November 1, 2010

Hiya mom!

glad to hear everthing is dandy back home, with the homeless people burning down the malls and whatnot.Do i look good? i sure hope so! Do you need my address? no! you actually always send straight to the mission home, its the same address that you had, so dont worry bout that! otherwise who knows, i could be here 7 months or leave in three weeks, but i hope i stick around. theres a sister here in the ward that served her mission in santa rosa, and her last area was woodland, but i guess sacramento and our side were out of her area. o yeah, and the letters i got a few weeks ago...or last week...i dont know, were from when i was still in the mtc, so they resent them here. i thought that was right nice of them.How was Halloween? Im not sure what happened here but there was a lot of drum banging and dancing. Today is the first día de los muertos! day of the dead! I think theres two. and the only thing ive heard about in connection to this holiday is that there is this bread that everybody eats and is only made on this occasion. its called pan de muerto...i tried some too, and was alright with it, shoot! i dont have any complaints.hey mum? can you do me a favor, two? when you send the next package, (whenever you were going to!) could you toss in my harmonica and some finger nail clippers too? i dont know what happened, but i havent been able to find the ones i bought in the mtc since i moved, and and the situation is getting desperate! i could probably buy some here, but....i...dont know mom! i reckon i just dont trust mexico. they´ll arrive just fine! as far as what im doing down here,its not much! our missions president has asked us (as well as the prophets for like 15 years) to work with the members. there is a better way than knocking doors! said president Hinkley. but our mission is like stuck in the past, because you can teach a lot of lessons just by knocking doors, and everyone is accustomed to it. Well, we havent had much success. that is you can teach lessons, but the people dont go anywhere, they dont want to do anything, and so they dont progress.so we´ve been trying to adopt the ¨new¨ form.we put on this activity with games and a spiritual thought, and we even had the baker make us a bunch of sweet bread and another member make this chocolate drink that was super good, and we told everyone to come and bring friends and family and inactive neighbors (there are 700 members i think in our area and we see like 60 in the church every week)and hardly anybody came! it was fun, but also a bummer!but its alright, we´re learning. whats important, is that we all understand that we play a role in this work. an apostle told us that if we worked according to the will of the Lord, if we did his will as his church, the full time missionaries would spend all their time teaching, and not searching. right now we spend almost the whole time searching.So the spiritual thought is a challenge!Something that President Monson said is to think of the people who have recently suffered a loss, who are having difficulties in the home, people who in this moment in their life, need and have been prepared for the gospel. and then have the courage and the love for them, to share what has helped you so much in your life. can you do it? there are people in the life of every single person in this Church. God has put them there, has put us here to help one another! and i know, i dont have to tell you mom, you already know. so, ill leave you alone!
I love you! thanks for everything mom! have a nice week, please!
Elder Albano!