November 25

Baptism of Marcelino! He is absolutely adorable. I keep forgetting how much I tell you about him but he is so cute. He has so much trust in us as missionaries and in the people of the branch as they get to know him. He just moved into his home for old people... how do you say that? Old folks home. Oh ya. That's it. One day this week we spent a good 2 hours doing nothing but walking from one old folks home to another trying to find him because he hadn't shown up for his app for 2 days. But we found him thank goodness. Then on the day of his baptism, luckily we went to make sure he was ready to go for that because it was raining and said that he couldn't leave. Whew! Thank heavens we went before so we could tell him we'd take him in a taxi.

The baptism was the best ever! An elder played the piano for the musical number and the talks were great. The font overflew but I didn’t know about that until I walked down to see him.. I was wondering why all the missionaries were suddenly all wet... but all went well. Marcelino very slowly put his hand to his nose and then was very slowly put down into the water.  He wasn't closing his eyes, I think the baptiser just decided to do it really fast in the end. It was a double baptism with a joven from the branch in another sector. They don't have a chapel there so they came to ours. That one was cool because an elder got to do it. We have a rule in the mission that the missionaries can't baptize unless it's their first and I think their last... Afterwards Marcelino got up and bore his testimony and on Sunday received El Don del Espiritu Santos.

 Saturday night we had a talent show. It went well. They had a lot of acts so they ended up cutting ours but it’s okay- we were just going to do a dance with the gringos. Like cotton eye joe or something from efy that we all knew.

 Oh but our district leader made it to the baptism! He’s alive! Just got back from Santiago. But he has to go back next week.

 Went to the campo this week and it was absolutely beautiful. I love my sector right now. We are a cute town surrounded by nothing but fields and trees. But you wouldn't know it unless you left town. There is a member that we went to visit with the elder’s quorum president and they took us around their farm. I loved it. Then we learned how to make sopaipillas.. I don't know how to spell that but they're kind of like scones. The president is really funny. He’s like 80something and when he invited us to go to the campo he asked us last Monday to come to the plaza because he had an invitation for us. He then took us to get ice cream and explained what a great day we could have in the campo.. lol. He reminds me of Grandpa. Mainly because he took us out for ice cream but he's also always explaining some scientifical magic 'amazing' thing.

 Thanks to Sav I now know the word for Turkey. And who would've known that it would show up so many times this week?  I had it for lunch one day and saw one in the campo. So I will try to get some for Thanksgiving. I think we're going to do something as a zone during planning or something.

 To answer some of your questions. They don't really play board games at all.  I haven't seen any. The kids do the same things. Sometimes they watch TV but they are outside playing or on the bikes a lot too. I think everyone has some type of computer I would say... actually I don't know. Maybe not. I don't think they have as big of a use for them. But it's not like a luxury I would say. They just use their iPhones. And it's funny you should ask about the Books of Mormon. We have some now. actually we just ran out... but that's because we haven't ordered them but probably this week cause we have a conference so hopefully we can get some more. And I’m still at the same internet cafe as well. I'll think about the Christmas party.

 I love you! Have a happy Thanksgiving. I am very very grateful for the opportunity to be a missionary and for having the gospel in my life. I'm thankful I was born in the covenant. I'm thankful for my family and for the relationship that we have with one another. I´m thankful that I grew up in a home built on a rock. I'm thankful that our family is and can be founded on Christ because we have lived according to the principles found in A Family Proclamation.  I´m thankful for the amount of support I have from my family because there are too many missionaries that don´t have any. I'm thankful for every hour I have to give to the Lord. I'm thankful that Christ is my best friend. I'm thankful for answers to prayers. I'm thankful that we can change. I'm thankful that I have the power to help others make this change. I'm thankful for prayers on your knees. I'm thankful for the words from God. I'm thankful for order. I'm thankful for responsibility. I'm thankful for the potential we've been given. I'm thankful for understanding. I'm thankful for love. I'm thankful to know that I'm a daughter of God, a representative of Christ. I'm thankful that we can all return to the presence of our Heavenly King.