"The France Flag Looks Nothing Like The Mexico Flag"

Some strange things that happened this week: On Sunday night a group of young adults walked into the Beehive House. There was one guy and two really pretty girls. I don't know what the relationship was between them, but it was obvious that the guy was trying to impress one of them because kept trying to touch all the things behind the red ropes. There is a small rusty bell by the front door of the Beehive House that's pretty fragile due to it being the original bell that hung in the Young's home. We pointed to it and specifically said out loud, "this is the original bell, it's been here for 160 years", and what do you know? The young man reaches over and rings it. HE JUST REACHED OVER AND TOUCHED IT. Those girls had better been impressed, because he committed a big no-no for their sake.

Yesterday was mutual night, so all the Mormon youths ages 12-18 came to see the lights. Our district had the shift manning the theaters that were showing The Nativity. A group of teenage boys were gathered by us giggling and pointing. When they finally got the courage to go talk to my companion, they started asking her, "Who is that one really really cute missionary from France?" After much confusion and a lot of eye-rolling, she figured out that they were actually talking about Sister Lopez, who was wearing the Mexican flag under her name tag. 

Sometimes boys are stupid. 

But other times, they are not: Jorge from Peru has a baptismal date (Dec 12th, before Sister Burgoyne leaves)! And our 18 year old investigator (who still calls us ma'am) from Florida is meeting with the missionaries everyday! And The Chinese family that lives in LA who I wrote about last week is reading the Book of Mormon and loving it! I wish I could tell you all more, but I feel weird writing about the personal lives of these strangers... What are even the protocols of writing about your investigators during the mission? 

Each time we talk to these people I'm constantly amazed at how far these people progress on their own. The "Z" family from Xiamen/LA are especially amazing. We took them on a tour in Beehive during Thanksgiving, and when we called them this week, they had already been reading the Book of Mormon and loving it! They are excited to meet with the Chinese missionaries in LA once they finish traveling for Christmas break. Whooooooooo!!!!! 

Everyday I'm amazed that there are so many people prepared like these. I thought I was going to be fighting angry anti Mormons all day and getting my self esteem kicked in... But really, the world isn't so bad and scary. And the gospel of Jesus Christ really isn't as foreign and weird to most people like I thought it would be. 

Picture of the week: a tribute to my trainer who is going home soon. RIP Sister Burgoyne, the whitest person that speaks fluent Spanish.