Monday, November 28, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving and Feliz Navidad

Dearest Family and Friends,

I had a wonderful week, despite some hard things. I really love being a missionary.

News! I am yet again staying in Denver 4th! This will be 10 1/2 months in this area. Hermana Romero will still be my companion. Hermana Thomas is now training! Yay.

Quote: It will be a lot harder to find hispanics in the winter because everyone will have Christmas lights! - Hermana Thomas

So to tell you a little about my last week! I loved it. I felt more home sick than I ever have my whole mission, but I will tell you of one of the best and rarest tender mercy the Lord has given me. I felt like every time I thought of thanksgiving, I thought of my family. Well on Tuesday, we stopped by a members house. Hermana Salazar is one of my favorite woman of all time. She has worked very hard all of her life and doesn't have much to show for it. She also feels like she doesn't get a lot of love from her family. I just love her so much. Then she told me that she was going to make mashed potatoes for an apartment building party and had never made them before. I offered to help. Can I just say that making those mashed potatoes with this hispanic woman was one GIANT tender mercy. You all know how much I love mashed potatoes! They turned out wonderful...probably because they had a good amount of butter lol. We then helped her make tamales. She talked about how she wants to go on a mission. If Hermana Salazar does end up going....I would help her pay for it in a heart beat. This just proved to me that the Lord does know me.

I was also able to make Pumpkin Pie. They all turned out so good. They were eaten so quickly.

So Thanksgiving.

We started out by playing American football. .....then we played futbol....or soccer. Someone should have told me before I go on a spanish speaking mission to learn some soccer skills lol. We then had a ward party and it was awesome. We had so many great members there, less actives and investigators. I felt like it was a lot of work but it was so worth it. The food was different...but Hermana Salazar made the best turkey ever! It was cooked in Chile! It was so spicy and delicious! After eating there was a dance. It was so great to see everyone having fun. I loved my Mexican thanksgiving! There was also some mashed potatoes....they were good too! This is the fourth time I have had them on my mission.

This week we helped two families put up their Christmas trees. It was really great to do this. I love that all of the families help us become part of their family while ours are not with us. I felt really loved this last week. The ward is really excited that I am staying here. Elder Lopez, who has been here 6 months with me, will be leaving tomorrow to another area. The other night we went and caroled at the bishop's house. He loves it when we sing! Really loves it! The whole family was there and it was just great. We also went to the Fam. Palacios house. He is going through chemotherapy right now and is having a really hard time eating. His family asked us to stop by, but I was sick and so we thought that would be a really bad idea. So we decided to carol for them too! His eyes looked so weak. He has drastically changed physically in the last month. I was so grateful that the Lord gives us an abundance of his Spirit to help us as missionaries help others. I know that it helped him.

Now a story that helped me this morning. I have been struggling not getting really discouraged for 3 months now. The mission is just really hard. But this morning I read a great talk, "Whom, I love, I also Chasten". I loved the story of the currant bush. I feel like that is what God is doing to me. He is helping me become better!

I am so excited for the Christmas season!

I love you all,
Hermana Spencer

No comments:

Post a Comment