How Big Was My Head Before?

Hola Everyone, 

I’m sorry that I couldn’t write very much last week. I thought I was fine then I got a message on my screen that I had one minute left and had to finish. I tell the other Elders that on pday we need to wash our stuff and write before we play but they don’t always listen. I promise I will not miss a week again so no one needs to panic. 

The beach has been a fun place to go and relax and play and draw on pdays and it is an approved area as long as we stay out of the water. The pictures I’ve taken at the beach don’t show any one playing because when they are playing I am as well. When every one is relaxing so am I. I don’t want to get up and take pictures of people when I could be chilling or drawing the view.

So the food so far has been pretty bland and boring. Not what I expected from a Latin country. Craziest thing I’ve eaten so far would have to be cow utter. The people here think its really good, I on the other hand do not. They cook it just like any other meat in a pan with a little bit of oil, no extra flavor, nothing. My favorite was just the other day. We visited a less active member because she wanted to cook us dinner. It was awesome. It was spaghetti but it was spicy (people here don’t use spicy things or spices at all). We also had real salad, with lettuce and dressing. Most of the ´´salads´´ here are tomato and cucumber in a bowl. Thats not a salad, thats veggies in a bowl. People also think that potato salad is a substitute for real salad as well but its not, its just a bowl full of lies. I’ve also loved buying pineapples from the street venders. They are so fresh and sweet. Its amazing. All the fruit you can buy from the street venders are always really good.

So far we have not done much service. We keep asking if we can do service for people, but they don’t need help or so they say. Also the ward here hasn’t set up any service projects since the last one like a month ago that was canceled by the rain.

No word on my packages yet. I talked to the president about them, he said he would look for them but it may be like you said they can’t resist an american package because they are so poor. I don’t know what I’m going to do without having a list of all the silly holidays I need to be celebrating. Very sad.

Also I found out that we don’t have rats or mice in our roof. We have been hearing noises a lot but it turns out its bats. We have bats living in our roof! They don’t come in the house and just head out at night so thats pretty cool.

This I had my first experience of having the members or investigators think that the missionaries are there to solve all their problems. One of the older American Elders was talking to me about this when I was in Medellin after I left the MTC. They seem to think we are all wise and in tune to any issues they may be having. Its really uncomfortable. They really don’t want our help with the problem either, they want us to fix it and they put forth no effort. We can totally help them with spiritual stuff but family disputes not so much. The problem I had was that Hermana Jessica wanted to go to a festival but her mom said no. Thats the whole problem and they both thought we had divine insight into what they should do. Thats not something we can solve, thats something they need to talk about. I told them to pray about it. They didn’t like that idea. Missionaries are not all wise but they think we are and anything we say is divine.

I’ve missed the family scooter rides lately. Well I miss using any type of motorized object. We have to walk everywhere. I am always tired after we come home. I have lost 20 or so pounds. Well 9kg, I don’t know the exact poundage and yet I still have a slight pudge. Its smaller but I can’t believe how much extra weight I had. People here say they can see the weight loss in my face. My thought is how big was my head before. Was I walking around with a giant head and no one told me?

My comp, Elder Gomez, is stressing a lot lately because he thinks that the problem of our ward and the area here in Cerete are his problems. He thinks we are responsible for everyone when I think we can only do our best and not stress over it. I think I need to just start running between appointments to make him relieve stress. Also my Spanish is awesome. It’s been close to 4 months and I can talk to almost everyone. Well I can talk to every one I just don’t understand every time still. This slang and coastal accent are hard. They slur their words together and talk really fast. 

Love you guys lots, 

Alec

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