January 12

I got Christmas cards from Allentown grandparents and from Aunt Heather this week, if they ask. I´m planning to write to Gramma Bibi next week. The letter from Aunt Heather is great and is so her voice. Both are up on my wall, which is looking a lot less bare lately. Because our house is smaller than a lot of missionaries´ houses, it looks a lot more lived-in, which is really nice.

I don´t have any pictures for you this week because I forgot to bring my memory reader with me and Hna Aliaga will be using hers the whole time. She got a virius in her memory last week and has been stressed all week waiting to hear if someone can recover her pictures. I think she´s got most of them, but they are all out of order and not as good quality. 

Congrats to Robert and Charles!  That´s great. [Nordic Skiing] I keep losing track of Acton weather because things are pretty constant here and the school schedule is different. The new school year starts in the first week of February. There should be better snow now that it´s so cold, but, if not, you can all go ice skating with Hazel instead. 

Yes, Harley was that nuts before. In Alaska they put a bit of chicken blood in the sled dogs´ water to get them to drink it all before it freezes. Maybe you could mix a something that Harley likes into his water so that he drinks it quickly outside or will drink it inside. 

This week I ate rabbit with out knowing what it was. I did notice that it was a bit weird, but I try to not to notice if food is a bit weird. I´m feeling more confident with eating whatever I´m given, but I´m happy that meat is almost always completely well done here. The only thing I really don´t like is cheesy rice because the type of fresh cheese just isn´t good melted. 

The main news this week is that I almost got robbed. On Thursday night on our way back to our house, a person in a car grabbed my shoulder bag from behind. However, my bag goes across my body and it´s really strong so it didn´t break. The downside of that is that I got dragged for a few seconds before they let go. I got a bit scrapped up and bruised, but not as much as you´d think from what happened. Hna Aliaga was really shaken up because she thought I´d been hit by the car for a few seconds, but I didn´t really realize what had happened until it was over, so I wasn´t particularly upset. My glasses are bit bent, but the glass is fine and I have my spare pair until I get them fixed and my bag only lost the decorative button from hitting the ground.

 We´re trying to walk home i different routes now and walk on the sidewalk more, especially at night, but the day I almost got robbed was one of the only days we were actually getting home on time (we´ve supposed to be home at 9 or 9:30 if we are in an appointment), so besides pay more attention to our surroundings, there´s not a ton we can do. 

There´s a new mission in Bolivia that was just announced! I don´t know anything else about it besides that´s centered in El Alto, which is kind of part of La Paz. Would you look up for me if there´s any other info about it? There might not be, but maybe it´ll affect our mission boundries. 

Thanks for the info about OTB. It makes sense from how I`ve seen in on signs. Dad´s thing to google for me this week: DAKAR. I think it´s a car race, but it might be connected to a plan to build a new highway. I also want to know what the logo is a picture of. It looks like a guy in middleeasternish clothing to me.