Family May 20, 2013

Family!!! I just love you love you love you so much! Thanks for your emails!!! I love hearing everything that you're doing! Love love love love love it! Thank you for keeping me updated on life! There are many missionaries who don't have communication with their families and so I realize I am so very blessed, thank you! 

This week was as great as ever. I love where I am at. I love the people I am with, I just love everything here! Okay actually that is kind of a lie. I love almost everything here. Ha ha there are still some cultural things I have yet to fall in love with but I'm sure with time I will fall in love with those also. Except maybe not... ha ha ha oh well. It's all good.

Pictures speak louder than words, and they help my memory so here goes.. :) 

 Last Monday we had FHE at a less active member's house. They were so fun! We always play the simplest games and if you mess up you have punishment. This time it was lipstick on your face. Man that lipstick was strong stuff it did NOT come off. And thanks to my white skin it was very noticeable. It is always so fun to have FHE at less active's homes because it gives them a chance to see how much fun they can simply have as a family. All these people are who ended up joining FHE. 

This is the actual family that we are teaching. I love how here if there is something going on, everyone is invited. Nobody is excluded. It is great!

The elections were last Monday and so on Tuesday our ward cleaned up the area where the elections were held. Man it was dirty! Because it rained the night before all the flyers and trash were stuck to the ground. I find it funny how I know how to clean, and yet I know no techniques to cleaning in different cultures. Ha ha they know how to clean their place the best and they have a technique and a way that works for everything. I don't know why I am always so surprised. 

Members from our ward who helped clean. It is so fun to be with them working!

 

This is Tatay Bernardo. When I first met him he had just suffered from a stroke and  was completely unable to move one half of his body. Whenever we would see him he would make more and more small progresses. Our first few lessons to him were all about faith that he can be healed through his faith. I took this picture because he was so happy to show us how he walked from his bed outside, to the door inside, and back! We were so happy! He is making progress and he continues to work and not give up working! He is a great example. Watching his progress makes me wonder sometimes if I would want to go into the field of Occupational Therapy one day. Jana Heywood once told me she thought I would be good at that, and ever since then I've always been curious if maybe I could work in that line of work. Ha ha I actually don't know. And I don't really want to think about it now ha ha. 

I don't know if I told you before, but they love kareoke here. Ha ha it is so funny to me. And passing the mic off to each other is no big deal. It's like passing water across the table. You just do it. It is hilarious. Also I find the song choices hilarious. Ha ha one person sang to the song of the Carpenters the one that goes "i'm sittin' top of the world looking down on creation...." ha ha it just made me laugh and laugh and laugh. They also love Shina Twain and Celion Deon.

 another picture of kareoke. We went to a member's house for a dinner appointment and because it was one of their birthday's, naturally everyone was invited and it was a party. They have so many party's here for everyone's birthdays I'm amazed. and I love  it!

We had a CSP with our Zone leaders, and District leaders and this is us on our way. CSP with other missionaries are the best.

Band pose. I had to have one. :)

p.s. do you like the pictures? or not really? B/c i send a lot. and i don't know if it inconveniences you or if you like it or not... what is your opinion on the way I send my emails to you? Be honest. :)

So basically for our CSP we helped build a house. By our helping build a house we started with moving dirt into the house to make the floor. Okay seriously the whole time I kept laughing to myself as I thought of Brian Regan's skit of logs on a truck on a highway going one way, and logs on a truck going the other way, passing by each other at the same time. You remember? Ha ha okay i don't know if you can tell, but the pile of dirt on the left, we moved and shoveled into the house behind us. We were literally moving dirt from one place to another. And I guess smoothing it out so it was better and making a difference. But I just kept laughing and laughing at how hysterical the whole thing was about Brian Regan. 

Just another picture. I love physical labor. And shoveling the whole time made me sore the next day but I loved it!

CSP's are always associated with food after. So this was our food. It also happened to be one missionary's birthday and so b/c it was a birthday, it was a party! Also check it out. I got a chaco tan line from the service project! I was so happy! And I can still see it :)

Okay this is a funny story. So this little kid (Matt Matt) is adorable. His family is less active when it comes to church, but they have family scripture study, prayer, etc. we just want to see them at church! Anyway. When we started saying the prayer, he is always so good to fold his hands, etc. I was curious if he did that the whole prayer. So I peeked in the middle of the prayer and he was making this face at the person next to him. It was sooo funny! After the prayer I had to get him to repeat the face without letting anybody know I had peeked through the prayer. Ha ha it was hilarious. 

The other missionaries who live with us had a lunch appointment with a member and we were invited. We showed up and this was lunch! it was awesome! And delicious! And SUPER easy clean up as no dishes, and no placemats. We just folded up the big leaves after and threw them in the trash. That's the way to go!

SUPER delicious!

Remember that $8 umbrella from Walmart? Trashed. Ha ha we get so many laughs when we use it because it is so thrashed. Oh well it still works somewhat. I really need to buy a new one this week though. :)

Okay so that's it for pictures. Really do you like them? too many? What do you like to hear from me?

This week I had so many tender mercy's from the Lord. Yesterday at church there was a mini primary program for Mother's Day last week. the little kids are so cute! They sang little primary mother's day songs, then the little ones said (yelled more actually:) into the mic little things like "i love you mommy" or "happy mama day" it was adorable. 

Also this week I learned how blessed I am. Man I am blessed to be where I am at in life, blessed to have everything that has happened to me so far in life, and blessed for all the things that will happen to me in my life. There are some culture things here that make me so so sad. It breaks my heart to see some of the things that I see. I do what I can to help, and then I just pray. Only through our Heavenly Father can people find hope in their life. Some things in life seem so so unfair. Many things actually. But when we remember the Lord, He makes all those unfair things seem okay. He helps us see how He touches each of His children in the way that He knows best. He blesses their lives. He blesses their lives through us. "Therefore it is vital that we serve each other." I know the Lord loves me. He has put me in our family for a reason. He knows me perfectly. He knows you perfectly. He has a perfect love for each of us which is hard to comprehend. I'm grateful for my testimony of the Church. I know that through the blessings of being a member of the church I have more hope and faith and trust in my life, which I am so greatful for.

Okay well I love you all so much!!

-Sister Davidson :)