06.23.2014 - Imperfect People Can Have Perfect Moments

Happy First Week of Summer to you too!! It feels like summer started a while ago and it was just a tad bit hotter than 77 here, but it was good to have it be officially summer. 

My week has been good, but I don’t know…Branson sounds like it can’t be beat. J That’s cool that there were so many talented people that you got to hear perform. I’m sure I would enjoy that. I love music. Greg moonwalked?? I’m sure that would have been a sight to see.  I didn’t know that Tom and Jodi are separated. How long has that been? How come so many of the performers are LDS?? I guess I don’t really know the backstory of Branson.  I appreciate the fact that you thought of me as you were complaining about the heat! 97 is a relatively cool day here though. J Vegas would be fun. It’s only a 5/6 hour drive from here! That’s what people tell me anyway. You didn’t specify who the “everyone” was that said Hi to me, but tell them hi back!! Also, you might suggest that a great way to say hi is to send a letter….but that’s just a friendly suggestion. :) Thank you so much for the kind words! I have the best mom in the world. J No contest. I’m glad things worked out the way they did in heaven so that I ended up in our family. Wouldn’t have it any other way!

This week was a good one. Tuesday night was very filling. We had 2 dinners! The first one was with a family in our ward. They are so sweet. The mom and son are semi-less active and the dad is less active, but they have a daughter on a mission. She was actually friends with Amanda in high school and lived in Wyview too so I met her up at school. She came over a few times! Small world. Anyway, dinner with them was good. They are very funny. We had already eaten the meal she prepared and the yummy fruit for dessert when she asked us if we had ever tried Lengua…most of us hadn’t and she asked if we wanted to try it now because she had some. So we did! And you know what, it was surprisingly good! It was a little disconcerting in the moments when I thought about the fact that I was eating cow tongue, but when I pushed those thoughts away, it was good. The second dinner was with Patricia and her son Luis. It was a goodbye dinner to him because he left for BYU on Thursday. He was really excited, but it’s hard on Patricia. She’s strong though.

Thursday was good!!!! It was my year mark in the ward and we had dinner at Hna. Baldwin’s restaurant and I had some delicious Lucuma ice cream. Doesn’t get much better than that as far as celebrations go! I didn’t even realized it was my year mark until we were at dinner that night. Time sure does fly. Crazy fast. That night was even better. After our lesson with Patricia we went back to the restaurant because Edith was there and we wanted to go say hi to her. And it’s a good thing we did because that’s when she told us that she picked the day of her baptism. She is going to be baptized on August 2^nd!!! I’m so excited. She is just the sweetest lady. She was late to church and felt terrible. She really likes church. Then during Sunday School she was inviting people to her baptism. She asked Hna. Baldwin to give one of the talks at her baptism. She is so ready!!! It’s just been so amazing to see the change and progress in her. In relief society one of the members invited her to sit with her and when I came a little later and sat by her she told me that and she had this big smile on her face and was just so happy!!!! It was the best. :) Moments like that make everything good and worth it.

Friday night was the Ward Father’s Day party and it went well. Edith and the Andrade family came!! Hna. Abreu (the RS Pres) had a mini-crisis happen during the day with the food for the party and so she didn’t have time to go set up so she called us and we went to her house to get the decorations and then the six of us missionaries went to the church and set up all the chairs and tables and decorations and the projector and screen. It was a lot of fun and it looked great! I love when I have set tasks like that…where I can get something done and see the results. It always makes me think of how satisfying it was ripping the ivy off of the side of the house. :) I don’t know why I remember that so much, but I do!!!

Church was good. The only exciting thing that happened other than what I already said about Edith is that I sang a song for the Special Musical Number and Elder Lillywhite played the piano. I sang My All is Thine. Thank you so much for sending me the Spanish lyrics. You are the best. It went really well and a lot of people told me I did a good job. It’s a good thing I’ve practiced that so many times with you at the piano at home because we only had time to run through it twice since Obispo asked us to do it on Saturday. I felt good about it though and that’s always a good thing after I sing. I hate the feeling of knowing I could have done it so much better. I messed up the lyrics a little at the end, but it didn’t even really bug me because the rest of it went fine. I still want to sing that in English sometime.

Things are good. There are always small moments of difficulty or sadness, but they always pass and better times come. I was feeling a little down on the way home last night. Not really sure why, but what I do know is that Heavenly Father was watching out for me. After we had finished planning last night we ate dinner (we didn’t get a chance to earlier in the day). Sister Greiner and Sister Mireles were with me. I don’t remember exactly how it started, but we ended up having a water fight with our water bottles in the kitchen and up in the loft. Our water bottles are designed in a way that they can squirt surprisingly well! It was a ton of fun and we all just laughed and laughed and I felt so much better afterward. I love moments like those. It was the best. I was freezing afterwards though and still a little damp when I went to bed (didn’t have the energy to change haha), but it was worth it. Oh so worth it.

Thank you for all that you do and for who you are. I love you so much. Have a wonderful week.

Con amor,

Hermana Baria