My week in review....

Hey, it´s me again. :)

To answer the first and most important of the questions that were given me, I am still here, as expected in Santa Clara. I was really happy with the fact that I was able to stay here in this area. I didn´t want to leave at all, so luckily I was able to stay. I´m still here with my same companion, Elder Dumenes. Which is also something that I was hoping for. I really feel that we have more work to do here in this branch, and our plans are to do it, without fail. Our branch President is really excited as well. He sees the opportunity for the branch to grow alot here. One example of the progress the branch is making is that one of the members is preparing to enter the temple in July and will be our new Elder´s Quorum President next week. It is really exciting that we are going to be able to have another church leader to work with.

Phew, what else exciting has happened this week. Oh, with the apartment, we are still getting used to the new apartment. This week we were finally able to sleep well again. None of us had gotten many a good night sleep since we had moved in. The reason being is because the apartment we are in now, is on one of the avenues, where tons of traffic passes at all hours of the night. From buses, to trucks, to people and dogs. So our nights are a lot louder than we were used to in the other apartment. It doesn´t help either that the owner´s dog likes to bark at everything that comes near the house. So that causes us a few problems as well. But, we are finally used to it. Otherwise, we are in general just used to the apartment now, even walking out of the apartment every time that we have to use the bathroom doesn´t bother us anymore. Haha, a little bit sad, but, not much we can do about it either. The only other new news for the side of the apartment is that we found that the son of the owner is a die hard drunk. I don´t think that I have seen him yet, not being drunk. He always walks around drunk, and talks and tells all kinds of crazy stories about how we went to war and stuff like that. Luckily, he doesn´t live in the house, just nearby. hahaha.

So, this past week I wasn´t able to go see my favorite family. They are in Chile at the moment. Due to a few complications last Pday I wasn´t able to get over to their house. I´m gonna try again when they get back from Chile. I have been able to talk to them over the phone a couple of times. Speaking of Pday, this Pday, is basically going to be the same as last Pday. We came to Centro, ate lunch, came to do Internet, and then are going to be going to play football, or soccer haha, with some other Elders for a couple of hours. It´s going to be nice. :) Nothing exciting otherwise. :)

You asked if we had exciting plans for this week. And... no, not really. Tonight I travel to Jardín America for splits with the Elders from there. Then, this Thursday is a big day in my life. I have my birthday!!!... in the mission. This Thursday marks one year since I have been in the mission. Halfway, crazy, it doesn´t feel at all like I have been out that long, but then again, looking back it also does seem like forever since the last time I was home. It´s a really strange sort of feeling. Oh, and while I remember, yeah I´m feeling fine now. I don´t feel sick at all. Oh, and Dad, don´t worry, as a general rule we don´t usually eat enough that we have trouble walking. Just with this one family that likes to give us an incredible amount of food, that really makes one full enough that it´s hard walking.

The investigators are all going well. The families that we have found are progressing really nicely. If all goes well we are going to have baptisms again at the end of this month. It should be really nice. We´re hoping to have an entire family get baptized. Then we have tons of people lined up for the first couple of weeks in July. A bunch of the investigators that we have have already gotten their responses that the church is true. It´s really an impressive thing to see when someone has that happen, and the changes that start to happen in their lives. Yesterday in the morning, there was a ton of fog as we left to go look for investigators. It made life a little bit difficult, but we managed. I don´t really understand why, but nobody wants to be outside with the fog. But, fog can´t do anything to anyone, it´s just... there. But oh well. Nevertheless we were able to have a good number of investigators in Church. Oh, yes, there is this one family that has a number of little girls. The girls, hate to sit still especially when they don´t have anything to do to occupy their time. I was wondering if you could email me some of the pictures we used to use to color and stuff, and then I can print them for them to use? Thanks!!!

Oh, my times running out, gotta go, I love you all!!!
con mucho amor!
-Matthew