Mexican Snowman

hola mi familia! Les extrano mucho mucho mucho mucho!!!!

first of all--as for packages...this is what Ive gotten and I got it on Thursday after my pday and it was the ADVENT calendars!! Thank you! Hna Layton says thank you too! It was actually kind of funny cause when we were grocery shopping that day we passed by some and i told hermana layton that my mom used to get these for us all the time and just how much they reminded me of home and then in the mail! BOOOOOM!!! that's what I got! ...but letters are like my umbilical cord to the outside world. to my home and my friends..

This week we also received 7 inches of snow.....blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah. oh and it has been SOOOOOOOOO hot here. the average this week was a whopping 6 degrees with the av low being 0 and the average high being 10...talk about hot..man I'm sweating up a storm almost so bad that it really feels like ice particles on my face instead of sweat... so on Saturday for language study we had a very successful study and talked in spanish the whole time while we built a mexican snowman!  pictures to follow...

and we should be getting more snow tomorrow :/

Joses baptism is this week and we are soooo excited! I am going to be playing the flute in the program so well see how this goes :) but Jose is so excited and really ready for this. hes even started looking into mission stuff..... :) :)

This week has been very very busy and I just don't ever feel like there is enough time to get anything done... but last Friday was training for the trainers so that they know how to train so the other 2 sisters in our zone who are also the trainees came to my area and i was senior comp for the day and had to drive which was the first time i had since I've been out and we just went contacting contacting contacting....oh and also did i mention that they are sisters--not hermanas....which means i was solo solo on the spanish speaking... boy was that fun when members from the branch called the phone who only speak spanish...but actually it was a really good day because it was a day full of work and i felt like i really had to step it up since i was like by myself....with no trainer.

This week we also had our Christmas nativity activity as a stake and this is where the spanish branch sang..pictures are also following :)

as for this week me and hna layton have just been teaching teaching teaching...good things are happening here in Belvedire and Rockford in fact we might be all of progressing investigators pretty soon within the next month or so and we might just might have a whole bunch of recent convert lessons to teach....;) ;)

Sunday night after a long day of teaching we get home pull into our driveway and just as the garage closes the lights go out...transformer outside blew and thus we had no power. which means no lights. and most importantly no heat....and when its 3 degrees outside plus the lovely friendly wind..our house got sooo cold...i think it got down to 40 degrees before the power came back on. So what happens when you don't have any power and a dying flashlight plus two hermanas? ....you build a fort!!! A giant fort! that is

Yesterday at one of our teaching appts with this lady named Marí I complimented her on her tree and it was real and she went on to tell us how she volunteers at the salvation army and they gave it to her for free and just how much she loves Christmas trees. and then i  just went on talking to her and told her how our apt looks so super bare and doesn't feel like home or Christmas since we don't have a tree in our apt. she then goes... "I have one! I'm not using it. here take it take it." SO now we have a Christmas tree in our apt!!! cool huh? hahahahahahahahhaah its a white one with pastel colored lights... perfect for our mansion and chevy malibu car named barbie... :)

  

oh and the Christmas devo was good I sure love our prophet and what an awesome blessing it is to be able to have a living Prophet on earth today to guide and direct us. I am so grateful for this gospel and the Book of Mormon. There are some really awesome things in there and treasures that can really be found when your searching daily.

p.s. you know your a missionary when....you think listening to the Muppet Christmas carols is funny and you know all the words to the songs due to the fact that its either muppets or mo tab choir....

I love you muchly!!

Hermana Maughan