Pura Vida!!!!!

Well, to explain my subject line... On Sunday Sister Walker sang at a fireside with the Ambassador of Costa Rica. Pura Vida is their motto type of thing, it means Pure Life. It was a pretty cool fireside until he made a snooty rude comment about America, then my American Pride kicked in and I was grumpy the rest of the time. Ha ha, It's a good thing Heavenly Father sent me to a stateside mission, my American Pride would have gotten in the way too much if he didn't. It already gets in the way now and I LIVE in America. Ha ha, good times. I am glad I have a companion with such a wonderful voice because I get to go to all these cool things she sings at. The refreshments were really good so I left the fireside happy and with some yummy American food in my tummy (which does NOT happen very often!)
It's been a good (but wet) week. We have THREE people with a baptismal date! We are so excited. One is Soledad and her daughter Luz. They are so humble and she set a date her first lesson. They come to church every Sunday and totally love it. The other one is Maribel! We couldn't be more excited for her! We love Maribel so much and we are so excited for her to be baptized. March 13th is the date for Maribel and March 14th for Soledad and Luz! Woo hoo! Santos is doing awesome it you can totally see the change in him since he was baptized. Sadly, his friend Luis, who we were sure would get baptized before Santos randomly told us he didn't want to talk the lessons anymore. We are going to still try to work with him but he has been MIA since the baptism.
We have a couple of new investigators that seem very interested and Sister Walker and I are hoping that we stay in the Bronx for another cycle after this one at least, we just feel there is so much we have to do here still!
Sister Walker and I are still so close and getting along great. We have decided we are the same person! Pretty much everything about us is the same, all the way down to eating popcorn with a glass of milk :) It is wonderful. Every other Tuesday we do service in the Bishops storehouse and it is so fun! We love doing it mainly because we love the senior couple missionaries that live there! Elder and Sister Wilhite are so awesome! Sister Wilhite is like a firecracker and she is so fun to be around. They are like are mission mom and dad because they live next to the church and if we are ever having a bad day they will take care of us. It is so nice! (And nice for me because they speak English :)
They have still not told me if we are moving or not. It is hard to find a good place close to the church. The building all the elders live in is really nice but they are obviously hesitant to put the elders so close to the sisters. So as of now, keep sending letters to the mission office. I get mail from there every Friday. The bed bugs are still enjoying feasting on my legs and arms but I am becoming used to being itchy all the time. Ha ha
Funny story of the week: One day Sister Walker and I were standing waiting for the single to change so we could cross the street and at the same time we were looking for a street so we weren't really paying attention. All of the sudden a car drove through this huge gross puddle (we like to call the gross water here Bronx Juice) and all the Bronx juice splashed ALL OVER US! We were soaked and just started laughing so hard. Then this lady starts yelling at us to pay attention but she was yelling in Spanish. Little did she know we understood everything she said... it was some good times.
I was sick AGAIN this last weekend with a fever and body aches but I am doing better now. It has turned into a really annoying stuffy nose. I don't know why I get so sick here. Oh well, I'm happy so it's good!
I love you all! I have really seen the Lords hand in peoples lives here, especially in preparing them. I hope all of you are taking care of the missionaries in your home wards... Next time you feed them ask them what their favorite meal is, it's fun to get normal food sometimes :)
One thing our mission is doing is reading the Book of Mormon together as a mission and it is awesome. Could that book be any more true? Every time I read it I gain new insight, I love it! Well, I love you all! Keep on keeping on!
Love, Hermana Passantino