The Tale of the Never Ending Thanksgiving

Hello my family how are you all doing? How was you thanksgiving? Sorry I was no there to make the pies but I will be next year!! So how are ya'all doing ? How is getting ready for Christmas? I hope that you all have fun decorating, listening to music, and watching movies!! Watch all of the movies you can because I can watch any this year.... Go figure. Well as for my I am down here in Santa Fa New Mexico, and guess what?! There are real NEWSIES down here!!! They are old men with balloons on the side of the street! I have yet to see them sing and dance so I will keep y'all posted. Well I guess that it is time for the stories of the week!!! 

Story 1 the Tale of My New Area

Santa Fa is a very interesting place. Its like stepping back in to the old west with the styles of there houses and the people that live here. Also it snowed here the Sunday before I got here, and it is all so beautiful. Except on Sunday when they had there big snow storm, the had to cancel church. Due to the fact that it snowed 1 foot. It is always so funny to see how all of these people react to the snow because they have no idea what to do with it :) But this is one place that I most defiantly becoming back to when I am done with my mission. The culture here is amazing and there are so many things to see and do that Missionaries cant do!! Manly going shopping in all the cool little stores! But all the houses look like Indian adobes, and at night they have things called luminarias all over the tops of the buildings. They are pretty much paper bags with candles in them but they look so beautiful!! 

Story 2 the Tale of My New Companara 

My new companion is Sister Johnson! Not the same sister Johnson that i had for the last 6 weeks, but a new one!! She is from Wyoming, is 21 and has been out for about 4 1/2 months. She is very nice and we are both very excited to be Sister Training Leaders together! We are over 3 companionship's and they are all spread out over the top of our mission. From White Rock, Toas, and Las Vegas!! No not the real Las Vegas there is one here in New Mexico that is very ghetto. We are very excited to go and meet all of our sisters this coming Friday when we have a zone meeting. 

Story 3 The Tale of the Awesome/ Crazy People We are Teaching

We are teaching tons of people who are very prepared! One is Emilie Wilding, her husband is a member and she has been investigating the church for a few months. She and her husband are both deaf, but there 3 kids are not. So on Tuesday nights we will go to ASL classes to see if we can learn to communicate better with her. She was raised Baptist and never really wanted anything to do with the church for the longest time. Because the Baptists really don't like us, and they think that we are crazy. But in February there 6 month old son past away, and after a few months she asked one of her friends how she could have a forever family. So we are teaching her and she is on date to be baptized on the 14th :). We are also teaching a young 13 year old girl named Jordan Holmes, sadly no relation to Sherlock. But she is a very nice girl and told her mom (who is a member) that she wanted to be baptized. She is very shy however and we are having a hard time helping her progress. So if you have any ideas on how to help us please let us know. Those two are the ones who we are working with the most, but we are teaching several other families that are just not progressing as much. We are going to have several talks with people about what our purpose is and why we are here. So I will let you know how those go. 

Story 4 

The Tale of the Never Ending Thanksgiving   
So in one of my last emails/ or letters from mom she was very worried about my thanksgiving day plans. And she had every right to be. For the first part of the day we did our normal studies and things. Then we tried to go out and find people to talk to, We were early for our lunch appointment so we stood out side and asked people what they were thankful for. The top answers were 1. Family 2. Health and 3. Crayons, a very cute little girl said that and so she won 3rd place. One man said that he did not celebrate thanksgiving because it was a very racist holiday and so he would not celebrate it. And another man said that he was thankful for love, and then came back out a few minutes later and added that he was also thankful that someday there would be no religion. Just Love.... Yeah he was crazy. Well for lunch we had a member in our ward take all the missionaries out to a buffet for lunch. And it was pretty good and the elders tried to see how much they could eat, yeah not a very good idea.

After lunch we went to the Holmes home to see how they were doing. Well they invited us in and insisted that we have lunch. So they dished us up a large plate with turkey, potatoes, and pie. 

We stayed there for a little while and then headed out to see more people. We stopped in to a less actives house and again they insisted that we have linner. so they dished us up a plate with everything on it. 

 

We did not stay there very long because they were watching football. After that we dragged our selves out the door to another appointment. And there they also insisted that we have some food.... So they dished us up another plate. The Elders who we split the ward with were there and the were on there 2nd dinner.... We felt so bad for the.... We stayed there and talked with a recent convert for a while before we headed home.

 When we finally got home we were ready to die and go to sleep, but our neighbor had other plans. they invited us in and gave us a big plate of food and this apple thingy for dessert. After we finished EVERYTHING on our plates we went home. 

    

 At the end of the day we had had 5 Thanksgiving Dinners.... And then for dinner the next day left overs. It was the longest day of my life!!! I was so tired and so full but the members would not let us say no!!! Oh man we ate so much food.

So there you have it, that was my week. And mom you did have every right to be worried about my thanksgiving, but for different reasons. Well I hope that y'all have a great week and enjoy all the Christmas spirit!!! I love you all so much and I am so excited to talk with y'all in 22 days!!! Have a great week and I hope to hear from you soon!! 

Love Sister Chatwin

"Aunt Betty will you say grace? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america.......and justice for all. PLAY BALL!!!!"