Well hello!
It's been another week I think. I still don't quite get the whole week and day thing here. Does time really work the same? But it's been a wonderful one! I forgot everything I need to say so this should be awesome.
First of all, the day after I sent my last email I got like twenty million Dear Elders and people are looking at me like "WHAT DID YOU PRAY FOR" and I'm thinking "Wow I must have sounded pretty desperate...whoops." I didn't even know that many people READ this thing. Maybe I should think about what comes out of my fingers a little more. Anyway, I love hearing from you all so much!! Thanks for taking the time to write letters and dear elders, they've definitely been flowing in with happiness this week. I wish I had time to answer them all and send them through snail mail but it's the best I can do to crank out a few a week and respond to hand-written ones. Know that I smiled, laughed and even teared up at points and responded to you all in my head! I'll work on it eventually!
So this week has been a crazy one for our zone. We lost our CRAZY district of zone leaders, they were so much fun. Off to Mexico they go.
And then it was just the four of us...
...and one other district of three hermanas and an elder who are our family - we are basically inseparable districts.
One of them is hanging out with us today in fact because the other two hermanas went to Vegas for visas. It was a rough week on everyone though because we lost an elder (hence there is only one) to sad circumstances and had a lot of other struggles that attacked people individually. These are STRONG AMAZING people though and I love learning from them! We are doing awesome! Every afternoon all 7 of us hermanas get together and do crazy workouts in their apartment until we die, wailing "SI SE PUEDE!" It's probably the funniest looking thing. Also, when we're not speaking in Spanish or saying the words "Hermana, POR FAVOR," we are speaking Nacho Libre. Which means working in quotes or saying everything in a Nacho voice. And don't worry, everyone knows I'm funny now. There was a lot of concern for that in letters ;)
Speaking of zonage, we got two new districts this week - 9 new elders and 4 hermanas. And guess who is one of them? HERMANA DAVENPORT!!!! SHE'S IN MY FAMILY! Isn't that the most wonderful thing? I didn't even confundus charm anyone this time! (Ask my dad if you really want to know). Anyway, she's been here for one day and it's been so fun. I forgot to get a picture of us but it'll get there. Tell her family she's doing great and has the cutest companion, she won't get to email for another week.
[Dad: So, when Kelsi and her friend Emma Davenport were in choir, they could never sit next to each other because Emma is a head taller than Kelsi. So their senior year they just sat next to each other anyway, and made it through most of the year that way. Then one day the teacher decided to move people around. "You go there...and you go here...and, Emma..." With that, Kelsi and Emma stared at her in panic and Kelsi whispered "Confundus!" under her breath. The teacher just sort of lost her train of thought and went on to other people, and they got to sit together for the rest of the year. :D ]
Teaching investigators is the craziest thing. I told you about Roberto last week. Imagine this wonderful man who is in SO much darkness and thinks he is worth nothing and we loved him so much and my companion would come home after every lesson shouting "AYE ROBERTO" because he wouldn't accept that he was a valuable person who could change. So much darkness. And then after our super powerful lesson and his commitment to be baptized, he shows up in our classroom one day AS THE TEACHER he is, with a SMILE on his face! After giving him a hard time for lying to us (even though we already knew) we just talked forever about the whole experience and it's so weird how much we care about this fake/real person. He is our favorite teacher to see and we have such a special relationship with him and get so happy when he's smiling, because he didn't for so long! Real Roberto was one of his investigators on his mission and he is now sealed in the temple! I can't wait to meet him and be so happy he made it and found happiness!
Now we have 3 other investigators we're working on and it's going pretty well with two of them. The other, Daniel, is from Mexico and he's not a teacher. I don't know what he is. Maybe he's real. He says he doesn't want to learn about our church and we're like "That's okay! We just want to be your friends and help you." But guess what? He TOTALLY does. You can tell. He needs help. And he gives us a hard time asking hard questions but it doesn't matter because we just love the heck out of him and tell him that Jesus loves him and share the gospel even though we tell him we're not. He loves us and keeps wanting us to come back. Sneaky sneaky. And he loves telling us about Tuxtla Gutierrez and how our souls are going to leave our bodies because it's so hot. Great.
Today is P Day and it's the best because we get to go to the temple!! It's the best ever. We got to see the new new movie last week and I guess another one is coming out soon. Quick, go!
Well I forgot everything else. Gerald Causse from the 70 talked to us this week and I learned so much. Basically, love. Love is a gift, both the ability to love and the reception of it. It is also a consequence of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The more we love the more we can understand about the Atonement and what it meant for us, and vice versa. His wife said that every missionary deserves to have the best companion, so be the best companion. I think that goes for everything. Every mother deserves to have the best daughter, every person deserves to have the best friend, every student deserves the best teacher and vice versa. It doesn't mean we're going to BE that all the time, but it does help us realize it's not all about us. The more we're thinking of what we can be for other people rather than what they can do for us, the more like Christ we become, once again looking outward rather than inward.
Another awesome lesson from last week was the idea of light. I THINK it's D&C 50:24 that talks about light that continues to grow as you walk forward in it. Just remember that when things seem dark, all you have to do is take one more step and light will come as a result of that action. Did that make sense? I thought it was awesome.
I loved hearing from the family and those pictures are the most wonderful things that have ever happened to me. I have all of your faces all around my room and desk now. Also, that lizard cake was pretty prime. Hermana Brau really enjoyed the "lizard innards" comment.
[We sent Kelsi some leftover birthday cake from Sienna's party. It was our family favorite "green slime" cake, in the shape of a lizard. So we sent some to Kelsi with enough chopsticks to share. And I said "If 'green slime cake' sounds sort of gross, think of it instead as 'disemboweled lizard innards,' and that will take care of the 'sort of' part."]
Well it's about that time so I'll say goodbye for another week. I'm sorry that was very long, feel free to skim. (I say at the end...)
I love you all!
Nos vemos!
Los Fotos
Hermana Hickman!
Crazy Hermanas!
Our district and some others in our zone. This was taken by the random elders who were very excited to be taking pictures and we now pass them all the time and shout "Heyyy! Fotos!!"
Feet! And this is the end. Love you!
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