to take a picture.  She thought that I was still awake because it had only been a few minutes.  Nope.  I was very asleep.  Hello, camera flash.  :)  Just so you all know, it isn't very fun to wake up to a camera flash.  But, ehhh, it was funny anyway.

As far as other news, all of the missionaries in the mission had to take a defensive driving course.  Guess what everybody!!  I passed and I STILL can't drive.  But I'm okay with that.  Maryland drivers are crazy!

We got Bible bashed this week...  Koran bashed actually... by a Muslim lady.  That was fun.  We knew that she was Hindu, but we still decided to talk to her.

We also got to talk to one of our less active members, Hermana Lemus.  We had only met her once before when Hermana Newman sort of just waltzed into their house.  (Hey, they left to door open and didn't say that we couldn't help them with their groceries.)  The second time that we went over, Sister Lemus was there and she let us in.  I sat down on the couch where she wanted me, Hermana Newman went to use the bathroom and Hermana Lemus left and went downstairs.  So there I am, chilling out on her couch, alone, wondering what exactly I'm supposed to do.  Hermana Newman finishes up in the bathroom (she was calling someone...  in the bathroom...)  And so both of us are sitting on the couch, wondering what we are supposed to do, when Hermana Lemus comes back upstairs.  It turns out she had gone to get her Libro de Mormon and her Santa Biblia.  AND WE DIDN'T EVEN ASK!!!  :)  We had a wonderful chat and we are going back on martes [Tuesday] to learn how to make tacos.  :)

'Til next week,
Hermana Crotzer

Editor's notes:  The reference to "Hermana Lemus" is not a reference to another sister missionary.  Female members of the Church are commonly addressed as "Hermana So-and-so" ["Sister So-and-so"] reflecting the belief that we are all children of God and therefore brothers and sisters to one another.  So Catherine is saying that she and her companion visited a lady, Sister Lemus [i.e. Mrs. Lemus].

The Gospel and Pretty Toes

I went on exchanges this week.  It was pretty fun.  This time I got to go to the YSA [Young Single Adults] branch, or in espanol, rama de adultos solteros jovenes.

I finally had posole.  It's pretty good, just so you all know.  :)  And arepas, which are like Hispanic pancakes.

I also had my first "same two meals in a row" day.  We had pizza for both meals.  We were in an area and we decided to go to this one house.  Well, the Elders were already there and eating dinner.  Sooo... we did too, which is breaking rules.  But you can't say no.  And then, we drove to our dinner appointment and they feed us pizza as well.  I was stuffed.  AND, we might end up having three dinners today.  :)

This first picture I'm sending is of a stop sign we found.  It's pretty funny.  I guess they were serious about people stopping.  We sure did, and we took a picture too.

The next picture is me with Hermana Rodriguez.  She is from Peru and she feeds us almost every Sunday.  Everybody gives us good food.  But hers might just be the best.

Have any of you ever given a Gospel lesson while having your toes painted?  Because I have.  It was an interesting experience.  We met this one lady while talking to one of our other investigators.  We told her that we liked her nails and then she offered to do ours for us.  So now I have pretty nails, salon-style for free.  And somebody got to hear about the Gospel as well.  Yay!

We are always super tired when we get back to our apartment.  Yesterday we got back earlier  than usual but we were still dead-tired.  We finished all of our planning and stuff and then sprawled out on the floor.  Neither of us wanted to get up but we did have the energy to take a picture.

This morning (on our P-day), we decided to take a mini nap while Hermana Newman's clothes were in the wash.  Aren't we cute all bundled up in our sleeping bags?  We both think it's super funny that we both have sleeping bags.  So we needed a picture.  After the picture we took our nap.  It was a good nap.

Look at Hemana Newman all bundled up in her sleeping bag, checking a text message from somebody.  How dare they interrupt our nap!  Just kidding.  Neither of us wanted to get up, so Hermana Newman hopped over to the dresser to check what it was.

I don't think I have anything else to say so... 'til next week.
Hermana Crotzer

Editor's notes:  "Exchanges" are when missionary pairs switch up for a day.  Catherine would be paired with a different missionary sister, and Hermana Newman would pair with the missionary sister's companion.  It gives them a chance to see how other missionaries teach the Gospel lessons, and it allows them to met new people in a different area.  It also gives them a break from each other, since they have been together literally 24/7 for quite a few weeks now.  Catherine and her companion seem very happy and get along well together, but this is not always the case with all missionary assignments, although of course the missionaries try to get along with each other no matter what differences in personalities or habits they may have.

Catherine and her companion both have sleeping bags because they are awaiting visas to foreign countries and that is what they were told to pack for their foreign country assignment.  Sometimes missionaries take twin-sized sheets and a blanket, sometimes they are told to take a sleeping bag instead because it works better for a particular climate.  In Argentina, the nights can get cold, especially in winter.  A lot of the homes are not climate-controlled (i.e. no central heating or cooling), so sleeping bags keep the girls from freezing to death in winter.

A Rough Week

This week was rough.  I know that we are only supposed to share positive mission experiences, but I can't explain any of this week without saying that it was rough.  And that isn't negative because it was a learning experience.  Learning experiences are positive.  Sooo...

We were visiting investigators that live kinda far away (so we usually only visit them once a week) and we had lunch at the Papusaria.  The same one that I told you all about before.  Anyway, we were finishing up eating our papusas, and some black man behind us said, "Hey, beautiful."  I thought he was talking to my companion so I just said to ignore him and continued to stuff my face full of delicious, mouth-watering papusa.  (We love papusas.)  :)  My companion turned around anyway and then turns back and says to me, "Uhh... Hermana, he's talking to you" and points back towards him.  So I turn around and it turns out he was pointing at me.  He must not have been able to see very well because I am not beautiful, I don't look that much older than 19/20 (and he was in his 30's at least), and  I told my companion to ignore him (and I'm pretty sure he heard me).  Our conversation went something like this (the italics are me):

"Hey, beautiful."
"Me?"
"Yeah, you.  C'mere."
"Why?"
"I wanna talk to you."
 "About what?"
"About us."
"Uhh... no thanks."

So...  yeah.

Here is a picture of a license plate with some Spanish humor.

"Umm pues" means some thing like, "Umm, well."  I don't know why Hermana Newman and I think it is so funny.  But we find it hilarious.

The next four pictures are of Hemana Newman and I stressing out after everybody canceled on us the second day in a row.  As you can see, we handled it pretty well.  We took pictures.  Two of them are just us making faces.

Aren't I gorgeous?

Another photo is us and our cookie packages.  The cookies were already gone by the time we took the pictures.  (We might stress eat just a little.)

The next picture is of Hermana Newman curled up on the floor.  Another person had just called us and canceled.  As soon as she got off the phone, she threw her hands up in the air, shouted "BBAAAAAHHHH!" and promptly curled up in a ball on the kitchen floor.

It was a blast.  :)  From this, we found out that backup plans are a gift from God.  We also found out that sometimes backup plans need their own backup plans.

This last picture is us studying Spanish at McDonald's.

They had a "no loitering" sign inside, so we went and "loitered" outside.  Normally we do all of our studies at home in the morning, but we had an appointment rather far from our house and early in the morning.  So we just took all of our stuff with us and studied at McDonald's.

We had a member of the Church present at three of our lessons this week, which is three more than our past weekly average of zero.  They were amazing lessons.  It helps so much to have members present.

I can't think of anything else to write.  So I will close here.  I have to go make tortillas for two Elders.  We are trading tortillas for hamburger tomorrow.  It's gonna be delicious.

So... Until next week.
Hemana Crotzer

Watermelon and a Picnic

I don't think we will ever have a normal visit with Daniella.  She is a less active member of the branch that we visit every Sunday at 8:00pm, and every time we go there something weird happens.  Last time, we found out that her dog is worth something like $2000.  I think it looks sort of ratty, but maybe once it has gotten a haircut???  The time before that, she let her three (I'm guessing) year old son bring us a plate of chocolate-chip cookies.  He doesn't have that great of coordination and he dropped the plate.  The dog snapped up one of the cookies and Daniella, for lack of a better word, panicked.  But if the dog is that expensive, maybe it makes sense to panic.

We had another appointment with Zuleyma and Angel.  We didn't talk a whole lot because one of the men that lives in the apartment with them got drunk.  He was sober when he walked in and then was stone drunk half an hour later.  And creepy.  He kept staring at us and at one point he said something to me.  I have no idea what he said and I'm not sure I ever want to find out.

On a much happier note, before we were going to leave, Angel gave us some sandia (watermelon).  The slice was two inches thick at least and was half of the watermelon.  He gave us the slices but didn't give us any napkins, and so we are sitting on his couch with this watermelon monstrosity dripping all over our hands and onto our skirts.  Whatever.  It was late at night.  Nobody could see how nasty, sticky we looked.  Instead they focused on my bright red face.  Monday was the Labor Day picnic for the branch.  As you can see from the picture, I got a little sunburnt.

The Labor Day picnic was a lot of fun.  They had a hard time getting the fire going with just the coals and the lighter so somebody went and got lighter fluid.  That got the fire going really fast.  :)  So the men barbecued hamburgers, hot-dogs, chicken and ribs.  All of them together on this huge, outdoor stove.  The hamburger I had was waaaay good.  Let me just tell you, you have never been to a picnic unless you have been to a Hispanic picnic.  They said that it started at 10am but nobody showed up until 12-ish and there were no signs of stopping when we had to leave.  Which was at 3pm.  It was fun.

This morning was interesting too, because I left my planner at the grocercy store yesterday (AAAAHHHH  if that doesn't stress a missionary out, I'm not sure what does.  Other than lots of things.)  In any case, I have my planner now and we decided to visit the mission office to get some stuff.  It was handy-dandy that we did because a concerned mother called asking why her son hadn't written home yesterday.  And she only spoke Spanish.  And the office staff had to plan on how this elder was getting home because his mission was almost over.  And so there we were, trying to figure out how to say words like, "airplane" and "fly" and "holiday."  But we got the point across and she understood what we were saying.

The next picture of us sitting in a car holding ice cream is from last Monday.  After we had written e-mails, we decided to go and get ice cream because ice cream goes really well with an upset stomach.  If we were going to throw up everything we ate, it might as well be tasty food.  And that is why we went to Rita's.  Everybody in Maryland is crazy about Rita's.  Sonic is better.  And cheaper.

We got to help Hermana Pinargote with some service this week.  She needed help "cleaning" her house.  Her sister's family is coming to live with her for the next 6 months until the husband starts school at BYU.  I'm pretty sure we made a bigger mess but we were being helpful.  There was one moment where I wish we had a picture.  We were trying to move this shelf thingie downstairs.  And we knew that it wouldn't fit on the staircase and so we had the bright idea of lowering the shelf from the top balcony to the bottom.  The balcony was a bit higher than we thought and Hermana Pinargote wasn't as strong as we had expected.  So Hermana Newman and I are standing on the Balcony holding this shelf over the side and Hemana Pinargote was at the bottom just barely holding the shelf up.  (She isn't very tall so she could barely reach it and she isn't very strong.)  Hermana Newman turns to me and says, "I'll keep holding it here, you run down and help her."  Sight and sound, right?  Well, I could still hear Hermana Newman.  I was almost out the front door, heading around to the back as fast as I could when I heard her tell me to hurry up.  I wish I had a picture because it was really a very funny view.   Hermana Newman bent in half over the balcony railing holding a shelf, Hemana Pinargote at the bottom trying to touch the shelf and me, running like a mad woman shouting, "I'm coming, I'm coming!"

And that was my week.  Mas o menos (more or less).  Until next Monday, then.
Hermana Crotzer