Thanks for all of the birthday songs and birthday wishes.....I really do have the best family ever. The cake looked good too......eat an extra piece for me :) Sad to hear that Grandma Wheelwright passed away.....but Im positive she is happier on the other side. She was awesome and thats cool that she was belly laughing before she went. And Carmen had her baby!!! How awesome.....let me know what they decide to name him! Thats good that you all escaped the ice box for a day to go have an adventure. The super bowl season has come on gone (thanks for the score update dad and lauren and valerie!), ha your joke was awesome Valerie, and Sam you have a new plane! Woohoo! I love all the updates about minnesota and boise and the weather and your lives. Keep it coming!
Today marks 7 months in my mission......!!!!!!! So crazy. I have a lot of time left to serve still, but these last few months have flown.
As for the transfer update.....I am staying another transfer in La Paz with Hermana Sainsbury. People are starting to make jokes that she has been here so long and will have to finish her mission here, but we are excited to have another transfer together. We have a smooth rhythm in the way we teach and contact.....we can go back and forth in talking really easy because we have been doing it for so long together....we can only improve and get better from here!
My birthday was fun.....but in all honesty felt like any other day. My companion made me french toast with dulce de leche, and served it with a nice cold glass of peach juice (the fruit juices here are out of this world delicious), and we went to get ice cream from the creepy shop a block away from our apartment (creepy as in you walk in and no one is there....and then this tall lanky weird man will come from this dark hallway that is in the back towards the front and stare at you, not asking you anything....just expecting you to start telling him what flavors you want) Haa....at least his ice cream is good!
While we were waiting for a colectivo earlier this week we it was clear and sunny skies, then in a matter of seconds clouds came from nowhere and seconds after that it started to rain, HARD. We ran from the stop....bagging the idea of catching the bus right then and ran to the closet thing that could cover us....which ended up being a Catholic chapel (ironic right?!) It only rained for a couple of minutes and then stopped, so we went back to life as usual. It was just the most random storm ever.
And the other day while we were walking home, we were walking past a part where the sidewalk turns into this wide open gravel patch that leads to a couple of different roads. We walk on the side of it in case people turn in from the main road to turn to the other side roads. Anyway........we were walking past this part (on the left hand side) and a white car going kind of fast turns in. We keep walking and it turns towards us and speeds up. We look at each other.....freak out and run to the right side of the road......the car speeds up and also turns to the right side of the road. We tried to escape the car and run to anywhere with protection but there really wasnt anywhere to go. It was a big open gravel patch of nothing with no trees or buildings to run towards....and before we knew it the car was inches away from us. The car really couldnt have gotten any closer without touching us when it slammed on the brakes. We thought we were about to turn into road kill at the hands of some dumb kids or something....when one of the familys we are teaching piles out of the car laughing their heads off. They were deep belly laughing so hard at the faces we were apparently making and they thought it was so funny. Once we knew who it was we were laughing too, but in the moment they really scared the crap out of us. Which is what the dad was going for when he was driving I think.....quite the prank! They really are a great family though. The parents are married (which is unusual!) they have six kids, and are very kind to us (except for the car prank thing....that was lame!) They are very Catholic but also have an admirable relish to learm more about the LDS church. We just barely started working with them, so we will see what happens and how they progress!
Something kind of interesting to note, is that there is racism against Chinese people here. I have no idea why, but nobody likes them here and they always say be careful at the ArgenChino markets because they are dirtier. I dont know if its just a La Paz or all of Argentina, but its weird and also kind of sad.
Yesterday at church I think was the first Sunday that we didnt sing Secret Prayer and Whos on the Lords side Who. We sing at least one of those hymns every Sunday just because every seems to like them and they dont know that many songs, so if they know one they like to sing it lots. I never really sang those hymns before my mission......but I am pretty sure they are always going to make me think of this La Paz branch.
We have new investigator named Florencia who is living with a menos activo. He wants to come back to church and she wants to get baptized. We are teaching them together, and hoping that we can have a wedding this transfer and a baptism right after!
I am doing well and excitd for another transfer here in La Paz....there is lots of work to do. Holy moly.....it just started to rain torrential down pour outside. Good thing we live a block away from the member whos computers we use, because we totally didnt bring our umbrellas! My leg is still healing. The scab is almost gone. The picture Thomas sent of him and two other Elders was cool. The Elder on the far right was my district leader my first transfer here in La Paz. We should be having zone meeting this next week which means I get to see what made it in the mail from America all the way down here in Argentina! (:
I love you all lots....more than all the people who are shocked when they learn that mate doesnt exist in the States.....and more than all the people who pronounce Google "gugley" its my favorite (: Have a great week!
Hermana Withers
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