February 18

I´m a little sad to miss all the snow and cold weather. Here it continues to alternate between hot and sunny and raining and if it rains for more than an hour or two it starts to get rather chilly.

Carnival for me was really boring. It´s a bigger deal in other parts of the city, where they started throwing water balloons and using squirt guns weeks ago. However, here in villa mexico is only started on Sunday. Sunday afternoon there were lots of little kids running around with big squirt guns and water balloons and generally having a great time. Some of them got us wet too, but it was so hot out that we didn´t mind much. Monday and Tuesday we stayed inside, but could hear a lot of fireworks and fire crackers and such, plus lots of loud music. I´n sure that lots of people had water guns and balloons and even buckets of water, but you can´t hear that as much.Today a lot of houses and cars are still decorated with streamers and balloons, but it´s pretty much over. 

With all our time in our apartment we followed the normal schedule for study in the morning (one hour of personal study, one hour of companionship study, and one hour of language study). Then we cleaned the apartment really well, updated the area book (records of all the people we are teaching, where they live, what we have taught them, etc), which took awhile, did laundry, and caught up on a lot of assorted little things like writing letters, making some new cardboard drawings to teach the Plan of Salvation (remember the missionaries who had Calvin from calvin and hobbes? I´ll take a picture of mine this week.), and organizing my desk really well. However, we still had lots of time to be bored. I´ve gotten used to having lots to do and being really busy, so I didn´t like all the free time as much as I thought I would (I was really looking forward to our "vacation"). 

Hna Nuñez and I get along fine. It wasn´t that hard to adjust to teaching with her because all missionaries learn to teach with the same basic principles and, obviously, the same lesson outlines. We talk a lot about our families and what we did before our missions, more than with Hna Aliaga. Looking back, Hna Aliaga told me almost nothing about her family or life. I´m not sure if Hna Nuñez is more soft spoken or not. She talks just as much, but I think is a bit more reserved about her feelings. maybe? 

I feel like I understand Spanish pretty well. I am aware of how much I need to work on conjugating my verbs. I know how to do it right, but I have to think about it for a second first and often don´t bother. I still never know when to use tu or usted, but I think that´s a problem that everyone has. I´m reading the Book of Mormon in Spanish and can understand pretty well, except for the Isaiah parts, but I can´t understand the Isaiah parts in English either. 

I have a couple photos to send you, but I can´t get the computer to accept my memory reader. It just doesn´t show up at all. When I finish everything here, I might have time to switch to a different machine and try there. The pictures are of us in front of the temple, we finally went to the temple. As missionaries we get to go once every 3 months, so I hadn´t gone in ages. We went really early in the morning and got back to our house by 10 or 11 if I remember right. That morning, while getting ready to leave by 5:30, the sink broke and wouldn´t turn off. We were able to stick a brick on top of it which kept the leaking to a minimum until Hno Fernandez (the father of the family who lives in the house) could fix it. Now the shower won´t heat the water and we have to use the shower in the house until it gets fixed, which is a bit of a bother. 

The other picture is of the lunch we made the monday. We had permission to leave to go to the pension for lunch and dinner, but Hna Anavel can´t cook for us on Mondays because she sells juice all day and on Tuesday she called us and said she couldn´t that day either because she was visiting her mother. We had permission from the Fernandez family to use their kitchen and food, but there wasn´t much in the fridge. Thus we had potatoes and eggs with tomato and onions for lunch for two days. Boiled potatoes the first day and fried the second. We made pancakes for dinner, which turned out pretty good. I am learning to make them thin enough that they don´t burn before they are cooked through. Next time we have to cook for ourselves I want to make latkes because all the ingredients are really easy to find here. Could you send me a recipe. I just need to know the approximate ratios between eggs, potatoes, onions, and flour. Am I forgetting an ingredient? milk?

Love,

Natalie

PS This computer is set to English and thus you are getting an email without many spelling mistakes. 

Here are some pictures from paintball. They are really unflattering because the girls have to wear an extra padded vest under the jumpsuit (this is also really hot), but we had fun. 

February 9

I´m not sending you that many photo´s this week because without Hna Aliaga always taking photos, I don´t take that many. The first few photos are from last monday. I realized I hadn´t sent you any photos of drinks in bags. What I have in the picture is milk with cinnomin and oatmeal (I couldn´t taste any oatmeal), bt fruit juices are a lot more common. 

Next, I have some pictures that I think turned out really well of figs. Figs are in season and a lot of people have extras from the fig trees in their yards that they give us. Figs are not very sweet, but they aren´t bad. Next is all the stuff I have up on my wall. It looks a lot less baren in person. I don´t understand why Aunt Heather sent me my own baby pictures, but I put them up too. Finally this morning Hna Nuñez and I realized we didn´t have any pictures of the two of us, so we took one before leaving the house. 

Don´t worry I should be able to wear these shoes for a lot longer. However, last week when my feet got soaked the shoes took a lot of damage and I realized that they might not wear out gradually like they had been. I don´t care too much about the color, but not red. They need to be able to match with everything. 

I sent Dad his letter last week after internet and they said it would take 15 days at the longest, which I think is overly opptomistic, but it might get to you this coming week. 

My observation of the week is that I don´t think I´m a teenager anymore. The 16 and 17 year olds that we teach or who visit with us sometimes feel like they are the same age as me, but I often feel a lot more mature then them. I have the prespective to see that their huge problems are not the end of the world nor are nearly as big as they seem. I remember feeling like that, like the whole world was against me, but now I have to remember to be patient as they work out that their parents are not trying to ruin all their plans, but just want them to think through their descions and get home on time. 

I´ve thought a bit about your question of if I´m really happy and that I should tell you when things aren´t going well. I think I am generally happy. There is a difference between momentary and long term happiness. At many moments throughout the day I wish I were doing something else that involved less walking or being in the hot sun or people who aren´t home when they promised they would (today we went to visit someone at 8am, which is super early to be visiting and it´s pday to boot because they said that was the only time they had, but when we got there they were leaving and really they aren´t that interested in talking to us) or who don´t want to listen to us, but still take up a lot of our time talking, while we stand there late for something else. However, at the end of the day I am happy with what I´ve done that day and how I am living my life. 

I sometimes miss watching tv or listening to rent really loud in the car or being able to chose what I´m going to eat without worrying what my companion thinks of my food choices, but I can see a huge different in how receptive I am to the Spirit. I truely enjoy studying the scriptures and, when I finally got the Liahona from Conference, the talks asnwered so many questions I had, just like everyone always said that conference talks did, but I didn´t see before. 

The other day I was thinking of how I know all the details of the characters in movies and books that I like (Sebas, the 4 year old son of Hna Anavel, has a bunch of avengers action figures and I was explaining the different characters to Hna Nuñez while Sebas disagreed with me. He will not be convinced that spiderman in not in the avengers movie and I have to remember that he´s 4 and that convincing him that Loki is more misunderstood than purely evil is not that important.) and that now I am putting some of that energy into remembering the lives of the people we teach. They are all really unique and interesting. It helps me to remember what it says in Preach My Gospel that whatever the problems people have, the gospel will help them, because I have so little experience with ecomonic or family problems. I can just tell them that praying will help and coming to church will help and that reading the Book of Mormon will help because it will. 

Today I am happy because it is pday and also because a ton of people who we invited to church came! Earlier this week I was pretty discouraged because two days in a row we spend several hours with nothing to do trying to remember someone who lives near where we were to go visit because all of our plans had fallen through. I am proud that in the area I am in we have yet to have to knock on doors to find someone to teach and don´t want to break that streak and also if we are out of people to visit after dark we don´t want to knock on random doors. 

This coming weekend is carnival. The young men and young women and ysa are going camping (each group seperatly) for 4 days and the ward will be really empty on Sunday. However, I think they are going to have a great trip and I hope the people we are teaching who are going to go can make a lot of close friends. Girl´s camp was always a great experience for me for different reasons each year. The first year I went I came back with a testimony strong enough to decide to be baptised. The second year (or maybe third) was the first time I bore my testimony in public. I also got to be a leader for the first years in the final year. 

The other reason I´m telling you about carnival is that on monday and tuesday next week we won´t be allowed to leave the house for anything more than to go to the pension for meals because there are too many people throwing water ballons and drinking. We will get a half day pday on wednesday morning to write home and do shopping or other pday things.

February 2

The missionaries definitely care about the superbowl. We were talking this morning and everyone was sure that the seahawks and patriots were playing, but no one was sure who has won, and I thought the superbowl was in november. 

The missionaries also care about current events and many were listening to the newest elder summarize what had been going on in the news as he was leaving home. We had a nice discussion trying to remember what´s going on around fracking. 

I do not need any new socks. I wear the tiny socks everyday, but I can plenty and they are holding up more than you´d think. What I will need in the next month or two is new shoes. I already sent you the info and pictures of my shoes. I will eventually want another skirt or two, but that can wait several months. All of that can be found here, but I don´t have the time to search out good shoes when you could just send me another pair of what I know works great. Just remember to label everything as under 100 dollars or it will be expensive and time consuming for me to pick up. 

This week I recieved 2 letters from Dad, two letters from grammie, one letter from grandma and one letter from Aunt Heather. I am getting more mail than almost everyone else in my zone. 

Thanks for the pictures [of the snow]. My companion is impressed.

Hi Mom (and the other people who read my blog),

Thanks for all the letters I´ve gotten this week. All the pictures and drawings and cards I get go up on the wall above my bed. One of the zone leaders remarked on how much mail I get. I especially apreciated the letter from Sister Gold updating the sister missionaries from Nashua on what the other sister missionaries from Nashua are doing. It´s really interesting to hear a bit about what it´s like to be a misionary in other places and reading about their miracles they´ve seen in their missions makes me happy.

One of the blessings here at the moment is Noelia, an investigator, who is doing amazingly. I´ve been able to see how the gospel is helping her come out of her shell and start to make friends in the church.

It is raining more here than before. See photos.

It is also hot, but not that different than before. Does grammie have a photo of Uncle Ben in the rain on the sidewalk like that? I think I remember seeing one.

I am feeling short on time right now, so I´m going to copy a bit of what I wrote to the mission president. 

After a awkward day or two, Hna Nuñez and I are getting along just fine. For the first few days I felt a lot of burden and responsibility to look after my area and investigators almost alone, but Hna Nuñez gradually started to talk more and we had a really good ward council, which helped me not to feel like I or the missionaries are alone in supporting our investigators and less actives. The bishop and ward leaders will also help. 

Noelia is progressing a ton, which helps the ward get excited about missionary work, because they can see the results really quickly in Noelia. A few of them invited her to go see the temple without needing an prompting from us at all and often these weeks she knows more about the schedule of activites in the ward then we do. I´ve also seen Noelia change a lot and come out of her shell in young women´s activities. She still has doubt, but says she wants to be baptised on the date we´ve set from the 21st. 

Anyway, Hna Nuñez is a lot quieter than I´m used to and I miss walking out of a lesson and excitedly talking about what went well and what didn´t, but she´s a good missionary and teaches well and had a great idea from a fhe with a bunch of little kids. We talked about service and helped them trace their hands to record how they are serving each other at home. Hna Ruth, who invited us from the fhe also invited her neighbor and halfway though the neighbor called her kids in to listen too and we have an appointment to come back and do another fhe. 

(fhe is family home evening.)

I don´t know where all my internet time went today, but I really appreciated all the pictures of the snow at home.

The pictures and videos are from the ward talents show.

It started 2 hours late because everyone showed up late, and thus we had to leave part way through because missionaries should be home at 9 or 9:30 if in a lesson, but it turned out really well. Everyone danced really nicely and there were some funny skits. The young men did a cooking show, which was really funny and had audience participation. The high priest´s group did a rather long skit/play, which I think was on the evils of drinking, but I didn´t really understand because they didn´t speak loud enough to be heard in the back. 

The first new picture is of piche mayor (Or something like that), which is delicious. It is homemade french fries (not very salty and large chunks) with red onion, tomatoes, green peppers, sasauge, a bit of hard boiled egg, and little pieces of meat with a distintive sauce. I´m trying to remember to take more pictures of food.

We also went paintballing again as a zone, which was a lot more fun now that I know how in works and who the people in the zone are. Hna Nuñez is the one on the far side of the picture from me. In the middle are Hna Hansen and Hna Aguilar, the other two sister missionaries in our zone. 

Yes, I´m still in the same place. 

The next big thing coming up is carnivel, when I think we might have to stay in our apartment for the day because there are too many drunks and people with water balloons, but that´s just the rumor from past years. 

Thanks for telling me about the movie. I´ll think about that. At the moment, I only have time for news, not reflection.

January 26

The news about cambios is that my campanion will be Hna Nuñez. I´ve never met her, but everyone says she´s great. She´s already got 14 months or so in the mission and I think is from Peru, if I remember right. I´m generaly happy about the cambio, but I still don´t know very much. I just know that every intercambio I´ve done has gone fine, so I hope I can work with just about anyone. 

This last few days have been a bit of a mess because Hna Aliaga has end of mission activites. I´ve been on the other side of Cochabamba in Frutillar with Hna Capito, whose companion is also leaving, since Saturday and will be here until Tuesday morning when we get our new companions and things go back to normal.

It was really hard to not be in my ward for Sunday because no one was looking after my investigators and we also missed ward council which does not help the ward´s opinion of us as missionaries. However, there really was nothing I could do about it and I sent lots of text messages Sunday morning to try to get our investigators to come to church and to remind ward members to go pick people up or call them.

Frutillar is super different than villa mexico, mainly in that is is way richer. It is also a lot steeper and greener and remindes me of when I got lost in the super steep parts of San Fransisco. The missionaries here actually have to knock on doors to meet new people because there aren´t many people sitting outside their houses like in Villa Mexico. 

Between our normal interviews, Hna Aliaga´s end of mission stuff, and a couple random councidences, I´ve seen a lot of President and Hna Hansen in the last two week, which is really nice. They´re great people and care a lot about all the missionaries. Hna Hansen works hard to make all the missionaries feel at home and that they aren´t being forgotten. Her Spanish has also improved a lot in the time I´ve been here. 

Lambie is still sitting in my closet waiting until I have time to patch her paw, but is all washed and dried. 

Hna Hansen (not the mission president´s wife, the other missionary in my zone), who had her ingrown toenails removed, is supposed to stay home and walk as little as possible for more than a week, but I don´t know is they´ve been able to do that. A week without any missionary work just isn´t possible. I´m worried about my area and only had to leave it for a day and a half.

I am learning to be a lot more flexible and okay with constantly changing plans because everything has been a mess these last few days. I left villa mexico Saturday morning not knowing how many days I´d be gone for. As long as I have my plack, my agenda and clean socks, I´m okay and I just have to pick one or two firm goals or requirements and let everything be flexible. 

Would you google gastritis ( or gastrisis) for me? It´s some for of stomach illness or parasite that I hear people talk about and see a lot of different medicines and natural remedies for and I´m curious. 

Did I write about Noelia last week? I think I did. She continues to be a really great investigator and we had a great lesson with her mother too this Saturday. I just hope things won´t change when school starts again in a week or so. She went to church again even though she is really shy and knew that I and my companion wouldn´t be there. We are having less success with Nicole, who was baptismed a bit more of a month ago. She missed church for the second time in a row this week. I hope it´s just because she´s young and doesn´t understand how important it is. However, the ward members are remembering to support her more, which is really good. 

The other missionaries, especially the latinos, think skiing and cross country skiing is pretty cool. They also asked about sled dogs. :)

I´m glad you liked the photo of the whole group by the river and that I look comfortable. I was squatting awkwardly and did not feel comfortable

enjoy all your snow!

Cambios

January 19

Thanks for your letter and for getting the boys to write. :) 

I´m all fine now. My scabs are all healed and were almost all though clothes so dirt wasn´t a problem. We told the zone leaders immediatly and President Hansen got informed by them and then called to make sure I was okay, but no one even mentioned calling the police, probably because nothing was robbed and the license plate of the car was covered.

Also, Bobby, the little dog, stole Lambie from my bed for a third time and this time she was all wet and dirty and her paw is torn. We try to keep the door closed as much as possible to keep Bobby out, but he sneaks in when we aren´t looking. 

It´s starting to rain almost every day now, which can get rather cold, but I think the rainy season´s all over by the end of february if not sooner, so it won´t last for long. 

Hermana Hansen (not the mission president´s wife, another missionary) has had problems with ingrown toenails and just got them cut out last week. Is that the same thing that happened with Robert as I was leaving? How long did he have to stay off his feet?

The 6 week period is called a cambio in Spanish. I think it´s called a transfer in English. Yes, this is the last week. Next Sunday I find out my new companion and next Tuesday she shows up and Hna Aliaga goes home. The last couple days, starting this Friday or Saturday are going to be a mess because Hna Aliaga has end of mission activities. I think I´m going to be with another missionary whose companion is also leaving for some of those days, but I still don´t really know how it´s all going to work. 

I´m a bit nervous about who my companion is going to be, because I get along really well with hna aliaga and I might not get along so well with this new person and it will certainly be awkward at first and I can´t figure out how to say awkward in spanish. I´ve asked around and no one else knows how to say awkward in spanish either. 

I´m sorry to hear about everything going on with Beth. What you´re discribing sounds to me like a group home, those exist, don´t they?

I didn´t realize that the bookshelves were in the sitting room. I thought they were going in the futon room. What are you going to do with all the space in there?

This week we have some great new people we are teaching and more than are starting to progress more, which is really nice. I wanted to do a sort of spotlight the investigators with some of the people I have photos of to give you more of a sense of what I´m doing, but I don´t really have time now. If you have questions about the pictures, ask. 

The family in the last few pictures are Carola and Alex(not pictured), we made umentas (tamales) with them, which was fun, but they came out kind of gross tasting in my opinion (too much cheese). They are a really great family. Their two little boys get along and play together all the time and tell me all about dinosaurs and which ones eat plants and which ones eat people. Alex and Carola really love each other and are motivated to listen to us so that they can be sealed in the temple. 

Every Tuesday we have a missionary night at the church, which just means that the missionaries plan the activities. Last Tuesday was our turn (we alternate with the elders) and we had a great scavenger hunt with different clues from the scriptures. Afterwards we talked about the parables from the new testament that compare the kingdom of heaven to a treasure and how valuable it is. 

 Se regalan gatitos aqui...Kittens are given here!

January 12

I got Christmas cards from Allentown grandparents and from Aunt Heather this week, if they ask. I´m planning to write to Gramma Bibi next week. The letter from Aunt Heather is great and is so her voice. Both are up on my wall, which is looking a lot less bare lately. Because our house is smaller than a lot of missionaries´ houses, it looks a lot more lived-in, which is really nice.

I don´t have any pictures for you this week because I forgot to bring my memory reader with me and Hna Aliaga will be using hers the whole time. She got a virius in her memory last week and has been stressed all week waiting to hear if someone can recover her pictures. I think she´s got most of them, but they are all out of order and not as good quality. 

Congrats to Robert and Charles!  That´s great. [Nordic Skiing] I keep losing track of Acton weather because things are pretty constant here and the school schedule is different. The new school year starts in the first week of February. There should be better snow now that it´s so cold, but, if not, you can all go ice skating with Hazel instead. 

Yes, Harley was that nuts before. In Alaska they put a bit of chicken blood in the sled dogs´ water to get them to drink it all before it freezes. Maybe you could mix a something that Harley likes into his water so that he drinks it quickly outside or will drink it inside. 

This week I ate rabbit with out knowing what it was. I did notice that it was a bit weird, but I try to not to notice if food is a bit weird. I´m feeling more confident with eating whatever I´m given, but I´m happy that meat is almost always completely well done here. The only thing I really don´t like is cheesy rice because the type of fresh cheese just isn´t good melted. 

The main news this week is that I almost got robbed. On Thursday night on our way back to our house, a person in a car grabbed my shoulder bag from behind. However, my bag goes across my body and it´s really strong so it didn´t break. The downside of that is that I got dragged for a few seconds before they let go. I got a bit scrapped up and bruised, but not as much as you´d think from what happened. Hna Aliaga was really shaken up because she thought I´d been hit by the car for a few seconds, but I didn´t really realize what had happened until it was over, so I wasn´t particularly upset. My glasses are bit bent, but the glass is fine and I have my spare pair until I get them fixed and my bag only lost the decorative button from hitting the ground.

 We´re trying to walk home i different routes now and walk on the sidewalk more, especially at night, but the day I almost got robbed was one of the only days we were actually getting home on time (we´ve supposed to be home at 9 or 9:30 if we are in an appointment), so besides pay more attention to our surroundings, there´s not a ton we can do. 

There´s a new mission in Bolivia that was just announced! I don´t know anything else about it besides that´s centered in El Alto, which is kind of part of La Paz. Would you look up for me if there´s any other info about it? There might not be, but maybe it´ll affect our mission boundries. 

Thanks for the info about OTB. It makes sense from how I`ve seen in on signs. Dad´s thing to google for me this week: DAKAR. I think it´s a car race, but it might be connected to a plan to build a new highway. I also want to know what the logo is a picture of. It looks like a guy in middleeasternish clothing to me.