August 10, 2009

hey family :)
The e-mails and pictures were great! holy cow sarah and tori you are cute girls ;) and jake is sooooo tall! crazy! Thanks it was fun to see you again ;) sorry last week's e-mail didn't come, let me know if you still didn't get it. Sarah and mom good job on the talks ;) sarah i heard you did great, you really are a good public speaker and sarah and jake let me know how band goes! Dad glad your boss is here and mom good luck with seminary :) califoria looks cool! That will be fun to come back to :)
Things are good here, each week feels more and more normal, I finally started dreaming about missionary work instead of you family and that makes it a little easier to wake up in the morning ;) we are teaching some people that are (this is going to be cheesy, but it really is kinda true) the light my life and when we teach them I get excited like Christmas haha. The first family we started teaching 3 weeks ago and have two 12 yr old twins, and a mom and they are soaking up the gospel, and have come to church 3 weeks in a row! We taught them two days ago and there was no power in their house, so we couldn't read 3 Nephi 11 like we had planned because we were sitting in the dark and couldn't see, so we talked about the word of wisdom, and it was really cute, my comp asked if they were ready to start following it right now and at the same time they said "ready!!" and the mom started following it too. They had offered us tea 20 minutes before, and have already stopped drinking it completely :) and we are teaching a way sweet lady named Jargalsaixan (don't how know to spell that
english...), but she is a little older, and can hardly hear, and can't see very well. We have been teaching her little short lessons, but this week she told us the coolest thing!!! this is a highlight of my mission so far...she said she didn't want to come to church again because she can't hear anything, but she decided to come one more time, and she could hear! "even soft sounds!!" she said. She heard all the lessons and classes, and then she said she even can hear and "clearly understand" me when we teach (and I don't speak clearly). Older people call most younger people their child, etc, (its really endearing, I love it) and she calls me "her daughter", and she said, I can even understand when my daughter speaks! clearly! haha :) she said "I’m not kidding, I can hear, and if I tell other people they will think I am crazy, but I am not kidding, its true!" she bore a great testimony, and said she is always coming to church, and is ready to be baptized :) we started teaching her my second week, it is so fun to see the progress. Miracles do happen! and we talked to a mom and a daughter on the street this week and started teaching them, they came to a baptism and to church so that is also really exciting. As always I wish I could say more, but the people are loving and it is fun to work with them! The language is like college, the more you learn the more you realize you don't know haha, but it is coming ;)
Today for p-day we went to the country side with our zone's missionaries and some of the branch youth and it was reallllllyyy fun, we went to this old monastery and the country side is sooo pretty, I will send pics next week. and then we hiked through this place that looked just like alaska!! Forget-me-nots and everything! I was kinda flipping out my comp was laughing, I felt like I was back in alaska ;) and dad I do play when I can ;) sometimes on p-days we play soccer, and I can't play soccer well at all but I run around and try because it is a sport and its way fun, and some missionaries started calling me the crazy sister (I don't think I’ve done anything crazy haha, don't worry;) but the youth have been fun to get to know and the branch missionaries are great here :) pretty much everyone is a recent convert so there're all really excited about missionary work.
um, other things..., my comp made fried chicken and a cake this week, that was exciting, our little oven was smoking like crazy but she kept saying "its okay its okay" and she was right, the chicken tasted great. oh and at the baptism this week a lady I don't know came up to me and talked and it took me a long time to figure out what she wanted, a few weeks a go someone took a picture of her with me, and she wants the picture, she gave me her name, phone number, and a huge hug and I am supposed to call her when I get the picture. Not sure how I am going to do this one ;) haha, people are so loving here, and love pictures.
k that’s all for me, sorry it is long, love you all sooooooo much, thanks again for the pics and I hope you all are well. love you!!
sister mansfield

kat- I got your dear elder!! thanks!!! you are awesome and hilarious, thanks again! made my day :) have fun sailing and hope all is well!
cate!- hello! :) hope you are well! I hear you are quite the photographer! good for you and that is sooo fun! :) love ya and say hi to morgan
alyssa- how is romania?! when do you get back? sounds like it has been quite the experience, love ya!!
grandma and grandpa mansfield- thanks so much for the letter! I got it last week, and it was fun to hear from you :) love you and the family!


Her email never did come from last week, hopefully we will get it someday and will post it :) Thanks for your love and support. -Tori