27 May 2013

Hola familia!

It's been a busy week. Last week after I wrote you, I washed my clothes by hand for the first time, and this morning I did the same again! I'm going to be pro at pioneer skills by the time I come home.

For lunch today, I had pollo con tajada. Tajadas are fried plantains or bananas. (It seems it can refer to either.) So you have a plate full of fried banana slices, a piece of chicken (often fried) and then some sort of sauce. I think it's tomato based. It's really good.

Saturday I went to my first baptism here, a mother and daughter. I claim no credit since they were essentially taught before I got here. Hna. Nuñez and I sang  "A Child's Prayer." She sang some phrases in Spanish, and I sang others in English. We went earlier in the day to get everything ready and clean. Someone else was going to fill the font for us. When we showed up, several people were mopping up the room because the font had overflowed. Always an adventure!

Yesterday it rained for the first time. I had my first taste of getting rained on, but I think it was only a taste. My hardest thing here is learning to open my mouth. If someone wants to listen, I'm happy to share, but I don't like to be pushy. I also don't like to pry into people's lives, but it seems that for the next many months, my job is to learn to talk to everyone about everything.

Last night we started teaching a new family. We contacted their son, Walter, several days ago. He committed to come to church. Not only did he come, but he brought his brother and a friend. Last night we had a lesson with his parents. Families like that make me willing to take bucket showers.

My bathroom is fairly standard. It has a sink (of sorts), a toilet, and a shower area.

What else? The people in the ward are really nice. We have dinner somewhere almost every night. For lunch we pay a ward member to cook for us. This morning I had my first adventure cooking in my apartment. I made just-add-water pancakes. It's simple, but it made me so happy to be cooking in my apartment.

I have a request for your next letter. I'd like everyone to send a favorite scripture, quote, etc., and maybe a brief explanation of why it's meaningful to you. Also maybe you could send it Dear Elder too so that I can have a hard copy. I think I'm going to get a nicer set of scriptures soon. I'd be interested to hear any ideas or suggestions of how you like to mark scriptures or what you think would work well. (Using different colors, how much to mark, etc.)

Well family, I love you lots and lots as always. I think about you every morning when I wake up, sometimes as early as five in the morning. We don't have daylight savings time here, so my room gets light around five. I stay in bed until 6 or 6:30, but I don't sleep as well once there is light! 

Love, Hermana Davis