Grrrr ... is cold out here!

Hey!

Playing in the snow!

Dad.

Man. The weather is horrible haha it's been soooo cold. Luckily I have stuff to keep me warm. Yesterday it was 5 degrees but with the wind chill it was -13 !! Not exactly the kind of thing I look forward to. We haven't had to stay in the apartment because it's too cool, but we HAVE had to stay in because of snow. Last week on Friday we got like 8 inches of snow so all of the upstate missionaries had to stay in. Poor at least we weren't allowed to drive. Soooo we walked to the church and I actually played in the snow for a good while. It was pretty cold haha but yeah. It's getting cold here. You are really enjoying that ukulele! That's so good! I remember when I first got my Uke I was basically obsessed with that thing haha so I probably know how you feel! People celebrate el dia de Los Reyes magos or whatever it's called haha we actually went to two different houses in one day that we're doing it. Luckily I didn't find any babies in my bread :) so, when teachers are missing, what so you do? Are you in charge of finding substitutes for them? Or does administration do that for you? Sounds pretty Hectic! Also, i have a question. I remember you once telling me about a rock that had lehi's dream carved into it.. But you could only see it if you put water on it..? Or am I making that up? If you remember, could you refresh my memory?

Mom.

I'm doing good :) ha yeah. It's really cold. But cold itself doesn't mean we have to stay in. We just have to wear a lot of clothes! I got the mail yesterday, thank you so much :) and for the newsletter too! We started the jump program on Monday. My legs are sore haha I really want to be able to jump how I used to. Or maybe even better. I haven't sent pictures in a little while. I haven't really been taking a lot, but I think I'm gonna send some home soon, sorry it's taken me so long! I got Kevin's package. It was the greatest haha he sent me some batman socks! I wore them the very next day while we played basketball haha I need to write him a thank you card. But if you see him, tell him he's awesome and that I say muchas gracias. I remember Connie. That's so cool that she is going on a Mission! And Weston is back. Haha I can't wait to hear him speak spanish, you know Joey Mattison comes home in like 4 weeks right? He's really close too!  I'm sorry you are back at work ha I can't imagine it's easy. Are you getting enough sleep? Or do you think it could be something else? 

Things.

Life is good. It's really cold, but it's good. The work is picking up a little bit. We've been talking a lot about what we could do to improve our work. And as a district we have some ideas that we think will help us improve everything around us. The hard part is going to be actually doing it. But yeah. Things are going well. I don't know why, but lately I've been having a struggle with thinking about home. Not in the sense that I want to come home now, or early. But I can't help but think about the things I need to get done when that time comes. There is so much on my mind, so many things I feel like I'm going to need to do. And a lot of things I'm not sure about. Is that normal? Dad, any advice? I mean, I'm not depressed or sad or trunk your anything, I'm just a little nervous  for the things to come. I don't know if that makes sense? Haha I'm hoping this is just a normal thing that we all go through. I will live tho, I'm enjoying the blessings I have right now. I guess I'll just have to take things as they come! Thank you guys so much for all that you do. I'm grateful, seriously- so much! Have a good week :)

Christmas Skype call

Christmas call (Skype)!!

Happy new year!

Dad.

I'm glad I was able to talk to you guys too! It was awesome! Thank you for your song haha I really enjoyed it. I have a few goals in mind that I think will help me. Nothing too major, or difficult. Just so,e things that I know I can improve. Haha you stayed up all by yourself ? Sounds like a party. What did you do on the other New Year's Eve? I got the gloves! Thank you so much, they are legit! It's about to get really cold around here so they came just in time. Are you share you don't need them? I won't lose them I promise!

Mom.

I got the package! It came so fast.. Thank you! Haha I am definitely having a good time with all of my friends here. I'm super grateful for being able to meet them and work with them. It's really good for me. Don't worry I'll make sure the sisters get the card! Hermana Richardson got transferred but I will make sure sorensen gets it. Sorensen is now with sister Dalley, the one that I told you wants to learn how to cook Mexican food. Ahh man that's true! I'll be back for the holidays next year. Well this year. No more skype! That's so cool that you guys went to play volleyball. I'm super excited to come back and watch beto play his senior year! We are gonna play some basketball and volleyball today. We do that a lot here, I like it. But I wish I could play more.. Also mom. Do you think you could send me the air alert thing (the jump workout) again? If you want you can just take pictures  and email them to me. I would greatly appreciate it!

Me.

Things are going well. I can't believe it's 2014. Really, it's so weird to me that 2013 is already gone. Is it going by fast for you guys too? Last night elder mceachern and I went to bed at the normal time, but we woke up at 11:50 to see if we could see any fireworks. We saw a ton! It was pretty cool. Then we went back to sleep haha it was a chill New Years. Funny thing is that last year on New Years elder mceachern was in a split at our apartment, so I spent both of my New Years with him! Pretty cool right? Last night we had our ward New Year's Eve party. It was okay I guess ha people were doing karaoke and stuff so that was funny. We basically just hung out all day with the missionaries in our little city. It was a good time! Every time we have a party I just think back to the ward parties we have back home where we get a dj and the stage all set up haha it's a little different out here. The gyms are all so small! Which makes for squeezed parties. And even worse, squeezed basketball. Lame! 

I'm excited for the new year. And slightly nervous for the second half of it. The holiday season really slowed things down in regards to missionary work, so we are excited and hopeful that things will calm down and we will be able to start teaching more since people won't be as busy. It's about to get really cold from what I hear. I think the low tomorrow is gonna be 7 .. And the high like 19. Not exactly my preference haha but I guess I have no choice. 

How was the family party? Did you guys eat and dance a lot? Tell everyone I say hello. I miss all of you. And my long board. And the basketball court at our chapel. Ha love you guys, have a good week :)

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Dec. 11th, 2013.

Dad

That's a nice Uke.. Haha I want one. We've actually seen quite a bit of accidents. The weather hasn't been terrible, but it's been cold. We had our first official snowfall on Monday/Tuesday! It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas ha the ukulele I'm playing in the pictures isn't mine... I wish it was ! Transfers are actually a week from today. I honestly have no idea what's gonna happen. There's so many variables that I honestly can't guess what will happen. I bought a coat! And a bag, I love them both haha I bought them last night. Pretty fresh, so don't worry I'm not freezing.

Mom

Haha you are cold? When you come to New York it can't be in the winter cuz you will freeze. I'm glad you guys liked the video, I had no idea what I wanted to do.. So I just did a bunch of things. That song I sang is by john Mayer, not a hymn ha but it would be cool! In my apartment it's just me and my companion , we don't share with any other missionaries! There are some elders that live in the same building as us but in a different apartment.. Elders Johnson, Larkin, Garcia, and Henriques. My companions from the beginning including the MTC are Ochoa, Fairbourn, Potter, Vasquez, Critchfield, Portillo, Poulsen, Mceachern. And that's where I'm at! Mom I don't want anything for Christmas! Maybe some snacks, and maybe money for some hats, but there's really nothing I need. I think they are going to let us use our iPads to skype.. I don't see why they wouldn't ? 

This past week we had the Christmas devotional. It was pretty awesome. The entire mission was together so I got to see a lot of my friends. We sang, it went really great! We sounded pretty good haha I can't lie. It was a really good experience and everyone said they loved it. So I'm assuming it went well. We haven't really had too much time to work in our area. The work is pretty slow because all of the things we've had to do around the zone.. We haven't been able to see Kevin in like three weeks, his boss is really not helping the situation out at all, it's a little sad..

On the bright side, we went and saw the tree at Rockefeller center today, it was super cool! Phi just want to be able to say that I've been there and seen it ha now we're supposed to have an activity with our zone, so we are just waiting at our church for people to show up. And that's basically the update. Transfers are next week! I'll be sure to update you guys on what happens as soon as I can! Have a good week :)

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Dec 4th, 2013.

Dad.

I'm glad you guys got the pictures! I haven't been able to buy the coat or bag yet, but it's in the plans. Our schedule hasn't really given us sufficient time to be able to go and buy the stuff.yeah, the presentation was awesome, thanks again! Your area sounds a lot like ours.. We drive 20 to 25 minutes every day to get into our area, but driving back home it's only like ten.. The reason is because there's a toll booth on the way there, so we take a different way to avoid paying every time. I'm excited to see the videos! It's probably most convenient if you just post them on your wall instead of mine. Just saying! The video of me singing with the two other missionaries is actually just something we prepared for sacrament meeting one day. It was fun!

Tell your parents I said I love them! You know, it's not terribly cold right now. The weather has been pretty good to us this week. We're in the 40's right now and for the rest of the week I think. So we're good! I actually don't have the gloves you sent me last year.. I have no idea where they are... 

Mom.

I'm good! How are you ?? I AM. Having a good time :) things are going pretty well.. Haha luckily I haven't had anyone stab me in the hand with a screwdriver lately.. Mom. Elder Picoli does not look like me.... Hahn I remember the concerts at the temple. I wish I could go. Tell alexia and Beto I said good luck at their recital/concert! 

What exactly do they do during your evaluation? What could happen after? I'm sure everything will be fine :) please please send me a Christmas card too, I wanna see it! My mission president would love one too I'm sure.. Don't worry, I know Alexia's birthday is this month! I'm on it!

Other things.

So, a little bit of news. We just got word this week that we're not supposed to have any mail or packages sent to our apartments and that instead they need to be sent to the mission office.. I'm not sure why, but that's what's been asked of us so that's what you guys will need to do! The address to the mission office is

Zazzy

700 white plains rd Ste. 315

Scarsdale, NY 10583

This past week has been so busy! We have been having choir practices which are wayyy out of the way so they've been taking a lot of time out of our days.. We actually have a practice today.. On p day. It's twisted haha so that's what I'm doing today. Our Christmas devotional is this Friday so they wanna make sure everyone is ready and stuff.. 

So yeah because of these practices the work has kinda been affected in our area.. We weren't able to meet with Kevin last week at all, not because of the practices but because his boss isn't very considerate and is making him work like crazy.. The month of December isn't looking too bright for him. We Have been working with a slightly less active family lately. The aguilars . We loooovveee them they are so awesome and they have come a long way since we've been working with them. Time is flying by. We don't have a slow day. It's crazy to think that after the 18th I'll only have 5 cycles left. Can you all believe that? Crazyyy! Well, that's it from me, I hope you all have a great week! I love you. Laterrrrsss!

Nov. 27th, 2013.

Dad.

I'm doing good! Haha I'm not worried about the phone, but I wouldn't mind having one when I get home! I found out that I can get a good coat around here for like 50 or 60 dollars! Did you guys already buy the bag, or are you going to? Okay, I will go looking  for a coat, don't worry! The one that Tia mily sent me is good, I wore it yesterday haha it's hardcore Boy Scout status! Yeah, I'm not too worried about the contact situation I know we'll get that all figured out when the time comes! We are doing better at balancing our time. Me and my companion had a good talk this past week about what we can do to improve our area and the way that we lead. We figured out some things and hopefully we can keep progressing! How long was the drive into each of those cities that you were serving in?? Yes, feel free to send me those videos I would love to watch them! I'm sure they sound amazing.. And speaking of thanksgiving, thank you so much for sending me the presentation, we used all of it haha since we didn't have a projector I forwarded the PowerPoint to all the missionaries in our ward and they each sat at a table and showed the slideshow on their iPads as I read the narration you wrote haha it was cool. So yeah, thanks!

Mom.

Hey! I'm doing great! I got your packages and the letter you guys sent me... I wasn't expecting that at all! But thank you so much :) I love you guys all for all that you do.  Man I wish I could be there to see the talent show haha I bet it's gonna be awesome!  You need to do something! For real, you are cheating the world of a performance mom.. Yeah, weather is not so great haha I wish we had Arizona weather here... It's getting pretty cold. The worst thing about the weather here is the wind. It destroys you haha I don't like it. I'm jealous that you get to work in the primary! And of course you love it, you love kids!! That doesn't surprise me at all. Sounds like they all love you too :) who is in your class? The donuts! We ate those on Halloween. Our mission president invited our zone over for some donuts haha his wife made them. She's great! 

Brisa hasn't written me back yet. But I hope she's doing better. She left home in February right?? Annddd the packages you send are perfect, I really don't care what's in them, it's nice to have a surprise. The honey mustard Pringles for sure can stay, but as for the rest I don't really care what comes. Thanks again!

Misc...

This week has flownnnnn by. I can't believe how fast time is passing. I hit 16 months the other day. I'm so old! We've been busy with random stuff. We had a practice last Friday for the mission choir.. It was awesome. It's been so long since I've sung in a choir! We had another small practice yesterday, and we are having another practice on Saturday all together again. We will be singing in the mission Christmas devotional next week so they want us to be sounding good haha it's been a really cool experience so far.. 

Everyone here keeps asking me if I'm losing weight. Which is the opposite of what I wanna do haha and I haven't lost any, but I guess I look like I have? I don't know. Waccckkk. I, doing really well though. I love my companion, I love all of the missionaries that I'm serving with, they really are some of the best friends I've ever had. 

Thank you so much for all that you guys do for me, I am truly grateful to be a part of this family.. I've learned so much from you and wish I would have changed sooner. But thank you for all of the support and all of the love. It really helps keep me going :) happy thanksgiving :) 

Sent from my iPad

Nov. 20th, 2013

Buenos Dias!

Dad.yeah,, sorry, we had a bunch of trainings! and no we don't have iphones..i don't think i will get one one my mission, they are still in the piloting stage! uhhh my coat. i don't know. i haven't bought one yet. is it cool if i use some of the money in the account to buy it? 

sleepy hollow was sick! it is the weirdest place for a cemetary.. that place is a maze haha but it's super cool. we didn't see anything creepy, but i think if we were to go after dark it would be for sure! i really really wanna see the saratov approach, i've heard from a lot of people that its really good, so it's definitely on the list for when i come home. as for our hands haha i don't know really.. i just started doing that when i got to this area, and the zone has kind of adopted it as our symbol for our zone. we go hard! haha and for the facebook usage.. its just our mission presidents have different views on what we should or shouldn't be doing. so they have a little bit more liberty, but really it's not a big deal. i'm not complaining! 

and as for my contacts.. i'm still pretty good on them, they should last me a while! butt.. i'm pretty positive all of those locations for america's best are out of our mission boundaries, so i couldn't go and get tested even if i wanted to . there's none that are closer??

Mom.

i'm sorry you don't like the new yahoo haha but i got your email this week :) uhh yeah the technology. its actually not my favorite. we are busy right now because we are still trying to figure everything out! the beginning stages of things. a little difficult. yeahh Sister Gonzalez! i've only met her twice, but she is SO GREAT. super nice, and she cooks really good too haha that would be awesome for you to send her a card. i'm sure she would love it! yesss i wrote brisa, but i don't know if she got it cuz she hasn't written me back or anything.. i really hope she is doing better! i'll be on the lookout for the jacket! and no, we haven't finished the candy. i've actually given a lot of it away. i've met a few missionaries out here who also love the mexican candy so if i know i'm going to see one of them i take some candy to give them.. we still have a lot left. its awesome and terrible at the same time cuz we don't have food, only candy haha soooo healthy. i don't think i need anything. i'm happy :) i will be sure to let you know tho, but for now i'm pretty sure i have everything i need! i'm so glad you liked your primary class! we had the primary program here last sunday and it was.. interesting. haha 4 of the missionaries had to sit up there and sing with the kids cuz they needed help.. i haven't bought a bag yet.. i need a bag, and i need a jacket, but i don't know which one to buy.. if the one tia sends me works, i will buy a bag, if not i'll buy a jacket i think.. so yeah, i'm gonna put that off for a little bit longer.

other things. 

everything is going good. we have a small teaching pool. really small. but its fine. Kevin is still doing awesome, he came to church last sunday, we were pumped! his boss still doesn't want to give him sundays off.. but he is so ready! we've taught him almost everything and he willingly accepts and applies everything we talk about. its awesome! once he can get sundays off he will be 100 percent ready to go. he really wants to be baptized, he talks about it every time we go over. but his work schedule might not change until the new year.. but we're praying for him, we'll just have to see what happens. 

all of our missionaries have ipads now. it's pretty weird haha it's cool, but its still not really my favorite. i think it's more of a distraction for most people right now. we look around and somewhere you'll see a mission, face glued to the screen haha but hopefully that will change once the novelty wears offs. this weekend we had stake conference. it was awesome! every area i've served in so far except for danbury has been in the same stake, so i got to see a lot of the members from my past wards. it was doooppeee :) also, Elder Gifford Nielsen of the 70 came here to New Roc on sunday night for a fireside. he was the guy who gave the talk about "exclamation points" in general conference. he's tall haha but it was pretty cool. so yeah we've been busy. and we will remain busy for the next while. our mission is having a christmas devotional on the 6th of december which is basically a musical fireside for our mission. and i got chosen to sing in the choir, and we are be going to be having a few rehearsals from now until then, so we will be traveling in and out of our area to go to those practices..

we really feel so busy.. and i feel like we do a lot here in this area, but the things that we do aren't always in our area. we are really busy with other missionaries in the zone and so many things come up that we have to take care of.. some days fly by because we have so much stuff to do, and then we come home and review our day and we feel like we haven't done anything at all because we barely spent time in our area. its weird. i'm having fun, we're just trying to figure out how to balance everything a little bit better. 

today we're just chillin.. email, get some groceries, and i think we're just gonna go play some volleyball or basketball over in scarsdale with some other missionaries. it should be fun! i hope everything is going well for you guys, i miss you a lot! do good things. be good examples. love you alllllll! me voy :)

Nov. 15

Hey!

I'm quickly gonna reply to yours dad! send it out to everyone!

i'm sorry i didn't get to email on wednesday. we had transfers and we both stayed. we played basketball after so i changed.. then we went to a dinner appointment and i realized i forgot my shoes and my tie at the church. so we had to drive back to the church. i found my shoes. i lost my tie :/ and so we didn't have time to email. and then yesterday we had to go down to manhattan and were at the temple from 9:30 am till about 6 pm because we had to help train all of the missionaries in the city on how to use their ipads. we didn't get back into our area till 7:30, and i was feeling really sick so when we got home around 9:30 i went straight to bed. this morning we drove to the church in ossining, and we were there from 9 am till about 5:30 because we had to help train all of the missionaries who are upstate on how to use their ipads.. so it's been a really busy past couple of days. so this is really all i can send out. i'm really sorry! i promise to send a real email this wednesday. love you all, have a blessed week :)