Updates from Hermana Goudie: New Years in Freezing Arkansas!!!

Hola como estan? Just another week has gone by over here in good old freezing cold Arkansas! New years Eve there was a party but we couldnt go to it because we couldnt get an investigator there. Turns out the other missionaries in our district went though and Elder Ludwig I heard did some pretty great ball room dancing! But Hermana Howton and I had a great night! We made fried chicken and almost burned the house down (not my fault), biked because our car was out of miles, went to a less active family and commited them to come to church (I love this family) and cleaned out our shower (it was nasty and wasnt draining-while doing it both hma. howton and I were like gagging and we were using this snake tool thing and it got stuck and hma. howton pulled really hard and broke it! It was so funny!) and had our own Sparkling Cider and popcorn! It was a great day and I didnt even get eaten by a dog! This week is bike week though so at the store today we bought dog treats to keep in our pockets in case some scary dogs think we look like a nice meal.

We had some pretty awesome dinner appointments this week with some pretty awesome members from the branch. We got a new Elder in our district and his name is E. Gonzales and he speaks spanish fluently! Its awesome :)

So awkward hilarious story for the week. We went to go visit a investigator (referral from the Elders-shes a little crazy) and when we got there she let us in and we started talking (she is really suspicious of evil spirits and ghosts and stuff) and a few min. after talking there was a knock at the door and she said "Espero que es los testigos" which means I hope that is the Jehovas Witnesses... and guess who it was? A Jehovas Witness lady missionary. She came in and sat down and we all started talking. Lupita (the investigator) was asking why they dont celebrate holidays and birthdays and it was interesting to hear why they dont. Then Lupita started telling us about the testigos religion and Lupita started telling her about our religion (she had just come to our church the past week) Lupita started talking about dia de los muertos and the testigo was reading some scriptures about life after death and pulled out a pamphlet that she had already given to lupita in a past visit so she offered it to us. So then we pulled out a plan de salvacion folletito (pamphlet) and told her that it explained the same type of thing. Lupita then said "Cambia!!!!" which means change. The testigo wouldnt have taken it but after Lupita said this she took it. It was definately an interesting experience.

The less active families here are awesome! We met with the DeLucas family. They have two little girls 8 and 11. The 11 year old just finished reading the Book of Mormon!!!!!!! Shes so cool! She also stopped drinking soda because she didnt think we were supposed to. They were asking us questions about some mean kids at their school and asked how they could make them be nice. I love them so much! I feel like a big sister to them :)

We did some service this week. We were doing some spiritual harvesting in an area and had prayed to help us find somewhere to do service and found an older couple and they were trying to carry in a bed from the back of their truck and we offered to help and they said sure and then we were about to teach them a bit about families (they were english speaking though) and the lady has cancer and she definately was very appreciative of us and I know that God answers prayers. We have to pass them off to the English missionaries though... :( We also helped a member pick up some dressers off the side of the road because she likes to refurbish furniture.

Haha another funny story!!!!! Its super hilarious and if Laureen reads this she will be so disappointed... so... I am kind of the designated piano player for Sacrament and Relief Society because I am the only one that knows how to play and I dont pick the songs and dont have time to practice them and sometimes they are different because they are in Spanish. So I went up this last week and one of the songs was a song I had never ever heard before and it was really interesting. I started playing and by the time I got the the 2nd verse I didnt think that the congregations words were matching up with what I was playing but it was in Spanish and so I was just a little confused. Right before the 3rd verse an American man came up to the piano and said "You are only playing half the song" I looked over and there was a WHOLE OTHER PAGE!!!!!!!!!! I had only been playing one half! It was so embarassing! Luckily the other half was the same length and hermano frankyln came up just in time so that on the 3rd and 4th verse I was able to play the whole song. I hope this makes sense. It was super embarassing. But not that many people realized (only a few because no one knew the song and no one knows how to read music). I feel like I should be excommunicated from playing the piano now... OH I love being a missionary!!!!!

Well I love you all so much!!!!!!!!

Love,

Hermana Goudie