Week 25 Letter

Monday, Dec 5, 2016

BOOM! Kicked Novembre in the head. Happy diciembre! I can’t believe that Cameron is home. That is so crazy and doesn't feel real. Maybe because I am not there, but still. It is also weird to see pics of snow in Rexburg and really any kind of weather that is not super hot and sweaty and sunshiney. It has warmed up a lot here, and it will be hotter in January and February. It really doesn’t feel like Christmas time. It feels like it is still July. oh! This week I hit my 6 month mark on the mission. So weird. It feels like 2 weeks. 

The Christmas devotional was so great! I hope you l could watch it. Funny story, so we were in our building watching it right, and the voice overs are obviously in Spanish. I don’t know what I was expecting, but there isn’t a voice over for the choir...yeah Ali, duh, but it just caught me off guard. haha. But I am really excited for this Christmas season. With the 'light the world' we have been able to teach new investigators. It is awesome. And this week, we are having an open house in our chapel for the public. So we have to invite everyone on our area the day before...because people won’t come if you invite them a week or even 3 days ahead...time doesn’t exist here and it is pretty hard sometimes. But I am excited for this event. We are in charge of it but the ward has helped a lot.

Jean Carlos got baptized! He has 14 years and is super great. Another youth baptized him which was way cool. Jean Carlos moved here from Lima. His mom Jacky who is a recent convert lives here with her other 2 daughters and the grandma. Jacky works out of town and is only here for a couple of days once a month. so it was awesome that she could come to the baptism. But it has been so great to work with this family. The first time I taught Jean Carlos in their home, I felt like I had been there before, which obviously I haven’t. And it has become one of my favorite homes/families to visit. The spirit is so tender and special. This family has real problems and hardships, but they push through with such incredible faith. I love it. We are also teaching Cielo, the sister of Jean Carlos. 

okay, so i am the first American to serve in my area for a super long time, and the first sister missionary/American sister to ever serve in my area since forever. So I am the first real American that a lot of kids have seen. While my name tag says "Hermana Lee", I am more commonly known as princess, Queen Elsa, Barbie or nothing but a gasp. It is hilarious. We will knock at a door and little kids will come right up close to me and just look up and stare at my face, hair or eyes. It’s pretty funny. Or some of the older kids who "study" English in school will yell "hello" life’s rough as white kid. haha. 

I hope that you all have a great week, and enjoy this Christmas season. I love you all!

Think of me every time you put pitted black olives on your fingers before you eat them... yeah, okay, listen, you know how the can says in really big letters "PITTED olives?" yeah, this literally means that they are pitted and HAD a pit INSIDE. Who knew? Not me. You know how many times i was sent to the store to buy olives?  a lot. I guess that I just thought that god created olives for our fingers...here the olives are purple and have a ton of vinegar and are pretty nasty (but I eat them like I love them...) the first time I ate one, I was so confused when I spit out the pit. and then I had a flash back to all the times I bought olives, and I pictured in my head all the brands of olives and the designs and marks on the can and I remembered "pitted" being really big. haha. My life.