Hola Familia!
I have 26 minutes to type, so I will try and type fast.
First of all, today is NOT my P-day. My companheira is off to Brazil tomorrow morning and as such, she gets a P-day today to email everyone before she leaves. My P-day is tomorrow, so expect another email tomorrow as well (win win for me, two days of emailing!)
Along that note, I have 9 in my District including me. They are; Elders Black, Meadows, Stucki, Orr, Larsen, Webb and Hoakinson. My companheria is Sister Lauren Pitfield. (be sure to look any of them up!) Elder Cayden Orr and Elder ____ Stuucki were on my flight here-Elder Orr was the tall one you guys talked to his parents. I love pretty much all of the Elders, they are all so incredible and young and funny. On Friday we realized all of us like talking in Nacho Libre accents and so now we are known as thee seeesters. Anyways, we have fun as a district.
On Thursday morning Orr, Meadows, Hoakinson and Pitfield all got their visas....leaving for Tuesday. These three Elders are my favorite and of course...MY COMPANION....so I was pretty bummed they would be leaving us. On Friday I had coped with it because our District leader, Elder Stuucki (sp?) and his companion, Elder Black, are super great. I started feeling okay with the fact all my friends were leaving and bada bing, Black and Stuucki got their visas that afternoon. Leaving me with the two quiet shy Elders Larsen and Webb. Larsen is pretty nice and just seems shy, however Webb is a little scared of me.
So you are probably wondering who my new companion will be right?? I won't have one-I am the only girl in the zone "my age" in the program so after Tuesday morning I get a little sticker on my name badge that says "solo" more like "loner". The poor boys have to escort me EVERYWHERE, but I also get a lot of privilidges so that's not so bad! I love Sister Pitfield, she is very tall and 26 and we are nothing alike so I was a little worried we wouldn't get along, but so far so good! Elder Meadows and her are both going to Belo Horizonte as well so I am glad I will see them again and we will be leaving on positive notes.
Relief Society is AWESOME. It's all the sisters from the entire MTC all together in one room and we have a "conversion story" and then a guest speaker. The conversion story is a sister missionary and she talks for about 5-10 minutes on how she was converted to the gospel through the missionaries. The girl that gave it yesterday was in my ward this past fall and her story of going to YM/YW and sneaking to sacrement meeting for four years before finally getting to be baptized was very touching. The guest speaker was a woman named....ah....Sister Lindley? I think it was that. She was sweet and her whole life was a mission. For real she had so many missionary experiences to tell! It's a great hour because although the Elders are great and so nice, it's fun to be just all girls.
They have devotionals on Sunday nights and no one knows who is coming until we are sitting in the bleachers and they walk in. As we were all sitting singing hymns, half way through a verse of something or other, Elder Ballard walked in and the entire congregation stood and sang louder. It was quite impressive and a great moment to see. We had a double whammy last night-Elder Archuleta sang "The Spirit of God" right before Elder Ballard spoke. Elder Archuleta was incredible, of course and I don't think there was one dry eye by the time he was done (including his, he broke down on the last chorus). After he concluded and sat down Elder Ballard got up and said "Gosh Elder Archuleta is a hard act to follow!" Of course, all of us started laughing quite hard at this and then Elder Ballard gave the rest of his talk-which was very good as well.
So you are probably wondering the Elder Archuleta situation...I have seen him every day and yes, he is going to Rancagua, Chile. He leaves tonight. His lunch table is about three away from ours and om ny goodness is he short! He's very smiley but along with that, VERY SHY. A few Elders from Japan wanted a photo with him and they obviously didn't know English so he took it, but very reluctantly. A few Elders from our zone tried taking a photo of him on the temple walk yesterday and he ducked and walked away quickly. He seems quite humble and ready to serve.
Alright I am out of time, but I'll write tomorrow!
Todo Beim,
Sister Mad
p.s. In Brazil, Irma's are nuns. So Mormon Sister missionaries go by "Sister" not "Irma" however, in Portugal "sister" is Irma. Our district is composed of Portugal, Africa, and Brazil missionaries. all "Irma's" are going to Portugal and the "Sisters" are going to Brazil.
P.S.S. The Elders headed to Africa on Thursday saw a picture of Mallory in my scriptures and think she's a spector from the Gods. They all want our home address to write her...which if they every get it, write only Elders Welheim and Hansen. I'd be okay with both of them :)
I look forward to Elder Archuleta !
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