Kaitlin continues to work hard, be happy, and love her mission. At 3:50 p.m. on Christmas I (Kaitlin's mom) took possession of the phone so I would be the one to answer it at 4:00 when Kaitlin was to call. It rang right on the dot, and I can't express how wonderful it was to hear her voice after all these months! We vowed not to cry and we didn't...much. The whole family loved talking with her--it was the best part of our Christmas. She said she never stops sweating--the temperatures have been around 112 degrees lately. She told one of the children that she sees a lot of toucans, she and her companion get along well and they have some great investigators. We were happy she and Taylor got some time to talk before he leaves.
Here is a little excerpt from the email we received from her on the 26th. She tells a little bit about how she spent her Christmas:
Friday and Saturday were super fun. We went caroling with the elders and a member on Friday in the elders' area, and there's a gal that lives in their area named Lilian that I think we're going to start teaching. She's 25-ish, and her landlord is a member, and he said that it would be better if sisters visited her. We all sang to her, and then Hna. Sorensen and I took down her number. We'll visit her this week as well. Her landlord, Pablo Duce, is incredible. He's really sick and sometimes can't walk very well (and he's only in his 40s), but he does what he can when he can. He has shared the gospel with all his close neighbors. He insisted on coming with us to carol to his neighbors that day, and he taught them the gospel boldly and without apologies. Every time we've been to his house, there's some young man from the ward over there talking with him...he's just a really great support for everyone, and a huge example to me. The people here are inspiring.
We caroled on Saturday as well, this time in our area, and we were able to visit a lot of people. Hna. Sorensen and I baked these little banana breads (not your recipe, Mom, because brown sugar doesn't exist in Paraguay...isn't that tragic? So we kind of made up a recipe, which is why they didn't turn out scrumptious, but they were edible. One might even say they were kind of good. But not really good.) that we took around to investigators and to members as we caroled. It was fun. Saturday it really cooled down quite a lot. Friday it was about 112 degrees outside plus humidity Saturday and Sunday were cloudy and fresquito, so that was nice. After caroling and sharing spiritual thoughts all day, we went to the Gaona Family, who invited us over for Christmas Eve about three months ago. We made tamales, an asado (basically roast beef) with sausage, and a couple salads, as well as the traditional Christmas drink of Paraguay, "clericó," which generally consists of fruit cut into little cubes and wine, but instead of wine, we used orange pop. It was pretty tasty. I think I would have preferred juice over pop, but still...yummy. The meal ended with ice cream, which, by the way, is much better here than it is in the States. It was fun. Paraguayans adopted the christmas tree tradition from the U.S., but more "paraguayan" is the nativity scene. Every home has a nativity set with fruit all around it (bananas, watermelon, cantaloupe, and pineapple) and the coconut flower, which has a very distinct smell. Mmm. I liked my Paraguayan Christmas.
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