December 15

I was sick Tuesday morning (vomiting and everything) and we stayed home for the rest of the day because I was still feeling really dizzy and weak, which I think was mostly dihydration, but maybe a fever (I broke my thermomter trying to get it to work by sticking it in a cup of very hot water which shattered it instantly). I´m sure it came from something I ate the night before, but we´re not sure exactly what. Since then my stomach´s been hurting on and off, but I haven´t been actually sick again. 

With two of the elders in our ward going home, I am having to work a lot harder to not think about home and how much I miss you. I really love being here, but it´s also a lot of work and a lot of unfamiliar things that make me miss what I am used to. For example, wierd juices that are made from grains. Not only do they taste wierd, but I´m contantly having to worry about water quality.

---------------

I got Dad´s letter and we know we have packages that have been waiting since earlier this week in the house of some of the other missionaries, but we haven´t had time to go get them yet. We plan to go today. It´s not far at all, but we have to remember to get them when we are heading home. 

The dog in last week´s pictures in Bobby. He belongs to the Fernadez family whom we live with and is very annoying and is always trying to come into our rooms although he knows he´s not allowed (when you shout fuera (out) at him he scampers out again).

Everyone we meet is already Christian, mostly catholic. The other religious groups are various evagelical churchs and 7th day adventists. The Jehovah´s witnesses are pretty much the only ones that proselytize. There is definitly a secular Christmas with plastic trees, and papa noel (but I hear santa claus just as often as papa noel).

Christmas isn´t quite as big a deal as it is in the US, however, there´s still traditional foods to try and the ward is trying to plan an activity involving serving Api (a hot drink made with flour and sugar I think) and inviting people in to see some Christmas videos. One of the pictures I´m trying to send this week is of paneton, a Christmas cake thing with candied fruits and rasins that is delicious. It has a flavor very similar to stolen ( like we eat in allentown sometimes).

Christmas is really sneaking up on us becuase first we were waiting for cambios, which were last night. Hna Aliaga and I are staying put which is a huge relief, but one of the three areas in the ward is being closed due to a lack of missionaries and is being split between us and one set of Elders. Elder Edmunds who was in the area that´s getting closed is moving to a different area and an Elder I´ve meet once but don´t know well is coming in to replace Elder Merino, who´s going home, and to be in the other area with Elder Pinta. 

This is sad because now only the two of us will eat lunch and dinner together and our already very large area is getting even bigger. However, we now have more ward members in our area who we can ask to visit with us and some great new investigatores.

Hna Aliaga is the second youngest of 5 or maybe 6, I forget. Her family converted when she was 10 and most of them are active, I think. I think she´s getting a Christmas package, but she´s also going home in 6 weeks, so she might not. She plans to work after her mission and finish college (agricultural engineering, which she has 3 years in already). Everyone teases her that she´s going to go to Columbia to marry a missionary form there, but I´m not sure how much of that is just joking and how much of it might be real.

-----

Oh, those pictures are just of us fooling around with Sherlin and her Chirstmas decorataions. The tree I´m holding isn´t much bigger than you can see in the picture.

We see some grandparents living with their extended families, but more often younger siblings living with their older siblings family. I don´t think we know any single mothers, one single father and one family that´s just a mess in a somewhat confidential way. We don´t see any homeless people here, but I think there are plenty in the center. 

Spanish vs Indigious isn´t that important because everyone is some sort of mix. More on this subject next week, because I´m out of time.