Feliz el Dia de Accion de Gracias!

Hello to All! I hope that everyone is having a fantastic thanksgiving week! This week has been really good! The new hermanas and I have been getting along very well and we have a lot of fun together. Let's see... there wasn't a lot that happened this week. We had Sis Cook from the YW General Precidency spoke at RS this week and it was amazing. We got 700 new missionaries into the MTC this week so it was a little crazy. They don't have any new ones come in on Thanksgiving week so the doubled up last week. It has been very packed! Other events this week. I went to the doctor for my leg. It was still really sore and full of fluid so I decided to have it checked out. The doctor told me I need to do physical therapy soooo.... yeah. I have to do physical therapy twice a week. They put heat on it, then massage it out (which is SO painful) then I have to do all these stretches and exercises, then they do some sort of electro therapy something where they put electric shocks through my leg. It's very interesting. I guess I banged it up pretty bad. There are some really hard spots in my leg that the doctor said need to be taken care of or they might turn into some sort of calcium something. It's interesting but it's getting taken care of so no worries. It's just annoying to have to go twice a week. Oh well... it gets me out in the real world. And by real world I mean taking a 5 minute walk to the BYU health clinic. Ha ha. I have figured out that the MTC has given me a wonderful gift, and that gift is being able to take outside shots in basketball. I know, it's a miracle! I have avoided playing basketball in the gym because let's be honest, I am no good at outside shots. But I decided to join a game of knockout (they call it lightning here) and what do you know... I won! And it wasn't because they were being easy on me. We were playing from the three point line and I just kept making them. It has now become my favorite gym time activity. CJ, you would be proud of your sister! We'll see if this gift actually lasts. So I have decided that it would be fun to let everyone know what I am studying this week and then have whoever wants to study it too! And write me about what you studied! Sounds like a good idea right? So, this week I am studying two different things. One is the topic of grace and the other is the topic of obedience. I am studying grace because it's interesting and obedience because that is the topic I am writing my talk on this week. So write me if you have any insights you would like to share! I teach my first lesson in Spanish this week. Please pray for me, I don't know how I am even going to do it! It will be Thursday night, so any prayers are welcome :) Our favorite district in the zone left for Argentina today. We were all so sad to see them go. Then today we were walking to lunch and heard someone yell out, "Hermana Passantino!" I thought I was seeing things because there were the elders that were supposed to have left early this morning. I guess their plane got delayed till tomorrow. It's too bad for them but we were excited to see them back! It's like you get into a little family with your zone and it's so sad to see people leave. I have decided to make this week my week of gratitude so to end I just want to list off some things I have been feeling extra grateful for lately, in no particular order.
1. The restoration of the gospel
2. The temple
3. My family!
4. Good examples in my life
5. My families gourmet cooking
6. Health
7. Warm beds
8. The priesthood
9. Friends
10. The atonement
11. Knowing I am a daughter of God
12. The Book of Mormon
13. Letters :)
14. Friendly people
15. People who talk to me in Spanish, but talk really slow 16. E-mail 17. The snow 18. Joseph Smith 19. My companions 20. My membership in the church!
I hope everyone's Thanksgiving is fantastic! I know it will be a different one for me and my family but I am so grateful to know that I can be with them forever so really, one or two thanksgivings away won't be too bad! I love you!
Love, Hermana Passantino
PS: For all of you who think I hurt myself from being competitive... that's so not true. I was just trying to get my stupid eraser in the trash can... anyone else would have done the same thing!
PPS: Laurie... I love my Bidwell junior high shorts!