"Oh I Could Tell You Were Upset......"

¡Hola Familia y Amigos!

Before I get into the moment that justttttt about broke me (but also left me laughing) I want to wish everyone a MERRY CHRISTMAS! Or as they say here, although I have yet to actually hear it from anyone, Feliz Navidad. It's actually kinda sad here. You wouldn't tell the people in Santiago del Estero celebrate Christmas if you walked around the streets. No decorations, no lights, no snow......yup. But I think that actually might be more of a blessing for me than I realize. Hermana V. is feeling it pretty bad. Her family is celebrating Christmas about 3 hours away from us....in our mission. Also she has yet to receive her Christmas package. She's holding it together pretty well but I think some hugs are down the road. It's a good thing there's no language barrier when it comes to hugs. Why can't it just be January already haha

My story:

Because I'm officially in my second transfer of training (whoop whoop) I'm in charge of everything. Daily planning, initiating contacts, talking more (oof. big oof), and directing. I decided I was going to have a positive attitude about the challenge because the fact of the matter is that I need to learn all of those things and the sooner I crack down and take the bull by the horns the sooner I'll be more confident in my abilities. So, Tuesday, day after p-day, it was my first day of learning how to do all of the previously mentioned things. I started out pretty strong. Made a lot of contacts, played soccer in the streets with some kiddos, and did a pretty good job of getting us everywhere we needed to be on time. During lunch with some members, a couple things happened that really bothered me. I was pretty ticked leaving lunch and the last thing I wanted to do was translate how I was feeling into Castellano so I decided to take a few minutes and walk in silence. There really is nothing worse than not being able to communicate with someone (or anyone in the country you're located in for that matter). Didn't last very long because 2 minutes after we left lunch, I found myself in a pretty big argument with Hermana V. Things went from 0 to 100 real quick and let me just say it was the first time I intentionally used the phrase "¡escúchame!" on purpose. Not my proudest moment. Once we got back to the apartment we said our apologies and things we back to normal. Later that night we were talking about the blowup and I said I was just feeling upset in the moment. HAHAHA it kills me to type this out. Hermana V. looked at me and said, "Oh I could tell you were upset." I asked her how and she imitated what my face looked like (scary) and said, and I translate accurately, "But mostly because your Spanish was absolutely fluent. I didn't know who I was talking to for those 10 minutes." I just about died. I guess I need to get really worked up before all our citas so my Spanish can be perfect.

Last week I told Hermana V. I was sick of people knowing I'm from the USA. I told her one of my goals was for people to not immediately guess I'm from the USA when I ask them where they think I'm from. And this week was a week of MILAGROS because TWO (one*) people guessed wrong! One person guessed Germany and another person believed me when I told them I was from Brazil. I guess that only counts as one but I'm going to manipulate the system and count it as two.

Currently in a competition with Hermana V. to see who can scare the other companion more. I don't think I really communicated the rules very well because she thinks it counts as a point for her when she grabs my foot as we're walking up the stairs to our apartment because I gasp as I fall towards the stairs on one foot. Soooo the other day I pulled a tree branch down into her face and counted it as a point for me because she sort of gasped. Super mature, huh?

We had a baptism this week! Yael was baptized and it was awesome! I gave a talk on Baptism, even though it was pretty much plagiarized from Preach My Gospel, and was a witness for the baptism! I really hope the bishop said all the words right for the baptism because I didn't understand a thing......She has yet to be confirmed because she broke her elbow (gracias Satan) but it's going to happen! Yael was SO prepared for the gospel and I'm really excited for her!

That's pretty much all I have time to write. Love you all. Have the best week! Hit the slopes and listen to lots of good Christmas music!

Love love loveeeee,

Hermana McKinlay