This week was awesome, and I too feel like my spiritual battery has been recharged, conference was awesome. We had to watch it in the chapel too. On Saturday we watched both sessions, and on Sunday at about 12:45 the heavens let out an impressive downpour of rain. The conference sessions are at 1pm and 5pm here, and so the timing of the rainstorm was a tragic inconvenience. We had to walk to the chapel, and it was raining so hard that by the time we got there we were soaked. Our umbrellas didnt do anything to protect us because it was raining so hard in the horizontal direction and our shoes and feet were drenched because the puddles were so deep the street drains couldnt keep up. When we got to the chapel, all of the faithful La Paz saints were huddled under the awning in front of the chapel talking and watching the rain. I asked why no one was inside watching, and they all said......there isnt a signal! Shooooot. We have some techy members here thank goodness, and after lots of fiddling with wires and prayers, we were able to get the broadcast. But the Sunday Morning session we could only get in pieces because the signal was so skethcy......the rainstorm really made a mess of things. We could see and listen to the speaker for about 15 minutes, and then it would go out again....take about 5 minutes to get it back, and then in another 15 minutes we were without signal again. It was a continuous cycle. So thats how my Sunday morning session went. Im sad I didnt get to hear Pres. Monson or Pres. Uchtdorf....and I think I missed Elder Bednar too.....but I will just wait for the Liahona! Out of the talks I did get to listen to, I think Elder Hollands was my favorite. Such force and strength in his voice, and I love the message for the youth. I havent had food thrown in my face but I can relate to having my beliefs put under pressure. Often times when we make decisions to defend the faith like stick up for our values at school or work, serve a mission, etc....is when our beliefs are put to an agressive test. But it makes for excellent oportunities to grow!
The rain storm kept going all day long, but for the afternoon session someone had the idea of attaching the projector to one of the computers and watching the conference by interent instead of by satelite. It was brilliant, and we got all of the afternoon session. In between the sessions on Sundaythe members whipped out their yerba and mate cups and sat around sharing mate and eating tortas fritas. It was a fun little party the members made for themselves......kind of like the party you all had for Dad! Except Im not going to lie, Im sure your party had much better food :) We peaced out to go pick up an investigator to bring to the afternoon session.
Kind of crazy this week, an Elder that was serving here in my district here in La Paz had to go home for a huge family emergency. I have no idea what happened, and he was gone before I even knew something happened. His companion said he found out what happened on Tuesday night, andWednesday morning he was in the terminal buying a colectivo ticket to get to Rosario. And that night I think he caught a flight home. So so so sad. I dont know what the emergency is, but Im so grateful you guys are okay. Its expected that he will come back in a few months. It would be so weird, and hard honestly to leave the mental mindset of being a missionary to go home, and then have to come back again.
I have been a little bit sick this week with watery eyes, super runny nose, sore throat, and a voice that comes and goes....but no fever! I think my body is tryign to adjust to the new season, but, regardless I am kind of sick of taking care of it. As Dad would say, "Just be grateful you all have your health!"
Alejandro and Florencia went to the civil register to schedule their wedding.....and folks that huge. They finally did it! They are getting married April 18, and we will be having a baptismal service for Florencia April 19. Whoohooo! Also, Alfredo the cool veteran man who loves the Book of Mormon is doing well. If you ask him the story of the first vision he will recite it back to you, and if you ask him if the Book of Mormon is true he will give you a resounding yes. Its awesome! He was going to go to the Sunday evening session of conference, but the rain and mud scared him away. Shoot.....we will do better next week!
Today for P-Day we are going to watch Frozen (and I am so excited......you all said it was so good!) because if its an Hermanas birthday (only for the Hermanas, the Elders no) or if there was a baptism in the district we can watch a movie. Sweet! Plus we have zone meeting this evening, and I am really excited. I dont know what kind of mail is waiting for me for the end of the meeting, but I hope something! Last month I didnt get anything, not even the dear elders made it. But dont feel bad, I have email and I can write you all hand written letters. But if the package you sent could make it that would be really great. I hope you didnt send your version of the family picture book. Keep it and I will see it when I get back. I dont want both versions to be lost. Who knows what can and cant make it down here. Just go to your local place Wal Mart or Costco (or not so local....where ever you can go) and print off a bunch of pictures and just send them in the little envelope thing. Super cheap, and if it gets lost I wont be sad. Sometimes I really feel cut off from the world....mostly when it comes to mail. I dont know who spit in the bean curd of Argentine Customs, but they really hate yankees. My best advice for sending things......is make it look non American as possible. When Hermana Sainsbury was here her mom sent her a box that said correo chile all over it (I have no idea where she got it!), and it got here in 2 weeks. Maybe use brown boxes or somehting. It wasnt this hard before to get packages, and it will probably cool off again.....but for now dont worry. I will hope and pray the packages you have sent make it (because the package you sent sounds wonderful....I really want those scareves, skirt, and thumbdrive!) and you can just send all the cool fun stuff to Chad in the mean time. Also, you should keep all the letters you send to me so we can have them. We have the blog for our letters, but I want to be able to go back and read your letters from Dear Elder and email too!
I hope you have a wonderful week and know that I love you more than all of the leaves that are changing colors and falling here in Argentina!
Hermana Withers
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