Earthquake!!!

hey, everyone! how are you all?? i miss you like crazy. :)

this week i bought christmas lights!!! i haven't put them up yet, but i decorated with the snowflakes mom sent, printed out christmas pictures to hang, and set up the mini christmas tree that was in my package from home. my house is adorable. :) also, 25 days until christmas!!!!

so, we had a lesson with the couple we've been teaching (roger and leidi), and we talked about their recent experience attending church. roger said he thought the sacrament was going to be "pizza" and was surprised when it was just bread!!!! i was dying. :) they're the cutest couple ever!! i guess they've had some problems with trust in their relationship, but they told us they'd been praying as a couple and that it'd helped so much!! but then...they didn't come to church this past sunday, and now they're kind of avoiding us. bummer! but, we're still going to follow up with them!!!

i had my first baptism last week - sort of. :) it was a primary boy [already attends church] named mateo who didn't get baptized when he was 8 for some reason. now he's 9, and his aunt laly wanted us to baptize him. we had to teach him all the lessons and everything but don't really think of him as being "our" convert (because it was just protocol that we were involved). still, it was fun! mateo was baptized with another primary girl and his best friend!! so, triple baptism - all kids!!! it was very cute.

my mateo :)

oh, another interesting story. we contacted these ladies (a mother and daughter) sitting outside their house - the mom was super old, and she was like "mormons!!! yes?" and then she started to say her husband was baptized by my companion and i. we were like "no....?" so, she went inside and brought out a liahona magazine and pictures of her husband in baptismal clothes standing with two sister missionaries (a tall gringa and a short latina) - not us. ;) then later, we talked to her husband - he's like 80+ years old and had no idea what we were talking about when we asked him why he stopped going to church. he was like "uno solo dios!" etc., "there's only one god and we all worship him - i go to ALL the churches!" mucha just looked at me and was like "cayó," he's "fallen" (mentally). dang!

sometimes we run into monos :)

also, apparently thanksgiving was last week, right? i kind of forgot about it, haha! for thanksgiving dinner, i had scrambled eggs and half a cooked banana. give thanks!!!! it was actually really good. :) and, i hit four months [in the mission field] last week!!!! (still a baby.)

my thanksgiving decor!!

in other news, i cut like 5 or 6 inches off my hair - actually, hermana briggs did it!! she had never cut hair before, so it was a little risky. but i think she did a fabulous job. :)

and, in other OTHER news, we had an earthquake!!! we were in our pensionista's house, and there were three quakes in all. isabel (our pensionista) was pretty scared! when the strongest one hit, she was holding onto the walls saying "gracias gracias gracias, señor...padre!!" i didn't think it was too bad, haha. but, apparently they felt the quake in iquitos and lima, too!

hermana willes and i get at least one ice cream cone every week :)

so, all in all, this week was good. :) did i mention that (in addition to ice cream) i ate cake on three separate occasions? also, i'm learning so much on this mission! i haven't been out for very long, but the growth i've experienced could've only come through being in the exact situation i'm in. i've tried to be "grateful in my circumstances" as elder uchtdorf advises, and it's working well - i highly recommend it. :) love you all!

hermana wood