Uh, Americans

Sister Mackenzie from Kenya said this to me the other day. I got this sick hippie skirt from Goodwill and I got tired of wearing it the regular way so I turned it inside out (yes, I know I'm classy Ma, and I know you're already embarrassed about that, darts and all baby)because it's khaki on the inside and Sis Mackenzie looked at me with her crazy eyes and said "What are you do?" and I said, "I got bored with it the other way!" and she rolled her eyes huge and said "Uh, Americans" hahaha and the best part was later that night 3 of the american sisters complimented me and said I was cool for wearing my skirt inside out. jaja.

Andale pues Familia,

Hna Juarez called me Hna Juanita, Hnas McCullough and Turner should get a kick out of that. Okay, so I figured out why our investigators have been having a hard time keeping commitments, and it's because I haven't been obeying the word of wisdom (the health code we mormons follow, the no tea, coffee, alcohol, drugs thing). The other day I made this BOMB salad. Holy cow, it was legit, and here I am chowin down and as Hna Falcon has now figured out, I love food. I feel like a broken record cause I'm pretty sure I say this every email. And when I'm eating, I'm happy, and I can't help but dance a little as I eat because it's a pure joy. So she takes my salad dressing and starts reading the label on the back. and then she rains on my parade. "Hna. There's wine in this. No wonder you're always so happy when you eat salad." I didn't believe her. Lo and behold, my Balsamic Vinagrette made me a wino! Wah wah wahhh. And Hna Falcon was like, Hna Schwartz, it has a wine tub on the front of the bottle, and I was like It's a picture! I'm tonta! What can I say! So Hopefully, now that I'm obeying the commandments, our investigators will too;). So we were at lunch with Martha the other day and Hna Falcon started laughing at me as we were eating. And I looked at her like "what the heck?" and she told me that I always do this thing with my fork when I'm eating, where I, how do I even explain this, I bounce? my fork as I eat. And I totally do. I never even realized it before, but that's what you get when you live with someone 24/7 for what 3 months now? jajaj love her.

So everyone has been having a cow out here. As if they were literally giving birth to a heifer. About the heat. Oh man, it's 105, I'm dying! Calm down. It straight up feels great! It's like mid 80's in GA, and I'm just like, cool your horses, it could be worse. And they tell me it will get worse and I still believe humidity is better and hotter, but there I am putting a fist in my mouth. Oh, and the REALLY dumb part was the other day we were with our district at lunch and E. Crawford from Powder Springs in GA told me about how when it rains here (and it never does) how it's crazy. And I was like, okay. Ironically, that very day it had a "major" rain. No lightning. No thunder. Nuff said. Every once in a while we have zone sports, which is when all the missionaries in our zone (a big area of mesa) get together and play a sport. Early in the morning. So, Hna Falcon and I don't go all that often, or really ever for that fact. But when we do, it's way fun. So the other morning I had my first injury on the mission. ;). Nothing traumatic, I think I jammed or sprained or did something to my thumb when I went to dig for the ball. But it wasn't completely my fault because our zone leader Elder Nuku is from Tonga, played on a pro volleyball tongan team, and literally plays every position on the court, and decided to play my position as well and so when i went to dig he slid in, and yeah this is boring, sorry, but lo and behold my thumb was huge and I had to ice it for a day or 2. woooo.

I've come to the conclusion I like 8 year olds. I know, I know. They're technically classified as children. But I think 8 year olds are pretty bomb. And maybe it's just because they've got their heads on straight. For example, yesterday we went to visit Yamile, Blanca's eldest daughter who has 4 crazy boys under the age of 5...yeah. And we ended up finding Blanca's youngest, Victoria (8) carrying one of Yamile's chamacos around with her friend, Magali (8) with her baby sister. We teach Magali's fam on and off because her parents are either sleeping, showering, or at work. But Magali is AWESOME. Such a good kid, and I don't know how because her fam is CRAYCRAY. In a bad way, super sad anyhoo. So we're chatting with them and Magali is like, when are you going to come over again? and we're like when does your dad get home? and she's like oh he doesn't have a fixed schedule, and we're like well what about your mom? and she's like she doesn't either because she started working at the restaurant again, but they didn't give her a fixed schedule and she's trying to barter with them for  hours so she pierced her tongue (don't totally understand that thought process) to show them and I got really mad at her and I told her to take it out and it was bleeding and she said that she would take it out today because I asked her yesterday to take it out because I told her it's bad for her. ????????An 8-YEAR OLD has more sense than a grown woman, aka her mother????? saddest part was that Magali said, yeah I asked my mom all I want for my birthday is for her to take all her earrings out, of her tongue and her stomach and her ears. That's all an 8YEAR OLD wants for her birthday, is for her mom to step up and be a mom basically. I think you get the gist of how badly this family needs the gospel to help direct their lives. On the bright side, we made awesome progress with Jonathan and Kitzia, the Baez teens (14 and 15). We had a one on one talk with Jonathan about how he has a ton of potential and how the gospel is going to help his family change and be better and happier and he was like, yeah? And I was like,. "Jonathan, Heavenly Father has big plans for you. Do you know you have a lot of potential?" and he was like, i dunno i never thought about it and i was like well you do, and that's why we're here. and he's so awesome. and last night we got kitzia's trust,w hich i've been praying for. haha here's kitzia, super sarcastic all the time, doesn't do the whole "feelings" thing, and she's smart as a tact. Remind you of anyone? yeah, i was like "oh, i was a bratty sarcastic, no feelings too once upon a time." And I was like, okay, game on Kitzia. So i've been working on gaining her trust all week and last night, breakthrough! she hugged me. the little sucker. ;) we had an awesome lesson in the vc with her whole fam and there's just no way she can't adore me now. I'll make sure of that.

Oh P.s. If you want to send me a cool journal, feel free;)

Fam, keep it light, keep it real;)

Hna Schwartz