3.26.13 Letter

Dear Family,

First of all, let me do some house keeping. You got my address which is great, but we don't know if we even have a mail box. So those packages you sent... I hope I get them somehow! Say some prayers! For the future though, you can send things to the elders that live here in Taos. Their address is 108 Carbajal Road. Taos, NM 87571. They said it would be ok for us to have our family send letters and packages there, they'll get them to us. We see them almost every day. But as soon as I know if I can get mail to my home right now I'll let you know so you can send things there.

Because I'm as far north as this mission goes, therefore COLD! Colder than home! And as you know I sent home my leather jacket, and didn't bring anything warm. I'm glad I had you send me my boots and my other sweater. That's helped.  I was praying and praying they'd send me down south to El Paso or La Crusas. But just my luck, I'm here in Taos! The over night lows have been in the single digits. The days are usually sunny, but in the 30's and 40's. And the wind is INSANE! Mom, it would really scare you. I don't like it cause it likes to blow up my skirt. Immodest! haha. So that's the weather... They say it'll warm up, but I would still like to have those things because they also say the weather is unpredictable. Like Utah. The weekend before we got here it was in the 60's. But this week... 20-30 degrees cooler. We brought the cold with us! Haha.

So my companion rocks. I told you a little about her already, and I'll send pictures. But she's so happy and kind to everybody, amazing testimony and prayers. She comes from a reservation in Nebraska. She's from the Omaha tribe. Her brother is chief! Legit, right? She's a plains indian. Taller than the natives here. She went BYU and has traveled the world with the performing group she was in at BYU. She and I are so similar in style and personality. We're both just a little weird... She's like one of 3 other people on the earth that knows who the Lower Lights are, that was cool. We have great conversations about many things in our PICK UP TRUCK we named MACHO NACHO that I'm the designated driver of... :) She's such a great trainer and has so much wisdom. I'll be her last companion. I feel so honored cause she is so great! Heavenly Father is blessing me with an amazing start to my mission so I have these things to look back on when things get hard.

The area of Taos is absolutely gorgeous! We live my the mountains. Dirt roads everywhere. One main street. Art galleries everywhere! I can't wait to visit some and tell you how awesome they are. Thrift shops everywhere! Everyone is small and brown. Well, most everyone. My companion and I are both on the taller side.

The night sky is so vivid and bright and clear. People live in either Pueblo looking houses that look nicer than others or like trailers or cement slabs (like me) or rundown shacks. It seems like there's no middle ground. Everything is so spread out. We live 12 miles away from the church. It's like every house should have it's own zip code! There are animals everywhere. Lots of dogs. People raise horses and cows, and bunnies, goats, chickens, everything. It's all so amazing!

So let me tell you about my cement slab. It's awesome! Remember how I wanted to live in a trailer? Well I think our cement slab is even better! Better in that it's smaller and probably dumpier. In a good way! The outside looks a little sketch. There's 4 apartments on this cement slab, ours is the end. The main room has the kitchen and a couch and a table and a book case. Then there's our bedroom in which the beds barely fit, and a study room. And a bathroom of course. The first night we took cold showers... :) But then the elder's fixed our water heater. I killed a big spider which in my cold shower too. AH! We finally got curtains to cover the giant windows. The curtains that were on there were like trying to cover a car with a small blanket in stead of a tarp. Haha. We have everything we need though, thanks to the AMAZING MEMBERS! They've given us dishes, cookware, a little bit of food, cleaning supplies, everything. Anyway, our cement slab has great heating, which is nice. We don't freeze besides the first night with our cold showers.

The members. Amazing. Like I said. They've given us everything we need. They love us already! They're all so excited to have a set of elders and a set of sisters.  They haven't had sisters here in over a decade. And they weren't even expecting another set of missionaries until the end of April, and on top of that they didn't know they were getting sisters! Because of our unexpected appearance, they weren't really prepared to give us names and referals. But they've done a good job of getting us a few. And they are working really hard and are so missionary-minded. It's really heart warming to see the love these people have for their friends and neighbors. Tracting isn't really realistic because there aren't any really neighborhoods. But we're going to try anyway. The teaching we've done have mostly been to recent converts and members. Which still counts, but we don't have any investigators. Yet. We will probably have one tomorrow! I'm really excited to have a crazy ridiculous schedule where we are gone all day, teaching multiple people, that kind of thing. So far it's just been following the elders around because they know where they're going. We've gone with them to members houses for dinners who have welcomed us with open arms. And make really awesome food. Green Chiles are the THING down here, Abbi would love it. And you'd all be so proud of how much I've been eating. A lot! And there's a member family who owns the Baskin Robbins here in Taos that give us free ice cream whenever we want! We don't abuse that privilege. But when we go to their house for lunch or dinner, they have so much. So I indulge. So yummy. I think you won't worry about me starving!

So some cool experiences so far. Our first district meeting was last week. My companion and I asked some elders for blessings. My comp always gets one for every new area, so I got one too. They were really great and inspired blessings. Next... My companion basically rebuked a dog that was vicious looking like it was about to attack us. She put her hand out and softy but firmly said "puppy, no." It was not a puppy though. The dog was about to put a paw on the bottom stair, we were on the top. He looked at us, and backed away and ran out of sight. So terrified. But angels were watching over us! Something else is this family that's really 3 separate families but all somehow related. All new converts. Most adorned with tattoos and been in and out of jail. The kids love us and exclaim "SISTERS!" when they see us. They love having the missionaries over. We've been to all of their houses for dinner. We've been helping them remodel on of their trailers. They all live down the same hill all a stone's throw away from each other. They have an incredible capacity to love. I've been able to witness their conversion as they've unknowingly shared their testimonies with us, telling us how much the gospel has changed their lives, improved their relationships with their families, and it's just amazing and heart warming. I'm so blessed right now and have hardly done anything to deserve it!

Well that's all I have for right now. I can't wait to hear from you again and I hope I get those packages you sent!

MUCH LOVE! Think about charity and work on it with me. Moroni 7 is golden.

SISTER Hannah Marie Schieving