20 Ago. 2001

Dear family,

Well it's 8:20 and I'm the only one up so far. I thought that Enrique, a new convert, was going to come over at 7 to play futbolito but he hasn't showed up yet. I've just memorized another scriptures and I don't want to memorize anymore until Elder Draper gets up, so I don't forget it or anything. Yesterday was Elder Adair's birthday (20th). I gave him a cool plastic gun a few weeks ago as an early birthday gift. This week was just another normal week, nothing out of the normal really happened. Just lots of rain.

Tuesday I got 1 letter from you but it was really two becaue it was DearElder.com and they have 2 different dates: July 26th and July 31st. Wow, a while ago. A far as packages, you mention a July 18th package and July 3rd package. I'm still waiting on those. We have a Mission Conference on the 24th because Elder Russell M. Nelson is coming. So hopefully then I'll get them. I'd imagine that they'd be here by now.

Well, I guess I'll describe my Cruazao trip. It started in the Maracay terminal where I met up with Elder Reed, where we took off to the Valencia Terminal Big Low. Once we got there we tried to find the bus that goes past the office but we waited like 30 minutes without seeing any bus going into Valencia. One thing we saw though were just pick up trucks with tons of people in the back. Turns out that the busses had boycotted and weren't working, so people were taking advantage and starting their own "busses." So we hopped in on, thinking that we knew were it went. Well, the guy who told us where it was going liked so we ended up taking a taxi anyways. We finally made our way to the office Elder's apartment and spent the night there with the rest of the group that was going to Curazao. Elders Nelson, Thomas, Munk, Roberts, Christensen, and Reed. Basically almost the entire group who got here when I got here (Venezuela). The next morning, Wednesday, we got up at 3 and made our way to the airport where we met the guy that was going to take care of everything for us, Cherry Machado. He's tall with a big nose and dark skin and big eyes. We got to the airport and really didn't know what to do because we were waiting for him, but the entire time he was sitting down watching us being lost. He finally got up and introduced himself, and said, "You didn't recognize me? Whenever you see a priesthood holder, the Spirit should make your heart thump as if you've just seen the girl you were going to marry." At first he struck me as a smart-aleck, but we soon found out that he was way rad. So we boarded the plane at the Valencia airport and landed in Curazao at 10:30 or 11:00, where a member of the church there who works as a taxi driver picked us up in his Toyota van (kinda like the one we had a long time ago). He took us to the Venezuelan Embassy but stopped in route as we crossed a huge bridge so that we could take pictures. We only spent like half an hour in the embassy and then, after dropped off our stuff at the hotel (the biggest on the island, and it was way nice, too) we went to eat because we were way starved. We saw a sign for Denny's and wanted to go there but we couldn't find it, so 2 elders went to KFC (there is no KFC in Venezuela) and the rest of us went to Wendy's. But then Cherry told us that we didn't have to pay for anything the entire trip (just souveniers) because he paid for it all, so we pigged out. We were so hungry. After eating we went back to the hotel to wait for the Curazao elders to pick us up and there we met Elders Gardner, Edman, and . . . I forgot the other 2 elders' names :( So we went out and worked with them until 9 p.m. They also have a little Toyota van (everyone on the island has one) 2 Elders cover the north half, 2 the southern. Me and Elder Nelson went out with Elder Edman to pay the phone bill and prostelyte a bit. He taught us some papiamento - the basics, the sentence structure, etc.

Curazao's kind of like a desert. Lots of sand and dirt, no tall trees, lots of shrubbery. Everyone is way black or way white. The white ones are the dutch people who really only speak dutch. Everyone else speaks dutch, spanish, english and papiamento. It's not a very religious island, either. But at 9 we met up at the hotel with Cherry and then to our respective hotel rooms. I was roommates with Elder Roberts. There was carpet (!), we didn't have to use sandals in the bathroom (first time in 1-1/2 years!) and we could drink out of the faucet (first time in 1-1/2 years!) And it was cold in the room (A/C!) so we had to use blankets (!) It was paradise.

The next morning we had to return to the embassy to sign some papers after having eaten a light breakfast at some food stand (I ate ham!) and then at 10:30 we met up with the Elders and worked with them the entire day. The following (and last) day, Friday, we ate breakfast again at that place, took pictures at the hotel, and then toured Wilemstad and Contraband (the other side of the harbor). There's a cool bridge that's on pontoons that moves like a door on a hinge to let boats through the harbor. So that pic when I'm walking off the bridge . . . I really am. We ate lunch at a diner place to eat some Curazao food. It's like different tasting Venezuelan food. I just had chicken. Some had goat. After that we bought souveniers (used US $) and then the taxi member took us to the airport at about 4. We parted with Cherry there - he went to Caracas and us, to Valencia. We got to Venezuela late and as we landed in the airport, the president of Colombia was coming, too, so there were lots of TV cameras, military people in various suits, bodyguards by the dozen, and some red carpet get up. Elder Nelson went to go take pictures, snapped a photo, and then was mobbed by like 4 huge bodyguards/police who snatched his camera, inspected it, then opened it up, took out the film, and gave it back (after some persuasion). We spent the night at the office elder's place and Saturday morning went home.

Love, Elder Onken