September 7

Wow Robert{s hair is really long and curly! Also, I can{t find the apostrophe key on this keyboard. I guess it{s not very important for writing in Spanish.

I{ve had a pretty normal week as Hna Palma and I learn to work together. She is very perceptive and realized quickly that when I have to multitask I get really stressed really quickly so we are trying to take things a bit more slowly and calmly.

We have a great booklet called Adjusting to Missionary Life that gives all sorts of advice about nor being stressed. It{s helping the two of us a lot. It has different sections depending on what is stressing you (for example: talking to new people, learning the language, having to do exersize every morning), but it doesn{t have a section for flustered and overwhelmed, which from the beginning of my mission has been the thing that occasionaly stresses me. However, I just try to remember that I don{t have to do everything perfectly because there simplly isn{t time for it all. Generally, I{m doing fine and remembering to take a deep breath and take things one and a time. I also make a lot of lists on sticky notes.

Other interesting things this week are that I recieved a wedding invitation in the mail inviting me to Jacob Berrey and Megan Baudette{s wedding. Wow, I didn{t know about that. Has anyone else gotten married without telling me about it?

I don{t have any pictures this week except for one of a new cactus   I have, which can wait until next week. It is a really adorable cactus, but now I have two plants and don{t know how I{m going to be able to take them with me when I leave Cobija.

Yep, I{m going to be in Cobija for a super long time. When I leave I{ll only have 6 months left in the mission, which is 4 transfers. It could possibly be two areas, but probably only 1. I{ve also realized that if I have goals that I want to achieve in the mission now is the time to do them. 

Charles{ dorm and campus looks really cool. I can imagine lots of freshman camping out all over campus.  I{m also looking forward to going back to college. Maybe linguistics or maybe middle eastern studies or maybe something math or computer related, or, really I still have no idea. It depends how I do in my first semester of Arabic.

I was talking with hna Palma, who has never lived away from home before and doesn{t plan to until she gets married, about how little I lived at home the year before the mission and how little I plan to afterwards. Between going to college so far away and possible summer jobs, I have no idea if I{ll be at home much.