Hola familia! How are everybody doing today and this last week? I'm just great. Siempre bueno. Gracias. Though I have to be honest, p-days are not my favorite ever. They just seem sort of unproductive and making sure we get everything done for the rest of the week. It seems like you have all this time but you really don't after laundry, and it really takes longer than it should to write letters. Oh well. I guess I should enjoy them. At least we finally get to go to the temple. Hooray! That's what p-days are good.
We have another new district tonight, so I get the wonderful privilege of again telling them all about what we do on our p-days. And then probably I will never get to know any of the new 12 elders since I really don't know any of the elders from the district that came 3 weeks ago. But we've all decided that they're a bit exclusive. We're losing one, maybe two districts next week-depending on if the one gets their visa. Not much happening yet though.
Yesterday in the referral center someone called in and asked me "why are we here." Well that's just one of those great, golden questions, yeah? He didn't have a lot of time, but I was able to explain a little bit about the plan of salvation, without using too many big weird words. That was nice because typically when we are in the referral center I call and call and call and nobody answers and I just about fall asleep.
Oh yeah, I never told you the story that we heard in the devotional a couple of weeks ago. Here's the simple and condensed version. So there was this guy, who worked on a train in
When the train got to its destination, they opened up the car and found the man dead in the car. And they saw all the things he had written on the wall. But the thing was that they looked at the thermometer in the car, and apparently it was broken, so the temperature that the man thought it was, wasn't correct. It was actually 56 degrees in the car. But the man had still died. Because he had basically made up his mind that he was going to die and had given in, he did die. He let himself die because he had mentally convinced himself.
Last night Elder Gene R. Cook spoke at devotional. It was a really amazing talk all about faith in Jesus Christ. He's quite the motivational type of speaker. Likes to walk around with the mike and get people involved. But he had a lot of good advice and stories. Like writing down all of your fears (about a mission) and doubts on a piece of paper, going to the Lord and praying about it and then letting it go. Honestly letting the Lord take care of those things. He also said that if we really want something from the Lord, quite often we are expected to sacrifice something in exchange and really that's what repentance is about anyway.
He also talked about having the right attitude as a missionary. Being humble and hopeful and just loving people. It was really a great devotional.
In relief society the other week Mary Ellen Edmunds spoke to us and I remember hearing from her in EFY and she's so hilarious one second and the other second bearing her testimony and serious.
We heard from another great speaker this week and I'm crazy and blanking her name right now. She's a religion prof at BYU and has lots of hair and I know you would know her name. Anyway, her talk was really amazing as well. She talked about being cleansed from sin (one of the topics in Preach My Gospel) and it was really great. Que mas?
Um, I got myself one of the mission t-shirts. Everyone gets one that says the name of where they're going with usually just the country or state name with the flag. So now I have a shirt with a big brown bear on it that says "The Golden State." Golden. Hmm. I can't believe I only have three weeks left. Next week we'll get our flight plans. And then I can tell you when I'll be in the airport so you know when to answer your telefono!
Keep up the writing though! Just know that I'm doing great and that even though I do miss everyone; they just keep us too busy for me to think about anything else!
Oh yeah, mom, THANK YOU for the pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. That was a miracle. I had actually told my comps about my bread one time and how I should have you send some sometime because it is glorious. I never told you that did I? I love you all sooooo mucho and hope that everything is going beautifully in your lives! Hug each other for me and make sure that the little people don't forget Mae Mae! Love you, hasta luego!
See Emily's favorite Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread recipe:
Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread – Makes 3 loaf pans
3 C white sugar
1 C oil
1-15 oz. Pumpkin puree
2/3 C water
4 eggs
3 1/2 C flour
1 T ground cinnamon
1 T ground nutmeg
2 t baking soda
1 1/2t salt
1 C mini semisweet chocolate chips
½ C chopped walnuts (optional)
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease & flour 3/1pound size coffee cans or three 9x5 inch loaf pans.
2. In a large bowl combine sugar, pumpkin, oil, water, and eggs. Beat until smooth. Blend in flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda and salt. Fold in chocolate chips and nuts. Fill cans/loaf pans ½ - ¾ full.
3. Bake for 1 hour or until an inserted knife comes out clean. Cool on wire racks before removing from cans/loaf pans.
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