WOW...LOVE the support!

Well hello everyone! Once again, I feel SO loved and supported and I LOVE everyone's emails and letters. This weeks top ten will have to include some business items that need to be taken care of.

1. Em, I LOVE you. I will be writing you a long letter because you definitely deserve it. And it is normal to feel the way you've been feeling spiritually right now. But, until you get my letter, please read your scriptures EVERY day and pray before and after reading, on your knees. I love you so much Emmie, you can do it! You are my little twin so I know how you're feeling......it'll be okay! Please read the talk Believing in Christ (Mom can help you find it....Mom, it's the one with the parable of the bicycle). Also, way to keep those boys off of you.......goodness we've got too much hotness in that house to handle!

2. Nancy! Disculpeme pero no se como hacer los acentos con esta computadora, entonces, voy a tratar pero.......si :) Pues, sus preguntas. Me dijo mi madre que ya recibio los photos, espero que si. Lo siento de sus sentimientos rotos, escribire una carta para ti. Puedo hablar mas de nuestra apartamento, tal vez en esta carta, y no, desgracia, no tengo una mesita cerca de mi cama. Pero, voy a cambiar las camas y dormire en la otra......entonces puedo guardar mi alarma en el suelo. Tienes mas preguntas?

3. I LOVED the pictures of em and beth! I have the best sisters ever! Beth way to wear a modest dress.......hands down you were the most beautiful one there!

4. Bug......a mormon teacher! Lucky! And I am sure your solo was amazing! What song did you sing!? And getting asked out twice.......Dad, how are you handling all of this!? Everyone's going to have bf when I get home (I sure hope not).

5. Mom, your questions. Yes, I watched the broadcast. It was awesome! I LOVED all the talks, but I do have to say that President Monson took the cake. We don't even realize how much other people are struggling, and gosh darnit, they're doing the best they can! So we need to stop judging! But I agree, I don't know if I could be as good as Sister Monson......I would want my husband home! We had it in English and I would have watched it in Spanish but there was some complications with headsets.....but it was awesome.

Yes, Claudia is married......not a big fan of her husband cause he's not that supportive. It's interesting, Unga and I were talking the other day about how most of our ward is made up of strong women and there aren't many men. Or if there are men, the women were the converts and the husbands were alcoholics and abusive or such. It's super sad and it makes me a little apprehensive about marriage, not gonna lie. Thank goodness I don't have to think about that for 2 years! But when the men do stop drinking and get baptized, they are REALLY good. We have two amazing men in our ward that I love and their wives are amazing as well.

Conference. So excited. It's like the Superbowl for missionaries. So yes, I've been making my bracket of who will be speaking in what order. I'm definitely going to win. We get to watch all 4 sessions. Boom baby! Also, congrats to sister mechim and whoa baby to ramona. Loves it!

6. Wow we interrupt this email for a special announcement. I was just sitting here in the internet cafe and we heard a thud. I look out and a bird just flew into the window and is spazing out dying on the ground. I think I'm going to cry.......it's breaking my heart.

7. I have the best parents in the world. Dad for fixing that car and being so super uplifting and spiritual and Mom for just being the amazing bomb.com that she is. Wow. I seriously wish I could tell both of you how thankful I am for you and how awesome of parents you are. Girls, give them lots of hugs for me!

8. Crazyness this week.....don't even know where to start. Transfers are tomorrow and Unga is leaving. It shocked everyone, first of all me and Unga. Apparently this never happens to Spanish......they usually stay with their trainers for longer. So I'm sad she's leaving and I am scared to death to be the "experienced" one in this area.....I have no idea what I'm doing! But I'm sure my new companion will be awesome! Pray for me.......I am seriously scared to death. Wow.

Me and Sister Unga!

9. Mom, you can just take this out if it's inappropriate but send it on to Steve and Cheryl. This is the baby mama drama. Apparently this 50 year old guy in our ward fell in love with me. I didn't even do anything! We visited him because he's a recent convert.....but I was only missionary-ish the whole time! So it's caused a BUNCH of ward drama and President said we couldn't talk to him anymore, but then he found out that we found out and got all mad at us (long story), and now he won't come to church. Ugh! So if any of us was leaving, Unga and I for sure thought I would be the one getting transferred out. Haha life/President/the Lord is funny like that.

10. Okay, this is the missionary soap box for a moment, so excuse me but it's important. I can't even explain how important it is that we read our scriptures every day and pray every day. Any problem, concern, or sadness can be healed through the atonement of Jesus Christ. We access this wonderful gift and learn more about it through prayer and the scriptures. It is SO important. If I could only get every person in New York to understand one thing, it would be that the atonement of Jesus Christ is real and that we do have a plan. There is a God and He did send His son to sacrifice for us so that we can be clean in this life and return to live in His presence forever. So, everyone PLEASE listen to all of general conference and don't sleep during it. Nothing else is more important than the gospel of Jesus Christ and the prophet of God will be speaking in his behalf this weekend. Be there!

Shout outs this week go to: Brenna (I haven't gotten your letter yet but mom says its on its way!), Grandma (aka highlight of my week every week), Aunt Di (I'll be writing you this week hopefully.....I LOVE the family updates), Ginger (miss your face too girl!), and everyone else that is reading this.....LOVE you all!

Love the mish. Be the mish.

Hermana Winfield

Great Week!

Wow, amazing week!

But first off, GRANDMA, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOMORROW! You are my favorite person lately, I just LOVE your letters every week. I hope your birthday is amazing and I'm glad you partied it up on Sunday. Go out and eat a Burgerville milkshake or something for me!

Talia! Yay baby Lucille is here! Tell her I said hello and I love her of course! And give my cute little Lily a hug!

Mom, don't you EVER send an email to the mission office again! Oh my goodness! No, I did not receive it and now President probably thinks you're crazy......whew! I love you for trying, but next time just don't worry about it......it wasn't that important. But of course from my amazing mother I shouldn't have expected any less. Haha I almost peed my pants laughing when I read your email......emailing the mission.....you would. And sadly, I have not seen Fred again yet.

Okay enough of this, top ten!

1. This week I have included pictures, and we will first talk about my ghetto alarm clock situation. This week I got tired of the alarm clock falling off my bed every night and now some of the buttons don't even work so I went ghetto style and just taped it onto my bed frame. Unga was laughing at me.....but now I don't have any alarm clock problems so look who's lauughing now!

2. We had zone conference and President and the APs taught and it was amazing! We also had costco chicken bakes and it made me think of home lol. But yeah, zone conference was amazing and I asked President that if we were good at the end if we could watch a clip from District 2 about the law of chastity (word on the street is that it's hilarious). Anyway, President loves me so of course we watched it at the end and it was SO funny. They're teaching the guy the law of chastity and talking about Corianton and the Elder says, "So he broke the law of chastity. Yeah......he just..........broke it." Man we were rolling. Apparently the kid didn't understand because the next time they met with him he told them, "Yeah, I've really been trying to keep the law of chastity and I saw this friend of mine and normally I would have asked her out on a date but I tried really hard and I didn't even talk to her." AHAHAHA he thought you couldnt date. Good times.

3. I learned how to make tortillas this week......like legit homemade ones. And homemade enchiladas......prepare yourself accordingly fam.....it will change your life.

4. It's so sad because people here just don't go to church. They get upset by something that someone says and then they just stop going. For years. It seriously breaks my heart. And another thing is that sometimes commandments that are hard for some are easier for others. For example, we came downstairs to the Priesthood room yesterday after church to talk to the Elders and the Priesthood were all eating pizza......fresh pizza that the Primary had brought for the kids. What? How can you teach your children to keep the Sabbath day holy doing that!? Blew my mind in the beginning but now I'm just used to seeing it. But, everyone learns at different rates and all these people are trying SO hard. I love them all.

5. Well, the water is murky from the tap and I guess I didn't really realize it til the other day that I've been drinking that lol (laugh out loud Grandma). I usually just wait for it to all settle and then guzzle it down! Yum yum yum!

6. The train (aka metro) goes below ground like everyone thinks of when they think of NYC but it also goes above the streets. And the other day we were sitting on one of the above-the-street platforms waiting for the tren. And then the platform started to shake. No, nothing out of the usual. It shakes all the time. Just thought I would mention that the next big natural disaster here is going to kill the metro......it's barely making it as it is. So we just sway on the platform above the busy street. No big deal.

7. Best pick up line from this week: "God bless your mothers for giving birth to you, both of them." Unga and I got this on our way to an appointment after church yesterday. It's really nice to see some people still believe in God and motherhood. Thanks Mom for birthing me!

8. I gave a talk on Sunday. It was a little rough but a lady in the ward looked over my talk for me before and I was only missing a "few things"....aka my Spanish is horrible. Haha no biggie, people afterwards told me they understood what I was saying and that's all that matters. I talked on charity and used the talk "The great commandment".....I think that's what it's called in Enlgish. It's by Elder Wirthlin from 2007. Good stuff. Elder Burk spoke too and he was amazing.

9. The tornado. Wow, made me super happy. Prayers are answered! Mom, where were we? Muahah outside of course! We were with Elder Yancuba and Westover (english elders) walking to grab them some pizza (needy little boys) and seriously it came out of nowhere. One minute Westover says, "Wow look at the sky, it's super green. That's how the sky looks before a tornado." And the no joke about 30 seconds later it goes crazy outside! Rain, wind, you name it. We ran inside Alfie's pizza and on the tv in there was a tornado warning on the news and told everyone to get inside. But Unga will not be stopped by a tornado. So we walked to our next appointment. It stopped after a while but millions of trees were pulled out from their roots and cars were lifted off the ground, the metro and buses all stopped, and windows were shattered. But, the Lord's work went on!

10. The baptism. Dang I'm out of time but the baptism was AMAZING! The spirit was so strong and they're both doing great! I made cupcakes and but them on the cupcake holder I made (see picture). It was amazing. The church is true. Wow, everyone go read your scriptures right now!

Shout outs this week go to: Matt and Lee (I already mailed a reply letter this morning!), Maggie & Mal (I'll be writing both of you today), Uncle Don (tell everyone hello!), Grandma, Aunt Di, Dad, Mom!

Love the mish. Be the mish.

Hermana Winfield

Life is Great!

Hello from Hermana Winfield and Unga!

Hermana Unga says "Hola". We're splitting the hour between the two of us today cause her card isn't working. And this man just told me my typing is annoying......I'm going to give him a pass along card.

1. Claudia is still getting baptized on Saturday and now.......her 9 year old daughter Karen is too! We're super excited and they're both getting baptized together. Which reminds me, Mom will you dearelder me the recipe for the bran muffins cause im going to make them for the baptism.

2. When on exchanges with Barchi this week because Unga had training with president on Tues, Wed, and Thurs. It was super fun cause Barchi is in Jamaica.....partay!

3. Also went to Manhattan with Barchi this week cause she had an appointment. It was weird cause I didn't think of the hussle and bussle I normally think of.......I just saw how sad and kinda of robotically everyone is living their life. It made me sad......they just don't look very happy.

4. We played bingo with retirement home people this week which was also a blast and kind of funny/annoying when I caught the elders watching Maury and Jerry Springer n the tv.

5. I've been SO tired every morning and a few nights ago I prayed that I could have more energy to wake up. And that next morning, and every morning since then, I have woken up on my own 3-5 minutes before the alarms go off, with total energy. Christmas miracle.....the Lord loves me.

6. We went to Target to buy me a new suitcase because one of the wheels on my is broken and it won't even roll. So hence the charge on my card mom. Anyway, it's so New York-y cause they're all in high buildings and Target is off the escalator right next ot Best Buy.

7. We had CapriSuns today. The church is true.

8. We also saw a portable US mail office. My life is complete. I gave a moment of silence for you Dad.

9. The subway line was out of service on one side and so we had to switch on to another one and I thought the world would probably end and the aliens had taken over the metro. Nothings happened yet.,......but it always comes when you least expect it.

10. One recent convert won't answer his phone so I left him a message the other night, "Francisco, this is Sister Winfield. I just want to talk to you about your life and your doubts and your problems. Please.....please....call me when you get this message". It was a lot funnier in spanish and Sister Unga was laughing at me while I left it........he still hasn't called us back.

Shout outs this week to: Grandma, Aunt Di, Dad, Mom, and Laura and Jackson Baker! THANK YOU. I just printed out the emails so unga can use my time but ill read them asap and im sure theyre great!

I LOVE you all. Have a great week! The church is true!

Love the mish. Be this mish.
Hermana Winfield

Pray for the storm.....um, I mean the will of the Lord

Hola!
As Mom didn't have any questions this week, we'll just start right off with the top 10! (I found an Internet cafe that was open today.....it only took a little hunting)

1. The Hurricane. I don't know if anyone on that side of the country heard about it, but there was a huge hurricane, Hurricane Earl, that was supposed to hit NYC this last friday. It was pretty likely to hit and immediately we all thought of all the movies about the world ending and how it starts in NY. The Day After Tomorrow, some movie with Tom Cruise, and tons of others.....you know what I mean. And some of the missionaries were being evacuated. Of course I wasn't evacuated cause President knows I can take it like a man. But we were told to go buy more canned food and water.

So we started discussing how the hurricane is exactly what we need.....all the missionaries were talking about how after the earthquake in Chile tons of people got baptized and how natural disasters and trials have a way of humbling people.....like in 3rd nephi. So Hermana Unga and I started praying for the hurricane to hit so people would be humbled and we could find more to teach. Not in a bad way, we didn't want anyone to die, just enough to scare them a little bit.

Friday morning, I woke up and went to take a shower and there were WAY more cockroaches in the bathroom than there normally are. So I spent a while killing them so I could shower in peace (thanks ginger, i didn't know that about killing the babies.....I'll be more careful not to spread the eggs lol). But do you know what that means? Animals always have this sense when something bad is going to happen.....and they run for shelter. And the bathroom is probably one of the safest places in our apartment cause it's in the middle and there aren't any windows. So logically the hurricane was coming and the sweet little cockroaches were warning us. But alas, the will of the Lord prevailed as it always does and the will of the Lord seemed to not want the hurricane to hit......it only got a little windy and a little rainy. Sad day.

2. I got on the bus the other day and was still walking to the back when the driver said "Can I ask you a question?" He was this intimidating big black guy and I didn't know who he was talking to but when he repeated it again I said "Are you talking to me?" and he said "Of course I'm talking to you. Can I ask you a question?" I wish I could adequately portray the thug language he was using but unfortunately I can't.
So I walked up to the front while he was driving and he said, "Are you one of the mormons?"
And I said, "Yes I'm a missionary from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints"
and then he said "Well then how come you never say hi to me? What's wrong with you? Us bus drivers are nice people and you never say hi". Wow. First off I do say hi, but it's usually as I leave because it's always crowded getting on. But nevertheless he gave me a lecture my whole bus ride and told me I'd better spread the word cause he didn't want to see another missionary not say hi to him. Whew. I asked his name and said, "Fred, I will never again not say hi. I'll see you soon Fred!" Word to the wise......don't make a big black man angry......and gosh darn, just be friendly!

3. Sunday I was asked to lead the music in sacrament meeting while Unga played the piano. Well, lets just say it was a disaster and I totally butchered the first hymn. I figured it out by the closing but I had already ruined my reputation. How do I know this? Yesterday we went and visited members after church and they all told me how funny and horrible it was that I messed up the music. One lady even started reenacting how I had led. Yeah, I was humiliated. But next Sunday I will come in as if I'm leading the Mo-Tab. They won't know what hit them.

4. We went to visit a sister in our ward and her 20-something year old son was over visiting her and he's just starting to come back to church. He collects rare Nike shoes and showed us over 30 pairs he had in her closet......and he has even more at his place. He even had back-to-school shoes that looked like Elmer's glue. So yes, we're pretty much best friends now and he'll be coming to church on Sunday.

5. Claudia update- she came to a baptism another district had on Friday night and she brought the girls too (she has 4 daughters). It was actually horribly organized and I wanted to hurt the Elders for it but it didn't ruin her too much cause she came to church yesterday......I think she's gonna make it!

6. I got on the bus the other day (fun stuff always happen on public transportation here :) And as I was standing and holding on to the bar the man sitting down by me said "Hey! How are you!" as if he knew me. But he speaking english aka not from our ward so I was totally confused. He then is like "Hey don't you remember me? We sat by each other on the bus a week ago right over there" Wow creeper. I then remembered he was one that asked for my number AFTER he found out I was a missionary.....weirdo. So we talked for a while and I invited him to come to the english branch with the elders any time and he invited me to come eat dinner with him at his restaurant down the street. I told him no thanks and gave him the "It's not you, it's me.........you need to repent and come to church and recognize that living the gospel of jesus christ is the most important thing you can do in your life.....far better than hitting on someone dressed like a nun". You know, the usual line. I don't want you to think I'm prideful.....everyone gets hit on here, I'm not special at all. The only requirement is to be a woman under 45ish.

7. Yesterday was fast sunday and no one in our ward fasts.....it's actually really funny. So after church 2 different people invited us over to share a message and they both ended up feeding us.......one lasagna and one spaghetti. I think they were trying to make us feel at home cause we're american but I really just wanted some latin food lol. Oh and side note: Bishop wore tennis shoes with his suit to church yesterday.....and the stake president visited our ward. I LOVE it here.

8. We went bowling last week for a district activity on preparation day. It was fun and I broke 50 so the elders gave me a high five......I was pretty happy about that myself. They wanted to go again today but we boycotted.

9. Glenda and Walter. Glenda is inactive and Walter, her husband, is a nonmember and has a problem with drinking. But we've been trying to work with them and this week we tried something new......I gave them a homework assignment. Not just some reading assignment......something better! President assigns us homework every week that includes reading, answering questions, and using a process of praying, reading, praying etc. So I translated it into spanish (scary thought) and handed it to Glenda and Walter......and told them I would be reminding them during the week before our next meeting. So pray that they do it!

10. We did a street sweep Saturday and it was really fun. It was our whole zone (so 16 or so of us) and we hit the street in Jamaica. My favorite excuses this week "Oh, I'm Catholic" which is always a winner and "No i don't have time" In my mind my response is "Oh I'm so sorry. I had no idea. You poor thing. I'll just worry about your salvation another day when I have more time." Boom! In your face! Okay ahaha jk I'm not rude like that but actually my favorite approach is to ask them, in spanish, if they speak spanish. They look at me like "yeah of course. i'm latin" and then I pretend to get all excited and say "Oh, I'm learning spanish!" and then they give you a little more attention because they want to see how dumb you sound in spanish. Works like a charm muhahaha

11. It's actually safer here than you would think. I reazlied the other day that I haven't really worried about much since I've been here. We even have our little friends that we know. Like Alfie that owns Alfie's pizza across the street from us. He always asks if we want to go to the beach with him........he's like 60 and has a walker. And the guy who owns the store below our apartment. He always asks us how much we'd charge him to do his laundry. Or like the crazy man that dances on the corner around our house......he's actually a pretty good dancer. Life is good.

12. Last but certainly not least, are the Mamon stories for the week. I LOVE her. We're gonna ask President to do a zebra and open up East NY for us (zebra is putting an english and spanish sister together).

Today we ran to the bakery next to the laundry place while we were washing our clothes so we could grab a crossiant. There was a lady cop in there and of course Mamon can't help but say to her, "So, how's the cop stuff going?" And she said, "Oh it's pretty good, just like normal." and goes on for a minute. And then Mamon spends the next 2 minutes trying to convince the cop to join the swat team. In the end the cop has convinced Mamon to join the swat. Good times.

Then, while we're drying our clothes, Mamon tells me she made up a quote and it's really good. It happens to be a paraphrasing of a scripture and she really had no idea. So i was peeing my pants laughing. But then Unga tells me Mamon actually had a really good original quote one day. Apparently they were asking Mamon if she was going to date her ex-boyfriend again after the mish and she said, "When I throw my trash into a garbage can I don't go back to the garbage can to dig it out and pick it up." LOVE HER.

Well, I think that's its for this week. #11 and 12 were to make up for the 2 I missed last week.

Shout outs: Ginger (love you! come soon!), Mom of course, Dad what happend to your email?, Grandma got your letter and LOVED LOVED LOVED it, Aunt Di (THANK YOU! Good luck with school stuff and BOM and sem!)

Mom- I got your letter on the 3rd. I am glad the truth has finally been brought to light.....curse you brenna :)

Uncle Ross- Pres. Nelson said he got a letter from you and that you said hi or something. Hi back! I forgot to tell him you were my uncle and that President said "Yeah, don't worry, I wouldn't claim him either" He's hilarious! I claimed you :)

Steve and Cheryl- I've got some HUGE baby mama drama for you.....expect a letter in the next few weeks

Love the Mish. Be the Mish.
Hermana Winfield

Another week in the best life ever!

Helllooo family!

Mom's questions first: There's not a McDonald's close of any other fast food......and I can't think of anything else right now for you to send me. THANK YOU! I forgot to tell Pres about Uncle Ross......lol I'll do it next time I see him. And they forward the letters in the mail. Or if we stop by the office they'll give us the mail they have......whatever's quicker. We shop at a market down the street. There's not a WinCo or Walmart around.......I haven't even seen a real grocery store since I've been here......unless you count a Walgreens :)

Okay disclaimer for this week: I mix up spelling of English words.....my brain can only handle one language at a time.....so excuse the spelling please :)

1. To start things off, let me tell you of a story from church yesterday. For the last hour, we had relief society and priesthood combined. And the bishop was giving a little plug for reading the book of mormon......cause a lot don't do it here. And he was telling them they should want to read it because it was written by their ancestors. He was saying, "Our parent's were the Lamanites!" and then this lady sitting on the same row as me looks at me and points and yells "What about her!? She's not a lamanite.....she's white!" Of course everyone turns around and looks at me....and everyone starts laughing and teasing me because I don't have Book of Mormon ancestors. Finally after about a minute of people trying to talk over each other about how I don't belong, the Bishop was like "Okay, okay. Calm down." Wow, embarrassing. LOL (grandma, that means "laugh out loud" now)

2. It's like a 3rd world country here. No one has dishwashers......which doesn't mean its 3rd world but thats just the first thing that popped into my head. But it's great because instead of serving my mission in one country, I get to meet tons of different people......and most people here just got here 3 or less years ago. My favorites so far are the D.R.s (Dominican Republic) and the Mexicans, because their accents are the easiest to understand......and the DR are hilarious.

3. Just to prove that I'm in the hood, I'm going to enlighten everyone but MOM: do NOT freak out. I am completely safe and if you freak out from this story I'll start sending boring emails. Okay, so we were visiting an inactive in the ward and she told us that the other day she was at the park with her kids and her cousin and her kids... and there were 2 groups of 5 men. Then all of a sudden one pulled out a knife and another pulled out a gun. And a lady was yelling "Please, not here! The children!" So everyone started running away as the fight started. And the cops never even came. Boom. Welcome to the streets. But no worries, cause we never have any time to go to the park :)

4. Well, it's offical. A member told me the other day that the Empire State building now has bed bugs and so does J-Lo's house. Not sure how J-Lo all the sudden became a credible source, but apparently if J-Lo has it, it's only a matter of time before we do. So when we leave people's houses now, we check each other for bed bugs......thankfully I've only had roaches so far :)

5. WARNING: this story contains a strong word and is not for children under 5. The other day Mamon (1 of the 2 English sisters that lives in our pad) was at a recent converts house eating dinner and they were feeding them these peppers or something and Mamon said it was really spicy. The member asked if she wanted anymore or something and she said "Oh, no thanks. My testicules are on fire!" She told us she meant to say intestines or insides, but testicules came out. We were peeing ourselves laughing......I can't even imagine how funny it was in the moment. The converts nonmember son who is our age stopped what he was doing and just starred at her. (Side note: I LOVE Mamon. She is from Russia which automatically makes her cool. But besides that, she is handsdown one of the funniest people ever.)

6. Claudia is one of our investigators and she just committed to be baptized on the 19th of Sept! We're super pumped but she didn't come to church yesterday so she's gonna get it when we go over next time. We cleaned her kitchen and living room with the Elders last week. We threw away a lot of inappropriate entertainment from the living room when she wasn't looking.......muhahahah!

7. While doing weekly planning in the chapel on Thursday, a church maintanence man ran in and said "Sisters, I need your help! Bring your scriptures!" He had some man he was trying to teach outside who randomly had been outside the church. So we talked with him for a while and after he tried to start bible bashing, my awesome companion said "Why are you here? Are you here to learn or teach us or somehting else?" And he said "I'm here to get my name taken off the records of the church." Wow. So the English Elders started talking to him but he didn't understand english so I was translating.....and then another set of elders were listening in......so it ended up being 6 missionaires and this one guy. He finally left and we told him how to get ahold of the bishop to get his name removed. Apparently his sister died in his arms and he doesn't believe the church is true anymore. It seriously broke my heart.

8. The ward has an Elders quorum activity every Friday night but with latin culture it's always a party so the women end up showing up.......so basically we have a ward party every friday night......and we bbq and we bring investigators. LOVE it

Well, I ran out of time so we only have a top 8 this week........and I really AM having a lot of great spiritual experiences but I'm only writing the "fun", worldly stuff cause that's what the girls want.......but eventually I'll merge with the typical missionary emailing lol.

LOVE YOU ALL!

Shout outs this week go to:

Kaly! (THANK YOU for the cake-bites......sorry I forgot to thank you before! they were AMAZING!)

Grandma! LOVED your emails and I'm excited for your letters.

Beth......congrats on the car! Whew Mom and Dad, forking over the cash for your favorite daughters yet again......oh and I'm glad you're loving the love package I sent......I want a full report when you're done with it

Brenna.....congrats on passing the test......I'll pray you get a job! And glad your new roommates seem nice!

Em and Bug.....super excited for my fav girlies to start school! LOVE you both!

Mom.....yes, you are my favorite mother :) that's all lol

Dad......I basically have the best dad ever......I don't know anyone else who receives weekly awesome emails like that from their dad

Aunt Di......glad to hear everyone is rocking it. Uncle Keith with his race being the party man he is. And both Laura and Park in HS......crazy! Give everyone a hug for me! And way to go with the Book of Mormon!

Love the mish. Be the mish.

Hermana Winfield

I'm in NYC!!!!!

I'm here!!!! Of course New York city is amazing, why wouldn't it be?

Before we get to the top ten this week, I'll answer your questions Mom:

I can read letters every day whenever I get them so everyone is free to still mail letters. Just mail it to the mission address (the one you used to send me all those letters already :) and that'll work great. We don't give out our actual address cause I'm actually in the CIA and it's against the rules. But the mission office just forwards them on.

I have 1 hour to read and send emails on preparation day which is a lot less stressful than the 30 minutes in the MTC. And yes mother, I can print off emails and reread them later. I can print off 20 free pages each week so don't send anything longer than that :)

I of course LOVED my bedding package and I am now the most popular person in NYC because of it. THANK YOU! And I loved the pillow cases. I'm sure our beloved sister dahl had something to do with that so tell her thanks for me.

Okay, top ten of NYC week one here we come!

1. I am assigned to the Richmond Hills area in Queens! I've been told it is the sketch-iest place they send spanish sisters but its actually not that scary. They don't send sisters to the east ny part of brooklyn, especially since two elders just got jumped there last transfer.......but I'm going start praying I get sent there sometime on the mish. It is SO amazing and SO diverse. I counted and I haven't seen a white person in 4 days. Hahaha loves it. I don't know if the girls remember it but in iRobot i think with Will Smith he's yelling outside at the even stevens kid and it's all ghetto and there's this big old train track above the street. Anyway, I can't remember the movie too well but I'm pretty sure that's where I live. So yes, it rocks. I live in the Queens! Queens people!

2. My companion is Hermana Unga and she's from Hawaii. Her parents are from Tonga and she was going to BYU Hawaii before the mish studying biology. She is AMAZING and we have so much fun together. She also happens to sound like a native spanish speaker so people think she's a little weird to hang out with a white girl (aka me) all day when we're out on the streets. Just to give you a taste of our beautiful relationship, last night we walked to visit with less actives for 3 hours in the dark and rain. It was raining harder than Washington......believe it cause it's the truth. So our clothes were soaked and not ONE person answered the door.....so while walking we sang Christmas songs and talked about all our favorite food.......time of my life! It was seriously one of my favorite moments here so far!

3. President Nelson and Sister Nelson are obviously awesome. I don't know how to really express it in words besides saying that they're everything I hoped they would be.

4. My apartment. Brace yourselves. You'll be proud to know that I killed my first cochroach (sp?) yesterday......it took me that long to build up the courage.....my companion's been doing it for me. The apartment is right above a shop and its awesome. As in it's what I pictured a NY apartment to be. We only have enough room in our closet-sized bedroom for dresses and a bunk bed......which is still pretty tight. And I'm on the top bunk.....and the bunk bed is about to break so it sways when you move or turn at all.....and especially when you're climbing up it. So I literally pray every night that I don't kill my companion in her sleep as it crashes to the floor. I don't think you even understand how much it sways......a lot. A lot a lot. Oh and I forgot to mention the ceiling fan is right above my bed......so I have to army crawl on it if I don't want to chop my head off. I LOVE my life. Seriously, that was not sarcastic......I love it here!

5. We teach English class every Wednesday and it's super fun. This last week we taught them how to ask what time it is and it was pretty much a party.

6. I love going Fearlessing. This is just what we call street contacting and it's always fun to see the look on people's faces when the only white person in Richmond Hills starts speaking spanish. Everyone's favorite excuse is to say "I'm catholic". For some reason they think that will get them off the hook. So then I love to say, "That's great! So you already believe in God and have a desire to do His will!" That throws them off guard.....muhahaha and then BOOM the Book of Mormon. Can't deny the truth baby! Another sister calls fearlessing "Hispanic Panic". Rude but actually quite true.

7. A snapshot of some of our investigators. Habib, who we actually turned over to the elders because he speaks Enlgish. He's muslim, 17 yrs old, and we met him sitting outside his school one day. He said to me "Oh, yeah well I'm just looking for the truth. I mean, there should just be one answer and one church and not tons of different opinions". I about called the elders to fill up the font. We talked for about 30 minutes and he's reading the book of mormon. Loves it.

Then you have people like Claudia who know the church is true but they want to learn everything before they get baptized. I'm just about to push her in the water.

Then we have people like Glenda who grew up in the church but is inactive and her husband in a non-member. We had a lesson with them on Thursday and I straight up asked Walter (her husband) if he had even read the book of mormon. He said yes and then started to share his feelings. It was awesome. Hna Unga is a genius and came up with a really good plan for our next lesson with them.

8. The diversity here astounds me. On the bus one day I started talking to a black man and he told me all about his problems with "the flesh of women". TMI brother, TMI. I think he tought he could confess to me or something. I started telling him about the book of mormon and all was going good til we started talking about satan possessing all the people on the bus. It just went downhill from there. Then I started talking to a Sikh man on the bus (a religion from India where the men have those long beards and the turbans) and he seemed interested when I was telling him about the book of mormon. But then he asked for my number and I realized he had the wrong type of interest. I'm dressed like a nun for goodness sakes! So we've really had to start focusing on families in this area cause apparently the single men like people that dress like grandmas aka me and my comp.

9. The ward is super nice but the culture is SO different. There aren't any youth and the old men were blessing and passing the sacrament. There were about 20 members in the chapel when we started sacrament meeting. The problem in the mission, as I've been told, is that we can baptize but then the wards just go inactive. So we've really been trying to focus on reactivating so there's people there to fellowship converts when we get them.

10. I LOVE my mission! And I LOVE everyone that supports me. This is one of the happiest times of my life!

Thank you everyone that wrote me these last 2 weeks. Special shoutouts go to Bishop Bower (I LOVED your letter), Kathryn, Alesha, Aunt Di, Grandma, Dad and Mom of course, and anyone else that wrote me but that I spaced about right now!

Love the mish. Be the mish.

Hermana Winfield

WOW, feel the love!

Wow, this week I have been living on cloud nine! Of course that's like every week in the MTC but other amazing things have happened as well:

1. Mallory and Justin sent me a package! Holy cow, it confirmed my suspicions that I have the best friends ever! I opened the skittles asap.......bendice sus corazones. Enserio.......I love you both. THANK YOU!!!

2. I also got an email from Cait and of course she's as wonderful as ever. I am also happy that Maggie and Ben are now officially together on facebook (thanks mom). Maggie, if you don't write me asap there will be consequences.....I love you!

I also got an email from Ginger at LDSP........Ginger, wow, I'm a little sad I've been replaced so quickly, but I guess you can be nice to the new girl.......or maybe he'll be a man and he and Ginger will get married and they'll be rich and take me out on their yacht with them......just a thought. I am also glad that you've finally got my emails from Kathryn........and please give Kaly a hug for me ASAP......and ask her how Colton is doing......I've been praying for him! (and I am a lot cooler because of the scarf you bought me Kaly......muchas gracias)

Also, Alan, congrats on getting one kid sealed for eternity........only a few more to go :) Unfortunately for myself, I signed my ability to rebel away to my mother when I was 9 so that she would take me hottubing........so when I get married in the temple she won't even be surprised.....I have no choice. Tell them congrats for me and I'm excited for our mass family party in 2011! Woot woot!

3. This week Elder Simkins in my district, who is also going to my mission, was laughing at me while I was trying to hole punch index cards to use as flash cards. Being the strong man he thinks he is, he told me he'd do them all. Apparently he's too strong because he was trying to do too many at a time and bent the metal. So now I have a broken hole punch and no flash cards........that's what happens when you let 19 yr olds show off their "muscles"

4. We sang "We'll Bring the world his truth" at devotional sunday which was the first time singing that song and a primary song for that matter since I've been here. I thought of when we all sang that for grandma and grandpa's mission so of course I was bawling like the daughter of Mariann that I am. Good times.

5. That night we also saw the first vision movie. Everyone that has not seen it in the last 5 days needs to go watch it asap.......I'm serious, do it. Do it now. Anyway, I of course cried during that as well because HOLA, its the prophet Jospeh Smith and the restoration of the gospel! And I was thinking to myself that after the mvoie was over and the lights were turned back on that my elders were going to laugh at me for crying. But low and behold when the lights came on there was more than one set of red eyes. I didn't even tease them.

6. We had a health meeting yesterday to teach us how to not die on the mission. It was mostly teaching the Elders to not be stupid and to "not get feces on your hands" as the 70 yr old doctor bluntly told us. Wow. The MTC ceases to amaze me. Then he gave a talk for sisters only after the meeting and I could have done without that. Haahahaha his reasoning for everything "I know how it goes, sometimes women just have these things". Last time I checked he was a man......but the advice was still appreciated.....and hilarious.

7. Last week I got teased that I would speak this sunday because I'm the oldest sister here. But it didnt happen. So it WILL this sunday. It is not a prophecy, just a fact. Pray......a lot.

8. We went to the temple today......we do a 10am session and I can now say that because we had the last one today.....but Brenna, fate still has one more chance this sunday. We also ate in the temple cafeteria with the old people afterwards and it was pretty wild. People throwing oxygen tanks, canes flying in the air.....we know how to party!

9. Mom I am completely healthy and fine now. And I am leaving on an 8:30 am flight monday morning and getting in NYC at 3:30 their time I think. I WILL be calling you.......they told us we could most certainly call our families! And I even got permission to call B-Boo! So everyone get really excited.......I will be calling way early because I have to before the plane takes off at 8:30......but everyone can sleep afterward! And em, holy cow stop driving! Scary! I love you!

10. Brenna.......I wanted to pee my pants laughing from your dearelder. YOUR love is my drug. Oh my gosh I was dying. You have set the standard and now I expect a letter like that every week of my mission. I am serious......don't disappoint. EVERY week. LOVE YOU! I'll be calling you el lunes!

Love the mish. Be the mish.

Hermana Winfield