Monday, January 5, 2009

Hermana Daly~January 5, 2009...a new companion..still in Arica!

Hola familia!
> Felia Año Nuevo!!! This week went by really fast!! For New Year´s it was just normal days, but we did get permission to spend the night in the other Hermana´s apartment and at 12 watched the fireworks from their window which were kinda far away. It was pretty fun, and then the rest of the night we tried to sleep as Chile partied all night and all day with lots of fireworks and craziness. We also made the gingerbread house and have been eating it all week lol -- thanks mother!!
> We have an awesome investigator, Andres, who is like 28 years old and keeps all his committments, which is a miracle lol. He went to Church yesterday and then we committed him to baptism for the end of the month and he said yes!! We are trying to get to know him a little better because when we ask questions such as how he feels and what he thought of church and stuff...his answer is always “good, ya...i like it” lol. He is way nice!! So we have high hopes for him, we have been only teaching him a week and look forward to more!!
> Oh and I found out something terrible last week that I hadn´t realized the whole time I have been here....so in English, especially during my story telling, I like to use the work ´like´ a lot lol. So I was telling a story last week to some Elders and they started laughing because I was saying ´like...and I was like...etc´. I had no idea and when they told me I heard how many times I said it. Noooo haha!! My companion said that I have been saying it this whole cambio but she never said anything. So ya, I thought I would get rid of that habit when speaking Spanish, but I guess not. Practice, practice, practice!!
> And my next cambio, I am staying in Arica!!! With Hermana Plauche as my companion who is one of the other Hermanas that has been here with us. She is from Georgia and is way fun...she said that we are going to work real hard with my Spanish and make me perfect by the time she goes home --- it is her last cambio (I´m killing off all my companions lol). So I´m way excited!! I´m pretty sure I´m switching into the other apartment and they are closing the apartment I am in now....so only two hermanas in Arica Centro sector. Which is kinda sad because my companion and I just painted our apartment lime green and have a new toilet and everything...it´s actually cute now haha. But ya, I am way excited for the next month or so with Hermana Plauche!!! I will miss Hemana Flores...I have learned tons from her and she is lots of fun!! Oh I forgot to ask if Cheri and the twins know McKenzie Wheeler from Weiser...she was Hermana Flores´ companion last year...small world!!!
> Well I love you all!!! My missionary experiences are amazing and I am learning so much!! Have a great new year and set goals to share the gospel and become closer to our Savior 
>
> Lots of love,
> Hermana Daly

Elder Sean~January 5, 2009...transfer and a new Zone Leader!

Dearest Family,

happy 09! For new years we worked until 6 then went over to Zaneta's place with the district and ate some food and played some games. Then we checked out the townsquare.. too many drunk people so we headed home and ate some pancakes, chilled, and watched the fireworks which were pretty cool. Fireworks are completely legal for about 2 weeks in poland so for the last 2 weeks there's just been random explosions everywhere.. and at midnight on new years fireworks were going off for about 45 minutes.. pretty colorful, pretty cool. We had to work new years which was a pretty interesting day.. not a lot of people out at all .. broken bottles and blood all over the street .. so we went and visited some former investigators.
Elder Owen and I had a pretty miracle week.. dad remember how i told you i'd only been let in twice tracting... well we got let in something like 5 times this week... taught some cool lessons and shattered the new investigator record for bydgoszcz.. it was a way cool week. We have a plethera of meetings set up for this week, but unfortunately, im leaving on thursday. Im being transfered to South Warsaw to be a zl with Elder Whipple. He was my zl last transfer up here in bydgoszcz... im way sad to leave elder owen and bydgoszcz but way stoked to go with elder whipple.. he's the man.
Well one of our meetings this week was with this family that we knocked into a week ago.. we came back on saturday on talked with them a little bit. They have 2 daughters (16 and 10) and a son (12) and the the parents. The father and son had to leave part way through the discussion but the whole family is way cool and really open. They had some interesting questions about evolution that were tough to answer but overall we had a way good meeting and have another with them this week. We also have two other families, one a referral that we are going to be meeting with this week.. woot for families! Bydgoszcz is the bomb diggity.
Thanks for the gingerbread house.. i felt like a whole in my holiday season was filled with that package :-)

pictures.... next week? i promise, i half promise... ill try :-)

love you guys,

elder sean