October 26, 2015

First, I would like to start this weeks e-mail by telling you that Hna. B just broke her chair and ended up on the floor... all four of us (me, her, and the Elders from the other ward) are laughing our heads off. Guess what, one of them is E. Chile... he finally came in from the little pueblo he's been with his Brazilian comp.Well, this was a good week. As always, we are struggling with tendonitis, weird stomachs from sketchy food, and poverty, but it's been good. It builds character. As for me, I'm doing pretty well. I have been almost healthy for like two weeks, so that's good. I still have a stuffy nose and headache that come and go, but it's workable. 

First the funny... we went to the zoo. That was just a very interesting experience  It is a very wild zoo. It's pretty much run by the animals. And the cages are not very effective cages. There were peacocks everywhere (in spanish they are called pavo real... that makes me laugh so hard) And there was mostly llamas... weird. There is a lion, but given as his wife died like two weeks ago, he was just sad and slept. The monkeys were funny. But the parrotish birds stole the show. They just fought and made a mess of their food. Also, it's just a laugh to go with the elders... they are just a mess. They were picking on the animals, causing little problems, and just providing the inevitable comic relief. And there was the egg- two of the elders found an egg in the bathroom. First they tried to convince us that a hen just laid it... not very convincing, because there were only scraggly teenage looking roosters, but then one of them throws it in the mess of chickens... AND THEY DEVOURED IT!!!!! We all freaked out and yelled... CANIBALS, THAT'S YOUR SON!!!!!! It was just weird to say the least.

Just thought of another funny story-

We went back to the little town in our area, Sierra Chica, and we were waiting for our bus when we saw this group of teenage dudes walking down the street. Now, dudes here wear short shorts, but this guys shirt looked like it was covering his shorts... until his buddy passed him a pair of shorts and he started putting them on. We freaked... we started laughing and covering our eyes. It was just a really crazy gross moment... these crazy argentines!

Now, a "news" item... we went to a wedding! A guy from our ward married a cute lady from the other ward. I think they're both recent converts and they were just really happy with their new lives and to be together. And we were just really excited to get out and do something out of the routine... we put on makeup and wore our nicest clothes and were just really excited. It was just a good day. It was really funny cause we asked our zone leader if we could go and he said ya just don't get too trunky. Well, the wedding itself didn't make us trunky, but the sketchy food made us sick and we couldnt leave the house to work making us trunky (imagine us looking at our closet and saying... after the mission we're gonna wear real clothes and heels... that's pretty much how it went.) But all in all, a good event.

With Hna Bindley at the wedding

Last, the spiritual... We're still working with our investigators. S is slowly, like the snails are beating him, progressing, but he is progressing. He's really trying to change his life, and it's hard. But he's changing. There's a grandma in our ward who's got some really bad back and hip problems and she cant leave the house for now. And all the members have been telling us that we needed to visit her, and we were always busy and didn't really want to make time to go. But this week, it was time to go. And we didn't really want to go. But I'm really glad we did, because we had a really spiritual experience  She was just really really sad where we came in, and we shared with her Mark 10:27, (I'm hoping you'll look it up and read it) and we talked about the atonement, that Christ has felt everything, all pains and sadness and really helped her feel a little happier. And we left with a really strong spirit. And I was reminded that here in the mission, the spirit is supposed to work thru us and sometimes it isn't in the way we want to work, but it's not my work, it's the Lord's.

Well, love you!!! Hope you have a good week.

Hermana Long