#54 [La Venta - 14] Dec. 16th, 2013

Hello!!!

So, first things first. We finally got permission to Skype on Christmas! We are going to have our P-day on Wednesday, so this week might seem a little bit longer. But whatever. I am ok to Skype at whatever time, as long as it is before 5 here. :) Man, I can't believe it's time to do this! This will be the first time ever for me!! !:) :) CRAZY stuff.

When it comes to email stuff, this week was pretty lame. I finished my 4th journal, and I bought another composition notebook, so that's good. #5. I remember when I started my first. I have been reading them lately to see what I was doing a year ago... weird.

Also, one of my new years resolutions this last year was to be able to do 50 push ups in a row. I had given up for about months, and then the other day, I tried. And I got it! mission accomplished. I don't know how I did it, but that is good news, too. Too bad I am still getting fatter. (You're fatter this year!) darn.

Antonio and Iris' son is getting baptized this weekend. Technically, it's a convert baptism, cuz he is 9 :)

We also have our ward party tomorrow. They asked us to make snowflakes for that because the decorations were so cute for the baptism! and we have made so many! it's insane. I feel like I live in snow now, except I sweat all the times, haha.

Today as a district, we made gingerbread houses, and it was super fun! They ended up being kinda weird, but nonetheless good. They didn't taste like gingerbread, so I liked it. Me and Herm Peck made ours into an Opera House, and the nativity was playing inside. It was pretty legit... :) here's the pic :)

Our investigators are doing well. We are going to go caroling this week to invite people to a concert we have in a huge residential place- where we found E__. It's a virgin area, and no missionaries have contacted it. So we are going to carol and give invitations. That is going to be fun. I guess you could say I am getting pretty good at singing...hahaha not. "Rainbow upon the shelf... ohhh ohhh ooooohh!" hahah, I just sing a lot. :)

I don't have a lot to comment about, either. I am glad to hear that you are all safe and sound at home, and that the library at the school is ok :)

The work is going well. Me and my comp are still loving it here, and we are working really hard to keep our cool and not get too comfortable with each other. We're doing really well. We have a few investigators that are looking good. Tonight, we are going to extend the invitation to a man whose wife is baptized, and we hope it goes well. It should. I mean, God will be with us :)

It's pretty cool to be a missionary. I really like it. Some days are tough. Like yesterday! we had two appts. scheduled, and then like, 3 hours to go and find the other people we had missed. So we went out and tried a few before our first appointment, and those failed. Then, we walked around for the next 4 hours and looked for people. We had 15 set plans to try, and they all failed before 4:30. It was rough. Luckily we ended the night good with a member who gave us cake, but man, it was rough. I don't like days like that, but it can't all be rainbows and butterflies.

And that is about all from this week. My one year mark was SUPER lame. We did intercambios and me nor my comp had any money to celebrate, but whatever. I am not a huge fan of awkward parties and such. I celebrated by... probably going to bed early :) or making snowflakes, haha.

What other nonsense can I tell you? I am doing the 12 days of Christmas for my comp. It makes her and me both happy. :) It's been fun to give her stuff. Ok, well I think that is all. I love you all and can't wait to talk to you all in a week or so!!! Make sure to tell me all about your lives and give me he update on the family! Be good!

Love you super a lot. Enjoy the snow! I only miss it a little bit. Just be glad you aren't on an island! That would be tough to handle for you all – hahahah.

With lots of love,

Hermana Erickson #1 oxoxox

#53 [La Venta - 13] Dec. 10th, 2013

(A day later due to mission conference)

WOW! What a long letter! Thank you for your updates about Disneyland!

I am glad that Jake and Ryan had a good time. I’m sure they rode my favorite rides enough times for me! :)

And yeah! HAPPY half way mark to RISS! How happy. Time flies. I cannot believe that I will be hitting a YEAR soon. Crazy.

And as for the packages... I always think of stuff that would be nice, but not necessary. Anything healthy. :) maybe q-tips? haha, I don't know.

SPEAKING of packages! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE DEARELDER package! It was lovely. There are lots of cookies and some peanut butter in it, and I really appreciate that. You love me way too much. :) Thank you! :) and also, I heard a saying. "The package is only as good as the letter it contains," and with that being said, the package was great. Thank you for the little note. It made me tear up, but not cry, just almost :) haha, thank you. That's one thing you could put in the package, a nice, long letter :)

The Christmas party sounds like it was the best ever! Too bad we missed it. Hopefully it is just as cool next year. :)

....sorry about bamboo hut...(closed down)

So a couple things happened this week. Me and Hermana Peck have been working on a duet on the piano, and we finally got it down, and it's lovely. I plan on recording it, but you won't see it for a while. It is called "Still, Still, Still" - it's easy. I am grateful that I know how to play the piano, and that I have been able to play it here.

So because we have a recent convert family, A__ and I__ :) yay!) We had a few opportunities that would otherwise be overlooked. Pres Rodriguez had a special, exclusive Christmas party on Friday, only for invited families and their missionaries. :) Yep, we went. AND we stayed out past curfew. We got home at about 10:25. We got to go to their house and there was an A cappella group of 10 guys. I was super skeptical at first because as a general rule, Dominicans cannot sing worth anything, so I wasn't expecting ANYTHING. BUT, I was mistaken :) – they were FANTASTIC! Like, the most Christmas I have felt while being here on this island. It never feels like Christmas, because people are usually too poor to decorate or anything, and they only have their lame bachata music playing, so this was great. I felt so happy. They sang hymns in parts, and they even sang "What a Wonderful World" in English!!!!! "I see trees of blue! red roses too! What a wundurfel wullld!" it was lovely. :) I was just jolly and full of the Christmas spirit. :) I love music. :) They also had some type of tea after. We knew we could drink it because Pres. made it. I think it was lavender – and gross.

We heard from the leaders that we can call the family on the 24th or the 25th. Originally it was just the 24th, because they celebrate it here. And then all the Americans complained, and the rule was changed. About skype... we are not sure. They tell us only on p-day, so on the Monday before, but you can expect some complaining. So maybe it will be on the 24th or 25th. I will keep you updated. I am sure you have a count down for when you can talk to me. I know you just miss me so much. :)

OK, so the reason I am on Tuesday instead of Monday is because we had our Christmas conference yesterday. We woke up at 5:30. I didn't know what to wear, so I decided to wear my most modest skirt (the yellow one grandma made) cuz Hermana Rodriguez it super strict about it. But we did that and went to the temple to take pictures and then headed to a chapel for the conference. It was really great. They talked about stuff and the leaving missionaries gave their testimonies. Hermana Gamez gave her testimony, and it hit me that I will probably give mine next conference... weird! But yeah, that took most of the time. Then they gave us lunch. Thank goodness because we didn't eat that morning. It was a great meal. We had 2 types of meat, rice, an apple, grapes, and a banana lasagna... which I didn't like... at all, and a roll and a tiny empanada. It was all great except above mentioned food. I also didn't get the salad that came with it. But while we ate, there was a slide show. I think we'll get a copy of it; HOPEFULLY. We were on it a few times :)

Then, we had the part that we were most excited about – the production. I don't have pictures of it, but I have a video of our production. I was very proud of it. All of the different zones took a part of the mission commission and had to present it in a tasteful way, and ours was so delicious! Some zones did parts of the scriptures, others did skits, other sang a song. BUT we did a MUSICAL! :) and it was so great. I don't have words to describe it. We started out with an angel giving Samuel his calling to preach, and then he preached and the people were angry, and then it fast forwarded to modern days, and a sister got her call and went out to preach, and people rejected her, and then people accepted it, too. It's a lot cooler than it sounds. But guess who I was!!! :) I was the sister missionary. I had a solo!! I sang in front of like, 150 people! So Heather had her concert (way to go, Head!) and so did I!!! People said it was great. But right after I got my call, I was supposed to act excited, so I did. I jumped up and did a victory dance, and my modest skirt flipped up and I flashed the crowd!!! I was.... embarrassed, but it was hilarious. I got more compliments about that than my singing. And, you should be proud, because I flashed everyone and then had to sing. So I was composed enough to still sing. Mission accomplished.

Overall, I think ours was the best. It had no violence, and it was just great. It was very g-rated. People also said that because my "g's" showed... haha, so punny.

Anyway, this week should be good. We plan on contacting all day for my year mark... so that stinks, but it's what we planned I guess... we'll see. But yeah, that was yesterday. I love the mission pres. and his wife. I love the mission. I love being a missionary. I love this gospel. I love my Savior. I love serving Him. I love you all and I hope you have a great week!

Thank you for everything you do for me. I can't thank you enough. :)

With way too much love that she can't even express it,

Hermana Erickson #1

#52 [La Venta - 12] Dec, 2nd, 2013

Man, I feel like you guys were just in Disneyland! how fun. I for sure remember last year at this time going with dad and the other siblings :) good times. Remember how we would try to touch noses? hahaha, good times.

Ok, this week was lame compared to last week. I have a few things cool that happened.

We have mice in our house, and the other day, we caught two of them. We caught them using Tupperware and our sink. We didn't know what to do with them, so we took them to our neighbor, and then he killd them. He shook one to death, and the other he let his little head out of the container, and then he beat it with a stick. I think we are going to try poison.... we ended up using the Tupperware for something later. If we all die, it might be that. :) haha

What else happened...oh yeah. So for Thanksgiving, no one celebrates it here. It isn't a holiday, so it's nothing, but we decided to celebrate nonetheless. We woke up and made potatoes, beans, juice, and bought rolls. Then, we (pretty much went to KFC, but it's called Pica Pollo.) We ate fried chicken. It tasted like turkey, I guess. OH! we also made gravy, but it wasn't traditional. Herm Peck made it and we had no flavoring, so we were grossed out, cuz it's just flour and milk. Then, I remembered that Kelton gave me Beef Jerky, and I hadn't eaten it yet! So we put it in a blender and had jerky gravy... not to be confused with turkey gravy. And it was good! :) so that worked nicely. We ate lunch with the elders, and they all loved our food. We weren't planning on sharing, but they all looked so covetous. In the picture, the gravy is at the bottom.

My English skills are declining and my Spanish skills are... not improving, but whatever. I am probably down to a third grade writing level.

I hope Head had a good birthday. It’s tough when it's on Sunday, but I still hope it was fun. I was thinking of her throughout the day.

We got to go to the temple with our recent converts this Saturday. It was good. 2 of them couldn't enter, and two didn't go. A__ and E__ couldn't go in because they don't have the priesthood. I__ went in, but couldn't do baptisms because her hair is colored. Y__ went in and had her own family names, so that was good. I really have come to love the temple :) that's also good.

Um... our stove is still broken. We keep cooking enchiladas and pizza on the stove top with boiling water underneath–that's fun.

Transfers were last night, and a HUGE shocker. Everyone is STAYING – again. We all doubted it big time. Apparently no one in the zone is leaving either. Just the one elder leaving home; interesting. We are all happy. We sure love this area. But three transfers with one person is a lot of time. We should be good. This will prepare me for marriage... hahahahahahahahahahahahaha (They found out that the Branch members had prayed for them to stay and that the Branch President requested that they stay.)

Well, that is all I can think of. We don't have many investigators because we baptized them. We have to find more, and we are on that now. Things are going great. I can't believe it's December. It's hard to imagine snow back home, or even wearing a jacket. I just sweat all the time... still.

I am surprisingly staying very sane and happy. My clothes are fine, and I still have lots of happiness to be here. That sentence sounds better in Spanish... I don't know how to say it in English... haha

Well, love you lots! Have fun in DISNEYLAND! :)

Love, Rachel. The missionary. Hermana Erickson #1