Friday, December 10, 2010

Mom and Dad told me this would happen.

Hey Mom, sorry this is a little late.  I was gone all day yesterday.   This is our backup plan because we were juked by one of our appointments :(
This last week was pretty good.  We've had an investigator who we're both pretty sure will get baptized eventually, it's just been hard to meet with her  because she's looking for a new Job and taking English classes so we haven’t been able to see her for a little while.   She really wants to meet with us and it is exciting because she is a friend of a recent convert family and has been to church a bunch of times already.  So cross your fingers, pray for us and remember to invite your friends to meet the missionaries and to come to church.
Also, I've had a dinner appointment almost every night I've been here.  I'm not sure why, but Hispanic people LOVE to feed the missionaries.  My favorite food so far is Peruvian Food.  Wow, Jaren is so lucky to be going there.  They cook SOO well.  You wouldn’t believe what I've eaten since getting here.  I'll make a little list:
- Corn (First time since I was 8)
- Olives
- About 15 pounds of Rice
- Tomatoes,  (Large Chunks)
- Avocados
- Onions (Large Pieces)
That’s about it, but I'm quite proud of myself.   I promised myself that after I left the MTC I would eat everything that a member or someone gave me and so far I have.  These aren’t just small amounts either, when they feed you these things they are in large amounts.  So yeah, I've been eating a lot of things that I wouldn’t touch before my mission and I realized that I actually kinda like tomatoes, and even ketchup (although they are much better fresh than cooked).
I also sent a letter to Sarah and Daniel Finally.  It took me like a month to do it though.  I also got Dad's letter and Elder Maldonado says your Portuguese and your handwriting are both really good.  But he can’t write back because he doesn’t know how to write in Portuguese, only speak it.  He says that the Elder Maldonado you knew on your mission is his uncle.  Elder Maldonado was born in Brazil, but only lived there until he was 6, then he moved to Chile where he learned Spanish and forgot most of his Portuguese.  Then when he was 11, his family moved to Provo, which is where they are living now.  He relearned Portuguese while on his mission here as he served in the Danbury Connecticut, Portuguese speaking area.  He also said that he thinks he met Hugh Hanneson (not sure if that’s spelt right),but anyways he says thanks for the letter.
As you noticed in the picture, yes, Sister Smith is a fair bit younger than President Smith.  He's a lawyer in Rexburg, and apparently he's got one of the largest farms in Idaho.  He has a helicopter to fly around his property!!  So he's a pretty well off man.  It'll be pretty sweet to go to school, and have my mission president living right there.  I will get two mission presidents though.  President Smith finishes in July of 2012 I think, but whenever it is, it's before me.
We have our ward Christmas Party tomorrow night and we, the four missionaries in our ward, have been recruited to set up some of the stuff for the party.  Also, Elder Maldonado and I are kinda excited because one of the members is bringing her non-member daughter and son-in-law to the party so we'll get a chance to talk to them.  Hopefully that turns out well. 
Anyways, I love you all and I look forward to reading your email next week.

Love, Elder Dilling