Pues...

Hola Familia,

Story/Miracle for the week:

we have been teaching this woman named Bulgan from Mongolia. She doesn´t really understand Castellano [Spanish], but she has the Book of Mormon and the Bible in her language, so we use them a lot and let the spirit teach her. We have been focusing on teaching her because she is ready to get baptized very soon (this Saturday, the 30th actually). The other day we brought her and her husband and their two kids to the capilla (chapel) to have a birthday party for her son and for Hna. Oliphant. We just ate some brownies and had a few little presents and such (I forgot my camera... fotos next week, vale? [photos next week, ok?]) and then they all stayed to attend the baptism of a 12 year old boy from the other ward (who I taught a few times before the reassignment to Valencia II). It was just fun to see this family so happy and smiling (even though they really don´t understand a lot). Bulgan feels the spirit so easily and her kids are really sweet. Her husband is really nice too... he just really doesn´t speak a language I speak. But we had a miracle in church yesterday. Bulgan came and sat through RS and Sunday School and listened very nicely and read along with the scriptures, then we went to the Sacrament meeting (barrio II has Church the other way around...) and I was asking the ward mission leader and a less active man we teach to sit with her and introduce themselves and the less active man (se llama Nelson [he's called Nelson]) reminded me that he can speak Russian... which Bulgan understands way better than Spanish. So he translated for her through the meeting. I loved it.

Hey, I love you all. I loved Alyn´s blog for her half-birthday (I played a significant role, no? The beloved little sister... who is bigger than Erin... but pretty soon she MIGHT be fatter than me! Maybe she´ll get to weigh more than I do for the first time since I was 12. At the end of her first pregnancy she still weighed less than me. I forgot how blonde I used to be.) I gotta go. Lots of missionary work to do.

Hermana Diehl

Story Time

Querida Familia Mia,

For the first time in my mission my companion and I are taking (on purpose) a day just to write letters and hang around our piso [apartment]… it was not my idea, but we are a companionship and we do things together, right? I´m sure this never happens in marriage, does it? Anyways... I´ll be responding to some long ignored letters today.

This weeks´ stories:

It´s been warmer this week and we went out to visit that couple that live in the campo [country] (where we get muddy shoes) and the woman was not there, so we had the cita [appointment] outside sitting in lawn chairs in the sun on his patio. It was delightful. During the cita [appointment] the neighbor gave him some oranges (the famous Valencia oranges!) over the fence... it was like home. I love visiting their house.

I love Africans. We are teaching this man named Nathanial who is from Nigeria and his piso mate [roommate] used to be an investigator (she is called Faith). While we were there we taught a man who is now a new investigator named Matthew. Then Nathaniel got home and we taught him his own lesson (I love the double lesson visits!) And while we were teaching, Faith gave us these little tasty things called ¨chinchin¨ or something like that, that were just little balls of flour and water and sugar that had been fried (pretty much tiny donuts). It was just nice to be there with them. They´re such a kind people and they are so willing to learn about the gospel. Many of them recognize that their churches are corrupt and they love coming to our church and seeing how well organized it is and how strong the spirit is there.

We had a really good Zone Conference. The highlight was an invitation that President and Hermana Hinckley gave us to read a fresh copy of the Book of Mormon in our native language (they gave each of us a new copy) and mark it with three colors as we read (not doing cross references, just reading and marking and pondering).

1. references to Christ (in whatever form His name may be in).
2. The words of Christ (when He speaks or when a prophet quotes him ¨Thus sayeth the Lord¨ type of things).
3. Attributes of Christ.
   

We were promised that as we do this everyday for the next few months, our testimonies, our missions, and our lives will change. I´m already loving it and I´m on page 13 of the Book of Mormon. I invite all of you to join me!

We are teaching a Mongolian family. They are so cute. The mother and the 2 kids (10 and 7 years old) speak Spanish quite a bit now... but the father doesn´t speak at all basically. We are waiting for some materials in Mongolian from the mission office. People are always thinking that they are from China because of their eyes and because Mongolia is just north of China... but they relate more to Russians- especially in their language. Their alphabet is much more similar to that of Russia than China. We´re having a surprise birthday party for Chinzo (the 10 year old boy) on Saturday because he didn´t get to celebrate (his birthday was the 9th of January) because they have no money. I´m going to make brownies and put the candles mom sent me on them.

Well, I spent my whole email telling stories... now it´s your turn my beloved family. Story time!

Thanks for the blog entry Alyn. I liked seeing the Hancock Christmas (my district leader right now is an Elder Hancock... from somewhere in Utah... no me acuerdo que ciudad... [I don't remember which city...]) I liked the gingerbread houses and seeing Charlie in the oven.

Love you all-

Hermana Diehl

p.s. I hope everyone is having good birthdays (Nathan and Erin recently). I don´t forget them, I promise! I just forget to say anything in my emails... it´s not the same.

Mud

Familia!

Thanks for the picture of the bridge mom and dad! I love to see the projects. I got an SD card of pictures from Cody and Emilee and there were some really cute pictures and videos of my neices and nephews and some really good pictures of the new fence and the brick sidewalk. I´m so happy.

Emilee asked for more stories... not sure what I´ve been filling my letters with... but apparently not enough of the good stuff. So, this week we saw some miracles in finding new investors [investigators]. Last week a couple showed up at church without anybody knowing who they were and we went to talk to them of course... and found out that the woman is a member who hasn´t come to church in a long time and the man is not a member. So we set up a cita [appointment] to go and teach them. We were pretty busy and they lived kind of far so we had to wait until Friday to see them. They had told us which bus to take to get close to where they live and then drew a little map in Hermana Oliphant´s agenda so that we could find the place... but also gave us the instructions to call them when we got close so they could bring us there... we were confused as to why we had to call since we had their address and a map and lots of experience finding places. So we got off in the right bus stop and went to the street we found on the map... a little sad because the street was actually in the ward boundaries of the Catarroja ward (to the south of Valencia). We discovered that the number they had given us didn´t exist on the street, but luckily a woman stuck her head out of her window to ask if we were lost and told us that we were on the Calle San Jorge and we probably needed the Camino de San Jorge which was in the middle of some fields on the edge of this pueblo [town]. So from where we had gotten ourselves the fastest way to their house (HOUSE- not piso! [apartment]) was to cut through the fields. Which we did. Even though they were muddy and puddle-ridden. We got lots of mud on our shoes and were quite cold and almost fell into an irrigation ditch. But in the end they lived in our area and we have a new investigator who is looking forward to learning and coming to church. I loved it. We felt like real missionaries finally what with getting dirty and muddy. We just spend so much time in the city streets, it was a nice change.

Okay, gotta go. Love you all- keep sending pictures and take care of each other. I know that this is the Lord´s work I´m doing and I know that this is the only true church on the earth.

Hermana Diehl

p.s. I climbed a tower last preparation day and took some pictures of me in the rain for Alyn to put on the blog- enjoy! The pretty plaza with all the flowers is Plaza de la Reina and if you zoom in to the right of the other one you can see the science museum and theatre house and such that are landmarks in Valencia.

2010

Hola Familia,

English this week. It´s been a good week. We have a baptismal meta [goal] with a woman from Cuba named Yuni (pronounced June-y) who came to church with some members last week and then came by herself yesterday. She´s going to get baptized on Saturday. I love missionary work. Every time we find people like her President Hinckley reminds us that they have been prepared by angels and we are just ¨harvesting the wheat¨. Entonces: el campo blanco está ya! [Then: the field is white already!]

I loved the Christmas and house painting blogs (good color selection Erin and Matt!). I also loved seeing the family pictures of Jesse and Mindy´s family. Que guapos sois. [How good looking ye are.] Thanks for being such faithful correspondents. I love you all, pero muchisimo [oh so much].

Since you have a new camera I have some picture requests mom (and actually everyone): I would like to see how tall my nieces and nephews are getting (in comparison to something recognizable… perhaps the kitchen counter or something standard like that that everyone has in their houses. Let´s see some great blog entries hermanos mios! [my siblings!] ). I´d like to see the view of the front of the house from the road (the full view) and maybe a closer up view of the garden spots and the brick sidewalk. I´d like to see the bridge with my parents standing on it. I´d like to see the dogs (the ones that are left). I´d like to see the living room, like the view from the entry as you look at the fireplace (a little inspiration to clean quizas [perhaps] :-) hee hee. The only ones I really want hard copies of right now is the full view of the house from the front and the bridge picture.

I know that this is the true and living church of our savior Jesus Christ. I know it with all of my heart. I hope that you´re all reading diligently in your scriptures and praying together as families and individually. I love you-

Hermana Diehl

p.s. I attached a picture of Hermana Oliphant and I with a convert named Vanessa (she´s only 14! Es grande no? [She's big, right?]) because mom wanted to see what Hermana Oliphant looks like.