Happy Thanks-Birthday!

Hi Sweet Family!!

 

What a WEEK!! Everyone went out of town for Thanksgiving...the entire weekend. Some of our members were still in town and came back for Sunday(the most important day for a few obvious reasons) and all of our investigators and the potential investigators that we tried to see weren't home. After a few hours we decided to start laughing about it because it was becoming frustrating. We laughed a lot. This week was pretty slow and it tried our patience. BUT it was SO FUN!!! Thanksgiving morning we went and played some sports with our Elders in the ward and quite a few other from the ward. Hna. O'Neill and I were the only girls, that just made it more fun though! We started off by playing soccer....I have not much of foot-eye-coordination. I was much better at defense and being goalie...you know, the fat kid job. I nailed it. Then we went inside and played some basketball, not as fun, I'm not great at that either. Our last sport though was VOLLEYBALL!!!!! It was SO FUN!!! And I am still getting over being sore. It was a little frustrating because they are all Hispanic soccer players...so they did a lot with their heads, feet, and chests. And mostly just wacked at the ball, nothing was really set up. But I still had fun! We ate at two different houses that night. Too much food and no turkey. I felt a little homesick then. The next couple days were uneventful as we walked around like old people because of our sore muscles and tried to talk to people on the streets, as we had no other options. They might have ran away as they saw us hobbling over to them. It was quite pathetic.

 

Sunday(MY BIRTHDAY) was really awesome! I thought I was going to hate it because I had only received a card from Dad so far and my package was no where to be found. Elder Nilsen even headed my plea to mand the office on Friday while everyone else was gone. But apparently the office told them not to send packages to the office until today. I'm pretty miffed, but I can't really do anything about it. So I'll get it today!! But I was sang to in our correlation meeting and in the Primary(Hna. O'Neill and I taught primary, it was so fun). After church we went to the Reyes home and Yanis and Lupe bought me a cake and pizza(breaking the Sabbath never tasted so good)! She also gave me a gift card so that will be fun! Then we had this AMAZING lesson with a new family that we got from a referral. The Diaz Family. The mother, Diana, had a very sad experience at the beginning of the year with her mom passing away. She has never forgiven herself for ignoring a call from her the day she died. The moment we stepped into their home the spirit was incredible strong. I have never been in a lesson like that. My heart was pounding the entire time as we taught and bore testimony of the Plan of Salvation and that we can be together as families forever. I cried quite a bit, as we as a family have struggled through a loss and have found strength and hope through God's plan. They loved the lesson and the thrived within the spirit setting and accepted to prepare to be baptized. They are incredibly prepared by the Lord. After that amazing lesson we were to go to the Rodriguez home to have a Noche Mormona with them and the Garcia family. We got there and the house was dark, but we decided to knock anyways. So we did and Hermana Rodriguez let us in and right as i stepped in the lights went on and I had balloons in my face!!! They threw me a surprise party!!!! Lots of ward members were there, it was the sweetest thing ever!!!! Hermana Rodriguez bought me a ring and I got a necklace from Vilma! The got my a cake and I even got my face smashed into it...don't worry I have the video and all. :) I had an awesome birthday!! I am so grateful I have an extention of my family here in Texas. I felt SO loved!!

 

Well that is all I have to tell. I hope everyone had an awesome Thanksgiving and Happy Birthdays! From everyone's emails, it was great fun! Thank you for all of the love and support! I look forward to the packages and letters coming my way that I heard about! Be good and safe and be and example of Christ!!

 

Love,

Hermana Florence

Thanksgiving food aka chilies:

Birthday Cakes:

Everyone at my surprise party!