California Girl - Adventures of Hermana Hawkes

Hi all! I've never, ever had such a crazy week. We worked so hard and we saw so many miracles. Hermana Staker just kind of swept in like Glinda from the Wizard of Oz and made everything so much better. She likes folk music, dark chocolate (the darker the better), and fresh fruit, so we get along just fine. She's a warrior though, we've had a lot of slack to pick up and she's been just energy and positivity. We just crawl into the apartment every night dusty and exhausted but excited.  We went from working in our area with another set of elders to being all on our own, so we spent the week desperately trying to track down everyone they are teaching, care for everyone we're already teaching, and get in contact with everyone we'd like to soon be teaching. Not to mention yours truly managed to leave the phone in the home of this sweet old lady who lives 30 minutes away. Lots of driving. We went from saying, "One day, we need to go on a ro

Yes, Thermal has a taste. Hot dust, mejool dates, and warm grapes. The vineyards and date gardens have all started their harvests, so nearly everyone we know is involved with picking the grapes and has access to dates. They come up to us with bag after bag of grapes, and little plastic boxes and cups full of dates. It's the cutest thing, and we never want to turn them down, but I'm afraid we can't eat them fast enough!! Anybody like dates? I will send you a lifetime supply!  This week was slower, as we've just been trying to get in contact with many of the people we're teaching. We live so far from all of them, and they are all just so busy. In other news, they will be taking out the elders that work with us in the ward so I'll be teaching all of their people as well. Hermana Alvarado will be leaving me to serve in Agua Caliente. I'll sure miss her, and I'm a little overwhelmed to think about managing this area on my own, but I know it's real

Hello family and friends! Not much time today, as pday is shortened for a temple trip later in the week, but I'll do my best.  If you've ever wondered what it's like to be my companion, we recently had an adventure that I think illustrates it. We were down in the 70, which looks, according to Hna Alvarado, exactly like Mexico. While driving away, I saw in the rearview this little old vaquero("cowboy") in a big white hat. I battled with myself for a minute, wondering if we should go back. "Hey, you noticed him," I reasoned, "and you like little old cowboys, so it's probably not a coincidence." I flipped the U-ie, doubting myself the whole time. Unfortunately we had to drive back into the trailer park we'd just driven out of and drive right past him. I tried to sink low in my seat. Then we tried to casually walk past him as if we hadn't just driven by twice, but by the stink-eye that man gave me from under the brim of h

Hi all!  So many little stories this week I'll just have to pick a few. Every day gets a bit hotter and the way the locals talk about it it makes you feel like you're preparing for battle-- "This is your first summer in the desert?" *nods knowingly.* "I just hope you're ready. It will be hot. It will stay hot. You had better stay in the house." I think not! We have work to do! We're lucky to have a car, I feel so bad for anyone on bike.  We did a little Family Home Evening with a bunch of recent converts, and I thought "Don't Eat Pete" would be a good game because we were going to have two really little kids there. Basically you try to eat all the candies on the board before everyone yells to stop. My spanish version, "No comas Tomás" actually made both the kids cry, but the adults loved it, and most of all Esteban, who won the whole thing. The next week he'd just look at us, nod, and quietly say, "