I'm a real missionary!

I'm here i'm here! And it has been such a crazy week. I am a real missionary! what the? I love it. My companion's name is Sister Kellett. She is from Michigan and we have so much in common it is kind of ridiculous. Like: we both have great friends named Marni, we were both vegetarians before starting our missions, we both have blonde hair, we have very similar senses of humor, we like a lot of the same music, we try to get every single puppy or kitty we see into our arms. ha. i love her. i live in an apartment with two other sisters, sister carlos and sister browning and they great as well. we all get along well and laugh a ton and work hard.

well, my first week of non-veggie ism i was thrown into the fire. i ate... cow... tongue. that is right. cow tongue. cow tongue tacos. with black beans. it actually wasn't too bad. it could be because i drowned out every bite with as much beans as was possible.. but it really wasn't too bad. people here LOVE to feed us. even if they don't want to listen to our lesson, they want to feed us. we had two consecutive dinners my second day here. the food really is delicous. i had a family make fun of me because apparently i don't know how to eat chilis right and took a bite of one that was super spicy and my face turned red and i started coughing and we were all laughing. i will get the hang of this.

we went to downtown laredo for p-day and ate lunch at a restaurant with an investigator/friend of ours. downtown laredo is about 5 minutes from our place.. it's right at the border. the food was sooo good. my companion and i were the only white people in sight. the people here are so great. so loving and open. and they love my blonde hair. they always make comments about how beautiful my companions and my hair is. i can get used this.

we had a really neat thing happen the other day when we were out knocking doors. we had planned earlier to do these two streets in a neighborhood that hadn't been contacted in a while, but when we got to the neighborhood we ended up deciding to do the street right next to it. we went all the way down the street with not much success, but the last house on the street was amazing. i saw from a distance that there were a bunch of people out on the front lawn and as we got closer we realized it was two older women and then 4 handicapped people. people with special needs? i am not sure what is most politically correct to say. anyway, we went and started talking to the two ladies. one of them was loading some of the kids in the car. we introduced ourselves, said we were missionaries and we teach about christ and asked if there was anything we could do to help them. usually when we ask people if there is something we can do to help them they so no, but this lady was so happy we wanted to help her! so when the other woman got in the car and drove away, the woman who lived at the house invited us in.she told us that she actually was a member of our church but hasn't been active for 14 years. her story is amazing. i guess about 17 ish years ago her husband had left her. she had a three month old baby. and she thought it was just the end of her life. she told us she had planned to commit suicide one day. she was going to kill her and her baby because she didn't want her baby left parentless. so she was hysterical one day, like crying and planning to do this when the missionaries knock at her door. they asked if they could help her and she said no but it softened her heart and she decided not to kill herself. and they next day they came back to check up on her she let them teach her and she was baptized about a month later. she said she knows the book of mormon is true and she had the truth in her life and was so happy and her life was receiving so many blessings and she had so much peace. then her husband came back to her after a year or so. and their marriage was terrible and her going to church was tearing them apart and he was slightly abusive and it was just not a good situation. so she ended up falling away from the church to make her husband happy. then like ten years later he left her again. so anyway.. she like moved into this nice home and adopted these three handicapped children/adults and takes care of them. she just has a heart of gold. it's amazing the things she was telling us. so we shared a message with her about how we're never alone and shared some scriptures and just chatted with her. we asked her to say a prayer at the end of our visit and she started to cry and it was the sweetest prayer i've ever heard. so humble and heartfelt. after she said she knew it wasn't coincidence that we stopped by her house and that she's been missing spiritual growth in her life and had been praying for it every night. that she knew the book of mormon is still true and that she needs to be at church and have it back in her life and she just didn't know where to start. she's been so busy taking care of her kids by herself and has no help. all of her family is in mexico and she doesn't have very many friends in the neighborhood. bah. i just love her so much. her name is silvia.anyway. we are going back to her today and helping her clean her house and take care of her kids and read with her more. it's just amazing. God really does put us in people's paths when they need it.wow. this super long. i must be going. i hope this e-mail finds everyone well. Laredo is treating me good so far. the weather is perfect, the people are great, the food is delish.

xoxo

hermana morrill