WEEK FOUR

BEST DAY EVER !! (1/6/11)

...more or less anyway haha. soooo.... It’s been a month! Well, almost. I count it anyway, can you believe how fast time has flown by? It’s literally insane.

Her. Lundskog and I were upstairs in our room studying Spanish on our Pday haha and someone came and told us they had passed out mail. We totally forget because we had been working so hard and it’s the first time we've missed mail pass out. We kinda moped down there thinking we weren't getting anything. Secret is, we know where they keep the mail here so we can check daily if we've gotten anyway. We just can’t take it till Pday, but we checked last night and there was nothing. We come down today and BOTH of us got 2 packages! Happy Christmas to us hahaha

There is so much I wanted to tell you all, but there simply is no time. We lost all our good teachers this week and with all the new missionaries coming in it has been a crazy mad house around here. We fell so behind in our Spanish and we had a sub teacher one day. Her. Lundskog and I were teaching her when she said we are nowhere near where we should be. My district got so discouraged. It’s been rough but I had to be strong because Her. Lungskog was the one crying. We help each other a lot, it’s good. I love her. Because of those things Amulek district (who we are really close to), went out of their way to make us feel good and uplift us. They drew pictures in our classroom, wrote quotes everywhere, and gave us scriptures to not let us stay discouraged. Our spirits have been lifted once again. On top of that, we've been working so much harder and our slower teachers both got replaced with the best in the house. We've been going like crazy and you can’t stop us now. Things are well here, we're happy, but most importantly we feel the hand of the lord. I am loving it here. We have new Latina roommates and they are the best ever, it still blows my mind we can be such good friends with people who we can’t understand and they can’t understand back. We do a lot of acting, but every night we go to bed laughing so hard we hurt. They have been teaching us funny things in Spanish. It’s good.

Anywho, we also inherited another sister in our district. We got split up with Her. Kirkham last week and we really missed her, but we got her back pretty much. She has a new companion but we all just act as a foursome now. Her name is Her. Preston. She’s from Utah also and she is so great. We all love being together. She teaches yoga! haha I love it! So every day since last week we have done yoga during physical activity time. Best thing ever. My body hurts all the time. And just an FYI eat more than ever before haha. It is truly a blessing and I haven’t come across a meal I don’t like since that first week I was here. And yes… everything pretty much still has red sauce. I am definitely being helped here. It’s great.

I noticed that here everything reminds me of California. Just the feel of here is like Cali. I think about that all the time and I think of grandma and grandpa Berg and it makes me feel so good. Even the birds outside remind me of there. Also, I have noticed I am more like you, mom, than I ever thought. I hear myself saying things that sound exactly like you would say them. I love it haha. Also, I see my reflection when my hair is wavy and I see you. I am grateful for that. I also noticed when I cry I sound like you. I bore my testimony on Sunday in sacrament and the whole time I was just hearing you, mom. It’s amazing, and I’m so grateful for you. I was the finale of meeting and it’s weird.... I wasn’t nervous and everything I wanted to say came out just how it should. I think maybe my fear of speaking in front of people is lessening. It’s still there! but its lessening. hahaha I don’t even think that’s a word.

Things are well here. I am being guided and I know it. I have Jesus Christ and the spirit with me and I can feel it. It’s the best thing ever. I’m ready right now to go to Uruguay. Crazy thing is we're the middle group here now instead of the newbies and the older group keeps talking about how they have like 10 days till they leave. That means 10 days till we're the oldest group and then it’s a frantic countdown till we leave and start teaching for real. I’m excited. This work is so amazing and I see the hand of our Lord and Savior every day. Be grateful for this gospel. Never take it for granted. I love you all. Smile! Thank you again for the packages. They have made me so happy. I love you, I love you, I love you!!!!

Love, ash
p.s. New years was so cool. I wrote a letter about it, but there were massive fireworks. Illegal fireworks in the U.S. are not illegal here haha It’s great. We set our alarm for midnight on New Year’s Eve and watched the fireworks allllll night… across the entire sky. It was so cool. That’s all loves!