2013-10-14: Lots of Questions Answered, Just love It Here

These are the questions we asked him in our recent email to him:

Do you have hot water?

- No we do not have hot water, and the water runs out real quick.  We have to conserve the water and we use a thing called a pila in the back of the house to wash dishes and stuff.  This past week we didn't shower for 2 days because the water was out.

Do you have a flush toilet?

- Yes we do, but we have a bucket with water for when the water goes out.

Do you have toilet paper?

- Yes we buy it with our monthly allowance.

Can you drink your tap water?  If not, do they deliver filtered water to your house?

- No we cannot drink tap water, I have a really cool bottle made by the company Seychelle that filters the water and I can drink it, but other than that we live on milk, soda or juice, and we get 2 water cooler size jugs of agua pura every few weeks.

Do you have a bed with mattress?

- Yes our house has a tiled floor, and we have a bed with nice new mattresses that they just got before I got here.

What time do you go back to your house at night?

- It all depends on our schedule and our success of the day, the latest we can and have been out is 9:30 but the earliest on bad days maybe 8:30.

Where do you shop for food?

- They have a big mall called Centro Norte and we buy our groceries at La Torre.

Do you have a refrigerator?

- Yes

Are there any panaderia close by?  I read that their bread is really good.

- Yes they have them everywhere, but we rarely buy anything unless we really need it, all shopping is done at La Torre in Centro Norte.

What do you eat for breakfast and dinner?

- Cereal for breakfast, and I don't really eat much at dinner because we either don't have time or we have to budget.

Do you get a lot of dinner appointments?

- No but people feed us during the day sometimes when we visit houses.

What is the name of your mission president?

- Presidente y Hermana Watts

How far is the mission home from your house?

- 1 1/2 hour bus ride maybe I don't really know.

How far is the meeting house (church) from your house?

- 15 minute walk

Do you have a house phone or cell phones?

- We have a cell phone, but the cell phone is a big house phone thing with an antenna and we have to carry it to places.

Is it branch or ward?  How big is the membership?

- Branch the membership this past Sunday was about 80.

What is your house address?  Can we send letter there?

- It is a mission rule to not give out house addresses and no you can't send letters there.  Haha I would tell you but exact obedience brings miracles.

Where do you go for your p-day?  And what kind of things do you do?

- We usually do things with other companionships or other districts and sometimes as a zone.  We always go to the mall Centro Norte to eat lunch and use the Internet, and we go to this place called Megapaca.  But today was really cool because we hiked a few miles out to the middle of nowhere in the forest and as a zone explored a cave.

Where do you go to email us?

- Centro Norte the mall.

How long is your allotted time to use the email?

- 1 hour and 15 minutes, one hour for you guys and 15 minutes to email Presidente Watts.

Can you print your letters so you can read them later?

- Yes but you have to pay and every quetzales counts here.

Do you pay when you use the computer to email us?  How much?

- For the hour and 15 minutes we pay 7Q so a little less than a dollar.

Do you take your dirty clothes to the lavanderia or does she come to take them?

- We take our clothes to her, she lives a few houses down the road from us, and so does the food lady.

Is it hot there?

- Yes it gets hot here during the day.  In the morning and at night it is cool.

Are you taking a lot of pictures?

- When I can I am, let me know how I can send the memory cards home.

Did you have a haircut at the CCM?

- Yes once by one of the teachers and he muffed it up pretty bad, so I got my hair cut the other times by other missionaries.

Do you like pupusas?

- I don't think I have tried any yet...

Are there any hermana's in your stake?

- Yes

For Christmas can you send me paracord, no clips or anything.? and maybe a flash drive or 2.  Don't waste space in the package on candy though...I don't really know what else... I will let you know if I come up with anything.  I love it up here you guys... you don't even know.  The people are really great and my companion is cool and we get along really great.  It is a hard area, but with faith we were able to get a few new investigators this past week.  The language is hard, and in lessons I mainly just bear my testimony and answer some questions.  My ear is starting to develop to the language and I am getting better at recognizing words.  

I am really learning how to budget here.  I realized that we are basically living the college life here.  We cook our own breakfast, and lunch we eat with Hermana Jackie.  Dinner sometimes we don't eat because we don't have time.

Hey I tried to answer your questions, but I gotta go now, we have an appointment with a family!  I Love you guys... there really is no other joy in this world than service.  I love it here, no matter how hard it gets I won't give up.  Have a good week!

Yeah it is great out here we just got back from our zone activity at the cave.  I am trying my best to be a good missionary!  Palencia is a great place.  I really love it here.  I gotta go now… I love you.  I will talk to you later.