Haha, Success! - 9/27/2010

Haha, Success!

I had my first two baptisms on saturday! I was able to personally baptize Hermana Iriz Lizbet Fernadez Alonzo. It was an amazing experience. Our branch showed great support and alot of them showed up. I was a little bit nervous because I had to say the baptismal words in spanish. It was all good though. I took pictures of us all dressed up in white, I was going to email you guys them but I forgot my camera cord again! haha, next week I promise I will send some pictures. In the month of october we have 5 baptisms set up which is really amazing, I hope that I can find more.

This week was really hard but also really rewarding. I think that I lost about 15 pounds this past week, en serio! haha. Me and my comp both learned that we have ameobas or something like that in our system that is causing us to be sick and stuff. So they are going to give us special medicine. We are all blaming it on the hamburgers me and my comp. ate last week. THis week should be better because we have some medicine. Me and my comp need to make up for last week and find even more people to baptize. I am really excited for this week.

It was really interesting to hear that there was a tropical storm going by central america because it has been raining for like 3 days straight and it has also been really windy. Oh and by the way Mom, I LOVE those boots that I got. sometimes the water will be rushing down the street so fast it will go right into my shoes, the boots are awesome. It has been really kind of cold were I am to. fortunately my comp had an extra blanket that he let me use.

I learned a new word this week! Canche! I noticed that everyone would yell this at me, especially if I did something really stupid. Apparently it translates to white boy. Well, I guess I couldnt hide it forever. haha. Oh and another thing I learned this week, if I am standing in line for something like the bus, or the line at the store, if I step like one step backwards there will be like 50 million latinos that magically cut in front of me. IT is actually really starting to annoy me, so it is necessary to be more pushy here I have learned.

I have now been in the mission field almost 3 weeks and it has been amazing. I remember yesterday I walked into a house that was made out of barbed wire and cinder blocks and thinking that is was actually pretty nice. It is really interesting how much my excpectations and perceptions on life have changed so fast. There are some people here that are super dooper poor. Some people dont have electricity or any kind of running water and they literally live in a tine box. Alot of the people cant read either which makes it really hard to teach about the the book of mormon. HOwever despite the fact that these people are living in poverty, they are still just as happy as any millionare family back in the States.

It is really cool to hear all the stuff that is going on at home. Especially with all the new baptisms in the ward. Tell Megan not to worry about A.P euro, 45% on a test really isnt that bad haha. Next week i Promise I will send some pictures, I am writing it in my planner right now. Thanks for all the updates and support!

Love
Elder West