Dear Family and Friends,

Thank you all for your sincere and loving letters. I have loved Reading them and laughing and smiling. There are a lot of things I have to adjust to here and it has been hard. One thing I have found more and more is that my love for the scriptures has increased. When I am tired, hungry, impatient I can find alot of comfort in the book of mormon. One thing that is difficult is that my companion loves to give super super long prayers, like 20-30 min long prayers. on our knees. I am not used to that, and it hurts my knees. She is nice but she doesnt like to change things that she does. There are good times so I am working with her to love the good times.

My list for Salto (My área, Cerro 1)

1. There are so many motorcycles/dirtbikes here. Everyone drives them. The old grandmas and the 7 year olds. Apparently it is cheaper than a car. I went from only seeing motorcyles with men and serioius bikers to everyone. It is a Little different.

2. Alot of things are broken in our apartment (the bathroom mirror, the toilet flushing knob, window, most of the lightbulbs. Also the my companion and her past companion did not clean much or very thourougly so it is kind of gross. Like moldy shower curtain Gross

3. My comapnion is a perfectionist and that is a Little trying sometimes. She wants to help me so much though, it is a Little frustrating.

4. Finally had a meal I didnt like. Like a meat pie with olives and onions and stuff. But I ate it all. Then Hermana Silvia asked me if I liked peaches and I said "Los siento, no) She gave me an orange, but Hermana Gordillo said she may have been ofended. I dont know, she asked me if I liked it.

5. Realizing that you cant translate straight into spanish from english, some things just are not said the way they are in spanish. Oh it is also really great that they want me to learn spanish but language study each day is always the first thing to go.

6. I have learned not to judge a house by the outside. Most of the houses here look like nothing but they are actually prettier on the inside.

7. There are alot of innactive members here in Salto. Like all of them. We go looking for new investigators and find out that they are actually members already but have fallen away. I studied at BYU Family Science and I just see how and why these families have so many problems. We want to help them. All the families want peace and happiness but they are not willing to do anything to have that peace and happiness. They are not willing to pray with their families and teach them the góspel or come to church.

8. One inactive man we went to visit was this big black man that was really scary. He and his mom. Apparently he was baptized but I am not sure how converted he was to the góspel. He smoked 3 cigarettes while we were there. And he kept quoting scriptures about Satan. I dont really know. It was weird. That was a weird day.

9. It was cold for a couple days when I got here but it has warmed up considerably. And the locals say this is nothing and it goes until March or may. I dont know if I will survive. AHHH. I am sweating buckets.

10. I want to wish my lovely sister Angela a very Happy Birthday. I know this is after her birthday but I am thinking about her. I love you.

11. My companion is fairly new, she has been on her misión for 3 months. Sometimes, I dont agree with what she wants to do or how she does things. And even though we both speak english, she is by no means a native english speaker and sometimes when I am explaining something she doesnt understand. I can tell by what she says after I finish. I dont think I have ever had a friend that was from a different culture/language and it is difficult. Communication.

I think that is the end of my list. We are working with a couple investigators that are progressing so that is exciting. Carlos needs to get divorced so he can get married to the woman that he is with before he can be baptized. Aparently that takes a long time here. But he wants to and is really ready. Two sisters we are teaching are not very diligent in their learning about the góspel. We found a family that we are going to teach as well. I dont know how receptive they will be. The father is an inactive member but the rest of the family has never Heard about it. They are going through some financial difficluties.

On sunday, my second. I guess they didnt have enough speakers so they asked the missionaires to speak. At first they said just two, so my comapnin and one of the elders. But then they said they wanted us all to speak for 5 min each. I was like "Are you kidding me" I have talks that I have written but they were at home because I had no notice in advance. So I am trying to find a scripture and I chose Alma 32 about the seed which is the góspel. Later in the chapter it talks about the result of the seed. It mentions that we  need to have faith, patience and diligence to nourish the seed. I know that a lot of people have faith and maybe patience. But how many have diligence. Nosotros necesitamos tener diligencia. Yo se esta dificile pero El Senor pedir nos hacer dificile cosas. Como mi mensaje en extrajero país en mi segundo domingo. Pero este es posible. Yo testificar. En el nombre de Jesucristo. Amen

But then my comapnion took up all the time. so no I didnt give it but I was confident and happy with what I prepared. Which was a big step for me.

I will finish with my testimony that I know the Lord lives and He has promised to help me do all the things I need to here.

Love you all,

Krista

My picture

1. my district at the ccm. I love them. They were my brothers!

2. My companion in the ccm. Hermana Nielson. Looking back I love her more and more.

3. My comapnion now, Hermana Gordillo. She is from Guatemala and loves oatmeal.

More pictures next week!