Baptism, Birthdays, and Kissing Squirrels!

Dear Family and Friends,

For starters, Gloria got baptized!!! Wahoo! It was so amazing to be with her on her big day and to be able to help her into the font. She was super excited the whole day. She bore her testimony in all three meetings! She even made the effort to climb to the stand even though she's blind. Everything went so well! 

Sister Duong and I with Gloria

She was baptized by our ward mission leader Kevin. The branch was very sweet to make her feel welcome and loved. As part of her baptism, Hermana Duong and I and the Seminole sisters sang, "Cuando me bautice" (When I am Baptized). It was so pretty. She started crying during our song and then afterward said that we were angels. 

Her husband Diego, who she's been in a fight with for the longest time even got emotional. He said he was so proud of her and called her his wife for the first time in a long time. I am so proud of her decision. I know she is too. Even though she called us her angels, I think she is the one who is an angel. 

Afterward we all had snickerdoodle and peanut butter cookies which I made and rice krispies that Sister Wakefield made. Gloria loved them, and as they were leaving, we watched with smiles on our faces as Diego sneaked an extra cookie for her in her bag. Overall it was a wonderful day. (For those of you who weren't aware hers was my first baptism.)

As for the rest of the week, where should I begin?

Monday we celebrated Hermana Duong's birthday by going to her favorite Indian food restaurant and then to a surprise b-day party at the Seminole sisters apartment. They made her broiled birthday cake, haha, with Barney colored frosting and brownies. We all put on mustaches and sang and just laughed about the silly things we do as missionaries. We had a blast!

That night we taught Elouisa and Juan about the Book of Mormon. They are super into it! We watched the Restoration with them and they loved it so much they asked if they could keep it! We gladly gave it to them to watch with their kids over and over again.

Tuesday on Hermana Duong's actual birthday we had a day booked of lessons which you can bet all included a birthday cake for Hermana Duong afterwards. Bleh! I never want to eat cake again! Haha. 

We started at Gloria's house and taught about prophets. Afterward she gave us some cobblery stuff and mango juice. Ema we taught about tithing and fasting and then afterwards she gave us some chocolate strawberry cake with white frosting, very classy, it was so very "like" her. Hermana Pizarro, our fellowshipper gave Hermana a pink doll which was really funny because Hermana Duong HATES pink, so she decided to name it after me because apparently pink is my color. 

Elizabeth made us a Puerto Rican dish of chicken and yellow rice. Delish! She also made Hermana Duong a cake which was supposed to have a Butterfly on it but the bag broke as she was decorating it, so she just smeared all the colors together, ha! It was a masterpiece! She threw a full on party for her. It was super sweet.

 Eluid and Maggie, Elizabeth's siblings were there and they gave us presents! I am now the proud owner of a very ugly pink, blue, brown and white tie-dye skirt which matches Hermana Duong's very ugly pink brown tie-dye skirt. Pictures will be included later. They also gave us both perfume. Afterwards we read from the scriptures, they love reading.

Wednesday after district meeting we went on exchanges with the St. Petersburg Metro sisters, sisters Kunz and Losada. Me and sister Kunz stayed up in Largo and spent the day finding mostly. We went to Largo park and met a few people who were interested.

We started talking to this guy who was feeding squirrels and he said that he would hear us out, so we sat down and started teaching him. He gave us each a bunch of peanuts to feed the squirrels and taught us how. "You got to look them in the eye" he said, "and then when you've got them, when their biting down on the nut, you lift them up and kiss 'em on the head!"

I look at sister Kunz, she looks at me, what do we do? We decide to try it! So there we were sitting in the park, feeding squirrels, and Sister Kunz does it! She kissed a squirrel on the head! Crazy right? Well, I on the other hand, was having a hard time getting them to stay on long enough to kiss them on the head, so there I was just flipping squirrels everywhere! It was hillarious! I wish I would have gotten a picture. Crazy day right? I had so much fun.

Thursday we switched back in time to teach Gloria again. We spent the whole time preparing her for her baptism, she was so ready. After that we taught back to back lessons all day. Chavela gave us more cake that night, bleh! We ended up giving it away to Elouisa and Juan, they were happy to receive it.

 

Friday we did another exchange with the Seminole A sisters. I went finding with Sister Anderson. We went to the mall and met a bunch of cool people. Saturday we gave sister Anderson to the Seminole C sisters and we kept Hermana Wakefield to spend one more day with us in "Spanish land." I love the opportunity to learn from so many amazing daughters of God. 

That night we watched the Woman's Conference and I adored it! I never thought I would ever watch conference in Spanish and understand it like I did. The spirit was so overwhelming. I hope nobody saw because I was crying the whole entire time! I love the sense of unity conference brings! I can't wait for the weekend, it's going to be the best! Missionary Christmas!

Hope you all have a fantastic week!

Con Amor,

Hermana Mathis