Terrible, horrible,. no good, very bad week...

This week was a whirlwind. Literally. It was super windy on Monday. Windy and dirty are a bad combination. You could see the wave of dirt coming towards us and I thought to myself,"Oooohh my bones are achin, a storms comin better get home quick Annie¨ but I just kept on working, so in consequence to that I got a nice little sore throat, because of that sore throat I got a stuffy nose and a cold, and then somehow that all peaked into a feverish, sleepless night where my tummy hurted. However, now its subsided, all I have is a sore throat, so we´re back to square one. Overall though, it wasn´t a bad week. 

My new companion came in on Tuesday and I stayed up till two waiting for him-that might´ve contributed to the initial sickness. He´s white-claro- has blue eyes and is a little bit taller than me. His name is Elder Watkins and he´s from..... wait for it... Kaysville.. Yes Scott, Kaysville. Apparently he played on the same soccer team as Carily and Shannon and went to Davis and had some classes with Carily. What a small world. We talked of Kaysville things. Its weird being able to talk in English, but it is nice to get a bit of a break from just Spanish and to be able to actually talk about everything. With Elder Ellis we were very limited in subjects, so we could really become great friends. Lemme see what else..? He doesn´t talk an awful lot, but I like that in a man. I do speak a lot more Spanish when we´re with investigators and members because he doesn´t dominate the conversation. Elder Ellis would just talk the whole time and I would sit back and let him at it. 

Other than that this week was pretty uneventful, there´s like a million people at the beach and no one is in their houses. Its the peak of summer vacation, so everyone is going places like Brazil or the beach a lot, also its really hot, so people are napping more. In other words it was pretty difficult to find anyone. 

I finished the BOM last week, so I started again this time just reading a chapter a day and I came to the part that Saraih is complaining, and Lehi  comforts her. I applied that scripture to members of the church, some people take the the commandments of God as a burden and others see them as a blessing even before they see the blessings. He said that he was happy that he was led out of Jerusalem before it had been destroyed and that he would receive a land of promise. That's how we should be, grateful that we can avoid the traps of the word and inherit the kingdom of heaven. 

Anyways, lots to be grateful for, I love you guys and thanks for the letters!!

A Day with Dolphins

Well, transfers was yesterday and I´m getting a new companion. A gringo. Mixed feelings, it´ll be nice to be able to actually talk to someone, but at the same time its better for me to have a native since I'm forced to use the language 24/7. Then again it might help me learn since he´ll be able to define words and such since he knows both English and Spanish. Who knows, I guess I'll find out! I would say a phrase from high school musical 4 sums up my feelings "nervous, but excited"

We had a baptism on Saturday too! and once again nervous but excited would describe the situation beforehand. We were going to have a member baptize Elsa, but he fell through, so she asked if I could do it. I had to get the prayer down in Spanish and say it in front of her family and a ton of people. I was super nervous before hand, but when it came down to it, it was a really special experience. It made me think how much God loves us individually. All of us. I know that God loves me because I've felt his love, but rarely have I felt his love for others and that's what I felt on the day of Elsa's baptism, a small part of his love for her.

Elsa is super sincere. The first week I didn't really know how excited she was or how strong she felt about the church, but a couple days before her baptism she changed. She was super talkative and happy, before that she had always seemed a little shy and didn't participate too much but she bore her testimony and told us about how the first time we met her she read the book of Mormon, prayed about it and felt an overwhelming feeling of peace. Now she want to share the gospel with the rest of her family. She has a brother in Rawson main that the other missionaries are starting to teach, and we´re going to start teacher her kids (they´re around 16-18). Its just exciting and amazing to see how the gospel has changed her and how its changed how I see her. 

Lemme see, also I went on exchanges with the zone leader Elder Holland-I know-and he´s leaving today. He´s really on top of things, his nickname is trunky Holland, but from the couple days I spent with him he was the exact opposite. He wanted more time, he was working hard to the end. He actually said that he wished time would go slower. I hope that's how I am, a missionary on fire. Always. I work my hardest so I won´t have any regrets when I look back on the short two years I've had. 

Also I saw dolphins. a herd of dolphins-or whatever it is you call them.. school?. But yeah, I didn't have my camera since I was running, but I saw them jumping up and down in the water. 

Love you guys! stay sweet and stuff!

 I don't know who wrote this, but whoever it was, I will find them, and I will convert them.

translated: "Without politics or ideologies, Christ is the true path and the life"

Our Dog Dug...

I made a new friend the other day, his name is Dug-thats not really his name, I I named him after the dog on up-hes a golden lab and he won´t leave me and my companion alone. He tracts with us, fights all the other dogs, and follows us home. The first time we even went to the store on the way back and he waited outside for like twenty minutes looking for us. Hes crazy. We try and loose him before we get to our pension because we dont want him to cross a busy street and die but its hard. Dug is super smart. We´ll make him fetch a rock and then run, but he never falls for that. We had to employ the help of some people who we helped dug up a gas line for the other day. They locked him in their yard, we ran, and they let him go later. As we were getting rid of Dug the other night-its a nightly chore now-I though of the charactaristics of dug. He´s loyal, perserverant, playful, and happy. Always. Nothing gets him down. We tried yelling at him to leave, nothing worked. I want to be like Dug. He would be the perfect missionary. You cant help but love him because of how much he loves you. He never gives up, and always has a good attitude. 

Lemme see, for new year I learned how to make pasta from scratch, now I can make ravioli, spaghetti noodles and any other thing you can think of that involves pasta. Its awesome. Oh and I can make empanadas. Its like making bread dough, but more simple, all you need is eggs, flour, oil salt and water. Its pretty much the coolest thing ever. Ive only made it once, so I gotta make it lots more to perfect my skills. And on the subject of food I ate guanaco the other day, which is pretty much a llama. We have an investigator whos a butcher and sells meat for cheap. A kilo of hamburger patties is like 30 pesos! I´m not really sure if thats a good or bad price. It was seven patties and they were really good. Also, the other day I had a meal of straight meat. it was literally meat and tang. thats all we had. Lots of different types, ribs, flank, etc. but it was straight meat. I felt so manly. He had a massive knife and was eating straight from the serving plate. 

The weather has been crazy, it hailed the other day, it mustve been sixty degrees and then the next day it was back up to 85-90. And the oceans been acting up, normally its calm, but for the past couple of days the waves have been massive, we can hear them from our pension. 

And, our investigator Elsa is getting baptized this saturday!! Its sooo exciting! She cant really read very well, but before we met her she read the bible every day. Shes been perfect, she reads the book of mormon and she knows that its true. I cant wait till saturday! 

So thats whats been up this week, new years was pretty much a regular new years, less fireworks than christmas, same countdown, same amount of borrachos. 

Anyways, I love you guys!

Christmas-or is it?-and the Eve therof

Christmas was a trip. Lots and lots of food. Over here, they say feliz fiestas which means happy parties and thats what christmas is.

We spend Christmas eve with a member family, and it was then that I had my first actual dinner. On christmas eve they have a feast, for dinner. Which is weird since the big meal here is normally lunch. My stomach was unprepared, but I still ate till I was ready to burst. We started dinner at like 10, they said early for them-they normally start at like 12-but since we had to go at 12 they changed their eve up a bit. We talked, at the many courses and at 12 the whole city exploded. No exaggeration, everyone lit off every firework they had at 12. It sounded like a warzone and it lasted for about a half hour without interruption. We went outside and took in the chaos. Everyone was outside their house talking with friends and family. To me it felt more like new years than anything else. Aaaand I could not sleep that night, everyone was lighting off fireworks. The kids next door, I´m talking six year olds, were chuckin m-80s every five minutes or so. Fireworks must be cheap here, I´m suuuper jelly.

Then the day of. We went to the house of our ward mission leader, hermano Chamin, and he had his whole family their. All his kids and their families. Their were two whole lambs roasting in the oven, which was more like a firepit. Their was roast, chicken and any other type of meat you could name. I think their might have been a salad somewhere, but I´m not sure.. mostly meat. and then we had dessert and then the whole family had a crazy impromptu water fight. Yes, a water fight on Christmas. 

Chrismas didnt really feel like Christmas, mostly because it was cold. I think I celebrate a few half christmass, because then itll be all snowy and winter like. 

On sunday it rained. Right after I put my clothes out to dry. Luckily it only lasted 30 seconds. It was intense though, pretty much the sky vomited everything it had and then stopped. The rest of the day was sunny so my clothes dryed up' real nice. 

Not a whole lot of teaching this week, everyone was partying and vacationing, but someone did break into the house of Elsa, a lady getting baptized, they stole a dvd or something. The only thing that was really bad is that they broke her window, which is probably worth more than anything in her house.. 

Anyways, letters. As far as letters go , I´m probably going to write like ten, and then send them all together since it costs a lot to send them. I already have justins done and I´m working my way up. 

New years is coming up, what are all ya´lls resolutions? I got lots, one is to talk as much as I possibly can. Most of mine just involve becoming more like christ and following his example. As a missionary we set lots of goals, for everything, and I would challenge you guys to set goals as well. For everything. And write them down. Elder M. Russel Ballard said that,¨if we dont set goals in our life and learn how to master the techniques of living to reach our goals, we can reach a ripe old age and look back on our life only to see that we reached but a small part of our full potention.¨

So set goals and reach your potential!

Love ya guys!!

Somethin about wild horses and scorpions

First of all, Christmas is coming, Its the weirdest thing ever, since I'm sunburnt and its gotta be like a hundred degrees-I never know the exact temperature since everyone deals in celcius here.. It also smells different. Obviously Christmas normally smells like snow and coldness, but over here it smells like pan dulce and firework. Fireworks go off like every two seconds. The kids all have these siiick firecrackers that you strike on the box like a match. Man those are tempting.. a kid that looked like chancho from nacho libre gave me some fireworks... I had to give them away to some other ninos so they can blow their fingers off instead of me.

I ran with a herd of wild horses. Yes, maddie, you heard me correctly. There is a herd of wild horses here and I ran with them, there's like three baby horses too. My first instinct was to grab the mane of a white one and throw myself onto its back like unto shadowfax of old, but I'm pretty sure theirs some sort of mission rule against that, so I just got some pictures with them. Also, speaking of wild stuff I also encountered a scorpion on the same day. I was just givin some service, wearing my sandles-however my parents had warned me to wear shoes while giving service-and I did not heed the words of my parents and was stung. Okay.. I wasn't stung, but it was sick, I freed it into the desert like a good boy scout and continued doin some service. 

Then, we learned that the people we were doing service for had tons of member family and that they wanted to talk to us more.. it was more like you guys can come over whenever you want, than them saying they wanted to learn more, but it was awesome. We visited them again and she said that her mom had just gone to the temple with her dad. She had tons of questions and was super receptive, it was awesome! However, she does smoke-everyone here smokes-and she has cancer.. I want to help her so bad! I'm super excited to teach her more, I know the gospel can change her life, and I'd be willing to bet that here family has been praying for her to receive the gospel.. and all this was because one of our appointments fell through and we decided to help her with her her yard work. 

I showed her pictures of the fam-I show everyone pics of the fam-and she was like ÿour parents are sooo young.. I just thought Id pass on the compliment. Everyone says that  you guys look young, and that sammy looks older than me and tori, they always assume shes the one whose married at first. Also lots of people say that maddie and tasha look old enough to be my girlfriend.. Ive been asked that of both.Is this your girlfriend? Nope.. theyre like twelve... speaking of, do you think you guys could send some more pics of us doing stuff? Old pics new pics.. I feel like these are a bit formal..

Let me see.. that's about it, the people here looooove to talk, and I can carry on a conversation now.. everyone's super friendly and feed me soooo much food for lunch. When I ask for a lil bit more they heap it on.. Im fat. 

Ummmm skype at three tomorrow? yeah!

I love you guys!! Keep on keepin on!

Now here is his photo dump!;)