Happy Thanksgiving!

Mi hermosa familia,

 Happy Turkey Day! Here, we call Thanksgiving "el dia de pavo," or "turkey day." :) I'm still not sure how to say Thanksgiving... I think I have an idea, though. This morning we played "frasketball," or football in the gym and shoot the ball into the basket. We then played soccer--after 7 weeks of not playing soccer because of my ankle, I'm back in the game. Right now I'm at the Hixson's home where we had Thanksgiving breakfast as a district! They feed us every Sunday night (9 of us) and are so gracious. We had waffles and crepes, which took me back to BYU with Berkeley! Crepes will always remind me of the Kershisnik family.

Mom, I received your scripture package yesterday! I had to pay a little fee because they don't forward boxes if they're not sent with Priority mail (just FYI). We took the scriptures in the scripture case (thank you!!!) over to her last night and she looked like a 5-year-old kid in a candy store. She was so thrilled! I loved seeing her reaction. She opened the Bible and said, ooohh La Santa Biblia. And then she opened the Book of Mormon--La Perla de Gran Precio?! Ahh la Doctrina y Convenios! El Libro de Mormon! She was so grateful for them. She told me to tell you and Dad muchiiisimas gracias. It's funny that A feels like my really good friend but also a mother figure because she was born in '53. She is so great, and I know the scriptures will go to GREAT use. She was so excited that her name was on them, too. She pointed it out and told us how her brother had scriptures with his name and just kept talking--I think she was overwhelmed with joy. :) I wrapped them in the zebra tissue paper you sent in one of my packages. And thank you for the Liahonas! Now I can read the Conference talks during my language study. Oh, and give them to investigators and recent converts, I guess... :)

Well, the mission experience is very taxing on the body and the mind, of course. I'm not going to cover that up. Here it seems like all my flaws are magnified times 100. But I'm trying to be exactly obedient to everything, have faith, say faithful prayers, get over myself and things that take my mind away from the work, and just get to work. I've been amazed by each new companion that I've had who have taught me new things--I've noticed that each new companion has prepared me for the next and am eager to see what the Lord has in store to teach me next. I think I'm going to be transferred on Tuesday to a place called Manteca, but I could be totally wrong! It would be a great change because I'd be with Hermana Fernandez who's the coordinating sister and from the Dominican Republic. She is the best missionary--she's a convert of 3 years. I think she was born to be a missionary. I think my time is up in Stockton, but we'll see! It's been great with Sister Christensen and Sister Mason. I feel ready to take a huge leap to progress--I've been running through sand a little bit during this transfer--it's been a challenge, but I've seen a lot of miracles, one of which is the confidence I've gained in teaching in Spanish (although I still have a lot to work on. :) I was going to say I don't think I'll ever be fluent in Spanish, but I probably would have been chastised for saying that! At this point I'm just glad I can get along and add to the lessons and feel the Spirit while teaching.) If I do go to Manteca, I'll miss Elder Bednar coming to our Stake Conference in Stockton--bummer! Of course, right?!

I suppose now's a good time to tell you that I'm going to the Shields' for Thanksgiving! I wrote to President last week in my weekly President's letter and told him I knew he'd already considered it and told me I couldn't go but that now I really wanted to go and thought it'd be a good mission memory and that I knew it wouldn't distract me from the work and that Aunt Heidi and Uncle Eric were really looking forward to us coming... so he called me on Sunday and said that he woke up in the middle of the night thinking about my situation and felt like we're mature and responsible enough to go. I was so happy!! So Uncle Eric will be coming to our apartment to pick us up in a few hours and I'll get to see the family and their house--I'm really excited! I just love President Lewis. :) He's so wonderful--you can tell that he really does care about each and every one of us. I'm glad I was one of the first four missionaries who got to meet him in the MTC.

We went to visit a part member family last week (I'd never met them before--some elders in our district gave us their information a few weeks back) and ended up adding four of them as investigators. They are amazing!! L was baptized about eight years ago and has been to church here just once since he moved from Mexico. His wife (girlfriend) M is so great--she gives us persimmons and sugar cookies and coke and donuts (the charity never ends)--and we added her daughter Ja and M's sister Pa and her husband Re. They basically tell us what to teach them every time we go over which is really handy. They said, "We have all these Church videos. Can we watch one together?" So we watched the Restoration and taught about what happened leading up to the Restoration and a little about the Book of Mormon. Next time they requested that we talk more about the Book of Mormon--luckily everything they suggest is already in our lesson plans. It's funny because they all (5 of them) talk at once and Ja (20) translates for us even though we understand everything that's going on and the lessons are very interactive and slightly overwhelming with all the talking and perfect at the same time. I love the Sa family! Pa and M came to church at 1 last week (and we were still there--our ward starts at 9--only because we were having a pot luck after church). They're planning on coming to a baptism this weekend and hopefully will be able to make it Sunday!

We also met a girl named Z this week who seems like a miracle. We've been dropping a lot of investigators that we just don't feel are progressing--it's hard to drop them because you want to hold on to each person--I can see their potential and what they can become. But with these drops I know Heavenly Father will bless us with people who will accept the message of the Restoration. It's also been a challenge getting all of our investigators to church, which is so necessary, but I know that with all our fasting and prayers and efforts that we'll be able to have a White Christmas in December. I'm hoping that my companionship can contribute to the 101 baptisms!

Well I love you all. Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving wherever you are. I'll call you from the Shields' house. I'm kidding--I won't.

Love,

Hermana Brinkenfor

(I don't know why, but they all read my tag and say that. It's a mystery to me.)