Thanksgiving and life in D.C.

Thanksgiving and life in D.C.

I hope everyone's Thanksgiving was amazing! Mine was great, we did a lot of visiting different people and helping out with so many different things …... mostly cooking and cleaning. So many of the people here have so little that it is truly humbling to remember how much I am blessed with. I am starting to understand more Spanish which is cool and now I get to hear some crazy insane stories about how people got here and what they are thankful for. They have so little and they are thankful for so much. It makes me think …...

I hope everyone enjoyed Thanksgiving! An addition to my “things I have learned file”, if someone asks if you want more food at dinner, just say,” yes please” and they will give you a little bit more food, if you say “no” they just put a LOT more on your plate and say that, “she doesn't know what she needs!”.

I don't mean to be rude, but I have eaten at least 5 lbs of cilantro with cabbage and onions at every meal with a smile on my face, pretending it is the best salad EVER ... So, other then that I have had some really interesting food selections already. I have found out that purple potato salad isn't bad... not sure why it was purple though, and turkey and a lot of hot sauce taste better then turkey without hot sauce for some reason, but the grass hoppers taste better then the turkey? But the Turkey is definitely better than the nasty soup with pig skin in it and sometimes I am grateful when I don't get meal appointments because while I don't mind most of the food it gets old after a bit.

It is still a little hard to be myself because I cant joke in Spanish. This week I am planning a language fast for one day. That means I wont speak any English for a full day .... wish me luck.

Thanks for all the pictues! The puppies are growing so fast. I have a new slogan for your puppy website,”life is better with a Dane!”. I was telling someone why I liked our dogs and that is the only real reason I had. Soooooooo, life is great here! We were having dinner with some ward members the other night and this is a great family ….. they feed us every week. Anyway, the Father dared me (the GREENIE) to eat a whole pepper. I'm not really sure what kind of pepper this is, but I just thought “What the heck”, and that's right, I ate it, the whole thing! Well, much to my surprise and especially to everyone around me, It wasn't that hot! And after I am done eating this thing I am told it was suppose to be an insanely hot pepper.... But I liked it! I guess my taste buds didn't get the memo that the pepper was suppose to be hot or maybe I am starting to fit in better already.

So we are teaching a lesser active family and they have a beautiful little girl named Nichole. She is absolutely the cutest thing ever. Her dad calls us,The Hermanitas, so when we come in to her house she just runs around and yells mis hermanitas mis hermanitas, then she runs and gives us hugs. When we sit down she always sits by me and asks if I have any stickers, she is adorable! All in all, I am better friends with the kids then with the adults because I have MANY stickers to share with them. So advice for others who are on missions or going on missions, ALWAYS HAVE STICKERS! I think if you get to know the kids, well the parents have to talk to you!

I bore my testimony in Spanish this Sunday because I had this great idea that if we all went up and bore our testimonies about our missions that maybe it would get the ward excited to help with missionary work. Out of the 9 missionaries in this ward, 3 of us went up and talked, My hands were shaking and my voice was cracking and I thought I said everything right. After the meeting a member here that went on his mission to Ecuador came up to me and offered to give me Spanish lessons ..... sooooooo I guess it wasn't as good as I thought. Oh well, I will learn more each and everyday. Until next week.

Hermana Atkinson
Missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
Washington D.C. South Mission