I'm so Grateful.

Well this last week was kind of lame for a while, I was sick from last weekend until this one with the flu.  I was grateful in between my moments of pain that I am normally not sick.  When I came home from church that Sunday I laid down for a nap, despite my exhaustion I could not sleep.  I felt that I needed to write down things I was grateful for.  I told myself I'd do it when I woke up, but things kept flowing into my mind, so here are my 26 things (for my age) that I am most grateful for:

1. My Savior, Jesus Christ - His atonement, love, & example
2. My Heavenly Father - His plan of happiness & infinite love for me
3. The Holy Ghost - for teaching & testifying to me all the truth I know
4. Having the gospel of Jesus Christ in my life
5. My dad - for being a wonderful man, husband, father, grandfather, & always supporting my dreams
6. My mom - for loving me, even when I wasn't so loveable
7. My sister - for being my best friend; even though we've had our rough spots, she's always shown her
    love & loyalty by working things out with me.
8. My brother - for being a good example of a loving husband & father who supports his family and
    serves faithfully in the gospel.
9. My in-laws: Esther - for being a good mother to my adorable nephews & niece, and being so fun to
    talk with.  Jason - for teaching me so many gospel principles that have changed my life.
10. My nephews & neices - for making me so happy & letting me see the simple joys of life through
      laughter & insatiable curiosity.
11. The priesthood - so I can be sealed to my family forever.
12. My church leaders who have loved, counseled, & encouraged me.
13. The opportunity I had to serve in the temple & all the wonderful women who shaped my life there.
14. My dear friends who love me, laugh with me, cry with me, almost die with me, & put up with me.
15. Being endowed & all the spiritual strength & power that gives me to carry on.
16. The opportunity to work at Anasazi & have my life changed & get to know incredible people &
      watch their lives be changed.
17. The opportunity to come to Colombia to improve my spanish & discover more about myself &
      more about the Lord.
18. The Martinez family for being so wonderful & fun & funny & patient with my spanish.
19. A healthy body so I can climb sweet mountains, & go where I want free of pain or inconvenience.
20. Living prophets & apostles who always have words that console, encourage, & inspire me to be
      better.
21. Being an American - even though our nation definitely has its problems, we are SO BLESSED!
22. Having all of my senses work well - so I get to enjoy many incredible things to their fullest.
23. Living near my sister & her in-laws, & them always making time for me & making me feel loved.
24. Laughter - that heals hearts & bonds families & friends.
25. Miracles - especially the miracle of my dear friend Jamie Tingey not only having her life preserved, but also having miracle after miracle defy medical feasibility to make a full recovery.
26. This beautiful earth that provides all our necessities, many of our wants, & is breath takingly beautiful.

On Monday I was washing my garments by hand and I though I should add the little things I'm grateful for:

1. a washing machine - so I can throw my clothes in and do something else for the next 45 mins
2. a dryer - so clothes shrink back to size...mostly just jeans
3. my car - so I can go where I want, when I want, and not have to make an 20 min trip turn into an
    hour of standing squished next to strangers (though this is entertaining sometimes)
4. seeing people I know when I go places
5. having a calling and feeling like I contribute to something
6. a toilet that I don't have to worry if it's going to flush or not
7. a heater and AC in my house...depending on my whim
8. english as my native tongue (general conference is way better not being translated)
9. a temple super close to my house
10. water fountains in every establishment I go in

During my week I fought boredom all the time because I was stuck in bed, but I found ways to entertain myself (and of course was ever studying spanish).  My favorite was putting on facebook that I am in a relationship & that it is complicated.  This was mostly funny because people take facebook seriously & no one can call me.  I laughed every day as there were new comments or messages inquiring about my status.  Oh facebook...so silly.

Thanksgiving was a lovely day in which I did nearly nothing special.  But I did go to the temple and I happened to go at a time that when I entered the celestial room I was the only person in it.  So that was sweet.  I had planned on making Thanksgiving dinner here, but I've never seen a turkey, yam, or a cranberry here...so I bought two of my favorite treat to make up for my lack of the meal.  Then I had half a Colombian hot dog for dinner.  I would be sad but I made my sister promise that we would have my favorite Thanksgiving items for Christmas this year.  (lets be honest, it wasn't hard to convince her because everyone loves Thanksgiving foods)  I did get to speak with my entire family on Skype that night though!  So I was happy about that. 

One of my favorite moments was when I was Skyping with my roommate, Catherine, to have her call me dad to tell him to Skype with me.  She energetically greeted him, told him it was "Catherine Bridges" (sidenote - who he doesn't know) and proceeded to talk to him for a good 10 minutes about how he was doing, how I am doing in Colombia, etc.  She put him on speaker and I was dying laughing as he cheerfully chatted away without a clue or a question of who she was.

I finally caved after several days and started taking medication, which luckily got me better in time for an institute dance on Friday night.  As always I had a blast.  There is a song here called "La Gringa" and so when it played I would dance through the middle of the circle and everyone cheered.  It was pretty funny.  Also funny was a guy who asked for a dance asked if I had a number here, I lied and said I didn't have a cell phone.  I have less then 2 weeks left, I don't need another Manuel on my hands!

Jhonatan, me, & Andrés at the dance:

The next night was graduation from seminary for Andrés, followed by a dance.  Presidente kept introducing me to guys, and then basically pushed us on the dance floor.  One of the times I got asked to dance the kid asked if I had a boyfriend....he was 13.  At one point I told Presidente & Hna. Martinez to go dance, they responded they were tired.  THE NEXT SONG Presidente asked me to dance, I looked at him incredulously and said "I thought you were tired?"  He said with a smile and laugh "He don't want to dance?"  I got up, and as soon as we hit the dance floor he grabbed a poor, unsuspecting guy (who he knows), and put my hand in this guys hand and told us to dance.  He then went and got his wife to dance.  Meanwhile I had a kid whose eyes are huge with surprise at what just happened, I should have seen it coming.  Haha, pretty funny.

(Coming soon: Photos of the graduation.)

This week I really had to talk myself into being responsible and not bring a puppy home.  BUT I WANT ONE SO BAD!!!  They are so cute and they all love me.  If I am near them when they are sleeping and I say something they always wake up to my voice.  They freak out when they see me.  And I love them!  

Here is a typical occurrence: they all run around playing and one by one they find me and crawl in my lap or on my chest to sleep.  It's so sweet.

And of course I love it!!!

The sisters came over today, and I we were figuring out what days I could go on splits with them.  I wanted to go tomorrow but it is their "P day".  I explained to them how when I was little I used to think that "P day" meant "play day" and they got to be a tourist once each week.  I can no idea they used it to wash their clothes and other things.  Jhonatan then chimed in "that's you're every day life right now!"

Well I have a week and a half left & I am definitely making the most of my time.  I am so excited to see everyone back home, but I will really miss it here.  The family has for some time now been telling me they are going to be sad when I leave, but today Hna Martinez said (this is translated of course) "You know what Samanta?  We love you!"  It was so cute.  (And no I didn't unknowingly spell my name wrong, it's how they say it.)

I have a good plan though.  I have been planting ideas in the sons heads about moving to the U.S., and just recently started using my persuasion that since they want to go to BYU they should just stay after school.  And if the sons are in the states, then the parents will follow.  It's a joke right now...but who knows, maybe it will be reality some day.  (cuz heaven knows I'm not moving here, I love my peeps in AZ and other states too much!)