hola familia

Well, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!!!!! It was fun to get to hear from you on Saturday! I hope that you all had a wonderful christmas. It sounds like you were all having a good time.

Let's see...so I already told you about some stuff this week, but I'll probably just tell you about it again in case anyone else reads this. Plus then you can have more details.

So last wednesday Daniel and Cleo came to the Mormon Battalion with their 3 kids. It was way fun to take them on the tour. Daniel had the best reaction I've ever seen to the photos coming to life. He nearly fell over it suprised him so much. haha. They loved the tour. I have a couple photos I will send from it. I tried emailing the photo from the battalion to mom, so if you got a picture of a random family at the mormon battalion historic site, it was them. haha.

We added a new investigator this week. Well, really we added 5 this week (which is good since we were supposed to add 10 in december to meet our mission goal of 1,000). But this one woman who we added, Maria Veracruz, but she goes by bonnie, she is awesome. Her son and his wife are members and she has come out to live with the daughter in law while her son goes to school for 18 months in a different state, so she is there to take care of the kids. Anyways, she has been attending the english ward since november with her son and so he requested that sisters come visit, so that's how we are visiting her (she does speak spanish too though, but we speak english with her). She seems way prepared though, and I know her son really wants her to get baptized, so hopefully some good things will come of that. She went to the battalion a month ago and loved it. She related perfectly to their story of faith and even said that just like them it took a lot of faith for her to decide to move out here. So cool.

Christmas eve was pretty fun. We had a practice for the MCRD (marine core recruit something) choir. Then we went out to lunch as a district. We went to Chili's and it was way fun. THen we had district meeting, which included a white elephant gift exchange. I received monopoly. haha too bad there is never time to play a 5 hour board game. haha. I gave a madagascar calendar and some nerds in a raisin bran box (I even left some of the raisin bran in it, which the elder who got it said was lucky because he just ran out of cereal haha). After that Hna D and I added the milk to the tres leches cake we had made that morning (we were bringing it to daniel and cleo's that night).

When we got to Daniel and Cleo's they weren't quite ready (surprise) haha so we did the dishes and helped them clean the apartment while cleo got the kids ready and cooked and whatnot. We had tamales and meat and asparagus and some shrimp thing with chile (I think I am becoming more tolerable of spicy things...not because I want to, it's just happening. haha). We read from Mosiah 3 about christ coming with them. It was a really fun night. THey told us all about how they met and got married and whatnot. THey are pretty funny. I'll include some photos from the night. We finished with our tres leches cake, which was not the greatest. haha. The milk didn't really seep through all the cake, so it was a little dry. oh well. They acted like they liked it. haha.

Then we headed to the battalion where we had a little christmas gathering with tamales and hot chocolate. (I am a little tamale'd out to be honest. I'll be ok if I never eat one again. haha). Then elder evans read the christmas story and we sang christmas songs throughout it, including silent night in about 5 different languages. The evening concluded with a testimony meeting. It was really nice.

THen we rushed home and opened some presents (because we wouldn't have time in the morning). I opened the box from mom and read the christmas eve letters. Thanks for sending those, that was the best christmas present. It was lucky I opened the green sweater, because I needed one to wear to the mcrd thing the next day. I am very excited about the chocolate bacon bar. I haven't tried it yet, but I can't wait.

The next morning we woke up at 6 to be ready by 7 for the mcrd. While Hna D was showering I opened the huge box from target (which I had assumed was the thing megan had ordered me), turns out it was a set of pans for baking (which I am still excited about), but it was kind of funny. hahaha. Then we headed off to the MCRD to sing.

The MCRD was a really cool experience. It was kind of sad too. There were a bunch of recruits who came to listen, some members, some not. We had a whole program in which the missionaries sang together, separately elders and sisters, and as senior missionaries. Pres and sis donaldson shared a christmas message at the end and so did their officer. It was really neat. BUt it was kind of sad to look around at all the recruits and think that many of them could give their life before I even get home from my mission. There was a real theme of sacrifice though in the talks given and in the prayers. Two recruits prayed (at the beginning and end), and it was very apparent in both prayers how willing those recruits are to sacrifice for the country and how well they relate to the savior sacrificing for them. It was pretty cool. They gave out cupcakes at the end (I didn't take one though because my stomach started hurting ... all those tamales I guess).

After that we went to a christmas party at the battalion again. haha. The senior couples had put together a brunch for us, so that was fun. They gave us presents too, a tote bag that says mormon battalion and new name tags that say mormon battalion historic site under our names, some nail polish and soap and things like that. It was really cute.

THen I went home and called my favorite people: YOU!!! haha. That was fun. Then Hna D called her family and I wrapped her present. I had gotten her a picture frame and made a collage of photos of us to put inside.

Then we were at the battalion. Believe it or not people came throughout the day on christmas. haha. I gave a tour with Hna CHristensen to a very strange man. He asked me to dress up as the soldier, which I did, but it was kinda strange. haha.

Sunday we had an awesome lessong with our investigator Berta and her husband Pedro and added their son Jose. Jose is awesome. He was askeing all these questions that related perfectly to the joseph smith story. It was great.

Yesterday we had an awesome experience. We ate with Hna Rivas (pretty much the best member ever). she gave us each a fleece jacket for christmas with some gloves. So cute. Then she came with us to see the Tapia family, but they were busy, so we just randomly decided to go see Adam, cause she has met him before. He answered the door, but had clearly just woken up, so he asked if we could come tomorrow, we said Wed. Then Hna Rivas just started talking to him and asked if he was ready to get baptized soon. hahahahaha. So good. Adam explained he wanted to wait and talk to his fam first in mexico. Hna Rivas just went off about how she is the only member of her fam but it is way easier to testify after being baptized and everything. It was SOOOO GOOOD! We were there in the hallway for a good 20 minutes. She pretty much taught a lesson on the holy ghost and invited him to pray about getting baptized before he saw his family. Hna D and I pretty much just stood there. It was awesome. (oh, and we went carroling to adam a few days before and martha was still there, so I guess we may need to go over the law of chastity again).

We also taught daniel last night. It was a good lesson. He is soooo interested. At the end he said that we can still come, but cleo isn't interested. He said that she really likes us as people, but that she is still studying with the jehova's witnesses, but that they talked about it and she is ok with him still learning more. So that's good and bad. I had always figured I would be dealing with more uninterested men, but i have had the opposite experience. haha. oh well. Hopefully cleo will catch on. BUt good news. Daniel told us that he nor cleo nor the kids have been baptized. So that will make things way easier when we explain about that.

Well, I think that's about it for the week. It was a good one. I hope that you are all having fun together!!! Can't wait for next christmas! But to be honest, I'm pretty content with where I am and what I'm doing. But I do love you. so no worries there.

Happy new year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

love

hna livingston

Feliz Navidad!

Feliz Navidad! That's how we say it down here in city heights. Well, just when talking to hispanic people I guess. haha. Crazy though, it does not feel like christmas at all. It's been pretty rainy lately, but still not too cold (except at night). I'm pretty sure christmas will mostly just feel like another day except for a special phone call that I will be making around 12 my time (be there or be square).

So this week was a pretty good one. We have found several new investigators, including Daniel's wife cleo, who was our investigator forever ago, but wasn't showing interest at first when we added daniel again. We invited them to the spanish missionary fireside though, which was on sunday and was christmas themed and they came!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And it was AMAZING. There was a missionary choir (which we weren't in because we were at the battalion during the practice) which sang several awesome christmas songs with recent convert testimonies in between. All of the testimonies were really concise and good this time (sometimes they get a little dragged out). Then pre. Jesperson (the counselor to our mission pres.) spoke. He spoke about some of the symbols of chrismas: the wreath = god's eternal love, the tree = always growing up toward heaven - us becoming better people through the atonement, red = christ's blood, the star = the light of christ. Things like that. When he got to the star all of the lights were turned off and a star lit up above the organ. It was way sweet. Then he kept talking with a flashlight and mentioned how we can have the light of christ with us here and how it is carried by the missionaries and they can bring it to us. When he said this all of the missionaries started flashing their little flashlights (he had given them to us before) so it looked like twinkling stars all over the stand and throughout the audience. It was way sweet. Daniel and Cleo really liked it. In fact, they (including cleo) told us to come over the day after (yesterday), so we did and we watched joy to the world with them.

After we watched the movie they asked us some questions. Cleo asked about the book of mormon, who wrote it and whatnot. She asked if Nefi was the one who started the whole religion and we explained about all of the writers being prophets in the americas. She liked that. Then Daniel started talking about wanting to undersand the bom better and cleo interrupted him and said that they didn't need to understand the book perfectly, they just needed to have faith. That everyone just needs to have faith and that we were there to help them have faith in christ because they don't have faith in anything. It was AWESOME. Usually she just talks about not really liking religion. Then we read part of alma 32 with the definition of faith and where he says that the people couldn't have a perfect knowledge of his words but they could have faith by experimenting on them. So we told them that's what they needed to do. It was a really awesome lesson.

At the end they asked what we were doing for christmas. We said we didn't have plans. They said that they didn't really either because they just moved to the u.s. like 7 months ago and didn't have many friends and don't have any family here. They suggested that we adopt each other since we don't have family here either and invited us over for dinner on christmas eve. So that's what we will be doing. Hanging out with Daniel and Cleo and their kids Isac, Stephanie, and Fatima. Pretty awesome.

We also got Luis and Linda Torres to come to the fireside, which was quite a feat. We talked to them for almost 2 hours before. Luis opened up saying that he wanted to change but it is really hard. We watched a mormon message about the atonement's healing powers and just kept telling him that all he needed to do was start doing something good. We kept suggesting that the fireside was the perfect way to start. Finally at 7:00 I just looked at my watch and said, oh it's time for the fireside, so you are going to follow us right? haha. Somehow or another, they all just got up and put their shoes on and came. haha. I watched behind us the whole time to make sure that Luis was really following us. They seemed to like it, but they darted out the second it ended. (Luis doesn't want anyone to see him at church or anything because he's embarrased he hasn't come in so long). haha. Obviously the way to fix that is to start coming. So I think he made a small step on sunday.

We had our ward christmas party on saturuday, which was kind of fun. Not too many people came because it was the same night as the counselor in the stake presidency (the one who speaks spanish), his son's wedding was the same night. Jazmin and her family came though, but she wouldn't got talk to any of the young women, so that was frustrating. Also, they didnt start serving the food until about 7:45 (it started at 6) and it was still taking forever...turns out they were grilling the chicken right then and there was only one man doing it. So it took forever. We got our food at about 8:45. Right as we had to leave to go home. haha.

We had another awesome lesson with Ruben this week. He has been praying and says that he has been in a better mood this last week than before. We talked a lot about christ and how his atonement helps us to heal relationships too. At the end we asked if he had a book of mormon (he was taught by the sisters a couple times before I got there) and he said he did, but he didn't want to read it yet because the other sisters told him that when he did and he prayed he would receive an answer (I think he knows that's true and he's not quite ready to completely change, so we need to keep working on that). But at least he was honest with us, that's a relief. Everyone else says they will read it and then don't. Who knows, maybe he'll read it anyway. haha.

Last Wed we went to see Magda before she left on Tuesday, but when we got there her son said that they ended up leaving that morning. Luckily I had given her my address the last time we saw her, and he gave me her phone number in mexico. we can call her from the battalion and get the missionaries sent to her in mexico so that Jorge can get baptized. That is one plus about being at a historic site. haha. I am one of the ones entering referrals.

Last Tuesday we added two new investigators who we found street contacting one day. She (berta) is way funny. The first time we met her she thought it was soooo funny that a white girl was in that area and that she spoke spanish (the white girl being me). haha. I stand out a little more now that I am with hna De La Cruz. haha. Or I guess she just blends in better than sis mortensen did. But we added her and her friend who was over and we showed her joy to the world and they loved it. She said she wanted to show it to all of her kids, so that's pretty cool. We are going to see her again tonight and try to teach her the restauration.

Basically life is going pretty well. We'll be having the mission christmas party on thursday, so I should be getting any packages you sent then. : )

I hope that you all have a very merry christmas!!!!!!! If you have anyone you want to share the gospel with, I would recommend giving them Joy to the World. Now that I've seen it aobut 10 times in the last couple of weeks,I have realized that it does a great job of teaching the apostasy and restoration through the common ground of Christmas.

Send me some pics from christmas break! And if you could include one of Max in his santa had or antlers, that would be lovely. haha.

I love you all!!!!!!! Can't wait to talk on Saturday!!!!!

love,

hna livingston

December 14th

So, transfers came and went on Wednesday and I am still in Barrio 20 with Hna De La Cruz, which is good, I have some unfinished business there. haha. I really love the ward and I wouldn't be surprised if I stayed there most of my mission. The girl who was in my area before was there for over a year. It's a really good ward though.

It is getting harder and harder to even remember what happened in the last week. haha. Everything just blurs together. But this was definitely a good week. We managed to add Adriana's brother as an investigator. his name is Ruben and he is awesome. We went over to Adriana's at like 7:30 because we didn't have anything else to do and we wanted to check up on how she was and what not. She wasn't there, but her mom let us in (Adriana is the only member in her family and she is super less active but was only baptized in June or so). We talked with the mom for a good while before Adriana came home and we chatted with her and helped her some with her homework. Then Ruben came home and we started talking with him. We talked about prayer and he told us about how he has all these decisions he is trying to make and he asked us how it is that we make our decisions. We told him about including God in the decision. Then he asked us to read in the bible with him, so we did. We read first the story in Mark 9 about the boy that's posessed and Christ saying that all things are possible to him that believes. Then we read in Matthew about Peter walking on water. Ruben said that he was a "man of little faith". He said he wants to be better and pray more and everything, but that he needs humility. We read Ether 12:27 and he really liked that. Then we asked if we could end with a prayer and explained how we pray. Then Ruben asked if HE could say it. hahahahahaha. Obviously we said yes. haha. That has never happened to me before or anyone I've talked to. An investigator asking if he could pray in the first lesson. Usually we have to really twist people's arms to get them to pray. It was a really good prayer too. It was a pretty awesome experience.

We tried to go see Magdalena this wee (don't worry, I haven't forgotten about her), but they are headed back to mexico this week and we haven't been able to see them because they moved from their apartment at the end of november and have been staying with her oldest son, but we didn't know where he lived. Finally I got ahold of her this week and got the address, so we tried to go, but she wasn't home. We talked to Chris though, and we are going to try again today or tomorrow. Hopefully we can see them because they leave on thursday and we want to get their address in mexico so that we can send the missionaries there so jorge can get baptized. Those lucky missionaries who get that referral, huh?

On Monday hna D and I went to see Eric, but he wasn't there, so we just decided to drop by Marisela's because it was a morning and hardly anyone is usually home. (Marisela is the less active who joined another church a couple years ago, but who we sometimes help clean/ were going to paint her bedroom with her). So we knock on the door and she answered and told us to come in and said that she just barely found out that her "husband" (they aren't married but have been together for 10 years) is cheating on her. She said that the day before her sister had called her (her whole family is or was members, they were raised in the church) and asked her if she ahd been reading the book of mormo, and then we showed up, so she was taking that as a possible sign of what God wanted her to do. So that was awesome. She is amazing and has a ton of faith and is somehow reacting really positively to the situation. We went over again yesterday and she told us that she just barely found out that she is pregnant, but that her "husband" said he didn't care and he didn't think he would be coming back. Somehow she was just smiling away and saying that she knew that if she was pregnant it was because God knew that was best for her. We encouraged her to read the book of mormon and continue praying and she said she would.

While we were there, her son, Diego, who is like 5 and is CRAZY, kept climbing into the fridge, literally, and eating the cake on the top shelf (like just smashing his face into it and everything). She finally noticed him and gave him a piece and then each of us a piece too. hahaha. It was pretty funny.

Yesterday we had MTE...some missionary training with President...aka awesomness. We have learned something interesting about the relation between finding and baptizing. One of the senior missionaries has created a statistical formula to predict the baptisms in our mission based on the number of investigators found and it is surprisingly accurate, or has been for the past 5 months. Apparently for every 20 investigators we add in spanish we get one baptism, and for every 10 in english, we get one baptism. So to reach our goal of 100 baptisms in january, we have to add 1000 investigators this december, which works out to about 15 per companionship. So we talked a lot about finding. Also we learned that a person found through a member is 10 times more likely to get baptized than one we found on our own. We are really trying to respond to the request from the brethren to double baptisms. hopefully we can do it.

The training was really good. Afterwards, each companionship had a "coach" go with them (just someone from another companionship), so sis Bowman came with us...but she doesn't speak spanish, so that may not have been the best planning on whoever arranged it's part. But that's ok. So we visited Marisela, which I already told you about. Then we saw Linda and read the first chapter of the bom with her. It was really good. Hopefully she will start reading on her own one of these days. She is just the cutest though.

Then we saw Jazmin, who came to church this sunday!!!!! And we tried to invite her to be baptized on the 26, but she won't commit to it because she says she doens't like to be in front of people, so we are going to keep trying with that.

Then we went to a dinner appointment in which they fed us a TON of food. I was way full, especially since sis bowman had been sick over the weekend and so she gave me some of her food while they weren't looking so that they wouldn't think she didn't like it. We went from there to teach Blanca and Jessica, but while we were there Old blanca brought us each a taco. I managed to eat it, but then she brought us each another and ANOTHER> hahahahaha. it was SOOOOO funny. We kept telling her no, but she would just bring them out and hand them to us. haha. so I ate them all, but it wasn't the most enjoyable eating experience I've ever had. hahahahaha.

All in all it was a great week.

OH. I almost forgot. We finally taught Adam and Martha the law of chastity on Sunday. It went pretty well, but Martha didn't say hardly anything the whole time except at one part when we were waiting for forever for adam to answer our invitation to live it, and she said, well adam, go ahead and tell them if you are going to or not. He said he would try, but we took that as they need to talk before either can commit. But it went well and we should be seeing them tonight. or maybe just him if they are already living it. We'll see.

So that's what's happening in San Diego. I hope that you all have a great week preparing for christmas! I'm excited to hear from you all, so be ready to talk to me!!!!!!!

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!

love

hna livingston

another transfer ended...

Well, another transfer has ended. Transfer meeting isn't until tomorrow though, so who knows what will happen. Probably not too much.

For some reason I am having a hard time remembering what even happened this week. It all just blurs together, so if I write about something that you already know about, sorry. I didn't bring my old planner to check.

So at the battalion we have been having people come and sing and stuff in the theater during december (like what they do in DC but on a much lower scale). On Wed someone was scheduled to play the guitar and sing. It said "guitar soloist." so I was expecting Kevin JOnas or something. Turned out it was an 80 year old man. And he played and sang for 1/2 hours straight. wow. haha. It was pretty bad. I think the directors were kind of horrified. hahaha. he forgot the lyrics sometimes in the middle of the song too. But he was a nice old man and he was really enjoying it. It worked out though because only about 4 people came to see him (his friends) so mostly just all of us sisters were watching. I wasn't able to see it all though because .... ADAM AND MARTHA CAME!!!! yay.

So Hna D and I gave them a tour and it was GREAT! Adam was crying by the end...of course. He is such a softie. I sent mom the picture of us with them, so maybe you all saw it already, but that's what they look like if you were wondering. We still haven't managed to teach them the law of chastity yet because other than that we only saw them once this week and we were late and in a huge hurry so there just wasn't time. THey gave us tamales though. haha. He is always giving us food.

We taught the Tapia family a few times this week, well mostly just the 15 year old, Jazmin. But she came to activities on Wed and loved it and even brought a friend. We invited her to get baptized and she agreed, but then didn't come to church, so we'll have to change the date. It worked out ok though, because it was stake conference and it was really missionary focused, so next week will be better for her first week. But she is awesome and she invited another friend to come to activities this week. I just hope the ward will step up and take her in.

I talked to Magdalena this week. Just on the phone, but we haven't seen her in forever bcause they moved. They are planning on heading back to mexico on dec 16 or so. SHe and th boys are staying with her other son until then. We are going to try to see them this week though, so that will be nice. She is just awesome. She is going to bring the gospel to so many people in mexico. Everything will just work out perfectly.

Good news: we found Daniel and Cleo again! You may remember them from back in august. They are doing great. We watched how rare a posession with them yesterday and Daniel really liked it and wants to understand the BoM better he says. so that's cool. He's a funny guy though.

SO we had an amazing experience at the temple on Friday. Hna D and I were serving there (just outside talking to people). The temple workers came out and motioned for us to come over...aka someone had snuck past us. We went over and started talking to the woman (she was wearing a skirt and looked like she was just heading in to do a session, hence why we missed her). She introduced herself as Dr. Neera and said that she had felt called to come here. SHe was on her way to the airport to pick up her friend and she felt she needed to come. SHe said she didn't know why she was here so asked us to tell her. We told her what church we were from and everything and somehow started talking about the BoM. I said that it was a record of the ancient inhabitants of the americas, the ancestors of the native americans. She looked at me really intently and was like, the native americans have something to do with this? I thought I had offended her and said, well the people living on this continent, and she said she needed to sit down.

She sat down and said that God has been telling her for some time that the truth is somehow connected with the native americans but she couldn't figure out how. She said that this was the missing link. She asked to know more about the bom. She said she had 20 minutes and to tell her everything. I ran to get her a copy from the car...but we only had spanish ones, so I went inside and asked the people at the desk and they gave me one. I gave it to her and she immediately started reading the intro. SHe kept gasping. It was crazy. I explained about the nephites and lamanites and how the nephites saw christ and she just kept gasping.

Then she flipped through the book and saw Alma, and she was like THERE'S A BOOK OF ALMA!?!?!! and we said yes. And she said something about having been thinking about that word. She started reading the first chapter...about corruption in the church and whatnot. I was kind of worried, but she read out loud verses 16 and 19 i think. The first about there being corruption in the church (she had just been talking about corruption in the cathoilc church) and the second about the true believers being persecuted (she had been saying that the mormons were the most hated of all religions in the us). It was pretty amazing.

It was crazy. So she gave us her info and we gave her ours. She is from Houston. I mentioned living in college station and she was like oh my gosh....I guess that she had had a recent conversation in which both mormons and aggies were mentioned, so she felt like this was an important connection. She mentioned agin how the native americans were persecuted by those who claimed to be christian, and I told her that that was prophesied in the bom and she was way excited. It was amazing. Then she had to leave, but first she asked if she could hug me. haha. Of course I let her. But it was a way awesome experience. SOme people are just ready. And it's interesting...she was hindu, how random that she would be searching in the truth through Christ, but she was. I hope that the elder in my MTC district in houston gets the referral. haha.

Well, I think that's about it for this week. THings are going great here. I hope they are awesome at home. I hope that Emily had an AMAZING birthday!!!!! I heard her party was fun.

I love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

love

hna livingston

hola familia

Well, 6 months officially down. I am 1/3 of the way through. So crazy.

This week was a pretty good one. Thanksgiving was good, but very busy. Hna D and I had a full day in our area, but we somehow still didn't have time to do everything. The bishopric brought up some issues with the missionaries a few weeks ago...mostly things from before all of us, but I guess they still bother them, so we are trying to build better relations with all of them, so hna D and I took it upon ourselves to bake a million cookies and deliver them to the bishopric and all of the auxilary presidents. So that morning we started baking them...too bad our oven is terrible and so are the pans we have, so we burned the firs batch, pretty badly. haha. Unfortunately we had a limited amount of cookie dough, and it's not like you can just run to the store any old time as a missionary. We managed ok though. We ended up with enough not burned cookies to give 6 to each family and enough burned ones to bring to district meeting. haha. Missionaries will eat anything.

we had some of the elders and the other sisters deliver some of the cookies too. We hear it was pretty successful. The elders who delivered them to the bishope managed to get inside his house...which has never happpened since I've been in the ward. So that was good. Hna D and I delivered them to a few families too and they were way excited about them, so that was great.

At district meeting we all went around and said what we were thankful for....mostly our families.

After the meeting Hna D and I headed to the battalion for a thanksgiving feast hosted by the senior couples. It was excellent...turkey , mashed potatoes and everything. I have some photos I will send.

After that we delivered the cookies and then went to have thanksgiving dinner with the Mendozas. They had invited all of the missionaries from the ward over (keep in mind that that is 10 missionaries...haha). It was excellent. We had chicken and ham and tamales with cheesecake for dessert (I was worried we would have flan, so that was a great surprise). It was way fun. Their family is just the parents and 2 kids...6 and 9. So it was way fun. They love the missionaries. After that we rushed back to the battalion for our group meeting (like district meeting but for the battalion). We talked about incorporating the holiday season into the tour and offering christmas dvds.

Then I packed up a little bag because we were doing exchanges...I was going to spring valley yet again, but this time I was going with Hna Lee (we came out together). So that was real exciting. hahaha. She is way fun. We have become good buds so it was really fun to spend the day with her on friday, which coincidentally was our 6 month mark. haha. We were at the battalion in the morning and then in her area that night and we managed to teach a couple lessons and find her a new investigator, which is more success than I've ever had in spring valley before (I've been there a few times on various exchanges and everyone always just cancels on us, so I thought I was bad luck there).

On Wed (before thanksgiving) we taught Adam and Martha. They are so funny. We talked about the atonement and baptism and read mosiah 18 with them and asked them what was holidng them back from being baptized. We sat there for a really long time (or at least it felt like a long time) afterward waiting for their answers, and then Zeus, Adam's roommate who is way funny, came in and started chatting with us. haha. talk about bad timing. When he left martha said that she would like to get baptized, but she doesn't feel ready yet. so we talked about it not being a covenant of perfection. Then adam said pretty much the same thing. he wants to talk to his family first in mexico, he's going there in a couple weeks for christmas. They both kept saying there were things they need to change first, which is funny because we are pretty sure they are referring to the law of chastity seeing as how adam has a wife in mexico but is dating martha here. So we're planning on addressing that tonight. Also, we are hoping that while adam is gone, we can keep teaching martha and get her baptized. She is awesome.

While martha was still talking to us about things she needs to change and stuff like that Adam got up and was bustling around in the kitchen and came back with hot chocolate and pan dulce (like dessert bread stuff...donuts are better, but it's not too bad). Too bad it was like 9:20 and we really needed to leave, so we scarfed it down and then left. haha. I'm pretty sure adam knew we needed to leave soon so that's why he went ahead and made it, so we couldn't deny him giving us food. he loves to feed us. haha. It was good though.

We had a good lesson with Linda Torres yesterday, we went over when we knew luis wouldn't be home so that we could actually teach her. She really wants to come to church. She is so cute. She prayed at the end that she would be able to come to church and that Luis would change like he promimed he would. Hopefully he'll get his act together soon because they are an awesome family.

WE also taught eric yesterday, who did not come to church on sunday. He said he is thinking of going to the singles ward (he's 25). We takled about trusting in God and then about priesthood leaders and repentance and brought it around to talking to the bishop. He said he wanted to, but then all of a sudden he started laughing and said, did you plan that? talking aobut trusting in God but really just wanting me to go talk to the bishop. haha. We were caught off guard and Hna D just said, yes we did, but would he still do it, and he said yes. It was pretty funny though because we really do scheme as missionaries about how to get people to do things...good things, but nevertheless, I've never been called out on it before. I think we tied it together a little too nicely. ahhaha.

Things are good at the battalion. It was SUPER busy this week. It was like back in the summer with tours of 20-35 people. crazy.

I did get my violin from Wendy. THANK YOU MOM!!!!!! It sounds beautiful. I will be playing at a baptism on Sunday...not our baptism, but a baptism from Hna D's old area that we are going to and the sisters asked me to play while they sing. But secretly I will dedicate it as Emily's birthday song. : )

Speaking of which HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMILY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (on sunday). I hope you have a fun party. I want to hear all about it!!!!!!!!!! I love you!!! Thank you for you letter and note in my violin. I will write you back today.

Well, I think that's pretty much it for this week. Christmas is coming up fast, so you can look forward to hearing from me then!!!!!! I'm excited to hear from all of you!!!!!!!!!

I love you all!!!!!!

love

hna livingston

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!!!!!

So far we still just have 2 dinners planned...but I won't be surprised if we have a couple other surprise invitations. That tends to happen even not on thanksgiving.

So good news at the mormon battalion...I gave a tour to three women from spain and got 2 referrals from them. The two were sisters from toledo. So awesome. That was not my first tour with spaniards, but it was my first referral from a spaniard...they are harder to get to refer than the hispanics. It was funny though, during the tour there's a part where you can dress up, but usually you just wear a few things (like the photo greg took...i'm sure you saw it), but this girl only wanted to dress up if she could wear the uniforms we have there. So I said she could, but there are about a hundred buttons on it, so it took sooooo long for her to get it on and then get it off. haha. It was kind of funny. I've never had that happen before.

On friday was the ward thanksgiving party which was AWESOME. Before we got there the elders called us and said our investigators were there...jazmin and some other people. We were very confused because we didn't know anyone named jazmin, but they said that they had asked for us, so we hurried over. It turned out that Linda Torres had come (which was awesome, because she usually doesn't come to things because Luis doesn't want to) and she brought her neighbors! A mother and her two daughters (15 and 12). How awesome is that? So now we are teaching them and they are amazing. The youngest daughter, Miriam, lost her leg several years ago to cancer, but she is adorable and the mom has so much faith. Thank you Linda. haha. It was awesome too because Luis had dropped them off, so he had to come get them, and when he did we got him to stay for about half an hour. SUCCESS. haha. I even managed to get a member of the bishopric to come over and say hi to him, which was good because luis says he doesn't come because he's embarrased to come back.

Other good news at the party was that Adriana came, and she brought her boyfriend and his brother. So we are going to try to teach him eventually. haha.

Even better news though, is that Eric came (the one who was in the hospital not too long ago). It was so great. He showed up by himself, but when Giovanni (the son of a family in our area who is about his age) saw him, his face just lit up. He was soooo excited. Turns out that Eric joined the church right as Giovanni fell away and Eric helped to bring him back. Now Giovanni is way strong, but Eric has fallen away, so Giovanni wants to help him come back.

The Best news of the week though is that Eric came to church. He even managed to stay for most of it, which was way exciting. We went over that night with Giovanni and Mani (they are the YSA group leaders) and it was the best member teaching experience EVER. We had gone over to the Venegas family to invite them to come with us (Mani lives with Giovanni's family) and they didn't really want to come, but they did. But man, when we got there, they both just took over. They sat down and got straight to business just bearing their testimonies and telling eric he had to stay strong. It was so great. hahaha. Hna D and I didn't even need to be there. Now we really want to work on getting all three of them to go on missions because they could make great missionaries. So awesome.

Unfortunately none of our investigators came to church, but we were so happy about eric it wasn't that big of a deal.

So on Saturday our ward mission leader, Hno Morales, and his wife and two of their daughters were sealed together in the san diego temple. They invited us and we went and it was AMAZING. It was a very special experience. I'm so glad we got to go.

Nothing too exciting happened with any of our investigators this week. Adam is still MIA, but we are going to try to go over tonight. We told Zeus to tell him that we would be coming, so hopefully we can find him. haha. It's funny....he disappeared for a month after coming to the ward party. This time he came to a baptism and church and then has disappeared. Maybe he just needs time to recover from church functions? haha.

Well, things are good here. It's been a little chilly lately, but it doesn't quite seem like almost december. haha. It will be sunny one day and then freezing the next.

I hope everything is great at home!!! I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hope you all enjoyed HP7. haha

love,

hna livingston

half way through transfer

Another week come and gone. We are halfway through the transfer, which is crazy. It has flown by so far.

This week was pretty good, but nothing too exciting happened. There were some funny things though.

You may remember my mentioning the Torres family before. They are less active and I love them. haha. Linda is my age and Luis is like 27 or something and he is crazy. Well, they invited us over for dinner on Thursday, so we happily went. She fed us enchiladas and meat and macaroni. It was all very delicious. Luis declined eating with us though, but partway through dinner he came into the kitchen and tried to sneakily get something from on top of the fridge, but failed at the sneaky part because it was obviously a pack of ciggarets. Oh Luis. After we finished eating we talked to Linda for a long time. We started reading in enos with her and I asked her if her sould has ever hungered, and she said yes and explained how on sunday when they go to the swap meet (instead of church...because Luis likes to) she always sees happy families coming out of church or playing at the park and she wishes she had that. SO SAD! Anyways, she told us more about her life, which is a rather sad story, and she ended up talking for so long that we missed our group meeting at the battalion (like district meetings, but for how to improve the battalion).

Anyways, so to help Linda we decided that on sunday we would go by their place before church and offer to walk with her to church. We showed up and luis answered the door (he had obviously just gotten out of bed) ... so he opened the door and then immediately closed it. hahaha. Then he opened it again and said "HERMANAS" long and drawn out (how he always greets us). So linda was still asleep but he told us to go wake her up, but we declined and just told him to get ready and when she woke up to bring her to church. he said he would, but of course they never came. Maybe next week.

On Friday we had a good lesson with Eric (the less active who was in the hospital). He said he was definitely going to come to church. We helped him to make a plan of how he was going to turn his life around. He needs to not go to Tijuana anymore, he needs to read in the BOM everyday, he needs to pray everyday, and he needs to come to church. (These were things he came up with with our guidance). We were all excited that he was going to come, he even said he was going to go to the young single adults activity, so we called the guy in charge and told him to call him and everything. Then on sunday, he never showed up. We talked to Giovani (the kid in charge of the YSA) and he said that eric had said he would come to the activity, but never did. LAME. On monday we went to see eric, but his brother said he hasn't seen him since saturday. Aka he is in Tijuana. SO LAME. we're pretty mad at him, but hopefully he will come this week.

On saturday we went to a farewell party for Becky Morales (a 23 year old girl in our ward who we're good pals with who is heading out on a mission in 3 weeks...she's going to Austin Texas.) It was pretty awesome. She had just gone through the temple and everything and is so excited to go. She is the first girl missionary this ward has sent off in at lesat 18 years (that's how far back teh bishopric can remember I guess). SO the ward is really excited. We're hoping this sparks some interest in helping us.

You are probably wondering what has been happening with Adam. NOTHING. He has officially disappeared again. Well, not totally. We talked to him on the phone on friday and he said to come sunday and he said he's been reading in the bom. So when we were on our way over on sunday we got a message from him saying not to come now bcause he was really "disorganized". So that was weird. We went anyways, haha, but his roommate, zeus, said he was asleep. So we don't know what's going on with him, but the last time he disappeared for a month when we found him he had taught himself the restauration, so hopefully he is learning about the plan of salvation r something now. haha.

Yesterday we had some pretty funny things happen, all at one house. I don't know if I've mentioned Blanca before, but she was a referral from the elders because she had a crush on one of them. She is 16. So we've been teaching her and her sister, Jessica (13) and her uncle, Filemon. We've been trying to add their cousin, Gerardo. Well yesterday when we went they were all there...Blanca, Jessica, Filemon, Gerardo, and Old Blanca (their crazy grandma, who is a SUPER less active member). Somewho Old blanca started telling us stories, that she seemed to think were related, but really weren't. The first story was about an old woman carrying a taco in her purse (that's all I remember from it). SHe did really dramatic actions as she told the story and got up and was acting everything out. The second story involved a boy in a taco shop who hid a taco to give to his mom and the owner caught him and then said that was fine, he could give anything to his mom. The third story was about her giving an old man a glass of water and then turning around to set down the cup and turning back and he had disappered. (I do remember now that this was all triggered by soemone saying that you should never refuse anyone who comes to your door because they could be sent by God). The last story was my favorite. I thought I misunderstood it at first, but I clarified with Hna De la Cruz after and it was right. She told us something about someone making a taco and setting it down and then i started moving around by itself. THE TACO WAS MOVING!!!!! hahaha. ANd she was swinging her arms all around to show how it was buzzing around the place. hahahahahahaa. We actually started laughing during this one, but the thing is, it was a serious story. hahahaa. Filemon was taking it very seriously, Gerardo looked like he wanted to laugh, i couldn't see the to girls from where I was sitting, but Hna D was about to die from wanting to laugh. hahahaha. It was way funny. After she finished telling the stories Filemon looked around really seriously and asked if anyone else had an experience to share. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Luckily no one did.

Eventually we managed to teach a smidge about the restauration and give them a copy of the movie. Then they decided that we needed to try these tacos they had made. They were shrimp tacos and would have been really dilicious if they weren't so SPICY. HOLY COW. I thought I had tasted spicy things before, but I had not. haha. Hna D doesn't really like spicy things either (which is more surprising because she is Mexican), but oh boy. We were both near tears and our noses were running. hahaha. She gave us 2 at first, so we ate them, and then she gave us each a THIRD. Oh my goodness. I thought I was giong to die; my mouth was on fire. Oh, and to top it off, they gave us sprite to drink with it. haha. Guess what I have learned on my mission. Soda does not help to cool down your mouth when it is on fire. hahaha. It was pretty funny though.

Last night we also visited adriana again finally. She was way happy (sometimes she is rather depressed, so that was really good). Her brother wants to come to church, so that's exciting. We have an appointment to teach him and her, so that should be cool.

Well, that's most of what I can think of for this week. haha.

I hope that you are all doing well. Thanksgiving is coming up, so that's exciting. The senior couples are planning a dinner for us at the battalion in the afternoon and that night a family has invited all of the missionaries in the ward over to eat (10 of us). So it should be a fun day.

I hope you all have a good start to the holiday season. Make a gingerbread house for me!!! Oh, and if you get a chance, I wouldn't mind a nice christmas cd. of uplifting music. : )

Well, I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

love,

hna livingston