This Week's Letter

I have now met the coolest, but ugliest dogs ever. They are native dogs that live in the mountains and the Indian tribes here use them a lot for their medicinal reasons. But here in town, a lot of people use them too. They are BALD and wrinkly with gray,black skin, but super super hot. People who have problems regulating body temperature have these dogs sleep on them and then they don't have the problem anymore. It is crazy but everyone says it works. So look this dog up. I don’t think they let dogs this ugly in the states.

We are now teaching 3 teenage girls to speak English. (I am also teaching my comp, but that is a mission rule.) All American comps must teach English to their Spanish companions for an hour every day, so its great. I love it, but it is hard when you don’t remember why we speak the way we do. lol I can't remember all of the rules of why. I just know we do. lol But, I am getting a book this week from the president to help out.

As for other opportunities for the discussions, we are going to teach an English teacher the gospel. He asked me to practice English with him and I said I would teach him only if I could teach him the lessons in English. He agreed. His mom is a member, he is 29 and teaches children English. It was funny because his mom invited us over for 'a snack' but really to meet him and teach him. Well, it worked. Mom’s are allowed to be like that!

So anyway, it is great here. Hard and always hot, but it is great. The people are wonderful. We have two more commitments for baptism and hopefully two more by the end of the week, but we will see how things go.

My comp and I were going to go buy some more sunblock and ran into this man who we always try to avoid just because he is a little weird. He grabs my comp and I by our hands and then proceeds to tell us how beautiful we are and how we should be married and not serving a mission. Then, he looks at me and asks me my age. I just tell him I'm way younger than him. (he is around 60-70) Then he tells me that if he was younger, he would marry me and that I am his Virgin Mary. I reminded him of the Virgin Mary?! My comp loses it and starts laughing so hard and I back up a few steps. I then grab my comp's hand and say my parting good-byes and we walk the other direction. Yeah, it was really gross. I didn't know what to say.

O.K. more stories of foreign language woes & strange customs. So this week, we were eating lunch with a member family and I mentioned to the older daughter (28yrs) that I like her earrings and they look great on her. She takes them off so I can look at them and then says that they are a gift for me. I said no and gave them back feeling very dumb. The father then started to tease me and say that it was rude and that I really didntt like them and so on. The whole family was laughing because my face looks sick because I thought he was serious. So I found out that day that I can turn red in the face. Well, when leaving their house, a man came out of one of the rooms to greet us. He was about 28 also so my comp and I thought that this was the daughter’s husband who was sleeping earlier. (her husband is not a member) So this man comes up and greets me with a kiss on the cheek. (When I got here, they told us the first time we meet people(non members) that it was ok to be greeted with a kiss, but the next time we are to explain to them the rules) So, he kisses me on the cheek and the whole family rushes in on us and starts SLAPPING THE GUY and shouting really fast!! Well, this was NOT the husband that my comp and I thought he was and it turned out that this person was the inactive brother we had never met. So anyway, the whole family was really embarrassed and kept apologizing to me and so on. Well, my comp had another good laugh and I was once again red.

So another funny story. My comp and I were eating lunch with another member family this week. On another previous dinnertime, we had talked about music and all the things we like to listen to. Well, the parents and I had a common interest, which was classical and opera, and my comp and I were able to connect with the inactive son (25yrs). So this dinner time, the family had prepared a series of songs that they played for us the whole time we were there. It was awesome and the son had made my comp & I each a CD of Latin music. It was awesome! He also gave my comp a game for us to play with our music too. (Its kind of like bingo but with music and lyrics) I had asked my comp what one word was and she started to laugh. In Argentina, the word Ramera means whore, (or tramp) but she thought it meant something else in English so she proceeded to tell me what this word was in English and said it very matter of factly (because she was proud that she new this English word) She said very loudly at the lunch table with the family there, "It means b####!" I was stunned. I looked at the family and they had no idea what was going on except for the son who spoke a little English. He and I looked at each other and then began to laugh so hard. My comp didn't understand that in English that was a really bad word. Really bad. lol So I explained it to her later, but who taught her that word? I sure never had during our English lessons! lol

So it doesn’t stop there. Right before we left, the son gave me lyrics to a song called Beseme Mucho and told me to read it later. Yes, I have a problem so look up the lyrics and have dad or the boys translate it. lol The son likes me and now I don't want to go eat with them again, but we eat with them every week on Wednesdays by assignment. Keep laughing! He is way cute. Probably the cutest guy I have ever seen, but I'm a missionary and now there is a problem. I have only met him twice now and spoken with him for maybe a min or two. We always talk with the parents because he doesn't like missionaries. He's inactive and thinks that we are here to get him back to church. So I told my comp and she just laughs and thinks this is such a funny situation. We'll have to fix this somehow. lol *sigh* More awkwardness for me. Guys move way fast here.

Ok. Next thing, I love you all so much. Next week, I will send a ton of pictures and videos. Send me some more photos. I loved the last ones, Denise. Thanks. My members love to see all of the photos of our family. I love you and pray for your safety always.

love amanda