Navidad en Julio

FELIZ NAVIDAD! Well I have to tell you guys that it is not Christmas. I just don’t believe you. Someone is punking me or something. Jingle bells in 95 degrees? No lo creo. hah! We had a mission Christmas activity on Wednesday, which was super super fun! My zone did a nativity (one of my zl's is really short so he played the baby Jesus...) I’ve got pictures and videos on the way, and by the way, I MADE THE STAR COSTUME. The star and the angel are the pensionists ha-ha! But our activity was so fun and we had a great time. There was no shortage of gifts for us! We even got a whole packet full of letters written by the families of other missionaries in my mission! It was so fun!! On Christmas Eve, we had a gigantic stinking lunch. There are three foods down here I don’t care for: fish, tomato, and olives. For the salad we had a tomato stuffed with fish, and then we had pastel de papa, which is loaded with olives. I was dying a little bit, but the good thing is that Dinamarca had mercy on me and ate the majority of my food ha-ha! Then we went to Hermana Teresita's house for Cena Navidenia. Remember the story with the casuela and the cat on the table? ya, her house. SO MUCH FOOD. We watched Finding Faith in Jesus Christ, we had a great time! Christmas we passed with the hermanas in my zone. We went to Cuidad Satelite where two hermanas live (about 30 min away) and Perez and DJ met us there. We made lunch! They did some chilena stuff, we did gringa stuff (baked potatoes and cake balls) and again we had a great time! Then we skyped. I HAD THE MOST FUN TIME SKYPING. The hour was so fast and I found myself getting a little choked up at goodbye, but hey, I’ll see you all in 5 and a half more months! Then we came back and ate some Venezuelan tamales that we were given and opened presents. I LOVED the picture frame you guys sent. By far my favorite! I have lots of good stuff! We had a lesson with a nuevo this week whose name is Mauro and he is DE ORO. He straight up told us that he doesn’t believe in a whole bunch of churches ha-ha, but that our church has always interested him! He is so so ready!! The best part is that he has family in IDAHO! He doesn’t know what part yet, but we will find out tomorrow! And he is going to visit Idaho in March!!!! AHHHHHHHH I just can’t. Good, sweet lil Idaho. Well, not that much else happened this week, pretty much just Christmas. We have some investigators that are progressing a lot, so hopefully we will have some really good news for yawl next week. We are hopeful especially for Polonia, Johana y Tito, Nicolas y familia, and now Mauro! and Andres! and so many more! I Don’t really have much more to say this week! It flew by, and I’m sure the next one will too! But dear friends and family, please know how much I love you. I pray for you all as much as I pray for anyone. I have been worried all week for Dad and aunt Amy! Keep me posted on all the details of your lives. I love you all so much that I want you all to be as happy as possible, and I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the pathway to that happiness. Heavenly Father knows your name and He loves you. There is a line in the third verse of silent night in Spanish that I love. "It’s the dawn of the redemption. God through Him, will give us Salvation. Oh blessed Jesus!" 

love

Hermana Mads 

A Package!

Tengo blah blah hoydia

We had a good week, but HOT. It’s hard to work when it’s that hot, but we do it ;) Here is the news of the week. Whichever apostle called me to serve somewhere where they use different things to measure stuff, SERIOUSLY overestimated my ability to math. I'm dying, I have no idea how hot it is, how far it is, how much it weighs, how much it costs, ha-ha ay ay ay. We have a family we are teaching who are so fantastic. Johana y Dontito. The best part is that they live in a sector that is a little bit sketchy, but Tito knows everyone and they are all afraid of him, so WE ARE SAFE. They are so prepared for this gospel, and by some miracle, they are actually married. WHAT. MARRIED CHILEANS. It’s a Christmas milagro. Speaking of Christmas, it really doesn’t feel like navidad to me, even though it’s a huge deal. Christmas in the summer is so different it doesn’t feel real. I’m actually really grateful for that. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a Christmas fanatic, but it hadn’t really hit me that it is Christmas, so it has kept me from missing it too much. I tried pan de pascua, which is like a traditional Christmas cake down here. It’s pretty good! It needs frosting, they don’t really have frosting. Shuta. They have manjar though, so it’s okay. It is sort of like dulce de leche, but different and better. I’m hoping to learn how to make it, because you can’t buy it in the states. You guys should google it! Also, I am going to learn how to make sopapilla. It is so fantastic. They eat a lot of green olives down here, which I don’t like, but my comp loves so I sneak them to her ha-ha. it’s perfect really. There is a very strange video I am going to send to you all. It is the front yard of the president of the relief society ha-ha. My ward did a nativity activity this week, and guess, with light hair and light skin, I got assigned to be... that’s right folks, an angel. It was really fun!  We realized literally as the people were walking to the nativity that we didn’t have a baby Jesus, but hey, we pulled it together. We had been running back and forth after I finished my lines (which I memorized and did en español) trying to find a baby, when all of a sudden D says, "you could sing" and I said, “get my hymn book," so we ran, and then I sang silent night. People were in tears, I thought I was gonna have a heart attack, it was like 35 degrees here at that point, Christmas spirit ;) I have lots of photos, no se preocupe. We also got to do divisiones with the CCM this week! It was hard because I had to split up from my trainer and I didn’t know what the heck was going on but hey we did it. She was gringa tambien, but in the Latino group because her mom is chilena so she speaks Spanish. We had a good time! Okay, Chileans always always eat two things with every meal; pan, (no complaints from me) and ensalada chilena, which is tomatoes, with whatever they feel like. Ha-ha I don’t really like tomatoes but it’s actually really good with onions, salt, and limon. My Chilean is coming along too you guys!! They put "po" at the end of little expressions and stuff and I hate it because I always try to make it a word, but I made a lot of progress with it! Chileans also use A LOT of midismos, or little sayings. There are times when I understand every word they said, but I still don't understand them ha-ha. I am also getting good at braiding (pics to come mom) all the little girls in my ward want me to braid their hair so we are gonna do an activity one day!! 

Well, I have a goal to read the entire book of Mormon in Spanish by the end of my training. So I was chugging along the other day in nefi and I read 9:6-7. There are two times in English where it says government, but Spanish doesn’t use gobierno. The first time uses principado, and I did some digging. This word basically means reign of a prince. The second time it uses dominio, which sounds like dominion- but it isn’t! It means domain. I love that, because we know that so many governments today are corrupt and right now, increase of government does not necessarily mean increase of peace. But that isn’t what the scripture is trying to say! It means that Christ reigns, and that this life and this earth is his domain, and in his reign and domain, there is no end to peace. May we all choose to enter into his rest, receive the peace and blessings he is waiting to give us, and follow Him forever. 

Hermana Stanley

Feliz Navidad

¡Feliz navidad! You guys are going to be hearing a lot of this from me, because we have been sharing the Ilumina el Mundo or #Light the World challenge! It's amazing how much more receptive people are when you hand them a tarjeta with a a picture of the virgin Mary, versus something with the face of Christ. But for that exact reason, I am grateful to be here teaching about Him and His love for us. I know that Christ came to this earth out of pertfect love, and paid the price for our sins. He has made it possible for all of us to return to live with Him and our families. I am grateful for the love He shows me every single day. Jesu Cristo es la luz del mundo!