This week has been great!

Hey mom!

     This week has been great!! Lots of fun! There's been so much going on! We're getting fed like three times this week so you don't have to worry about us not getting a Thanksgiving at ALL! We're going over to this family called the Vanvalkenburgs and he reminds me so much of the Pearce family. We call him the manliest man to ever walk the earth because he does all of the stuff that's stereotypical of this big macho mountain man hahaha. He's like super quiet but SO nice and he's obsessed with hunting and guns and fishing and he has this big ole truck and he cuts down his own trees and owns this big pond in his backyard where he has this dock that he can fish off of and it's just so funny. So hopefully we'll get some real American Thanksgiving food. No we haven't had a lot of soul food. I mean we eat pretty much the same as back home. I think it's more when you start going south into the Carolina's and Mississippi and all of those that you start getting into all of that.

     But anyway so I FINALLY got your package on Monday!! Holy cow it took forever because of how stinking far up we are and just because of the day that it got to the office it was right in between deliveries to our zone. But because we didn't get it until then I've only been able to open my presents and we haven't had our official "party" yet with all of the party stuff, but we will DEFINITELY have it soon. Thank you so much for putting that together it was great! Exactly what I needed for my birthday!! You know me too well :) Yes, I love my ties that I got!! And yes, they are "sick" colors ;) I'm wearing that pink and black one now! And yes, the Scentsy thing was perfect! I only got teased a little bit but they were actually grateful...now our apartment doesn't smell like there's four guys living in it with no one to give it any feminine touch haha! 

     This week's been really great, though. This guy that we met a while ago (I don't know if you remember, but the one that just ran up to us while we were walking down Broadway) finally got ahold of us and we were able to teach him the first lesson! He is GOLDEN and we're so excited to see where he goes with this. He's a super interesting guy with lots of good insights and everything. Also I don't remember if I told you this in my last letter but we were able to skype a member that's in Perth, Australia!! He's going on his mission soon and one day he was on Facebook and he randomly messaged me and asked if we could talk! I've never even seen the guy before and the only mutual friend that I have with him is this little Asian sister that's in my mission that I don't even hardly know! He just said that I looked really familiar so he thought he'd ask if we'd met before. It was really cool and we got to know him and answered some questions about serving a mission and stuff. He's super friendly and we've been messaging on Facebook.

     Our area is starting to get a little life in it again after that long "drought" that we had.

Things are good with the members! Weve been teaching them a lot more and getting closer to them. I teach the gospel principles class every three weeks with Elder Rydalch and it's great! At first I absolutely hated it and was so nervous and everything but now it's a lot easier and I feel like my teaching skills are improving a lot!     

     I think that I'm over that little period of sickness that I was going through because I'm doing a lot better! Don't worry about sending me vitamins or anything. We have everything that we need in our apartment. I even bought bottle of those One-a-Day multi-vitamins for men that has like everything in it. I call it my "dirt pill" because it seriously tastes like I'm eating dirt haha! 

     But anyway...that's about how my week has been! Thank you so much for writing me and thinking about me on my birthday!!! It was so great to be able to still open presents and stuff even though it was like a week and a half later! ;) that's not your fault though! Just remember that during Christmas it's going to be super hard to get things through in the mail because that's what everyone and there dog is trying to do. I'll try and come up with a list of things that I need/want for Christmas like you asked but in all honesty, it's going to cost a fortune to send a bunch of stuff in the mail so maybe think about just sending money or little things. I really don't need a whole lot for Christmas...I'm pretty much as happy as I can be here :) You guys are so awesome, though! Thank you again for everything and I hope you have an awesome week! Love you all!

P.S sorry if some of my sentences and words don't make sense...my iPad likes to correct me a lot and it's hard to type on a virtual keyboard haha!!

 Check out this super cool ally-way-blocker that we found in Monticello.  Don't worry...

Elder Rydalch wouldn't let me go in there like I wanted to...psh!  Yeah right! haha

This is a super cool lake right by a member of our branch

Me and Luis Santiago.  He was a member of our branch but he went back to the Dominican 
Republic.  He's soooo cool!  We're gonna miss him!