Dos Semanas mas en el CCM

¡Buenos Dias a todos!

I feel a little badly about how much I haven´t written to people outside of my family... I also haven´t written many personalized letters to people within my family... I hope that all can forgive me! And for those who have been on missions please tell those who haven´t how busy you were (how busy I AM now!) I do love my family and friends, I´m just a little strapped for time.

Anyways... I got a lovely package yesterday! Thank you Mom, Dad, Mindy, Jesse, Cai and Maya for the contributions. I´ve been sharing the mints, jerky, and M&Ms with the missionaries here (there are 18 in the MTC now and there are still 8 Elders here from the St. Petersburg mission until Saturday). I´m going to send one of the packages of jerky to my German friend Elder Bäder down in the Malaga mission (it´s pretty cheap to send mail and such within Spain). He´ll be so excited to get it.

A few tid bits to share:

I got to use my design skills last week and I helped President Hill (the MTC president here) in choosing where and how to hang some photos to decorate the walls of the main hallway here. It was fun. The maintenance man (who was doing the actual hanging of the photos) took my opinion on what do so seriously... it was kinda funny to me since that´s really all it is: my opinion. Quite fun though.

Apparently the way that the Church has figured out to have missionaries stay in Spain and not have to reapply for visas every 90 days or something is to become some sort of temporary residents... I´m not sure exactly how it works... But I´ll be a temporary Spanish person for the next 16 something months (it´s crazy that I´ve already been in the mission that long).

I have an idea for all of you who read my letters: whenever you have the missionaries over for dinner, invite some less-active or non-member friends to come and meet them. Missionaries need your help! It may not lead to conversion right away, but it´s a great way to be friendly and to maybe help the local missionary work. Give it a try. If I were serving in your wards, I would love to have this kind of help!

I loved Alyn and Erin´s blog updates (they come to my email). Charlie and Charlotte are BIG! and CUTE! I wish I could give them hugs! Madi and Lia too! And I really love the bookshelf Erin! It looks like a keeper.

Mom- thank you again for the package. I was SO excited when it came yesterday. I´m sorry it´s so expensive to send stuff though... I feel badly about that part. I got a good laugh from the story about Maya stealing snacks in nursery. I love that gordita. I have a picture of me that I will send sometime soon for you to give the Bishopric to put on my plaque on the wall... sorry I keep forgetting to get it printed. It was taken on the Temple Plaza in front of one of the fountains. I´ll try to be good this week and send it! I´ve been working on a tape too, but I´m not sure when I´ll be done with it...

Mindy and Jesse and Cai and Maya- I love the pictures and the hand outlines! I´m getting quite a collection now! It looks like I got your entire family home evening activity in the mail. Thank you so much. I´m so excited for Cai to get more track when he´s three! And I´m proud of him for remembering where in the world Marti is. Your letter was so great Mindy. I feel like I know a little bit more of what´s going on in your family, now! I used to be updated just about every day and it´s been weird for me to not have that. Thanks to you to for the funny story about the kids busting out the front door. And I love what a little man Cai thinks he is! ¨Get off the computer, son.¨ ¨I coming. I coming.¨ I can just picture him doing that. I hope that you do send pictures of the newly painted walls in the living room. I bet they look great. Hey Jesse (I finally looked up your name in the Bible: Isaí!) I´m getting better at understanding Spanish, so you should write me another letter so I can see if I can get it all this time. Sounds like you two are doing a good job on the trek preparations. I wish I could be there to help you! I enjoyed my trek experiences so much and I´m glad that your trail boss wants to make it a really spiritual experience for the youth. As far as the food here goes Mindy... I don´t think I´ve really experienced much of REAL Spanish food yet. The food here in the CCM is a little modge-podge... they try to Americanize things... and we eat fish a LOT... Yesterday they gave us this orange pasta with random sea food in it- like oysters with the shells and whole shrimp who still have legs and eye-balls. It was pretty funny. It was like eating a mine field. But I must say that that was probably the strangest thing that I´ve ever eaten here. Usually it´s fairly normal. My favorite thing that I KNOW is Spanish food is a dessert called Churros con Chocolate. I´ll send a picture of me and my companions eating it when I get out of the MTC. It is this really thick rich chocolate that you dip churros into and then you drink the chocolate when you´re done. Yum! The chocolate here is amazing. The ice-cream too. And thank you for the pictures of your family. I was showing you all to my fellow missionaries and everyone agreed that I have some super cute nieces and nephews! I always knew it though.

Until next week, you know what to do: give the kids kisses and tell ´em I love ´em. I hope Eliza is doing well and is being a good girl. I hope Spencer is learning how non-productive tantrums are. Love you familia!

Hermana Diehl