Monday, November 28, 2016

November 28, 2016 - Elder Biehn's Weekly Update

Hey guys!

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! I know I did. It was awesome because we had a family prepare a completely traditional Thanksgiving dinner which is something that they've never done before. You see, in Hispanic culture everything has rice and some kind of spice to it, and this was how it was for me last year. The last Thanksgiving dinner I had was basically the Hispanic version of Thanksgiving. Now don't get me wrong, it is still really good food, but it just doesn't have that traditional feel to it. But this time, with this family (well, I should say two families because they were both there) they prepared an amazing traditional Thanksgiving dinner (when I say they, I mean the one person there who grew up in an American home so she had all the traditions already). And for the first time in 2 years, I was teaching OTHER people how to eat the food. It was so funny because besides me, Elder Thompson, and the hermana who prepared the food, the family had never seen stuffing or cranberry sauce in their lives. It was so funny teaching them how to eat it, let alone trying to say the name of the food! They couldn't pronounce the names so they kept referring to it as "la cosa rara," translated is the weird thing.  Good news is that they enjoyed it and I enjoyed having a little bit of American culture back into my life.

Now, it's a tradition as missionaries (at least for me anyways) to go to as many member homes as you can on Thanksgiving and eat as much as possible. This year I managed to down 5 meals! Granted they weren't all the same serving size (one of them was literally a spoon full of mashed potatoes, broccoli, and some other stuff) but still it was a TON of food. My poor companion is definitely not as big as I am and has a small stomach so he was struggling by the 2nd meal, but he powered through it! I didn't have to eat breakfast or lunch the following day. We were able to visit lots of members and enjoy our time together, especially because they enjoy the company of missionaries. The family I was talking about earlier, the one that made the fully traditional dinner, was so sweet because they referred to us as part of their family since we weren't able to be with ours on that day. Truly an awesome last Thanksgiving in the mission and something I will remember for the rest of my life.



Exchanges with Elder Everett
Now, that's just what happened on Thanksgiving. This has been a really eventful week for me. For starters I had the chance to go on exchanges with Elder Everett, my first companion back from the good ol CCM days. On the exchange was really an awesome experience to be able to look back and realize just how far we've come since stepping foot in Mexico. It was really an eye opener for me to help me recognize all the progress I've been able to make and our skills as teachers and Disciples of Christ have increased dramatically.

I know the picture isn't the best quality but it was the best my poor little iPad could do with what little light there was.

Service at the Christmas Tree Farm. 




We also had a chance to do some really cool service work the morning of Thanksgiving. We helped this guy named David, who really loves missionaries but is a part of the church that is right next door to ours. David is a roadside salesman and that's his business. Last month he had a full on pumpkin patch for Halloween, this month he is setting up a Tree farm for Christmas trees. He does this every year and it was super fun to be able to help him set up and to work with these beautiful trees. Did I mention I love real Christmas trees? It was us and the Hermanas in our Ward helping him so it was a good fun way to spend the morning.
I got to drive the tractor!

David also had a tractor and I got the chance to drive it!

So overall this was a REALLY fun week. The holiday season is the best and now I'm looking forward to Christmas! Helping everyone to understand the true meaning of Christmas which is Jesus' birth.

Birthday package from my family!

I also got a birthday package from my family since it is my birthday today too. Great way to top of the week! But I still don't know what I'm going to be doing today to celebrate my birthday. Probably just hanging out as usual, haha.


Love you guys and I hope you have an enjoyable holiday season!


Elder Biehn