May 22, 2000

Dearest Family,

Finally I'm getting the hang of things and have figured out when exactly is the appointed time which I have to write to my family every week!

I'm loving out here. Doing this work, being with these people, learning these things - it's amazing. Right now, along with my goal to have the 1st charla memorized by Sunday, is to be more obedient all around. I'm having a hard time being ready on time - stop laughing, mom - :P. I'm usually like 7 or 9 minutes late. Also it is sooo hard staying awake between 8:30 and 10 when all you're supposed to do is read. :P I can definitely tell when I haven't been reading el Libro de Mormon because my pronunciation and clarity of mind when speaking becomes questionable, but my spanish is definitely coming along. Right now I can understand my companion about 90% of the time, and everyone else like 50% of the time. Fortunately for me the hispanos are such a friendly people that they just wink and grin at me. Half of them think I'm hispano and half think I'm chino - chinese. One night we came home and listened to a message on our machine and Hermano Rodriquez was like, "Hola Elder Nanney, Elder Barrio (Ward), Elder Urena, y, uhhhh . . . hermano, er ... Elder "Chino" . . . it was pretty funny.

We spend the vast majority of our time in either trailer parks or projects. The hispanic people are very humble for the most part, with the exception for the cliques of drunk men. In fact, despite their relative poverty they are always happy to offer any food or beverage, and plenty of it - most of which by the way, is extremely tasty! :P Except for beer. That stuff tastes nasty! :P joking!

Yesterday was stake conference and it was good. I spent conference either handing out the headphones and stuff for translation or, for the most part, in the High Priest's room with Elder Ward and our bishop, who was translating. President Feller and his wife spoke. Such awesome people! While President Feller is definitely a businessman, his wife reminds me kind of like a hyper Sister Arnell. It's funny.

We're on bikes right now, and since our area's big and concentrations of hispanics are widely dispersed, we get lots of riding time in. There are no flat spots around here, only up or down. The grades are pretty tame, luckily, but when it's the first real bike riding you've done for awhile, it's pretty tough! The bike I'm riding is a pretty good one, but the seat's on the hard side. Lots of sweating. But it's good for me, so no complaints here. Yes mom, I'm drinking lots of water. hehehe.

My companion is great. He leaves in October, so he's got a lot to teach me. While he understands that I'm new, he gives me plenty of responsibility that helps me learn the ropes and grow.

At stake center one of the waiting sister missionaries told me that she's leaving tomorrow (Tuesday) along with 3 other elders. They're all headed to Argentina. A quick, sharp reminder that my stay here is only temporary!

The ward around here is great. There are 3 really gungho families that we can always count on for something, like food or help or, for the english missionaries, splits. We'll average 1 or 2 days a week we don't have a dinner invitation. We get dinner invitations from both english and spanish members.

In accordance with the rules, I've started to part my hair on the side and I only use a shoulder pack - the backpack is home to some certain airplane toys. My arms and neck are getting a nice tan but that's about it. As you can tell, I'm running out of things to say. I'm going to go eat now but I'll write back just before bed.

Well, nothing much happened :P. I love you all and I hope everything is all well. The church is SO true! Such a blessing to us that we have the Holy Ghost, temple work, the atonement - there's no doubt!

Elder Onken