Surprise Week

Hola familia!

So this week was fun.

We started out the week on Monday doing strange random things. haha, so this time of the year is the festivals of San Juan (Saint John) for the Catholic religion, and since there a tons of Catholics here, its a big thing. They do strange dances and things with fire piñatas and walking on hot coals and stuff. Dont worry mom, I didnt do any of that. But there are also random games that lots of girls do on the 23rd of June to figure out the name of their future husband (I know crazy, but what can you do). So we decided to participate (haha dont judge us!) one is that you stab a banana tree with a brand new knife at 12 pm (surprisingly easy to do because the tree is super soft). the next day you take it out and find the name on the knife. Yeah, didnt really see much there but lots of banana tree grossness. haha. there were a couple others too but that was the funnest.

Tuesday I was sick, a cold and a fever and super exhausted.. dont you just love the winter. Wednesday was strange. So was Thursday.

Friday we had surprise divisions with the Sister training leaders. They had forgotten to call us to tell us that we were going to do divisions. So Friday morning at like 7:30 they call us and said ¨hey so we forgot to call you guys, but we are on our way to Ita. We`ll be there in 30 minutes! tell Hna. Kekoolani to pack an overnight bag because she`s gonna come here to San Lorenzo for the day!´´ So that was fun. and it was raining all day thursday and friday, so we were basically just constantly wet and cold. But we found some pretty great people to start teaching so thats fun!

And then Saturday morning, Hna. Kekoolani came back to me!! yay!!! haha, so I love divisions and the sister training leaders and all, but I always miss my companions during that 24 hours apart (and now imagine how sad I am at changes! but my new companion always wins my heart super quickly so its fine!)

So that morning we were finishing up studies and talking about what we learned during divisions when the phone starts to ring. So I finish what I`m saying as I reach for the phone, and then look at the caller id and it says `Presidente Agazzani.`... that`s the mission president...

So I basically had a heart attack. Then was like `hermana! president is calling us! answer it!` so she answered and put it on speaker phone and president Agazzani starts talking and is like `Hola, Hermana Urie?` A million thoughts went threw my head-- `special changes, they`re sending me out of Ita,` `crap! surprise apartment inspections, we gotta clean fast!` `he`s sending me home! what did I do wrong, I dont remember!` basically, President never calls the missionaries, he always goes through the district and zone leaders and the assistants. So I had no idea what to expect. Turned out he and his wife wanted to come to our branch the next day and wanted to know what time church was. He needed to interview one of our investigators, so thats why he called us. And he told us not to tell anyone so it would be a surprise. It was hilarious seeing the faces of all the elders Sunday in church when they showed up. The elders had told us last minute that we had to teach the gospel principles class sunday, so when we started they were all smiling like `haha you guys have to teach the most random topic in the manual` (this week was on work and personal responsibility). And then Hermana Agazzani (president`s wife) came in and they were all like `what?! crap!` and then President wanted to talk to us, so I was like `elders, can you guys take over the class? thanks!` and we left.. haha so they ended up teaching the class with Hermana Agazzani present. It all worked out great!!

So that was basically the highlight of the week. Also, about a week and a half ago, me and Hna. Kekoolani decided we were talking too much in English so we made a `Lata de Ingles` (english jar) and whenver we speak in english we have to put in 500Gs (its equal to about a dime in the US). And at the end of the week, we have to give it to one of the elders. (we switch off which elder every week so its not always the same) but we didnt tell them about it, so they are just super confused when we randomly give one of them lots of coins at the end of the week. Its fun.

Anyway, I`m out of time, but I love you all lots and hope you are having fun in your crazy DC, Singapore, Physical Therapy, Service Mission lives!!

Love you!!!

Hermana Urie