Sunday: El día de las madres

We matched today! And also I really like this picture. Somos Jessica, Cassy, Emma Jo, yo, y Jill.

Today was really nice because it actually was restful :)  This morning we went to church and for one of the first times by ourselves (not counting school), we got on the right bus, got to the right place, and got home at the end without a hitch!  Church was really good; there was a lot that seemed like it was just for me.  If I have time at the end of writing up tonight, I'll share some of my favorite parts.  Oh yeah, and the Primary came in to sing to the mothers :)  It's Mother's Day here on Tuesday.  They were so cute! And I'll say this - the Profe's kids are brave!  They don't speak Spanish but they're here anyway and went to Primary and came in to sing, even though they didn't know the words.  Wow.  I look up to them!  I told Eva afterwards that I was impressed at how brave she is and she said she tried to hide behind someone while they were singing :) If I were them, I'd be scared to death! and super thankful that I had a sibling with me to help me feel more comfortable! :)

After church we just pretty much came home and hung out. We were both hungry, for probably the second time since we've been here. I guess that's a good thing, that we're starting to get our appetites back?  After a while, Carmita made us this stuff that was really good. It was refried black beans with some kind of un-taste-able pulverized cheese on top and we ate it like a dip with chips. I like the tortilla chips here that they give us; they're SUPER thick and crunchy and yummy. And then someone brought home some "takeout" chicken - but if that was takeout, it was the best takeout I've ever had!  Oh man. I died it was so good. It was some kind of smoked or grilled or something, and you could taste smokiness in every bite! Delish. We ate it with some kind of spicy salsa, delicious homemade tortillas, and these weird but still pretty good pickled onion things.  I didn't actually have any of the onions today, though. And we drank jamaica juice. I love that stuff!

my roommate, Jill, with the delicious chicken and jamaica!

After lunch we just kind of relaxed - I uploaded all my pictures onto my computer, smugmug, and facebook and added labels and descriptions.  It was big a job!  Then I took a nap.  For some reason it seemed especially hot today, so for the first time, we used the AC during the day.  Also, I read Dia's missionary letters and Sister Darcey's notes from Women's Conference. I can't believe Dia's gone to China! She's going to be the best missionary in the world.  Her feelings of inadequacy and hopelessness (as far as I could tell) don't come from being afraid or missing home or anything like that - they come from not being able to speak quickly enough to share the gospel because she wants to share it so badly.  She's awesome. And my favorite thing from Sister D's notes was that "When we degrade ourselves, we degrade God because we are made in His image."  It's from a Jewish book, I think.  Anyway, I really liked that a lot because I can be quick to degrade myself.

When I woke up we wanted to make cookies as a surprise for Carmita, hija, and her husband Sergio, but we couldn't find all of the ingredients and Carmita, madre, wasn't home, so we had to wait.  And instead...

I got to have FHE with my whole family (including Joel and Michael, which I wasn't expecting) for Mother's Day!  It was so fun to see everyone! I loved it! I kind of felt bad for hogging a lot of the conversation after the "meeting," because I wanted to talk to Brooke about how things have been since getting married, but I guess I'll have to just call her again this week.  It's been tricky to get used to - when I talk to people from home, sometimes it's hard to focus on them and the cool things they're doing because the things I'm doing are so cool.  Oh well - it's just part of learning to be a good listener, I suppose :)  It was a good Family Home Evening, though. I was scripture & prayer and shared Doctrine & Covenants 9:6, 13-14, because they have meant a LOT to me since coming out here.

"Do not murmur, my son, for it is wisdom in me that I have dealt with you after this manner.  Do this thing which I have commanded you, and you shall prosper. Be faithful, and yield to no temptation. Stand fast in the work wherewith I have called you, and a hair of your head shall not be lost, and you shall be lifted up at the last day. Amen."

After FHE when we were talking, I saw that I had gotten a facebook thing from my "brother-in-law" saying they were waiting for us to make the cookies, so I kind of felt bad :) but luckily we were just making no-bakes and those go fast.  We had everything and only had to convert measurements for butter because they had a cup measurer!  (Oh yeah, speaking of conversions - I became FB friends with my brother-in-law today and when he saw Joel, he asked how tall he was. When I converted it to meters for him, he couldn't believe it! It was really funny - everyone here is short :)  The cookies turned out DELICIOUS. A taste of home :) And everyone liked them! Ariana was afraid to try them at first because they looked like poop or something - I couldn't quite understand what she said - but when she did, she loved them :) I discovered tonight that you don't really drink milk here like we do in the U.S.  We told them that the cookies are especially good with milk, but no one wanted any.  Weird.  Also, have you ever been going through the pantry looking for vanilla only to find a backup box of milk?  Yeah. That's also weird.

Something funny from earlier that I forgot about - Ariana set up this Disney princess tent she has in the living room and had us get in it and pushed it all around like a tornado :)  It was hilarious.  I love that girl. :D  And when she asked how we would say her name in English and I told her (I tried to exaggerate a little but not too much), she made this big grimace and said it sounded bad :)  It was really cute.

So after everything, they had this random talent show on TV - kids' talents were normal things like singing and dancing, but also random things like pretending to be a doctor or pretending to be on a telenovela.  They were all like, 7 years old.  And there was a random group of moms who had a hoedown and then danced the macarena.

But after all of that, I had to do some homework for school tomorrow.  Our teacher sent it to us late and it was a weird file, so I couldn't open it until late last night.  It was kind of random reading; I hope I read the right stuff.

Well, I have class tomorrow at 7 and still have to shower, so I'm off! Have a great week, and I'll write again tomorrow!