Week 31

So can I please emphasis how happy I was to be able to talk to my lovely family this Saturday!? It was so nice to chat and hear your voices and have an actual conversation, even if there was a time limit of 40 mins. My companion was like, "what did you guys talk about!?" and I was like, "nothing really, just enjoyed the chat!" and I mentioned that mother dear had a hard time keeping it together haha. Its nice to know that I am missed though, but also nice to know that you had a great Christmas even though 2 of the gang were missing (well I guess 3 if we count Don… still not really sure if he is included hahaha).

So for Christmas nothing too awesome happened, after the phone call it went to just being a normal day as the Latinos celebrate it the 24th so the 24th I was busy telling them that Christmas isn’t till the following day then the 25th I was mourning because I was too focused on it being on the 25th that I missed the festivities the previous day haha. But such is lifeeee. It was good though, I am officially pro at making tamales so prepare yourselves for when I get home! We literally went from house to house helping the moms make the tamales- that’s my kind of service! I feel like I don’t have much to report as I just talked to you 2 days ago but everything is going good here. On Sunday when we were knocking we met some really awesome promising future investigators, it seemed like every door we knocked was so nice- the Christmas spirit hit them I guess. These one people we said that we were missionaries and they invited us in, offered us food then left with a Christmas present haha, that’s my kind of tracting. So yeah, life is good, need new investigators but this is almost 100% deff my last transfer here in Covina so I wanna make the most of it. Today we have zone activity, people never really go to them cuz they aren’t fun haha, but we are gunna go today and see if anyone comes. Not sure why our mission is so boring buttttt I guess its helping me to make my own fun, which trust me I am doing! Well this is short but I love you guys, miss you tons, looking forward to mothers day and hope that you have a very happy new year- yay for 2011, it’s gunna be a great year! Love Laura.

Week 30

So this week on pday we went to this nice mall called la Americana cuz it was next to my doctors appointment. My comp spent $628 haha, I spent $8.34 hahah. We had a good time walking around etc so that was nice. Today for p-day its gunna be an errand day cuz we need to go to the office then get our wheels replaced and aligned soo thats fun!?

This week it has rained non-stop.. and it is still raining- ew. Funny thing happened we got a call from one of Glorias friends (the old lady we live with) telling us that she was worried about her cuz she hadn't answered her calls and didn't show up to a meeting etc so she told us to go home and check on her so we did and we were all worried that she was dead. We went in the room and yelled her name and she was just lying there all dead looking then the lady on the phone said we had to shake her, I was laughing cuz it was so ridiculous and we were scared she was dead, luckily- she was alive but we scared her half to death from shaking her hahaha. This week we also got to attend a wedding on Saturday night- it was fun to be able to go and we helped with decorations for the majority of the day too so of course I was in my element. Sunday was the highlight of the week as we had the baptism of Alexi and also Kevin finally got baptized. It was a spiritual boost for sure cuz it was really just a special service and they are such special people. Alexi didn't get submerged till round 6 haha butttt... she got in there finally so it was legit, her and I hugged when she got out of the water and we were both crying- loved it. I later got even more wet as the plug would not come out so I had to get in the font and bent down to unplug it haha, not really sure why I didn't make one of the elders do it but hey!

As far as transfers go we are all here to stay. Our whole District stayed the same so hermana herrera and I are about to embark upon another 6 week adventure together here in Covina- Im happy about it and feeling good about this new transfer. On the down side- we neeeed new investigators so we have alot of finding ahead of us which the rain makes tough. I wanna send pix so I'm gunna end here. Meerrrrry Christmassss! Love Laura

Week 29

I have little time today because our pday has been pretty hectic!

This week has been good! Monday night we had FHE with Blanca and the girls and we watched the testaments and we were all crying and of course I bought pop corn- always looking to have a quality movie night. Thursday our district had a drama blow at district meeting, well basically my comp yelled at everybody- it was pretty umm.. Interesting, I really do know why elders say sisters are a hassle. Luckily I have been branded as 'not a hassle' haha, or so I have been told, so thats good. Friday was our ward activity and it turned out really cute, they picked our ward mission leader to be Santa which was a bad choice, hahaha he was so ridiculous, he was walking like a gangster and his arms up like a crazy person in all the pictures and his 'ho ho ho' sounded like an evil laugh, it was pretty funny. Saturday my comp took the ACT while I sat in a random teachers lounge and talked to this Vietnam vet for about 2 and a half hours. Great conversation, smart cool guy, I love conversations where you come away feeling like you see things a little differently. Kevins baptism fell through as his mom randomly decided to take him to Disneyland... tragic, but theres always next week!

My doctors appointment this morning was interesting, soooo heres the deal. I didn't have any factors show up in my blood but apparently there is a type of rheumatoid arthritis that doesn't show up in blood results and the doctors remain convinced that RA is indeed my problem. That being said my blood tests did some back with some indicators of lupus which is.. bad haha. But he said that I am lacking a lot of the symptoms (like losing hair and rashes etc) but that they could show up with time but overall he is pretty sure it is RA but he said that those lupus indicators caught his attention... so thats that! Maybe I am more sick than I realize huh!? Crazy. So I have more pills... 2 a day of 2 different things, the names escape me right now. So I have another appointment with him in 6 weeks Jan.24th.

Transfers are next Monday- I dunno whats gunna happen but Ill obviously let you know when the time comes.

Week 28

Everything is good here. So on Monday the doctor prescribed me a steroid called Prednisone so that has been helping quite a bit. The thing is the pain is the worst in the morning and that's when I take the pill so it doesn't actually help till a little later in the day but I will take what I can get and this is just a temporary treatment till my next appointment next Monday when he will have the definite diagnosis. I am fine though, don't worry! I will keep you informed on whatever the doctor tells me! This Friday Hermana Herrera took the TOEFL test and I was in a super cold basement so bored so I decided to give myself permission to wait for her outside on the lawn where I fell asleep for the 4 hours she took the test haha. Nice little breather to be outside and alone- sooo nice. Friday was also Hermana Herrera's 24th birthday so I felt bad for her that she had to take that test on her birthday but afterwards we went and spent it with the Ramirez's and ate cake and all that fun stuff.
Saturday night we, and 40 other missionaries, worked as volunteers at the Covina Christmas parade so that was super fun to be able to just chill and watch the parade, we just had to hand out flyers and tell people to stay behind the blue line haha, It was cute.


Overall I am pretty excited about transfers coming up. We have transfers the 20th sooo we will see what happens.
This week we have the ward Christmas party Friday night then Saturday Herrera is taking the ACT in arcadia so I will hopefully we able to take another nap haha.

week 27

Thank you for the package!!! We were laughing because I was like, "uhh I think my jacket shrunk" and my comp was like, "umm.. I think you got bigger" haha, I haven't though no worries. I am actually maintaining my weight pretty well considering we don't exercise- I am surprised. So we just got back from a very long visit to the doctors and he is pretty sure I have rheumatoid arthritis- wa hoooo. haha, yeah so that's not good but its not sure yet because they had to take more blood and test me for it to confirm it so I have another appointment with him in 2 weeks but he said he was pretty sure and got me some druggggssss yayyyy. I was kind of scared because on the sheet of paper I took for lab work he ticked some other boxes to test my blood for and one of them was lupus and other scary stuff so thats... interesting. So yeah, arthritis, he said it wasn't good but that medicine has come a long way and that there are treatments so I'm not gunna freak out- yet. haha. I'm excited to start taking these drugs as this week has been especially rough for me.

This week has been really good, the time is speeding up for sure. The transfer is half way over so thats crazy to think, our next transfers are the 20th so its literally right before Christmas so I realllllllly dont want to get transferred. This is my 5th transfer here in Covina so I know everything there is to know about this place haha.

So yesterday we had Blanca and the girl's baptisms!!! yayyyy. The girls are Jackie (15) Steph (14) Deanna (12) and Daniella (10) and they are soooo cool and the baptism went really well and it was so cool to be apart of it. Sister Pike and the Goolds came (cool senior couple that work in the mission office) so that was a pleasant surprise. They were very complimentary and very excited to see a family get baptized so that was legit.