6-8-2009 E-MAIL

AREA: CIENEGUILLA
COMPANION: ELDER


Hey everybody! Things are going pretty well up here in Cieneguilla. We moved our room up the hill a bit, so that means we got about a 20 minute walk up hill everyday for lunch, dinner, and at night when we finish everything.But it is sooo worth it. The lady we live with is a member, first good thing, she lived in the states, second good thing, she knows how to cook American food(kinda), third good thing. And we have an American bathroom...tile floor, slidng glass door, and HOT WATER! It's nice, we probably have some of the nicest living conditions in the mission right now. This week my buddy Eld Ferrer hit his year mark so we had a little party. And then we did divisions later that week so we told the lady we live with that today is America Day and we need to eat only American food. We had hotdogs and Coke and ice cream. BAD IDEA I got pretty sick from that after. Speaking of Ferrer we also had interviews with the President this week, mine was about 20 seconds long. But in Ferrers the President asked him if he was friends with Bolivian missionaries and he said yes and the President said he should say his goodbyes soon. Idk when we are leaving but it's soon. I'm supposed to go to the Bolivian embassy this week or the next, then we just have to wait.We have a few newbies that appear like they'll progress, a girl named Yosselin and a lady named Sulema. And Idk if you guys remember Dylan from my old area, I found a kid like him here, his name is Benji. He's 9, but Elder Duncan never baptized him, cuz no one else in the family is interested, and it's just a bad idea to baptize kids without having other members in the house. But this kid is amazing, so we are trying to find a member family to basically adopt this kid, and if we do I'm baptizing him. We taught him Saturday night, and we had a really good lesson... until, his dog comes up behind us and starts throwing up. Sorta ruined the moment. Kim-ya it's always hard to go up and talk to people, I almost have ONE YEAR but I still have problems with that. That should probably be one of my goals, to be less fearful of people and more fearful of God. Mom- That is so awesome to hear that Raul and his family are still going strong. And when Elder Duncan talks about Satan being at their heels, he's not joking. They are the first people I'm visiting when I go back. I got your packages, and I found out real quick they had Gold bond inside, cuz it broke open on the ride here from Peru and was all over the other stuff, but I saved most of it and got it back in the container. I don't need anything right now, I can find basically everything in my area. I'm sure it's different in Santa Cruz, not as many US products so once I get there I'll start asking for more I think. B4 I forget, mom, how does my debit card work when I take out money from ATMs, does it charge me a ton? Crystal- Yes I got the book two weeks ago, sorry I thought I wrote that already in an email. Feel free to send pics, those are always super. I don't even know what its gonna be like to hit a year. When I was with Eld Ferreron his year mark he just said ''I get to count DOWN now''. Valynn- Ya me and my comp get along fine, for some reason he has somthing against some of my Bolivian friends, so that has caused some problems, but ya WE get along fine. We need to work more than we do, but it's hard being in this area, and being district leader(my comp, not me), cuz we are always traveling and wasting time waiting for the bus. EE-I can't believe graduation has come again, crazy. Is Quentin going on a mission? Who else younger than me is going or is already gone? And who's back? Is Andy Fowells back? KK-yes, please, send photos, have fun swimmin!

Love, Mike