Hello To The Natalie!: Week 43

G THANKS First off, we got transfer calls last night. I will be staying in Chandler but Hna Escobar will be leaving. I am pretty sad about it because I have REALLY loved serving with her a second time, even better than the first time. But I am also really excited because all of the Hermanas are really awesome and it will be fun to get to serve with another one. We will see on Wednesday who my new companion will be, I just hope she is like Hna Escobar and likes to cook because it has been nice not having to worry about that! Now that Thanksgiving has passed, it is indeed the holiday season! We dont have a Christmas tree yet, but I am going to make one out of paper and hang it up I think. It is kind of weird not being at home with all of the decorations and lights and tree and stuff. And the fact that it does not feel like winter makes it hard to believe that it is Christmas time. It was 80 on thanksgiving....we ate outside! It was nuts. We listen to Christmas music all the time and it is just sun and palm trees outside. It is strange. But the thing that makes it feel like Christmas here are the decorations. People in Arizona do not mess around when it comes to decorating their yards! There are crazy light and music and more blow up decorations than I have ever seen in my life. It is really great and I love driving around at night. I had a really good week this week. It started with a half p day on Monday seeing as Thursday was Thanksgiving. We got to visit a lot of people and it was fun, but weird to be out on Monday. The rest of the week was pretty normal up to Thursday, just a lot of people canceling our lessons, talking to people and living the missionary dream! Thursday was really fun! It was interesting because, in my family we are not really thanksgiving people, and I had dinner with Thanksgiving people. We actually got invited to 3 dinners! Oh boy howdy, it was nuts! The first one was at Obispo Ferres house. That one was so fun because we got to go over and help cook. I am not much of a cook but Hna Escobar loved it and I had fun too! We didnt really eat traditional thanksgiving food, we had chicken cordon blue and stuffed zuchinni, but it was SUPER yummy! And we had the most delicious rolls ever. Then directly after that we had another dinner. This time it was very traditional! We had two kinds of turkey, super yummy yams with bacon instead of marshmallows(YUM!), and for the first time in my remembering, green bean cassarole. It was quite delicious, but man, I was so full that I just didnt know what to do. After the second dinner on our way to the third, I just layed my seat back in the car and tried not to throw up! It was insane. Fortunately our third dinner was a spanish thanksgiving, so it wasnt quite as big of a deal, and I told Araceli I couldnt eat another thing so we just visited while they ate. She gave us some ham to take home, and I have really been enjoying it. Then the rest of the weekend was just delightful. I really am loving Chandler and all of the wonderful people I am meeting here. We are truly blessed as missionaries here in Arizona and I am so grateful for all the support we get. We got to speak in church on Sunday and it makes me really nervous to speak, but everyone was so nice and talked about what a good job we both did and such. It is nice. Things here are good. I am happy. I am serving the Lord. This might be just as good as it gets! What A Blessing! I sure do love you all and I am so grateful for all of your support and love! Before I go, I must share one story... On Friday night we were walking through one of the trailer parks, where we had just talked to a group of drunk men, when all of the sudden some pinches my bum! Now as I turn around I am thinking "Who on earth am I going to have to beat up?!?!" Well when I turn around what do I see....a 3 year old boy running away!!!! Oh man, me and Hna Escobar just died laughing. We had to leave the trailer park because we were laughing to hard to talk to anyone! Being a missionary is the best! Love Hna Parry Erie Trailer Park...my favorite place