Merry Christmas!

Hey Everyone!!

So Christmas is on Friday! It is so crazy to think about. I'm sure you are doing all the normal Christmas Eve stuff. You will definitely need to send me pictures.

Wow!! Ok Holy Cow! This has been the longest 6 days of my life! I landed in Houston and we went to the Mission Pres. house. There we had interviews, workshops, and dinner. We then had a tesitmony meeting. After that we slept at the Dunnings apt. (they are a senior couple who lives near Sugar Land). The Dunnings are awesome. I actually live in that complex now and the Dunnings give me mail and stuff cause they live a building away. So the next day...we woke up and went to a church house where we we trained some more, rules, etc. Then we got our trainers. My trainer is Hermana Hammar. She is from Rigby Idaho. It is kinda crazy because she has only been in texas 4 months...yup and she is training me. Luckily her Spanish is pretty good. The sisters right before us opened this area so we are still trying to get to know everything. I am in Missouri City. There are a lot of Spanish people here! Basically everywhere.

My apartment has just me and my comp. It is weird not being around so many missionaries like at the MTC. I am definitely still adjusting.

So let me tell you a little about what I have been doing these last few days. We have a baptism on Saturday. His name is Armando.. He speaks only Spanish(some people here can speak both). He is from Mexico. He is pretty aweome! He has accepted everything and is very active in the church already. We also have 2 other people with baptism dates in Jan. so far.

We have English classes every Tues. and Thurs. We dont teach the class but the senior missionaries that do dont speak Spanish, so we mostly translate...Haha. Well, I dont yet.

OH mom! So you know those taco car/van things that are like parked on teh side of the roads?? Yup I ate there. CRAZY! It wasnt bad. We were out trying to find people in that area nad the lady that runs the taco place is nice and we want to teach her.

Mostly we have been teaching our investigators and finding new people. One of my favorite things here so far is when we teach the less active or recent converts. They are all super nice. We have been able to get a less active family ot come to church and a ward christmas activity. It was awesome!

Since being here my throat has not adjusted to the humidity in the air. I have like this weird cough. Its not really sore just I ocasionally lose my voice and cant really sing....which brings me to my next point! The AP's asked me nad my companion to sing for a Christmas mission conference. There is going to be half the mission there!! Oh nad did I mention my companion doesnt sing?! Haha...cool. I will have to tell you how that goes.

We had a ward christmas party on Sat night. It was cool cause we were able to get some of our investigators there and I got to meet some people in the ward. By meet I mean smile and say "hola!" haha...They are all really nice. Definitely a culture shock. Not your regular Ward Christmas party thats for sure.

So Sunday we went to church. Yes it is a whole spanish stake. Our ward is cool and very supportive of missionaries. I have already gotten 2 huge presents form them. I really didnt understand anything going on at church. They speak way too fast!! Funny story!!!!!!!! So no latinos play piano. So we are about to start Relief Society weh na man comes up to my comp. I didnt know what he was saying(it was in spanish). All I heard was the word piano. and next thing I know I am walking down the hall. Then into the chapel. They wanted me to play the piano for them??!!!!! Santa baca(holy cow)!! So I play the sacrament hymn...no idea still what song it was. And then the guy tells me it is pg 126(the special musical number....what special musical number??????) I was playing the piano for the Relief Society musical number. So for hte next 10 minutes I am like memorizing the song. Scared to death. So we get up to do it. And the chorister lady tells me it is page 124. WHAT??!! SO I then proceeded to play an intro and play the piano for their musical number. HAHAHAAHAHA!! It was pretty bad. I dont think they relaly notcied though. Kill me!! :)

Another funny story...Mom, you will die. So Sunday night we went over to a recent converts house. As we were teaching her a mouse ran from under her couch to mine right passed my feet. I was speechless. My companion let out a small gasp. We didnt want to offend her so we didnt say anything more. But I could just imagine a mouse chillin' by my feet as we were trying to teach. I was SO scared. LOL

So those were a few of my adventures from this past week. I get to tlak to you on Christmas!! I am excited. We are going over to a members house and I think we are going to call you there. I am actually not sure how its going to work. I think we are calling at around 11 my time so 9am your time.

I dont think I need anything right now. I guess I will let you know next week after I open christmas presents. I love all of you and am thinking about you!

-Hermana Richards