Week 44: The Dreaded Weekly Email

December 19, 2016

Real sorry for allll the mistakes. We're gonna blame my keyboard this time.

Things I love:

There was a middle aged woman pushing a grandma in a Wheel chair down the road, followed by a trail of children. I have seen them a few times in the street. And always wanted to talk to them but THIS TIME we finally made time to talk with them. And we followed them to there house to chat with them. The grandma could not speak Spanish so we were just trying to somehow communicate. The middle aged woman, who is her daughter, sat and talked with us for a while. She told us that all of her 5 siblings had moved to the United States and had done something with their lives. She said they all knew how to drive cars and then she said she didn’t know how to drive a car and hadn’t done much… I told her that she knew how to drive her mothers wheel chair and that mattered so much more. She laughed at me. And then her mom started laughing too. Haha I love the humble people here.
This week we had “intercambios” – where we switch compis for a day. My compi told me the whole time she was with another comp she just kept talking about how great I was until her comp for the day told her that she was her comp for the day and she didn’t have to talk about me any more. WHAT . WHAT . WHAT. Hahaha I was just glad to hear she didn’t think I was una loca. Hahaha my wawita is pretty GREAT.
There is a handicapped man that lives near us . He is almost always drunk and almost always trying to talk with us. I decided we should try to talk with him … and if he seemed drunk with could try another day. He ended up telling us his life story. How in 2003 he had gotten into a motorcycle accident and then his life had left him. Wahhhh. So crazy, BUT I was so grateful that we finally made the time to talk to him. I told him if he started drinking less we’d continue visiting him.
WE HAD A MIRACLE THIS WEEK. His name is Henrry. He got baptized yesterday. AND. MER. I wish I could write allllll the details . We have been teaching him for 3 months. The summary is : I asked him how he was feeling about his baptism 3 days before his baptism and he said he didn’t feel anything. He wasn’t happy. Wasn’t sad. He said he felt nothing. Then I told him that his confirmation would be in front of the ward and he basically backed out of his baptism.. he said it was a private thing so NO…. eek. He eventually changed his mind.Fast forward to the day of his baptism HE BORE HIS TESTIMONY INFRONT OF EVERYONE and said that he felt like he wanted to cry. Guys, my heart. I think felt quite possibly the happiest I have ever felt in my entire life. MIRACLE.

Things I am learning to love:

This week a grandma stopped us and told us “Tiene que tener cuidado…” ( you have to be careful……) but she said it in a super creepy voice. And then as we were walking away she waved us back over to her and said it again. And then again. And then she continued to whisper it as we walked away… Hahahaha AHHHHHHHHH.
This week we were trying to flag down a TAXI and FINALLY one pulled over. I told one of the local girls to ask how much it cost (because they rip me off) and when we looked in there was a man dressed as a clown sitting in the front seat . When we asked the price they just kept telling us to get in.. WHAT?!?! No thanks. BYE. We ended up waiting for a different taxi.
I may have already complained about these things……… but here I go again. It’s like 100 degrees and they give us HOTTTTTT SOUP. Ok. It tastes soooo good so I can’t complain that much BUT really??? How about a cold salad??
The name thing. Whenever I ask how to spell names people always tell me, “Normal no mas..” WHAT. I wouldn’t ask if I thought your name was anything close to normal. MER.
I hugged my compi after a prayer the other day. WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME. I SWORE I WOULD NEVER. Gag. But it’s cool. She knows I’m not a huge fan of hugs.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Con amor de BOLIVIA :)

THIS GRANDMA. I love her. She doesn't speak Spanish. Or English. But I kept trying to talk to her and we both just kept laughing

My compi for the day! They're all soooo little!

Intercambios... Meaning we traded compis for a day.

We shared the christmas story, "A brother like that". And then I gave the little boy some toy cars (thanks mom), and now he won't stop hugging me! I've seen him 3 times since and everytime he gives me 4-5 hugs!

This is us during lunch. Compi is still adjusting to the schedule :)

GOATS. My favorite. Can't wait for the day when I can have my own herd... Is it a herd of goats?? Who knows.

Exploring in our area.

More of me COOKING. Yeah, yeah I know. Another MIRACLE.

Love allll these ladies! They were helping make banana bread for the baptism... haha bread here is REALLLY cooked. Like hard. So everytime we try to take the bread out before it's hard they tell us it's CRUDO (raw). MERP. We're learning patience.