I am feeling much better and also much happier with the food. There are some things that take some adjusting, like sesame seed juice, but in general everything is rice and tomatoes and red onions with a bit of meat, which I like. I honestly like a lot of the things we eat, such as chicken in a spicy sauce or salty meat with potatoes and chocolo (similar to corn on the cob, but not as sweet) and can stand most of the others, such as chuño, which was once potatoes, but have undergone many cycles of freezing and thawing and are now grey with a wierd texture.
The bad news this week is that the zone leaders lost a small package (exersize bands?) and several letters that were for me. They left them along with a bunch of other stuff in a taxi.
I did get a package that says it has earrings in it and the large envelope last Monday and will open them Christmas Eve! President and Sister Hansen had gifts for everyone who hadn´t received anything yet, so Hna Aliaga has something to open.
Yes, there are new missionaries. We had a short Christmas Conference with all the missionaries in Cochabamba yesterday and I meet a few of them. They seem very nice and now I´m not the newest. Today marks 2 months since I left. It feels like it´s been a lot longer, but every individual week passes so quickly.
In my pictures this week, there are a ton from Nicole´s baptism. Have I written about her before? She´s 12 years old and reminds me a lot of myself because of her age and that she decided to get baptised on her own. We are also teaching her father, Romer. Her little sister, Malena, is only 7, but is making friends at church and goes everywhere with Nicole.
Nicole´s a really amazing person and has a strong testimony of the Church, she was so happy at her baptism. I don´t really feel like she´s ¨my convert¨ or anything, because I didn´t really do much. The previous missionaries did most of it and we were just supporting her this last month until she was really ready ( coming to church without anyone coming to get her, reading the Book of Mormon, and praying more).
This week we also visited the temple because some of the new members and newly active members that Hna Aliaga worked with in Sucre were coming. She and Hna Brindley, who was her companion there went to their sealing and I went with Hna Brindley´s companions (they are in a trio) to their area, which was neat to see more of Cochabama.
Between going to the temple, the baptism, the Christmas conference, and spending most of Friday doing tramites (sooo boring), we´ve had a really hectic week. With Christmas this week we will have another hectic week, but today is nice and calm so far, so I feel ready for it.
Other interesting experiences this week are: We helped a women with her bags earlier this week and the ones she gave us to carry contained live chickens! Lunch yesterday was a type of meat that I didn´t know and Hna Aliaga says I will be happier not knowing.
I know Carol from the drug store, you can tell her Merry Christmas from me too, if you see her. I am getting better at remembering names here, mostly because we take notes on absolutly everyone we talk to and writing things down helps. Some of the names are things you´d expect from Spanish class. We know a lot of Carola´s, Juan Carlos´s, and Maria´s, but we also know an Estanislao, a Vladimir, and a Lauro. The only names I really have trouble with are names that are spelt the same, but pronounced differently, like Edith (Eh-deet) and Elizabeth (Elizabet).
The pictures of lights in the night are of a Christmas fair that we walked through yesteray trying to meet up with the people who were giving us and a pair of elders a ride home from the Christmas conference. It was pretty, but we felt very out of place and and little closterphobic.
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