I am doing great. The electricity
came back this last Tuesday (yippie!), so we are going to buy fruit, meat, and
stuff we can put in the fridge. I have to say, I am sure glad we cleaned the
fridge. By the time the electricity came back, all of our food went bad, so we had
mold like crazy in there. I took some picks so you can see before and after
shots in the future! Ha ha ha.
I have been eating oatmeal, carne
asada, rice, beans, nachoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooes........,
and tamales, so I have been fine. OH! And we also ate this guatemalan dish:
hilachas. MUY DELICIOSA. Its like a soup with potatoes (Boil them, mash them
stick em in a stew), rice, meat, carrots. Way good stuff! Ha ha ha. I took some
photos of this too, so you can see them later.
And just found out last night that Elder H. got an emergency transfer. He is so stoked. We{re happy for him. He leaves tonight at nine or so, so things will go back to normal...one companion....not two. Nope just kidding. That isn{t normal. Having two comps is normal now. Things are about to get a lot quieter around here! Ha ha ha.
Well, I got attacked by a chucho (dog) the
other day. Tore up the bottom of my pants...need to get rabies shots if we
don{t see that dog after a week.....
JUUST KIDDING!!!!!!!! Ha ha ha. Nope, no problems with the
chuchos so far. Most are pretty docile...and we avoid the others....ha ha ha.
The most dangerous part about chuchos are the little chucho droppings that they
leave all over. Yeah.....These shoes go through some abuse. Ha ha ha!
Ok, I got a list of some things that
I might want out here for Christmas (Nikki edited out the stuff we sent him) :
-PHOTOS PLEASE send me some photos
that I can hang onto. I wouldn{t mind getting letters with photos every once in
a while as well. Digital isn{t as cool (can{t share them easy). Real photos are
the best!
-Stickers. Everybody out here uses stickers. Around their TVs, on their cars, on their books, and missionaries in their {baggies{ (baggies are essentially yearbooks for missionaries. Friends write in each others, share photos, stickers of disney movies, mario, soccer, anything that has to do with them.). So riley knows what I like. If you guys could find any stickers that relate to me somehow (video games, movies, books, lds, etc...) I would love to have them!
Thank you so much for loving me. I
don{t want you guys to go out of your way for me, but I know you want to send
me something. Thanks! I love you guys!
Ok, I know you guys are dying to
know more about the area, so I will give you the best recap I can.
I walk out of my yellow house. Lock
the door twice. Exit the gate in front of my house and step out into the
allyway. From there I walk out to the main street. On the main street are
shops-slash-houses everywhere. They sell everything from tortillas to T'shirts.
Each one is pretty small, and most have the kinds of things you{d find in a
convenient store (candy, soap, dog food, bread, beans, etc...). And-you are
going to have to have riley explain this-they are all Legend of Zelda (not
Skyward sword) style shops. You don{t actually walk into and pick up your
stuff. You stand in front of a gate between you and the shop, and point to what
you want. Then they tell you what its worth, and you accept, or not. I haven{t
seen my comps haggle much, and most of the prices are the same in between the
shops. I think the heavy competition keeps it down.
Keeping in mind that I am the ONLY
gringo in my area, I pass the shops, comedors (mini restaurants), people,
chuchos, and chucho droppings, I walk down the hill into the larger part of my
area. I see buses pass by frequently, because apparently they park their buses
in a teeny little plaza after they make a round. The buses de Transurbano are
pretty nice. You pay with a card to get on, and file to the back, because it
can get a little crowded in there. The buses move pretty quickly. The taxis are
REALLY fast. Ha ha ha. And motorcycles are really common here.
I see kids playing futbol in the
street with little plastic balls a little bigger than a canteloupe that are
pretty common here. Most if not all the roofs are made of corrugated iron, and
many of the walls are too. Lots of smoke occupy the streets from the little
grills that cook up tortillas, carne, and a whole bunch of other stuff that you
can buy on the sidewalks.
Eventually we turn down a calle or
avenida. They are narrow. The houses on either side are like walls made out of
individual houses, just like the main streets. It reminds me a little of Main
street in Provo. You can{t enter a house without first entering an outer gate.
All the windows have bars over them, and the roofs of gates or fences have
either nails, broken glass or barbed wire on top to make sure they are safe.
Then we go and teach our investigators,
less active members and friends.
It RAINS often, so I always carry my
umbrella. I can{t remember a time not seeing a cloud in the sky, or in the
distance. At times when it rains, you can see your breath. Not because it is
cold, but because it is so humid, condensation on your breath, skin and clothes
is crazy. So yeah. Even with the umbrella, I get somewhat wet. Definitely not
Utah. Ha ha ha.
Well, I only got a little time left
so I want to tell you guys something important. Spiritual. Next week I will
talk about the people.
Lets see. I have a few scripture
heroes that I keep above my desk: Captain Moroni, Enos, and Jesus Christ.
Today, I researched Enos like I researched Teancum in the past. And I found a
lot of interesting stuff. I don{t have time to write it all today, so I will
just give a short summary.
Enos{s prayer to preserve the
records was answered. Everyone knows that. But something that always got me
about that is the fact that it was already promised to Nephi and Jacob in the
past. So did Enos receive an already promised gift?
YES! And that is the point.
He must have studied the words of
his father and uncle a lot, and pondered on their prophesies. And he came to
the conclusion that it was up to him to make this prophesy come to pass. He
made a plan (like the brother of Jared and the stones), and presented it to
God. He knew that their words will reach the Lamanites in the future, but he
proposed that the plates be protected from the Lamanites (because the Lamanites
swore to destroy them) even after the Nephites were destroyed.
Enos aligned his will with God. That
is why he recieved the desires of his heart. He had faith in what was already
prophesied. And because he aligned his will, he recieved what he desired. Faith
must be centered in something true for it to be faith. Therefore, we must not
pray with the desire to recieve things that aren{t the Lords will. we must
align our will first. And then we will know what to have faith in. We
must learn his will.
Five minutes left. I wanted to write
part of my most important Journal Entry yet, but I don{t have time. It is about
my lowest point in the mission thus far, about my moment of truth that they
talk about in the CCM, and how things turned out. But it is very long. I may
make photocopies and send it to you physically.
I love you all so much! I hope you
are all doing alright. Send my love to my BYU family, and friends. Im sorry I
forgot to send photos. Next time!
I love you all!
Elder Welker
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