FELIZ NAVIDAD

It´s Christmas! It doesn´t feel that way though haha Today we got to watch two movies to celebrate Christmas Despicable Me 2 and Monsters University. I loved it! It made me so trunky though...

   I am so blessed to be in this area for Christmas. The members are great! We have so many families that invited us over for Christmas. One member we are visiting tomorrow who I love is Hermana Costa aka ¨Mami¨. She seriously makes us call her Mami and if we don´t she gets mad. She LOVES missionaries. Every time we come over she says ¨You´re having lunch at my house tomorrow!¨ She says that as an order not a question. She´s funny :) The other day we went to her house and we really needed to talk to her, but she wasn´t answering the door. We got closer to the house and all we could hear was the TV so we figured she couldn´t hear us because it was too loud and she was sleeping. We decided to go in, turn off the TV, and then knock again. The whole time we were laughing and she was oblivious as to what was so funny. She also calls me ¨Hermana Cabeza de Vaca¨ (Sister Head of a Cow) because I told her where my last name came from and the story behind it and now that´s was she calls me! She´s too funny and really takes good care of us.

   Another family is the Santa Maria´s. The mother is a single parent with 13 kids. They´re house is CRAZY! Here, people celebrate Christmas starting on the 24th and their parties continue through the 25th. We are going to their house both days! I am so excited! We plan on acting out the Nativity with all the kids and we are going to surprise them by having another member bring their sheep over. ( I´m a little fearful for the sheep. I´m not lying when I say they are crazy!). 

   One miracle I´ve seen this Christmas is when on of the Santa Maria kids started talking to me. She HATES the missionaries and is always rude to us, but at the ward activity on Saturday she actually came! ALL of the Santa María´s came! They showed up late and didn´t bring plates or utensils (here people bring their own things to eat with at parties) so me and Hermana Lopez ran to the store and bought some for them. After we did that she talked to me the whole night! She even came to church the next day! 

   The reason I love this family so much and I am so excited to spend most of this holiday with them is because they have nothing and they are so happy! They are gratefully for anything they get and you can really feel how genuine and grateful they are that we come visit them. 

   Everyone always ask if I am sad that I´m not home for Christmas, but I would be so selfish if all I thought about was how I´d rather be home then helping these people. Christmas isn´t about me and what I want. It´s a celebration of the start of Jesus Christ life who lived and gave his life for me. What better gift could I give then spending my time hear teaching his message and helping others to follow him. I challenge everyone to find some way to give a gift to Jesus Christ this Christmas.

¡FELIZ NAVIDAD!

¡HOY ES EL DIA! 

Love, Hermana Baca

 My first day in Uruguay

 2 Months on my mission!

 ¡Tati!

 One night Estaban brought us stickers and treats! He´s a recent convert.

Our Christmas Tree

   I can´t believe it´s already Monday again! We have long days and short weeks. We work A LOT. I love it though! I keep having dreams that I am home and everytime I have a dream like that I always want to go back to Uruguay in my dream. I guess it´s more like a nightmare than a dream haha

   This week we had a big conference with over 100 missionaries here. I really wanted to see some of the missionaries that were in the MTC with me, but I didn´t know who I would run into. I was watching everyone walk up to the church and I saw Hermana Sorenson. I WAS SO HAPPY! I ran up to her and hugged her. It was like something you see in a movie.We were both so happy! I loved hearing how things were going for her here and sharing our experiences.

   During the conference Elder Castillo ,who is in my area and lives next door, got really sick. We have been taking care of the elders this week because of it. One morning they called us and asked us if we could bring over a thermometer and so we did. A half an hour later Elder Larrea called and said ¨Hermana´s how do you use the thermometer?¨ They need their mommys! I can´t count how many times they have called us this week. haha They are doing better now though!

   I´m glad I am not sick because I would not want to stay in a hot house all day. The houses don´t have air conditioning or heating so it´s cooler outside. Last night it was VERY hot and humid. I didn´t sleep at all and ended up soaking my hair in water over and over througout the night to cool down. I guess there is one good thing to having cold water.

 

   Walking in hot/humid weather all day is.... fun. I am going to have some pretty sweet tan lines when I get home! One of the members came up to me at our activity on Friday and told me I was turning black.... Thank you Hermana Curbelo! 

  Our house is going to change! One of the Senior missionaries came and told us his plans to fix it up. Missionaries have been living there since 2005. My mattress is about to get moved to the floor because the frame is too fragile. We got a new pink toilet seat! Fun! haha We were holding off on getting the sink fixed and then yesterday it officially broke. We had a rag holding it together. It just kept spraying out water and wouldn´t stop. Now THAT was a party! And we got 2 new fans already! One is like a hurricane which is perfect timing because it´s been SUPER hot.

   Even though it´s hot all day the nights here are great! I live for Uruguayan nights! Everyone´s outside, the sky is pretty, and the weather is cool. All of that means that the people are more friendly. We say ¨Hola!¨ to everyone as we walk and most of the time they glare at us or mock us. haha

   One day we ran into a guy that wanted to talk to us FOREVER. We were so excited at first and then we realized he was high... He told me, TOLD not asked, that I was from Haiti. After we finally got away from him we ran into him all over San Fernando that day and everytime he was talking with different people. The people would always have the same expression as we did when we talked to them of ¨ Ok, this guy is crazy.¨ At one he told the people he was talking to that I was Asian....LOCO!

   Luckily the members are VERY nice and not crazy. :) Sometimes I just want to avoid visiting their houses because they all give us food! I am always full on three things bread, juice/soda, and Toco. Toco is raviolio or pasta with a little bit of sauce. ¨ Why can´t I just have a salud or someting¨ (Nacho Libre).

   Its a blessing though because other areas don´t have members like ours. One night we got home and we were actually hungry because we didn´t eat a lot that day. A little while later one of the members called and said she was bringing over a pizza and some food. She didn´t have a reason either! She just wanted to do something nice for the missionaries. Another day it was super hot and we were talking to a member. As we talked he had a cup of ice cream and it looked SO GOOD! We went to the Jacientios house after and guess what they brought out! ICE CREAM! We are truly blessed. 

   The other day though I thought I was going to be lunch instead of getting lunch! The house we went to for lunch that day had stray dogs around it and me and Hermana Lopez spent a good 5 minutes trying to avoid them until the family finally came out and chased them away. I was laughing haha The dogs are so crazy! Seriously!

  Miss you all! Remember HOY ES EL DIA the Lord is hastening his work. I challenge you all to share the gospel with one of your friends for Christmas. Christmas is about the Lord not about us. We should be trying to give him gifts. There is no better way to show your appriciation for him than to share his message.

CHOW! 

Hermana Baca

Here´s where to send letters and packages:

Hermana Baca

La Mision Uruguay Montevideo Oeste

Enrique Martinez 1167

Montevideo, Montevideo 11.800

Uruguay

For packages:

* Cant be more than 4 pounds

* Declare contents as missionary supplies

* Do not put that it has value more than $50

* It takes about 3 weeks to get here.

Without these instructions it can take months and there´s more of a possibility of it just not showing up.

 I love the field a million times more than anywhere else! I love the people, the culture, the matte, ALL OF IT! Heavenly Father knew what he was doing when he sent me here. I am not a touchy feely person and the first couple days I was so done with the kisses! Now I really don´t care. 

  The food is more manageable. I´m still not willing to put mayo on everything like they do but that´s ok. I´ve learned to eat slow so that they won´t keep bringing more when I´m done. They don´t understand ¨Only a little more¨. EVERY TIME I get a whole plate full again. Even if you think the meals over.....It´s not. They also love to have this coffee type beverage (without caffeine), Bun (bread), and dulce le leche (I don´t like it) at the end of every meal! And whenever you visit too! 

   Tomorrow we are having Oreos at our district meeting. I'VE NEVER BEEN SO EXITED FOR OREOS!

   On Saturday I don´t know what made me so sick from the night before but I was so sick! My body was ache all over and I had the worst stomach ache. Luckily we didn´t have any lessons that day because we had an event called ¨ El Central de Visitarse¨ It´s where we open up the church and hold tours. When one of the mission leaders came to get us to go they told me to just stay in bed. Later, that night I got a blessing from elder Dietrich and the next day I was fine! I went to all my lessons and church the next day. No problems! Luckily it wasn´t a day where we had people to go see and appointments.

   I was especially happy I was well enough to go to church. I saw miracles! Here, it´s hard to get the members to go to church here because EVERYONE is related in some way or another and EVERYONE has a problem with someone. It´s a small town. We invited many to come to church during the week and most of them said they would, but that happens all the time and they always end up not coming. Yesterday though MANY came! It was a good fast Sunday! 

 1. Hermana Olga hasn´t been to church in 6 YEARS. During the week we visited her and she was really mean. Something must have got through to her though because she was in sacrament meeting!

2. Hermana Martinez and her son. I talked about her husband last week in my letter. He didn´t come :/ BUT 2 out of 3 is awesome!!!!

3. Mario is not a member and his wife is inactive. They are not married but they´re whole family was they´re yesterday! And they told me they have been praying as a family like I told them to! Vamos ARRIBA!

4. Hermano Fertado hasn´t been to church in years! His wife and oldest son do go to church though. We gave them a goal to have their family sealed in the temple. HERMANO FERTADO AND AN INACTIVE SON CAME! His son said he talked to his active brother and really wanted to change. YEAH!

5. A girl who was baptized a year ago and never came after randomly showed up! We have an appointment with her (which is hard to get). Everyone was so surprised to see her!

6. Hermana Susana has a lot of health problems and hardly comes. Her daughter wants to serve a mission though and she secretly came and told us she is taking our challenge to read the scriptures 10 minutes a day and is trying to get her mom to. They both came on Sunday!

Last but not least

7. Estavan. HE IS SOOO CAPO. He was baptized two week ago by his brother who was baptized a few months before him. When they talk about the light of Christ being in people. Estavan, is the definition of that. He is so faithful and happy! Yesterday we went to visit his aunt so she could help us go teach a lesson. All of his cousins and siblings were watching TV and Estavan was sitting on the bed with them reading the For Strength of Youth pamphlet. He said ¨It´s the Sabbath day¨ He´s awesome!

Everything's great! I love it here.