January 15, 2001



Dearest Family,

Hey hey! How's everything going? Pretty good here. It's about 4:45 p.m. and we just got back to the apartment. This morning we woke up at 4:30 and left at 5:30 to go to a place called Colonia Tovar with our ward's mission leader, Freddie Castillo, and his family. Colonia Tovar is a small German colony that sits practically right on the border of the Valencia/Caracas mission. Not much to do there - just walk up and down steep hills, take photos, and buy stuff. And enjoy the cool weather. It felt like a California morning - cool and dry, a pleasant rest from the Venezuelan heat. We stayed there for about 4 hours then headed back to eat lunch with the Castillo family in their house, so while they were preparing the food my comp and I got hair cuts. Kind of another lame P-Day. We didn't get a chance to wash our clothes, go shopping, clean the apartment, or write any letters.

This week went pretty good. We had interviews with the president, and that went well as always. He told me that these upcoming changes (Feb 8) I would become comp mayor (senior companion) and since then I've had HUGE canker sores in my mouth preventing me from eating, talking, opening and closing the mouth - due to, I'm sure, stress. I know I don't really have anything to stress about - as long as I stay humble, repentant, prayerful, and dedicated to the work the Lord will guide me - but I'm still stressed, alright!?!?!? :P At interviews I also received a package from you! With Top Ramen, oatmeal, stickers to put in scriptures, and a video! The video is great, I was just about to order that, too - and I already gave away one pack of stickers to Elder Serna, a roommate, for his birthday the 10th of Jan. I like the family letter :) and the pic, too. My comp said that you guys look awfully happy without me there :P These last interviews I also got like 3 weeks of pouch, so let me respond to that right now.

Well, done responding :P I have letters dated the 7th and 20th of Dic., and they just talk about Christmas stuff. BTW please send me the address of Tom and Vicky McCormack, please. I want to give them a ring. :)

Well, I'm 20. Life's still the same. No big change here.

Well, I don't have much else to say. I'm sorry for the lame letters. I think what I'm going to do is write down my ideas for letters during the week, so that way hopefully they'll improve. Well, I love you guys and I want you to know that this is truthfully Christ's own church - he established it, restored it, and leads it in this very moment. The Book of Mormon teaches so well about the plan that our Heavenly Father has for us, all we have to do is open our hearts and read it.

Chao!

Elder Onken