ONE YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey

Ladies and Gents, this missionary hit her one year mark this past weekend!!!!! ONEEEE YEEEEAAAARRR! Can you believe it? Woo! Well, it wasn't too eventful of a day, but Hna Mansilla and Hna Batista made it special. They dressed up as a 1 and a 2 for 12 months, and put clown noses on. It was super fun!!! 

Pointing to ONE YEAR mark on calendar that my mama made me!

SOOO here's a little list of things that I have learned/done in the 

last 12 months of my mission:

- I have drank a lot of water that I probably shouldn't have

- eaten a lot of food I didn't want to

- eaten MORE than I wanted to

- Have had great companions, and learned to love each one.

- Have had baptisms with each companion, so far

- Gained weight (BOOO!)

- Lost weight (yahoo! now let's stay that way!!!!!!)

- Met amazing people that I consider to be family

- Taught hundreds of lessons

- Talked to strangers in the street

- Entered strangers' homes like it was NBD(no big deal)

- Missed several weddings (booo!!)

- Been chased by a few dogs

- Had my skirt RIPPED by a dog

- Learned a little bit of Spanish

- Knocked on a lot of doors and clapped at a lot of gates

- Received very creative excuses as to why someone can't listen to us

- Got a few rejections... OK, a LOT of rejections

- Felt the Spirit stronger than I ever have before

- Heard words leaving my mouth in grammatically correct sentences with words I didn't even think I knew how to say

- Borne my testimony every day

- Strengthened my testimony about this gospel

- Walked endless miles

- Grown closer to mi Salvador y a mi Padre Celestial (***my Savior and Heavenly Father)

And many more. To repeat what cousin Greg wrote to me in my letter book, this has been the "MOST year" so far in my life. And I am happy, happy, happy!!!!! Even though I'm TIRED. But it's all good.

OK, SO WE HAVE THE BEST INVESTIGATORS! We had ELEVEN PEOPLE IN CHURCH YESTERDAY! Excuse me, are we in Lamanite land?? That does NOT happen, especially in Bahia. And they all came by themselves or with members. WOW! I wish I had time to explain all of them, but I'll give y'all the DL.(down low) 

Suni and Emanuel. This is the third time that Suni has investigated the church. When she read 3Nefi 11, she got emotional because the people didn't hear the voice of the Father until the third time. She felt that this third time is HER time. She has a testimony already and said  "I know I need to join this church". Her husband comes to church with her, but doesn't have a strong testimony. We're working on that. Both of them and Jony, Suni´s son (10) have baptismal dates for the 23. THEY ARE AMAZING!!!!  Our lessons are super spiritual and they are SO smart so they ask great questions. Then we have Laura. She has like 6 asistencias (church attendances) but wants to go slow. She said in our last lesson "How do I have to prepare to get baptized??" HELLO! WE CAN HELP YOU! She wants to get baptized at the end of March, but we are confident that she can make it to the 23 too. Then we have Mariana. She has cancer, and is very sick and in so much pain, but is determined to get baptized. She needs to quit smoking and make it to the 23 as well. PRAY FOR THESE PEOPLE PLEASE!

-So there was a HUGE storm on Friday. LIKE HUGE!!!!! We were close to the house so we hid inside while it passed. But the thunder sounded like CANNONS. AND then it hailed huge ice-rocks! One hit me in the head and it HURT! (see pic). But wow, it was CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shoutouts: Happy Birthday this week to Eric Dunn!! 

Aunt Lori, thank you for the email! Glad to hear an update from the G-Lo, especially about the Super Bowl half-time show. 

Thank you to Sister Wirig for the email, too! 

LOVE YOU ALL!

H. S.

Milk in a bag....yeah.......we do.

Our new missionary phone! It replaced the old brick that we had before!! yay!!

Just a little hole in my shoe!