Anywhere is

Heeeyyyyyooooo!!

   So first, I would like to say that the song «Anywhere Is» by Enya, is pretty much changing my life. We have it on this music player thing in our appartment, and it is just changing my life. I listen to it and just get so pumped to go and work. So, if you`d like some refreshing music, check it out. Especially you, Dad. I know you probably love Enya so much. Since you listen to her (them?) every morning on the bike haha. Ok, enough of that. I hope you liked the pics from last week. As you might be able to tell, we live in the ghetto. What`s up!? It is super sweet and I love it. Hopefully we can convert one of the many drug dealers in our neighborhood and the place can stop smelling like weed.... Dream big! (Name that movie). But everyone is so nice and I feel super safe here, so it`s all good. Plus, we are in a car. I think it`s a 2013 Toyato Cruze? Fairly new and nice. No worriez. There are cops racing down our street everyday though. Well, not everyday, but close. One day there were four that drove down and they were going SO fast, it was insane! So we joined all of the neighbors out on the street to try and see what was going on. But we couldn`t see so we went back inside. But anyway, this week was sooooo much better. Things are really picking up and I am so glad because now I can stop focusing on myself and my feelings and just worry about others! I really need to be less self centered though. There is just so much to improve upon everyday, it`s nuts! But sweet too. The Lord will help with everything. Seriously. Just ask Him then act. Then boom. Blessings. I love it.

   This week was a fun one. We were visiting one of our investigators one night, and when we were leaving her appartment we walked by this guy, so I just said «hello, how is it going?» And he said good and he actually stopped walking! So then we started to introduce ourselves and ask if he`d like to know more and he said yes! It was so crazy! I couldn`t believe it, it was just too easy. So we met with him and had a good lesson and gave him a Book of Mormon. But now he won`t call us back and he missed one of our appointments. Come on Thomas! But it`s ok. Maybe it`s not his time right now. It was just nice because him and others have been fairly nice to us, so that is always nice. And makes you have some hope in humanity. It was really funny though with this Thomas guy. A little background first though. Everyone here does that bisous or kiss thing with the cheeks. I really don`t like it. First, I just don`t like when strangers or anyone really, touches me, so I`m already content with handshakes. But everyone here does the face/cheek touching thing and it is so weird for me! It seems so personal and strangers do it! But anyway, so we aren`t allowed to do the bisous to men, for obvious reasons, but new investigators and strangers we meet don`t know that. So after our lesson with Thomas I got up to shake his hand so we could leave, and he leaned in to do the bisous and I had no idea what to do! Because I didn`t know how to say «I`m not allowed to do that» in French, so I just had to let it happen because it was kind of too late. So after he went to my comp and she explained to him, and he just looked back at me like, «well then why did you do it??» And I just stuttered in my best French, it`s my fault I`m sorry I forgot! It was pure awkward... ho boy. After we walked back to our car my comp and I were just laughing so hard and I was soooo embarrassed. Hopefully that isnt why he hasn`t been calling us back! I don`t think it is, so no worries.

   Tuesday was sweet too. I don`t know if anything too crazy or exciting happened, but we went to have the last lesson of the day with Elie and Eliatha and their daughter Angela. They are all set for baptism so we just went over some of the baptismal interview questions with them so that they wouldn`t be worried about the interview with the district leader. And it was so nice because after the lesson Eliatha said she made food for us so we could stay and eat with them if we wanted to. Of course. She made tons of rice and cous cous with meat sauce and fish sauce stuff . I was so stoked because I love rice and cous cous. So I served up a healthy portion, just stoked as ever to eat after a long day. I kind of took too much but it was all good, I finished it right up. But then, right when I had finished, Eliatha said, «Soeur Kinghorn, give me your plate.» So, me, hardly even understanding what she said, I just stood up and gave her my plate, and she just started dishing me up again. She gave me double the amount I took the first time and just kept piling things on. I was so afraid because there was soooooo much food! I just said something like, oh wow thank you so much! And just prayed a little that I`d be able to eat it all. Luckily it was so good, but towards the end I had get some water to force the food down my throat. My companion was laughing at me because she could tell that I was having a rough time trying not to throw up or tap out before my food was gone. I guess that was my first mission experience with having to eat a ton. I am nervous for what will come... But, it is all good. We were blessed to be fed. Usually since we only have an hour to prepare a meal and eat we just eat cereal. I guess my comp is a pretty elaborate chef, so an hour isn`t enough time for what she knows how to do. We don`t always take meal breaks, but when we do I eat cereal. That`s all we buy at the store really. Sometimes I eat carrots. So I`m at least holding off scurvy for a few more days.

   We do service for this really cool German guy named Gerd. He has lived here for a long time, but he is German, so he lived there too before. Sorry, that last sentence was pretty pointless... Anywiggle, so we did some service for him and then I was talking with him after and it was the craziest thing because he said in 1943 he was fifteen and helped the fire fighters in Germany after buildings were bombed!! Then in 1945 when he was seventeen he was taken as prisoner of war in Germany for like seven or nine months (I can`t remember how many exactly). It was crazy though! Then he showed me this medal he has that he got for his service and it has the swastika on the back and it was so cool. Not that Nazis and swastikas are like super cool, but just the history and whatnot. Then he told me a story about how he started to work for the American soldiers, I can`t remember what he did for them, but he worked for them with some other German friends. Anyway, this was during the start of the Cold War. So one day one of his friends asked him whose side he was on (Americans or the Soviets) and he said the Soviets. And his friend said, «What?! Why?» And he said, «Becasue, after the first shots are fired, I`d much rather go to an American prison camp than to Siberia.» I thought that was super funny. He is so cool. I`ll try to get a picture with him one day to show you.

   Another day this week we went to a lady`s house that my companion had met before I got here. So we called her and went over while she was working. She braids girls hair at her house for her job. So she had all of this fake hair that she adds into the braids while she works. So at one point she had to go grab something from across the room. So she got up and her dress had a bunch of the fake hair on it when she walked past her seven year old son who was sitting on the floor. And her dress was all flowy so it brushed onto her son and a bunch of the fake hair came off of her dress and got all wrapped around her son. I was laughing so hard watching him try to get it all off. Anyway, we had a sweet lesson with her. We just got to know her a little bit better, then we sang a hymn with her. I can`t remember which one it was, but she knew it, and when we were all singing it was so powerful it was awesome. I started to tear up, but I had to pull it together. I hope we can see her again and teach her more because her spirit is so strong. I loved it. And when she was praying. Ho man there was power there! She has a testimony of God, it is incredible.

   So something I learned this week is the importance of patience. I look at these awesome people and I want them to change right away. I see their potential and just the little ways they bring thmselves down and I just want them to understand Heavenly Father`s love for them and for them to come unto him, right now! I got frustrated one night because I was expecting too much from them right away. But, patience is a virtue, and I need it. It`s ok though, because I was happy that for the first time I was frustrated about the work, and not about having to do the work. I think a little change of heart is starting for me! Also, someone said a cool thing this week, they said, «We can change on accident into who knows what, or we can change on purpose into something we want to become.» I really loved that, and really want to start working harder to change into a more Christ like person. Instead of just being changed in whatever way. We can control who we are, so why not be better?

   So there you have some of this week. I hope you can see that I am happy to be here! The work takes some getting used to, but it is cool and I am really starting to enjoy it. It sounds like you are all doing well at home! I got your letters this week and I was so so so so happy to hear from you, so thank you!!! You are always in my prayers. So keep being awesome! I love you all so much! I hope Alex is still alive. Good luck to the little dudes in school! I`m stoked you guys are starting! Be nice to the kids and make some new friends! I`ll send a letter home this week. Love you all!!

Love,

Suzanne (haha my formal name)