California Girl - Adventures of Hermana Hawkes

Hi all!  Another good way to sum up this week would have been "Baptism from the Black Lagoon," or according to Hna Ciarlante, "By Heck or High-Water."  It all started with us having just way too much too do. We had to push Hermano Ramos's baptism back a day to accomodate bishopric schedules, which meant we had to fill the font, teach Gospel Principles, set up the room for the baptism, and give talks all during church. Luckily for us we work in the branch with two Spanish elders, and the two elders from the Palm Springs ward also offered to help. Palm Springs would set up the Relief Society room, and the Agua Elders would watch the font and make sure it finished filling up to be ready right after sacrament. Right before sacrament, Elder Martinez, who'd been feeling unwell for days, took a turn for the worse, but they told one of the other elders to be sure to watch the font for us while they ran to the doctor.  We left sacrament meeting to fin...

Hey all!  Where to even start with this week. Poor Hna Ciarlante has been sick the past couple of days, but this morning I found her in the kitchen, singing "good tidings of comfort and joy" at the top of her lungs and poking her yam (breakfast??) aggressively with a fork. When I questioned her about it she asked me if I'd like to fight, and then we had a ten minute conversation about whether I'd win with my jug of milk or she would win with her yam.  She's one of the most positive people I've ever met. We have a game where I come up with the worst case scenario and she puts a positive spin on it. Her counter to, "A tree falls on your house in the middle of the night, " is "Well, I guess you'd have a skylight!" We discovered our back car window shattered this morning, and the first thing out her mouth was, "Well now you can't see all the water stains!" "I complain about my little problems and the...

Hi all! Happy to report all our sinks are working again thanks to Randy the plumber! If I was Catholic I'd have already petitioned for his sainthood and probably bought a candle with him on it (if they had those). The best sound on earth is definitely running faucets! Trust me!  Agua Caliente branch has more characters than I can count. One is definetely Hno Pinela, who drives 45 minutes to get to every church function with a car full of kids, and smiles so big his eyes bug out. If you make eye contact with him too long, he'll run up to you and offer a "paletita" (sucker), and if you don't eat it he'll continue to offer them to you until you do. It doesn't matter if it's fast Sunday, sacrament meeting, or he's sitting on the stand. Just the other day in branch council I was sitting across the room from him and the Relief Society was discussing an upcoming activity. Everyone, of course, already had suckers, but Hno Pinela was preoccup...

Hi all! One of my favorite things about Latino culture is that the terms "Papi" and "Mami" are used interchangeably for either parents or children (even babies!) I found this out from a little Columbiana abuelita who would call me both "Mamita" and "bebe" which sounded a little contradictory, so I asked someone. Turns out the idea behind it is that these terms show respect and love to your children, because you're raising them to be good parents one day themselves. Cute, huh? What a week! Another good title for this email probably would have been, "In which we discover every possible use for the bathtub we possibly can!" Yes, my friends, we are roughing it! For the entire time I've been out here, one or the other of our sinks has been out of commission. First the bathroom sink had calcium buildup, then the kitchen sink...and that's all our sinks! We had one plumber come in, but he told us we needed all new fau...

Hi all!  I have learned switching areas is kind of like what I've heard described by moms having a second baby; something like, "Oh dear, will I love the second baby as much as the first baby?" I'm here to reassure all first area missionaries not to worry. You will! Oh boy do I love Desert Hot Springs.  Two girls the elders are teaching, Ariana and Briana, were baptized this week. When we asked them how they felt, it was, "Cold on the outside, but really warm on the inside!"  Our little branch Thanksgiving dinner was a success. Hna Salas actually bore her testimony about how she hoped everyone would bring turkey to the event, which I think definitely helped. Laura, wife of Emmanuel who is a recent convert, told us that she would scream if she saw a single tamale (she likes to keep things traditional) and there wasn't one. I was a little bummed myself! My favorite was Hno Ramos, who kept sneakily pulling chilis out of his shirt pocket...