email of 16 August, 2010

Buenas Tardes a toda mi familia!!!

Well, here we are...P-day again! We've had a good week here in South Lynwood, and have another great one coming up!

Tuesday-Friday of this week, we have some big training that I'm excited for. It'll be 6 hours per day (9-3), for 4 days, which cuts a lot into our finding time, but I'm super excited to because I love big meetings that help pump you up for the missionary work, and help you bring yourself up to a higher level! THEN, next week (on Monday) we have Zone Conference with a visiting general authority (E. Packer of the 70), at which I'll get to do a musical number, AND we have temple p-day on Wednesday!!! So your email will be coming on Wednesday next week, instead of Monday, just to give you a heads up!

Ok, let's see...what are a few little funnies I can share with you from this week...
One of our investigators, Faustino, really wants to take us out for dinner (with his family), so we're going tonight...should be great, as long as he doesn't try to take us out of mission boundaries (apparently there's this great little restaurant just over our border). Anyways, the other night, he wanted to look up th addresses of a few places online so that he could see if they were close enough for us; When he asked his kids where his computer was, they responded that it was broken (they said it had gotten a virus). His response? "VIRUS?!?!?!?! You de virus!!!" SO FUNNY!!!

I would like to just share that my companion really looks like a sister missionary. I know, I know, she is a sister missionary, but she just really looks the part!!!

Ok, I need to ask you all a favor. It's really hard being toward the end of the mission, and while I'm so excited to go home and see you all, I'm also sad and a little scared to leave the mission and go back to "real life". And trunkiness is a strange thing...it just tends to sneak up on a person (i.e. me) unexpectedly, and makes focusing and working diligently really difficult. This condition, of course, isn't helped at all by the fact that everyone (members) asks the missionaries how long they've been out, which for me is unfailingly followed by a comment somewhere along the lines of: "Oh, so you're going home soon, huh?" DAAAAAH! Yes, yes I am. I've taken to using that "Oh, I've been out a little over a year" comment, which helps a little, but still. So anyways, the favor I'm asking is if we could avoid "trunky talk" as much as possible, at least until I really am at the end. I know I still need to think about and plan for school and things like that, and I'm not at all upset about anything that's been said or written before now because I know that you're excited for me to be coming home soon, and I am too! It's just that I know that I can't be as effective a missionary as I'd like to be when my thoughts keep getting drawn away from the work. So I would love and appreciate SO MUCH lots of loving, spirit and missionary-experience-filled emails as possible! I love those!!!

Speaking of missionary experiences, Mom, sorry I haven't commented much on this yet (I've thought about it lots, just have forgotten to say anything), but way to go on sharing the Book of Mormon with your friend, Paul! IT's so exciting to be able to share the gospel with people, especially when you know the blessings of it in your own life, and can really see how much it will bless and help their lives!

the church is true!!!

I Love You, and I Love Being a Missionary!!!!!!

Love,
Hermana Sallie

HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!!!!!