Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Yesterday I hit my month left mark. This time of year is just like a time of deja vu, because I was on my mission in Arizona for all of this last year. Today Abigail (Hna. Blades! she's been home 6 months!) came into the VC and I got to see her, Claudia Mestre, and Rosalva Farnsworth. I love them so much and am going to see if I can have permission to see some of the people in my old areas that mean a lot to me before I leave. I bought a memory card last week that will be filled just with people I love from my mission. Xmas lights start on Thursday, so everything is going to start moving a lot faster. Juan Ortega's baptism is this Saturday, and I am so excited! He has asked me to give the talk on baptism. Hna. McBride is coming and I am also way excited to see her! This past week has been good, everyone getting ready for the holidays. We have had some very full days, which I love. At the beginning of the week we were given some braided bread. The bread people (that's all we know to call them) home make this delicious bread and sell it, but give it to missionaries free. It is prety funny, because if they see you, they will follow you till you stop and get out of you car and then run up to you with a loaf or two. Now that we are on bikes we are much more noticeable so they will pull over and catch us all the time. Last week they gave us 2 loaves but we were out at appointments so we decided to give one of the loaves to some less-actives. The Alvarez family are the ones who feed us for free every weekend, because they sell food in their backyard. They make delicious food so we didn't think that our little loaf of bread would be a big deal, but when we gave it to them they were so grateful, you would think that we had given them 1000 dollars. We saw them again on Wednesday when we helped Hna. Alvarez get ready for Los Tacos and played Uno with her children afterwards, and then again on Saturday when we ate with them. On Thursday my bike got a flat (we aren't sure how, we went in to an appointment and it was full and we came out after teaching and cleaning her house and it was empty). Luckily Edwin was home, our handy man investigator (meaning he works on cars and soups them up with things like Burberry leather that costs like 250 a yard...) On Saturday we met with Daniela. We had contacted her husband in a parking lot a few weeks ago but had never been able to catch them at home, but we did on Thursday so we visited her on Saturday. She had asked us to bring the DVD Finding Faith in Christ. She is so sweet and has a sweet little family. She immediately accepted to come to church the next day. (She didn't come but she just called me before the appointment we had today saying that she and her daughter were sick and that they didn't go to church because of the rain.) She is very sincere and we are excited to teach her and her family. Thanksgiving is our actually preparation day but since things are closed we had to email and shop today. We are going to have a dinner with the VC, just like last year. We have also been invited by our investigators Edwin, Shannon, and Nora, to come over to their home so we might spend a little time with them as well. I am excited to spend my favorite holiday here in Mesa again, but I'll miss Dad's chocolate pie, so I hope there is some for Xmas! I love you all and hope you remember all the things you are grateful for this week and always! I am grateful to have been born in the true restored church of Jesus Christ, for the blessing of being able to serve a mission here is Mesa, Arizona, for all the people that have become a part of my life here and for all the people who are still a big part of my life back home. And I am grateful for all of you! Happy Thanksgiving!

Desde Mesa, con amor,

Hermana Ladd