December 4, 2000

Family Schmamily,

Hi! How's life in the States wiht a new president? I just found out yesterday who won. Bush, right? I hear it was a pretty close fight. Tell me about it :)

I want to apologize for the last two letters - one was pretty lame and the other was a week late. It was late because I had gone with Elder Fuentes to get his Patriarchal blessing the morning of District Meeting (when we turn in the out going letters) and because we left early in the morning, I forgot it at home. But I hope you like the pictures!

OK, now I'm ready to answer all the questions from the last letter. Hold on to your hats!

-Are there seasons? Yes, there are two - hot and hotter with rain. But that's it.

And about the # of packages, it it's too much - NO! There's no such thing as too many packages. I've been richly blessed in that I don't really get trunky (nostalgic) at all, even looking at pictures or talking about home. I'd also like to paraphrase what Elder Robert J. Whetton (2nd Quorum of Seventies, and President of Area of South America North) said to us a week ago in a Zone Conference - "There is nothing greater than a missionary's joy in baptizing a family. Oh, and receiving a package from home."

Mom, you mentioned that Domingo said that he'd come out to Puerto. Well, no Domingo sightings as of yet. :P

You also mention Skyler getting buff?! I don't quite know what to say about that, but . . . that I CAN STILL TAKE HIM! :P Just how buff? You also surprised me when you said that Natalie has a RM boyfriend . . . this is walking on serious ground, here. Better watch out, mom . . . she'll be snatched up in no time, with those missionaries and thei commitment patterns (who me?) :)

Also, this last Tuesday I received the note from the Harts, complete with signatures from everyone in the family! As for the cheap tickets from my friend Juan . . . well, it turns out that he's going to be changing jobs here soon (I don't know how soon, but he is). Now he's going to be one of the people in charge of importing Intel goods from the States into Venezuela. He's also going to move to Las Vegas, too. But I think that this is at least a year into the future. So, I don't know if the ticket thing's a go.

I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed my package, and the card. I knew that if I missed Mom's birthday I'd be dead meat. :P This last Tuesday I received 2 packages: the Christmas tree package and the X-mas package that contains - I mean, uhh . . . feels like it contains . . . darn it . . . :P I don't know but it was sent out the 8th of Nov, same day as the tree.

As for the camera, it works great except that I can't carry it around with me all the time, just in case I get robbed. What you could do if you wanted to is send me like 2 disposable ones, ones that I could carry around with me during the day. But I wouldn't worry about it, this camera works out great.

The knee deal: nothing is wrong with my knee; it's just that someone asked me to ask you for the price of a knee brace, so I did. I guess I made it sound like I needed one? I have it on hand, just in case any of my comnps needs it.

And as for too many questions? Nah, never! It's what makes up the substance of my letters. As for sending me money to purchase clothes . . . the thing is that I would love to do that but there is simply no time to go shopping for more than 45 minutes, which is what we use to go regular shopping - hop on a bus, walk to the store, buy stuff, lug all of our groceries on to the bus, and back to our house. Also, the quality I don't think will be as good. True, I haven't gone out to shop for clothes as of now but I assume - that's what the seamstress here (when I took 5 pairs in to get repaired the 1st time) told me. What is it that makes it so difficult to send pants anyways? What you could do is ask to leave lots of fabric at the cuffs of the pants (like inside the leg, folded in) and at the waist so if at any time I do need to make alterations (cheap here) I can.

In one of the last letters you mentioned that it was fascinating about Maritza talking about the war of '39. It is, indeed. She was born in Yugoslavia and lived there with her family until she escaped the war to Venezuela when she was 14 (she's 71 right now.) When she arrived she didn't speak any spanish and had to learn it by herself. But that's what I know of her.

As for cultural/language facts, these things I pick up from just talking and asking questions. For example, there's one phrase here - I have no idea how to write it, but in English it would be like "eck-alay-kwah" that means like "exactly!" or "that's exactly correct or right!" but in fact it is a word from France that got Venezuelan-ized. Puerto Cabello (puerto=port, cabello=hair) has an interesting name that comes from the early sailors, who said that the water in the port here is so still that you can tie your boat to the dock with a strand of hair without your boat floating away. Just things like this you pick up here and there - it's really fun. Also, the different parts of Venezuela and their people are really distinct. The east, known as the orient, is known for its fish, the tallest waterfall in the world Salto Angel, and their accent and fast talking. Maracaibo and that western part of Venezuela has it's own personality, too. The Maracuchos (those from this part of Venezuela) are known for their sarcastic humor and for speaking in the vosotros form of Spanish rather than the ustedes form, which is used in all the rest of Central and South America.

You also mentioned that bet between Elder Lindgren and I, about speaking Spanish. Well, by the next night we had lost count of the number of push ups and neither of us can do more than 30 at one time anyway, so we haven't mentioned it among ourselves since that night. And I'm not going to remind him that he has push ups to do, because I'm sure that he spoke less English than me! :P

You spoke of an Elder Mosman. Apparently he was here in Puerto (his first area, I think) because not only the members speak of him, but we have a bottle of bug spray here with his name on it.

You also speak of the water situation. You mean that you guys have water ALL THE TIME? Woah . . . cool . . . imagine that! . . . I think to help cut down on the bills, the water gets cut off every night at 9:30 (when we come home) and turns on at 6 I think, and then once in a while there is none the entire day. And as for laundromats, there basically aren't any. And to go just takes too much time if there was one. Actually, the 2 other Elders in Los Guayos always went to one but it was pretty expensive just to wash their clothes, so when they got back they always had to hang them up to dry.

Phew, done with that. I still have to write to everyone else, but let me respond to the last letters I got, dated Nov. 13-14. (The email thing btw I don't like as much!) As for mail here yes, I do get it every week. And yes, I can use my Visa here but the Missionary Handbook guide little white bible book advises us to use money in funds like this not too often. So far I've used it once to withdraw 40.000,00 Bs when I was with Elder Speris and the deposit didn't come when we needed it. But yes I can use my Visa. Right now in $1 US there are about 696 Bs, which works out well for me. But I don't know how much they charge to convert.

As for the phone call on Christmas, I've heard nothing about any letter from anyone - not even last Tuesday when Elder Whetton and Pres. Blacker were here. But it looks like I'll have 2-1/2 hours to talk. Not too much time, so make a thorough list of Q's! It's a 5 hour difference so basically anytime I'll call will be before 11 a.m. What we need to work out is for you to call me here, which is much cheaper for me. Stay tuned for further details.

Love, Elder Onken