Week Four! :)

This week was a party!!!!!!!!!! Outside of the walls that is. This week was Halloween in the U.S. as you all know (no we did not celebrate it here however our class had a little trick or treat party and Hermana Murri and I switched tags for our costumes) but in Mexico it was Dia de los muertos!!!!!!!!!! Which means lots of fancy authentic music playing nice and loud all night and lots of parties and yummy food! Our branch was so nice and they told us Sunday at 3 we had to meet all together where we have Sacrament to have interviews. Anyways we got there and the whole room was decorated colorfully and there was a table set up with lots of yummy food. They gave us pan de muertos which is yummy bread with sugar on top and they kinda had an orange flavor to me and on top of the bread they shaped it into bones. There was also their kind of hot chocolate and some jello stuff that had skull shapes in it. I will send pics. It was SO nice of them! Oh and this week was Fast Sunday. They do it different here. We fast dinner Saturday night and then we eat lunch Sunday afternoon after church. And because it was fast Sunday I didn't have to speak! ;) I bet I will next week though although I am playing piano so maybe not...

Anyways back to my week. This week was the start of teaching the Elders in my district as investigators and then they teach us as investigators as well. Its pretty cool. So when we are not teaching Roberta or Daniel (our teachers) we teach them and then we get taught. I like it. A lot. I don't feel as scared for those lessons. Oh and something else cool that happened this week. For almost all of my lessons (besides one) I taught without bringing any notes in! That's a big step for me. I didn't feel like I knew the doctrine well enough or language well enough to not look at notes every now and then but this week I just decided to see how it would go without notes and it went really well! Better than when I did have notes and I think that is because I allowed the Spirit to teach more than just what I had prepared. The feeling and conversations and lessons just went so much smoother and I loved it!

We got native hermanas in nuestra casa este semana (our house this week) I love them so much! They are only here for like two weeks but I love them to death. Its great practice to try and talk to them but its super hard because they speak SO fast. They are the best.  So my companion is pretty much the best. She played her violin to "I Know that my Redeemer Lives" in Devotional in front of all the missionaries here (about 700 or 800 I can't remember) with another hermana from another casa that also brought her violin and she is AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love hearing and watching her play. It is beautiful! I wish I would have brought like a book of church songs that I could play for like preludes before Devos. I should have practiced some before because I don't have much time to learn songs here. But I do have time every now and then to practice some hymns and I love it!
 
This week Hermana Coleman did coaching with me and Hermana Murri. I was saying how in the night before practice (we taught each other in our district and a teacher assigned us a fake problem so the Elder I was teaching had a problem with going to school. He was 14 and was in a gang and didn't go to school. We had to find ways that the Book of Mormon could help them and for some reason I was stumped and couldn't think of a scripture that could help him) I realized I don't know many scriptures that can help specific problems. What she had me do then is she pretended that she was the Elder from the night before and before we started she asked me if I had the faith that wherever I opened the Book of Mormon I would find a scripture that would help her. So we started and she told me whenever I felt prompted to open the scriptures that I would share the verse that stood out to me. It was really scary for me because I didn't know exactly what the scriptures say because they were in Spanish but I can usually get the general idea. So I started talking to her and said lots of prayers in my heart and opened to a random scripture and read the one that stuck out to me and it really went along with what I was teaching. It was awesome! I cant even remember the scripture now but it was something along the lines of how God gives us commandments and laws to help us grow and when we keep those laws we will be blessed more than we know. And then I applied that to how he (she in this case) needed to go to school. It was awesome and made me realize that I don't have to put so much stress on myself with thinking about what I want to say or share with the investigator because the Spirit will help me out and tell me what to say.


So I had a dream the other night that Maddie went on a mission. So if she doesn't read this you should tell her. It was pretty cool.  MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you so much for the Krispy Kreme package you sent me! I loved them SO much! We even have a microwave right by our classroom (our class is connected to the teachers lounge so that's pretty nice) so I heated it up for 8 seconds and then I went and got a cold glass of milk from the comedor and it was the best thing ever! I've done that like 5 times I think... I figured I couldn't eat all the doughnuts though so I gave some to the elders in my district. But thank you so much! I loved it :)

So remember how I just recently (two weeks before I left) got surgery for the millionth (I don't know if that is a word) time on my toe to make sure I wouldn't have any ingrown toenails on the mission... well guess who has ANOTHER ONE??????????? Yeah. Me. That's right. Another one. On a different toe though. Its the same toe that I've had the most surgeries on but its on the opposite side. Haha ;) Its not bad though. Honestly like it doesn't hurt I just think it is so ironic how I ALWAYS GET THEM!!!!!!!!!! I'm not going to worry about it though. If it gets worse while in Arkansas I will let you know but really it is fine for now.

Well I better send some pics before I get booted off this computer... This hour goes by too fast! I usually end up staying on for about an hour and a half but still. I love you all and I hope my email wasn't too scattered and all over the place to read. I don't have much time to proofread...
 
LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Con Amor,
Hermana Goudie

Our own little trick or treat party in our classroom with our district. These are
the treats I got from everyone. Mmmmmmmm! :)

Classic. Switch of the name tags for our Halloween costume.

Yes we are rebels and we wear sandals around the house.
They look great with our dresses huh?

The beautiful table that our branch set up with the Dia De Los Muertos goodies!

My district with our Branch Presidency and his wife who prepared
all the goodies!

Pan de Muertos (yummy bread)!

The Dia De Los Muertos Jell-O!

KRISPY KREME PACKAGE!!!!!!!!! :)

So there is a guy here that sells soccer jerseys and they are pretty sweet
so I bought one. I love it!

The back! Favorite number of all time!

So today me and Elder Miskimmins were walking by some painters and
they just throught that we fit exactly what they wanted to paint so they
asked if we would pose for them so they could paint us. ;) Haha! No we planned this.
There is this mural and my companion said that we looked a lot like them so we decided
to take a picture by it today. No that is not my dress. It is a Hermanas dress in my
room but I love it and it looks just like the one in the painting.