seriously, have you ever had rice before?

My Dear Family,

So I want to begin my email today with a story. We were invited over to the bishop's for dinner Monday night. He had his counselors and their families there, and we had this huge Asian dinner. (The bishopric is all white but they are all married to Asian women so that's why we were eating Asian food.) So anyway, I, being the "new missionary," was asked several times that night where I was from. I told them all I was from Idaho and then they would make a comment about potatoes, and I would make a joke how, being from Idaho, I only ever eat potatoes. So I told the bishop's wife I only ever eat potatoes because I'm from Idaho and that I'd never had one of the dishes on the table.

She than asked, "Have you ever had rice before?"

I said, "Yes I've had rice before."

She did not believe me! She asked three more times, and I told her three more times that I had had rice before. Then she looks at me very seriously and says, "Seriously, have you ever had rice before? because some people have never had rice."

I don't know who those "some people" are who have never had rice before but I let the subject drop even though I still don't think she believed me. It was pretty funny.

Secondly, I haven't gotten a letter from anybody in 3 weeks...just so you know.

Thirdly...thirdly... I'm trying to make this a really good email, but I just do the same thing every day. I could tell you stories about people yelling at me about how my religion is wrong, but I don't think you want to hear about that. It's just me and my companion all day every day, and I've already told you about her so I can't say too much there. 

Oh, I know. I'll tell you about the Sandwich* girls. They are ages 8 and 12, but neither of them is baptized. Their dad (who is Mormon) is blind and deaf so they spend most of their time living with their mom's parents (who are Catholic). The mom lives in Mexico and they never see her. The dad is super pushy and wants his kids to get baptized, but they don't want it. They always say, "It's a big decision and I just need to think about it." basically they are just really stubborn. So the younger girl, Angela, can't read English but speaks it well enough that you wouldn't guess that she doesn't really understand when people speak to her. So all the past missionaries have been trying to teach her in English, and she would get really bored and never pay attention since she couldn’t understand. But I started teaching her in Spanish while Sis Schwarze taught the older one in English, and Angela opened up like a floodgate. She talks so much in Spanish. I gave her a Spanish Book of Mormon and she carries it everywhere with her. On Sunday morning she helped me pass out programs and then sat by me. It was pretty cute. I hope this helps us get to the bottom of why she doesn’t want to be baptized and helps her understand why baptism is so important. She is my only opportunity here to use my Spanish. I study every day but I can still feel it slipping away because I never have a chance to use it. It’s so sad. I hope I get transferred to the border soon, but who knows when that will happen. I'm in Converse for at least 3 months :\. Not that I don't like it, but it's all in English and I prefer to teach in Spanish because that's how I learned.

Anna, aren't you so excited to do school this summer! That means you get to go play in a foreign country for 9 months! I'm super jealous. Rachel, help mom out. Camilla, just do the play and if you get a dumb part oh well. That just means you can goof off more during play practice. Jessica, yeah. You need to work on that.

Mom and Dad, hope work is going well and the kids aren't driving you too crazy.

I love you all. DFTBA (dftba) (dftba)

Love, Hermana Heeder aka Morgan


* All non-missionary names have been changed.