Celebrating the dead?

Monday we encountered a new golden investigator named Guadalupe.  She had read the pamphlet we gave her, and was super excited to start reading the Book of Mormon  :)  Oh, and at Walmart, I bought myself a pillow!  (The first pillow I've had in the mission!)  I slept extra-well that night  :) 

It's weird to hear how the lives of my family members and friends are changing while I'm gone.  I keep thinking I'll return home in a couple of months and everything will be exactly how I left it - but man, am I wrong!  All the kids are growing up, all my friends at BYU are getting married, and I feel like I'm in a bubble here in the mission.  It's quite bizarre, and the more time I'm away, the more I realize that things and people will be very different when I return.  I must admit, it makes me kinda nervous.

This is our bread that we made ourselves last monday

District meeting in english on Tuesday was fun  :)  Our district gets along really well, and we even planned an activity together on Monday (the 3rd of November).  I'm excited!  Then we visited Teodulo and Maria and after the lesson, received our bread!  They turned out super cute!  In the evening we had exchanges with the Hermanas from an area called Terrazas.

Wednesday I spent the day with Hermana Avelino in her area.  She is from the Dominican Republic and has 13 months in the mission.  We got along well and learned a lot from each other.

Thursday we had all our lessons with members!  A young member accompanied us to visit Teodulo and his wife, Maria, and another investigator.  Then our missionary leader helped us visit some less active members.  It all went great and I LOVE working with the members, because they help so much!  Teodulo & Maria did their reading and are progressing a ton!  And I am just SO grateful and happy to be here.

Here we are on the bus

Okay, Friday I spent the majority of the day seated on the bus!  We had to go to Aguascalientes to renew Hermana Mora's visa.  So, we woke up at 5am, left the house at 6am, and boarded the 7am bus to Aguascalientes.  Three hours later, we arrived, and then drove with Hermano Jasso to a fancy building - where we sat for about an hour.  After all the finger prints and paperwork, we ate lunch.  Then, later in the afternoon, we made the 3 hour bus ride back to San Luis.  By this time, my legs were like jello from just sitting all day.  And in the evening, we had exchanges with the Hermanas from Jardin.  Hermana Rodriguez would be working with me in our area  :) 

But, HAPPY HALLOWEEN to everyone back home!  I hope everyone got dressed up and ate a lot of candy  :)  I tried to be somewhat festive and wore an orange skirt with a striped black-n-white shirt and my spider web earrings!  haha

Saturday I had a great day with Hermana Rodriguez.  She is from Lima, Peru and has the most contagious laugh!  Although a ton of people weren't home because of the celebration of day of the dead, we taught several investigators and it was easy to feel the Spirit with her.  We saw a lot of orange and yellow flowers and altars around the city.  (This was the day they remember the young children who died).

Some altars for the celebration of day of the dead

Sunday was the 2nd day of people celebrating Day of the Dead.  (This was when they remember all the adults who have passed away).  Close to our area is the cemetery so we saw lots of people walking around town, walking to & from their family grave sites.  We had a Family Home Evening at night and watched the movie Together Forever - which explains that we can all have eternal families.  Afterwards, we had bread with hot chocolate (which has a different taste from the hot chocolate back home).  I also tried camote for the first time today.  It's a typical food during this time of the year.  It has pumpkin, sweet potato, and guava with sweet milk.  It was yummy and new  :) 

All in all it was a great week.  I'm pretty tired, but I also know that this next week is going to be even more busy!  But I love it all and continue learning a ton.  (For example, the other day I was reading in the Old Testament & found out that Goliath was about 9 feet tall!  Crazy, right?!)

Anywho, I love you all!

Hermana Eliason

[although a missionary, she's still the same ol' Kiley]