Food, fiestas, y more food

 o_O
Remember the mayor in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs? That's how I felt this week. We had at least 4 Thanksgiving dinners (though not all were on Thanksgiving, thank goodness!) and were invited to at least 2 more. Oh the blessed people of Florida! I'm grateful for a place where I'm so well fed and cared for.

It was Elder Rocha's birthday. We spent the last month hand-making a piñata for him. Turns out he'd never seen/heard of a piñata before, so we had to explain it to him. But it's ok, because we dumped 2 bottles of glitter in there! Glitter: the gift that keeps on giving! I'm going to let the pictures do most of the talking here.

This week I had my first Jehovah's Witness encounter. We went to see Milagro kinda spur of the moment and her friend was over. WAIT I HAVE TO TELL YOU!!!!!!! Pause story!

New story: Once upon a time I was standing in the hall at the church, something missionaries get very good at doing. Sis. Bond was talking to a new member, who we'll call Sheryl. Sheryl's friend was standing there a little awkward I attempted to talk to her. After a few tries, we switched to English where she told me her sister was recently serving a mission in the Czech-slovak mission. I told her I had this friend who just returned, named Elder Swink. She texts her sister and 5 min. later, we're both blown out of our little minds when the sister says, "I know Elder Swink; red hair, right?" BOOM! My neighbor's brother's mission friend's sister was standing in front of me. Wut. And that is why Matthew Swink got called to Czech Republic. End story.

Continuing with previous story: Milagro's friend was over, and she was asking us about the gift of tongues, why we celebrate birthdays, and if God's name was Jehovah. Worried about Milagro (who wasn't really buying into this whole J.W. thing, but was definitely not ignoring it), we share a video with Thomas S. Monson and say something like "We don't know. We'll write down your questions and study them. *Insert guffaw that could easily be mistaken for a laugh of triumph from JW friend* But it's late and we have to be going. Can we leave with a prayer?" Prayer happens, and it's a pretty good one. I knew before looking that Milagro felt the peace and good. Looking up, I saw that she was smiling contentedly. What I didn't expect to see was our JW friend weeping; El Espíritu Santo touched the rest of us, but He dropped a train on her, Edgar! Milagro made some comment on the Holy Ghost and I had to do my best not high-five her. But I walked out of what could've been a strange, spiritless meeting trying hard not to smirk. And I'm not saying I did anything to help. Like in Alma 26:11-12: But Ammon said unto him: I do not boast in my own strength, nor in my own wisdom; but behold, my joy is full, yea, my heart is brim with joy, and I will rejoice in my God. Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever

 /:}

Yep. That was my week. Pretty good. I hope y'all enjoyed Thanksgiving, and it sounds like school is still going on. Best of luck with that...

Pues, Ciao!

Pictures:
Thanksgiving with English Class! We've never had such a great turnout!

The rest of them: Next time, 3 bottles of glitter!

Try Everything*

*References this Shakira/Zootopia song.
 
This week, we had 23 hours of service. Our service was on fire! At one point, Literally! The fire alarm went off at the food bank we serve at, so we had to evacuate the building and stand in the parking lot for a good 15-20 min. while the fire truck came and checked things out. Once we went back in, the alarm kept going off - 1 min on, 1 min off - for 15 min. What fun!

We also went and served at the big Prader-Willie convention on Friday and Saturday. We had to be there at 7:30, which is early even for missionaries. But, we live about 20 min away so this wasn't going to be that tricky. Or so we thought. We get a call from the sisters who are on the bike-week of their car-share transfer (meaning the elders have the car this week, and they'll get the car next week.) asking for a ride so they don't have to bike. We look at where we live. Then we look at where they live. Then we look at where service is. Then we look at how many miles we have left for this month. Then we look deep into our hearts and manage to say yes we'll come get you. Here's a map, for effect.

Yep. They wanted us there at 6:15. Don't do the math on how early you have to wake up at to manage that. It'll make you cry. But we're grateful. 😅

For those of you who don't have Google, Prader-Willie syndrome is a super rare genetic disorder where you just always feel super hungry. Like, starving. Always. And forever. We had to have snack time a lot, but it was sad to see the kids devour the equivalent of one and a half carrots, finely sliced. (think of Fun and Fancy Free: Mickey and the Beanstalk) AND because seeing other people eat makes these kids super anxious, we all ate the same thing, at the same time. OOHH!! It kinda broke my heart. And my reserve of energy. But mostly just my heart. We learned a dance, made wind chimes, made leis, decorated picture frames; It was so fun, and so, as all fun thing are, was not photographed. Yep. You'll have to just use your imagination. Or Google.

It was a really fun week (even though I didn't sleep or eat) and we got to do a lot of service. And that.

Well, have a good week yourselves, and go watch the Elder Ballard and Elder Oaks Face2Face. So funny! Such fire! Much wow! Ciao!


Designated driver! Hide yo' kids, Hide yo' wife!

Why does it always rain when I wear white?

I didn't take a picture, but I got to go into the temple and do Baptisms with Rosalia and Natacha! First time I got to go in!! I'm so excited for the bi-annual temple trip in February! (They went right before I arrived, darn it!)

¡Aye Car-umba!

Let's just say, I hate driving. And I thought Logan was bad.

Week 1 of Transfer 2. Driving is hard. Other than that, I can't remember much of this week. We got to watch Screenagers and it was actually pretty interesting. Now I know what to do with my kids and their phone addictions. Yup.

It's kind of nice not to be the greenest in the mission, but now I have to actually know something. Like how to sort meat, which is our 3 hour service every Wednesday.

The best part of this week was when we got to meet with a cute mom, Milagro, and her family. We had knocked on her door once before, but we weren't sure quite where we stood with her. This time, her son recognized her and she invited us right in. Her husband came out and he asked question after question, sorting out all the rumors he had heard. We were glad to answer his questions, and 2 hours later, we walked out, 1 Restoration pamphlet and 1 Book of Mormon lighter. I really think the dad, Gregoriano, will read it! And I've been praying really hard for him, just in case!

We've also been making a piñata for an Elder in our District whose birthday is coming up. It's going to be a soccer ball, and Sis. Bond is super excited.

Yep. A bit of a bland week, but with my bad driving, there was plenty of adrenaline.

Here are some pictures.

We had a Brazilian Barbeque for P-day today. That means Rice, beans, and Picante. It's a really juicy meat from Brazil. So Good!

Our new district with everyone except out District Leader, Elder Dodson, and his companion, Elder Gibson. ROLECALL!: Elder Rocha sitting, Elder Aliff with the meat, Sister Reynolds with the tablet, Sister Hardin in red, and, of course, Sis. Bond in front.

So close, and yet so far.

Well I hope yinz have a good day! [Me'thinks my gmail is down for the day. I hope y'all are still alive!]

Hermana Baer

Look what I did to/with my own hand!

To appease a whim, BULLET POINTS!!

-- A BAPTISM! AND I KINDA EVEN HELPED WITH IT! Meaning I would feel comfortable claimng it as my own since their first missionary discussion was my first discussion too! Like, first day, before I unpacked, I met and "taught" this family from Switzerland. Yep. The mom was one......hundred percent amazing and prepared by God. So yes, church is true. I got to watch something amazing happen.

-- Transfers: I will be staying in Windy Ridge and I will be "killing" my trainer, sending her home 5 days before Christmas. I'm pretty excited (partly cause that's all I know) and I think I now know how to make this a better transfer. Starting with my speaking more Spanish. I like what Dad said about what makes a missionary successful: the number of spiritual moments you have with others. I really like that. In a jump that makes perfect sense to me but won't make any sense to y'all, I was explaining to someone the difference between Elders and Sisters (the main difference being that Elders are male and Sisters are female. Also the sacerdocio.) But this guy asks "¿Que significa Elder?" Or, in English, "What does Elder mean?" I promptly responded with a solid O_________o face. So I'd like to pose the question to y'all's: What does it mean to be an Elder, and how does that differ from High Priest? And why are some people Elders and others just Brothers?

And now back to bullet points.
-- I got stung by a bee this Tuesday while trimming mini palm trees. My hand didn't stop swelling for 2 days. It wasn't until about yesterday that I felt it had returned to normal. Here's a pretty nasty photo of it. Nasty mostly because lighting is the least of your worries when your trying to take a picture of your hands. But, fun fact: mini palm trees have long spines that, when the fronds die, get really hard and sharp and pointy and scary. But, on the bright side, I found a lost plant in the palm trees out by the front sign. It had been there for a while so I convinced Hna Bond to let me take it home. It makes my day every time I see it! (It's currently sitting in the bottom of a milk jug. I'll take a picture when I get home :)

-- We saw over 5 police helicopters this week! One was over our apartments when we got home at night. Someone was breaking into cars or something. ... yup. That happened.

-- Umm..... that's all.

Thanks for your love and prayers! Have a good week y'all! Enjoy! Hermana Baer

P.S.Look! I made this with my own hand! The small one while my hand was swollen. And yes, it is the sleeve of an old shirt.

It's a rice bag to be warmed in the microwave. Says Lauren: let's say hypothetically I'm sewing a wheat bag for my companion cuz her little body is generally freezing or slightly broken [mild sprain].