Jan 10,2010

I just copied and pasted your questions. so here I go
What do you keep in your backpack? I keep my wonderful charmin on the go (haven´t had to use it yet thankfully), pamphlets, my BofM and bible and then another BofM, my small notebook of spanish and guarani to study (such as words, phrases, contacts), flashlight, hand sanitizer (the other missionaries laugh at me), my mission manual of course, my agenda, sometimes a snack, and my water bottle, and I guess a few other things I can´t think of now
Tell us about a normal day? normal day we wake up 6.30, get ready and stuff, personal, companion, and idioma study, then out the door at 11. the days vary I guess. we of course try t have appointments to teach, we contact at least 20 people on the street everyday. but a lot of the times, the same people are on the street, so we try and find different places. we do a lot of visiting with the members. there are way too many inactives. H Lozano says we need to visit them a lot because we need to help them, which is good, but we end up just sitting there. I don´t really get it. I feel like too much time is wasted. yes we need the help the members and we want to help them, but I have more important things to do than sit around or try and reactivate people who were only babpized because missionaries wanted numbers. sorry. I am kind of struggling with this. I feel like we spend all our time teaching less actives and not enough teaching people who don´t have the gospel yet. and everything seems to take for ever here. the members are apparently used to the missionaries staying for a really long time ( I am talking like 2 to 3 hours) and they will get offended if you leave too quickly. finally I had to talk to h lozano. Yes the doctrine is the same everywhere, but it is definietely different here. I am having a hard time finding a balance. there are a lot of things i would do differently, but at the same time h lozano has a lot more experience than me with everything. I don´t know. I find myself getting frustrated that our time is not spend effectively enough .don´t get me wrong, h lozano is great. she is a wondrful teacher and a great missionary, I am blessed to have her right now, but I am just trying to figure things out. anyways, sorry, that was my short vent. but we usually get back at 9 and eat dinner. I am so tired I just eat some bread or something and get to bed.                  Have you had a normal day? yes?
What time is church? 8:30 am but they don´t start until about 9. just the way it is here. haha
What do you do on Sunday besides church? sunday is a normal work day after church
Do they have a keyboard? yes they have a keyboard. they are harder to play I found out, but i guess i will play
If so I'm sure you'll be playing and leading the singing.
Since it is raining so much, how are your shoes and socks? the shoes are good. one type of the socks isn´t my favorite, but they will be fine. I am good with shoes and socks.
Are your skirts getting wet?  Using your umbrella? no it hasn´t rained enough to flood that much yet, and yes I have used my umbrella
Tell us about H Lozano - her family, are they members? h lozano was baptized when she was I think 12. her whole family got baptized. she has a sister who already served a missin and one who will serve soon. they sound like a pretty tight bunch.
How about the Elders you work with?
You said they were Gringos.
Does that mean they are Americans? yes one is from utah and the other is from alaska. they are good to work with. It is nice that i can ask them what stuff means sometimes, or to explain a grammar principle becasue h lozano doesn´t really understand them. to her it is just the way it is.
How is the skin care? skin care is good. it hasn´t really dried out my skin. probably because it is so humid here.                   Your skin? skin is ok. not bad thank goodness. i worry because the dirt and sweat sit on my face all day long. but the skin care i think is preventing a lot                Cramps? no cramps really bad. i do have diarrhea today. (you can take that out if you want haha). h lozano says it is because of the amount of meat we ate yesterday. my body isn´t used to so much. they feed you so much. don´t worry, i would worry more of me offending them by not eating enough than eating too much of their food. they just keep bringing out more and more. it is really good, but I seriously thought I was going to die if I had to eat anymore. they eat a lot of mandyoca ( i am sure i spelled that wrong but that is how it sounds). they grow it and tastes kind of like a potato depending on how they cook it. way good.
Are you sunburned? i got a little bit sunburned. not too bad. it just turned into a tan. I already have a way cute farmers tan
Are you making your bed? yes i have made my bed every morning
Did you need your sheets and pink comforter?yes, I needed the sheets and comforter.
How far away is the grocery store? not too far. 20 min walk or so

I'm glad the members are feeding you.  What did they serve you? oh i already answered this. but one thing is that they serve the meat with so much fat!! they just eat it up, but I really cant bring myself to eat it. the elders laugh at me that i cant eat very much yet they say. oh great
What do you fix for yourself? i don´t fix much for myself. when we get home at night I have no desire to fix anything. usually an apple, and bread or something. or maybe and egg.
Do you fix food together? no really. i think she wants to, so I will try and bring my self to cook. the kitchen is just so small and not very clean no matter what I do, I just don´t like being in there. ha, but I try and find ways to do something for the both of us or if not with food, do something else like fill her water bottle or clean off her shoes. I am kind of an on my own type of persn most of the time with food as you know, which i am working on, so i try and make up for it with other things.
Dad and I don't sleep well if we eat too much late at night.
You go a long time without food until you get home at night, are you ok? ya i am fine. 


well I used up most of my time answering the questions, but other than that, I am doing well. yes I sweat a lot and it is way hot, especially when we walk to Pindoty (this is guarani and for some reason is hard to pronounce). it is about an hour and a half walk. this is the campo area. and quite a few members live there. but, it is all good. there were a few things I wanted to write, but I forgot. I will keep a list of things i want to say next week. oh and I will tell you about our investigator veronica. she came to church on sunday and i will tell you all about her and all that other stuff next week. I will tell you more about the good things going on with the work nex week. well, i love you all tons and tons. i love hearing about your lives. gives me a boost of energy. I think about you every day and look at my pictures everynight before i go to bed. i am glad you had a good birthday mom. and i know it is leilani´s birthday this week right? please give her a hug and kiss from aunt whitney and tell her feliz cumpleanos. I didn´t have a chance to send a card. love you so much!
love,
whitney


 NOTICE