23 de Diciembre

23 de Diciembre 2013

well here i am in the ciber.  listening to the christmas devotional!  what joy it brings me!

so yes!! skype. im psyched. and kind of nervous to be honest...my english is probably terrible!  we can only talk 40 minutes.  im thinking around 11 or 1.  in colorado time.   maybe earlier... i dont rememeber if we are 2 hours or 3 hours ahead here.  but yeah. in all case, keep a computer by because you never know what might happen!

  transfers.  hermana bravooooo.....got transfered =(.  she was here for 4 transfers.  super hard for her to leave.  my colombian sistah!  i miss her!  but we are hoping for a mission conference or something in the next few months so that we can see each other again!  i learned a ton from her, and i feel very grateful that was my companion.  also, our district leader elder condor left and went north. 

 day of transfers, i went to illapel with hermana ortiz because her companion got transfered too.  as we are in the north, we had to stay because viña is south.  well. love illapel! they have bikes down there and we did some good biking.  ah! hills killed me.  it was good though.  people gave us a ton of apricots.  there are a TON this time of year and its awesome.  we have been given lots around here.  

  well yeah! have a new companion.  her name is Hermana Martinez.  she is also a jovencita-first young companion ive had. she had her 20 birthday in november.  she has 6 months in the mission, so obviously that makes me feel like an old lady around here.  She is from argentina. i was psyched to hear i have another latina so that i wont be tempted to talk in english! lol.  her accent is hard core too. love it.  very accentuated.  from colombian-gringa to colombian-argentinan-gringa. lets see how this goes. 

  its super fun though!  one of the upside about transfers is that i get to be in charge because my companion doesnt know the area and shes kinda shy, so i get to introduce her to the folks around here and talk and stuff.  i love it too! she has great excitement for studies and cool scripitures, so im sure we will have some epic companionship studies here soon.  

  So adventures and lessons and life changing experiences for the week!  well first of all, we had a family home evening with la familia tapia herrera.  I LOVE THEM. they are literally like my family.  we call the mom "mammy kennita".  she is adorable.  i love hearing her conversion story. she has 5 kids-3 girls, one who is 18 and one is 20 both wanting to serve missions.  

  we had almuerzo with hermana kennita on saturday and we were talking about the 3 nefitas. she thoguht it was super cool that they are still on the earth and all.  the excitement that filled her eyes! it was so cute.  i love that little chilean lady.  

  Bueno.  Jordan!! finally got ordained a deacon yesterday!  we were so excited and he was too.  we will get to see him pass the sacrament next week.  what was also fun was that tons of people were at church yesterday! we sang a few christmas songs.  unfortunately, not very many people know some of the my favorite christmas songs, "o little town of bethlehem." in salamanca, so sing it well for me over there in the states!  the spirit was strong and the reelief society sang a song together. i played the piano and it was sounded really well all together!  im going to teach piano to some of the young woman in our branch so they can continue when i leave.

  went hiking this morning. ah! the small hills of salamanca was a test of faith in my lungs.  it will probably be some time before i will be ready to hike another 14 again. hahahaha. 

  we are having some problems with our apartment.  pray that we will find a place to rent! almost everything is breaking-the water doesnt drain, the toilet is off and on, and they are contructing in the 2 and 3 floor and we live on the 4th so there is always noise. so thats super lame. but we are working on it.  pray that we can find somewhere new to live! there are not very many apartment buildings to live in here!  

 ive decided...totally wanna be a gospel principles teacher when i get back...(ya hear that dad i mean...bishop??? lol joke haha. only if the lord wants.)

  psyched for christmas! we are going to hermana calderons int he night for a christmas program so that will be super fun!  

well talk to you more on christmas! cant wait! love you all! the dogs better be on the camera too because i miss them! nice clean little dogs! lol. 

 cuidense!

-hermana emily hanks