Week TEN Letter!

September 30, 2013...

Alo alo alo!

Cool thing I forgot to mention last week. There are two new couples who are going to help Presidente y Hermana Cook in the office, and both of the new Elders served their missions previously (1985-1987) in this mission as well. So guess what? I asked one of them if they knew Elder Castleton while they served. They asked if I had a picture of my dad and I took out the foto I keep in my scriptures. He knew my dad! His name is Elder Gonsolez. He remembers you, dad!

Anyway, let me just start off by saying this week was tan mejor! It was so much better. I finally feel like I'm ready. I can do this work. I cannot thank my dear Padre Celestial enough for inspiring my mom to send the letter she did last week. It was truly inspired and every word she said were the ones I needed to hear. The week before, I had been praying for strength and guidance of how to become less homesick. The email my mom sent was literally a tender mercy of the Lord, whether she knew it or not, I truly needed it.

(By the way, mom, it's crazy how writing those letters I wrote for your birthday were able to help me in my time of need. Thank you for writing them in the email. They've been an inspiration all week and I've actually used some of my own advice to help others)

Thank you to all those who participated in my setting apart. I didn't thank anybody before. Thank you especially to those who helped copy it because you, all of you, have no idea how much I have needed the blessings I've forgotten. Reading the words, I know they are directly from my Padre, telling me what I need to be strengthened. Entonces, thank you all from the bottom of my corazón.

Funny story. So my family back in Utah freezes a few loaves of bread to keep the others for later. I thought this was a natural, normal thing everybody does. Turns out it's not. I put my bread in the freezer to save it and my roommates and compañera think I'm loca en la cabeza. Not sure why, but that's something that happened earlier. Ah, well.

Some good news, I can speak Spanish. I mean, obviously I'm not fluent yet, but it's become a thing I'm not stressed about. Cierto, I need to learn more, but I have found that I can communicate. I can understand the people for the better part. I need to improve my vocabulary, siempre, but I have come to appreciate Spanish. I can recognize it as a language now instead of some foreign mouth movements.

There are several things I need to give credit to: Padre Celestial (claro), the Libro de Mormón y el don de lenguas. I've been reading outloud in the LDM, 8 or more pages a day, and I can feel a difference in my speaking. All I can say is that there is a gift of tongues. I have been blessed with it. People here are always surprised I have merely two months because I can pick up on things and follow conversations. A menos activo in church ayer told us that he thought I had more time in the field than Hna Moody because my accent is very good... Eso no màs.

Entonces. Want to hear algo raro? I've lost weight. Weird, cierto? My skirts don't fit as well as when I left. It's another tender mercy. I don't eat very much for desayuno, I eat half a cow everyday for Almuerzo and don't eat dinner, so that has had something to do with it. And I've never walked so much in my life! I think we walk 5 miles or more everyday, even in our little sector. It's incredible. I may need to buy shoes sooner than I thought...

I've been thinking of foods that I miss. Or flavors. One category I really miss is spice. Or some sort of variety así. I miss tasting food and savoring the flavor. Sincerely. Bland has become my new favorite flavor because everything tastes about equal. We've got plenty of textures, that's for sure, but I really want something sour or spicy or... Café Rio. Mmm. I miss Mexican food. All I want all the time is breakfast food, that they don't have. Crepes, pancakes, waffles, eggs, the whole ordeal. It's really quite sad. So if anybody has recipes for any in that category, I implore you, please send them to me. Muffins, or anything really recipe-wise.

All right, so last week my mom mentioned that you wanted to know more about the culture here. Well, I've got time because I don't have any other letters to read, so I will tell you some. Hmm. Apparently it is customary to whistle at Gringas. We get por lo menos 10 whistles a day from cualquier persona. En la calle, en la ciudad, en la tienda. Todos lugares. It's sort of funny and uncomfortable at the same time.

Whenever we go to people's houses, we eat. Whether it be cookies, crackers, juice, mints, dulces, any little thing you can think of. It's great because we never get hungry. One thing I've really gotten sick of eating is cookies. I miss oatmeal raisin, but every other kind, I'm about up to here with them.

The people here are very... hardened. They know how the world is and they are very set in their ways. There are a lot of issues with the ley de castidad and everyone here will eventually die of lung cancer. Everybody smokes. It's incredible to see how many cigarette butts are scattered amongst the garbage in the streets. Satanás has a strong hold on many of these people and I know why we have so many missionaries in this country now. There are lots of problems that need to be fixed. And we're here to help!

Remember Maria Isabel? Yeah, she's still about in the same place we left her. We taught her on Viernes and she didn't read! Agh, we were both about ready to strangle the lady. She hasn't found her answer if the church is true and doesn't know if the feelings she has are of God or just her thoughts. We gave her Moroni 10 to read and asked her to read specifically to know if this is the true church. She told us she would and we're going to see her tonight. I keep praying she will have prayed. We already asked her if she will be baptized if she finds the right answer and she's told us she will. We're not giving in until she's not progressing. I really want to help her, but we've given her almost all of the LDM to read and she still 'doesn't know if those feelings of peace and happiness are of God'. ORE, MUJER! Yeah, so that's our only investigador as of now.

With everything else, everything's great. Yesterday in Sacrament Reunión, the priesthood didn't have sufficient water cups to give everyone the sacrament. That's never happened in our barrio antes. The Work is progressing! Wooh!

More next week, cierto? I love you all. God bless you and your familias.

Work hard. Pray hard. Love the people!

Hermana Castleton