Week #11

This week has been really good.

This week we have continued to teach Victor he
is continuing to progress so well and is so excited for his baptism date that he wants to have a party to celebrate after.  He said the other day when we talked to him that he was quitting smoking completely that day, but we haven’t been able to talk to him as he has been busy with work so we are
really hoping that he has kept it up and can continue to keep it up.

Jacqueline Ramos is doing pretty good she just gets overwhelmed with the lessons a lot because she says that it is hard because everything she is learning is so different from the things that she was always taught. Please pray for her.

We have been teaching an investigator named Sebastion and his partner Monica (They don’t really get married here, so partner is a stronger word then girlfriend. Some parents here never get married, it is a real problem and really hard because getting a divorce is really hard here and single women have a lot of benefits like free houses from the government so people usually don’t want to get married.)  Anyways we have been teaching him since I got here and he is progressing just really slowly. He has a lot of doubts and different believes, but he has come a
long way.

We are teaching another young couple named Jonathon and Belen.
They have to little girls and are doing really well.  Last time we taught them, Jonathon said that he has a lot of interest, now after listening to us. When he first met us he didn’t really have any, just his wife did so we are really excited to teach him.

We are also teach a mom and her daughter Mercel and Camilla.  They have so much faith and like learning about different religions.  They are so kind and we are really excited to start teaching them this week as well.

The weather right now is starting to get hot it is spring time here and it is already pretty hot in the daytime. I cant imagine how hot summer is going to be. It can still get pretty cold  some nights here, so it is hard to know whether or not to bring a jacket
each day. The people here are all very friendly. Economically there is quite a range but the majority live off off much less then we have back home, They do alright and are a lot better off then most other countries in South America.  Their homes are all really small.  They are usually very colorful and usually the houses here are like one house split in two. I can think of the word to describe it sorry.

My Spanish is coming. I can understand a lot, but it is just hard to talk because conjugating in the different tenses is hard and people sometimes have a
hard time understanding my “gringa” accent.

I have been keeping a good journal. I have been slacking off a little lately because some nights I don't have time to write, but I am working hard to be better because I want to be able to look back and remember everything.  Right now I am just studying in the book of Mormon in Spanish unless I have something I want to study better for a lesson that day.  I do want to study different Christlike
attributes leading up to christmas and think about how I can better apply them in my life.  The food here different sometimes there are a lot of things that we have from back home just slightly different.  They eat a lot of empanadas.  They eat a lot of beans, but there are a lot of different kinds. Also completos which are hot dogs with ketchup, mayo, avocado and sometimes a bunch of other stuff. They put a lot on it though, so I don’t really like it.  I don’t really know how to describe the food here very well, it usually isn’t that weird.  The one thing I have noticed is that things aren’t as sweet here.

With love,

Hermana Stringham