The week I turned 20!

This week, I actually got better about writing about my week :)

Monday- After we finished writing we left the church to go back to our area. Hna C told me Paola (ward member who hula-ed with us) wanted us to come over to her house. I thought we should just go right then since she lives close to the church, but then she said that she didn´t want us to come until that night, so alright then.

We went and visited the family Salinas. Rolando wasn´t there, but Rosa was and it was the coolest thing. She was just talking about how she loves the church and the influence it has had on her family and how when she goes to church she just feels like she´s with family. I explained that that´s exactly how I feel! When I moved to Hawaii, it was the singles ward that really helped me feel loved, welcome, and safe. 

Well we left and I said, "so what exactly did Pao need?" Hna C. told me that because changes were coming up (we would be finding out the following day) Pao wanted to have family home evening with us. So we get there, sit down, the family comes, and we sing a opening hymn. Let the record show that in the taxi ride over, the thought occurred, "hmm maybe we´re having a surprise party" but we sang the song, did an opening prayer, had  a lovely lesson like everything was normal. The thought of my birthday or anything was completely out of my head. Then Pao said to bless the refreshments. She went to the kitchen and we stayed there chatting, then we were called in.

Well, surprise! There was a huge Tres Leches, with candles, cupcakes, a sign that said, "happy birthday to you!" and balloons. There were many pictures to be taken, a present from Hna C (a cute blue shirt)  and they sang happy birthday in english and spanish.  We went home half a cake and 6 cupcakes richer. :)

Tuesday- We had a  normal morning, then we went to lunch at Bishop´s house, then it was english classes. Because transfers were coming up the next day and Elder P. was probably going to be transferred  (he´s the ZL in the south) we decided to have a party in our English class. 

There was more Tres Leches, but before we could sing, our students said that they had a "presentation".  Rosa (not from the Salines family) was the MC and directed the different acts. One student who is 70 years old sang "Old Susanna," another recited poetry, the same 70 year old lady recited poetry first for me, and then for the elders. My poem was about how I break all the boys hearts because I won´t kiss them. Haha! We were going to watch a movie but couldn´t get it set up, so we just played Telephone instead. They loved it! 

We had a lesson with Jose after,

 who kept on prolonging saying the closing prayer because he thought it would be the last lesson with the three of us. Then we went to the family, read the book of mormon with them, and left. Hna C said it was probably too late to get a phone call about changes.... so no changes for us! We celebrated with... you guessed it. More tres leches :)

Wednesday-  There I was in bed, when I looked at my alarm clock and saw that it said "15." so I laid back down. Then my eyes snapped open and I saw that there was in fact a 7 before it! I jumped out of bed and said, "hermana, it´s SEVEN!"
 "are you sure?" 
I ran to grab the phone- yes in fact it was 7:15 and we slept in 45 minutes.

To test it, I set my alarm for 7:30 and it worked just fine. We still have no idea what happened, but accepted it as a sign that we are just working too hard! :)

Well, because we thought there were going to be changes we hadn´t bought any food on Monday, so it was off to the store to buy food. Then back to the house, then drop off our dirty clothes and then we went to visit a less active, but they were not home. By this time it was lunch and neither of us wanted to cook, so we decided to head to Tipicos. It´s just... well typical Honduran food! We´ve been meaning to go there forever, but never have had time so we finally decided we were going. We decided to share, and got this huuuuge plate wtih tortilla strips, pork, salsa, and Honduran Fry Sauce (that´s what I call it anyway. It´s the same color as fry sauce, and pretty much tastes like it, but they use it on different things). Oh my gosh it was huge and delicious and I´m pretty bummed I didn´t have my camera. :)

We swung by the Family Salinas to remind them about Mutual and make sure that they would be ready when we came back at 6:30. Rosa was gone shopping, so we just had a lesson with the girls.

 After the prayer, Hna C said, 
"Alright Katherine, now we finally have time to talk. What happened last Saturday?" 
She got quiet then said, "well, I don´t know, I think it was all the pressure of just being up in front of everyone and I was scared..." 
 Alison piped up, "Look at me! I went up in front of everyone and I did just fine!" 
Hermana C. and I were in shock.

Alison continued: "I was thinking about that," (remember, she´s 9) "I want all my family to get baptized! Can we baptize Katherine this Saturday?" 
We just laughed, "Yeah, of course Katherine can get baptized this saturday! Katherine, what do you think?"
 "umm, yeah, that would be okay."

Alison had a huge smile. "Great. Now Katia, when are you going to get baptized?"
 I think Katia was in shock that it was her little sister was asking her.
 " I don´t know... this month? Yeah, I´ll get baptized this month."
 I pointed to the calender on the wall.
 "Alright well you can get baptized this week, the 19th, or on the 26th."
 "the 26th!" Katherine said. "Mom and dad can get married then too!" 

Hermana C. and I just sat there in silence while all of this was happening. We talked about this more, then answered some gospel questions.

Well, then Rosa came home and walked in and was surprised to see us. She sat down, we chatted, then Katherine said, 
"Mom what are you doing on the 26th?"
 "uh..." "Great! Alison told me I´m getting baptized this Saturday, so I´m telling you that you´re getting baptized on the 26th." 
There was silence. 
Then, "Don´t I have to get married first?" 
"uh, yeah, you can get married on the 26th." 
"And my baptism?"
 "that´ll be right after the wedding."
 "oh, okay. Sounds good."
And that is how we´re having a wedding this weekend. :D

We went to mutual, and the girls loved it. Rosa and Rolando even showed up at the end! Katherine turned to me and said, 
"Hermana Snelson when can I get baptized?" 
I explained that we had to have an interview, get clothes, and schedule a date.
"Well, if I could I would just get baptized right now!"

The enthusiasm we feel every time we go over to their house is contageous. I love it. Now we just have to work with the rest of Rosa´s family :)

Thursday- The day I turned 20 years of age! I got up, Zumbaed (thanks again fam, those are the highlights of my mornings) studied and left to the church. Since there were changes we had Zone meeting and met all the new elders and one new sister. We split up into different districts so we can get to know our new DL´s. After the closing prayer, all the other people from the other district came in carrying a little cake, and sang happy birthday to me. Thanks guys.

We had lunch, where Hermana C and I were full and long story short, there was a bag of spaghetti in Hermana C´s backpack when we left. One thing you get really good at in the mission:  sneaking food when you´re full.

We swung by to visit other peopole, who were busy, so we ended up taking Rosa, the three girls, and Rosa´s sister to go to the stake center where we all took a bus for the temple. There were 7 of us in total, and after getting turned down by 2 taxi´s, we just split up and rode to the stake center.

Best birthday present ever: getting to visit the temple.

 We explained what the temple was, and missionaries bore their testimoies about the temple. Gosh, the spirit was just the sweetest and everyone felt it. 

We were talking to Rosa about how in a year she can go in and she became so excited! 

Friday- We had a lot of running around. First,we had to get copies of Rosa and Rolandó´s i.d's. Then we all went to the ZL´s. Next we had to find witnesses for the wedding and obtain copies of their ID´s. Weddings are a lot of work!

Saturday- English class! I was the star with my rendition of "head shoulders knees and toes". I still will randomly sing whenever I have the chance ;) We visited other members, and the family with the Relief Society Prez. Rosa hasn´t been able to visit Relief Society and we were hoping to get her excited about it.

Sunday- Alison and Katia were sick with a fever so they couldn´t go to church and neither could Rosa. But Katherine came and brought Rosa´s sister (who is 17) and they loved young women´s! Hooray! We had a meeting after church with all the presidency to plan the wedding and everyone was really stoked because we´ve been working with this family for so long.

WE are blessed, I´m 20 years old, I make chamomille tea with fresh chamomille, and I´m a mormon.

Love you guys :)