week of Feb 12-21, 2013

Family and Friends,

HOLA!
Sorry it has been a while, the library was closed Monday, the internet didn't work Tuesday and we had an AMAZING Zone Conference yesterday. This shouldn't happen again, but just know that I am safe and that I am still having a wonderful time.

I have learned a whole lot about the Hispanic culture in general throughout my first full week here among the people.

#1. Eating is a big thing! If you go over to their house they are going to feed you and you have to eat it....ALL! Now of course there are a few exceptions because they have learned from other missionaries. They serve SOO much food! Most meals have some sort of rice. Also regarding the food part of the culture, if you are full and you liked the food but don't want to offend them, I need to say, "estoy satisfecha," or I am satisfied in stead of saying I am full. Because of this, and because of the generosity of the people, our side of the fridge is stocked full of left overs of all sorts. I have also definitely gained weight...not too excited about that, but I am trying to be polite. I have started to have green drinks (yummy!) in the morning for breakfast and make sure that I have a light lunch so that I have room for dinner.

Bro Malos serving fried plantain and fried salami. They are from Dominican Republic

#2. In greeting the women, we always kiss on the cheek and hug. It is different, but I like it. It is just an example of how welcoming they are and how accepting they are of me into their homes and lives.

Most aren't really used to such blonde hair. I had one person tell me that I looked like a doll. There is an elder in my ward who's name is Elder Rubio (meaning blonde) they love it! I was introduced to the ward as the blonde Brown and the elder as the brown Blonde.

Valentine's day party: Something you must first know is that with the Hispanic culture, starting time is not really a definite thing. So it was supposed to start at 7, but didn't start until 7:45. They made sure to introduce the missionaries to the ward and then they went around talking about why each couple loved each other. They fed us a salad, rice with beans, vegetables and chicken. Of course there was dancing, but we had to leave because it had started so late.


Mom,
Those pictures that is the Boston temple.. it was just down the street from the chapel that we had transfer meeting in. My companion is Sister Hildenbrand. She is getting ready to go home actually...sad. The other Sister, is Sister Gomez. The first sister missionary called to the Boston mission to speak Portuguese! She is from Argentina, knows english, spanish, portuguese, and is learning french! She is amazing! She is 20 and is a ball of fire! ready to share the Gospel and encouraging people/ me all along the way. We assigned ourselves to each other for the travel and during our stay at the president's house. She is the one that made me realize I wanted to learn Portuguese.

Sis Wagoner and Sis Garcia making sandwiches at the church right after the snow storm Nemo.

The different types of food that we came up with. Basically all of us brought a bunch of random food that we had and we combined it all together. The meals lasted all Saturday and Sunday for breakfast and lunch. We ended up with some of the most random meals. Including the following: Macaroni noodles with spaghetti sauce, rice (definitely a staple around here), a crock pot enchillada thing, bagels, eggs, quesadillas, peanutbutter and jelly sandwiches, samon, garlic bread, a huge pot of top roman (I believe we put 10-12 packages of that), oatmeal... some oatmeal with hot chocolate and peanutbutter (basically no bake cookies!), melted snow...yes that was made by some elders, cookies, chips and salsa, and a bunch of other random food all set out to eat.

all the missionaries at the church after the big snow storm(Nemo) and the missionaries couldn't go out.

Sister Garcia and the snowman found along their shopping trip

This is Hna. Hildenbrand and I on my first Sunday here. We went to church wearing layers, boots, long coats and sweaters. We cleaned the whole chapel and then we changed and held a very small (14 missionaries) sacrament meeting. Everyone participated in some way or another. I was asked to give a talk on the Christlike attribute of charity.

This is a picture of Karee's lovely home. They live on the first floor. Most families in this area live in homes similar to this but they are three layered and three different families live in them.

Karee and her companion got heart attacked at their apartment

those who came to say goodbye to Karee as she left the MTC

Karee, Hermana Hildenbrand, Sister Wagoner, Sis Garcia in front of Boston Temple

 I got the package of love (valentines day package) on Valentine's day! IT was perfect! Cookies were wonderful! and treats! It was perfect thank you so very much!! I ended up wearing that shirt that next day to a valentine's day party.

Gota go! LOve you!
Hna. Brown