November 5, 2000
Deer Family, (hah!)
Greetings from the mission field in Puerto Cabello, Venezuela!
I don't really know what to say, so I'll respond to the 3 letters I received all at once last Tuesday at Zone Conference (the letters are dated October 10, 16, and September 20! More than a month for that last one.)
Packages received lately: I did get the Halloween package (goodies for General Conference!), and the package with the patches and pens, and 2 just this last week with the HLJ rings, bookmarks, stickers, etc. Thank you so much!!!!!
Why can't I get PB here: I can, but it's reeeeeeallly expensive. Many natives have never tasted it before.
Here where I am right now, developing film in 30 mins. costs about 5,000 Bs. (which equals right now $1=694 BS = $7.20) which is a pretty good deal. :)
As for the weight . . . I'm scared to say I'm pretty sure I'm gaining. I'm definitely losing tone to my muscles :( (:P) It's not like I really eat a breakfast, and all I eat when we come home at night is a banana shake (almost a blender full) that has 3 bananas, water, powdered milk, ice, sugar, and either cinnamon, or strawberry jelly. But what really gets me I think are the lunches. It's always rice, chicken, and fried platanos and some sort of soup or beans. And there's always soooo much. But lately I've noticed myself getting bloated full off just one regular plate full. I haven't had an appetite this entire week, and when I do have a little hunger for something I drink H2O because I have some gnarly canker sores and the roof of my mouth is all sore and torn up. I haven't had that in awhile so I figure it's just about time again. But otherwise physically I feel just fine, aside from my nightly and morning little back pain. Ahhhhh, life as a missionary :) Alma 17:5: ". . . they had many afflictions; they did suffer much . . . such as hunger, thirst, and fatigue . . ." Just tests is all it is.
Transfers here for a missionary could be every month or 2 (Elder Speirs) or could be like Elder Hess, who has 6 months here in Puerto. The avg. is about 3, 4 months in an area.
Journal - it's not that stuff in the past bothered me at all, but I found myself getting a little trunky. That's all :)
The weather is hot, humid and rainy. It rains about 2, 3 times a week. And when it rains it RAINS. The same kind of rain that you would let us stay home from school, even worse. The actual temp here in the Valencia mission isn't as high as it gets in Calabasas and L.A., but it'll avg. about 90's everyday. It's the humidity that kills me. And it doesn't get cold when it rains, either :(. Here in Puerto the zancudos (mosquitos in the U.S.) aren't a problem.
The shoes are doing fantastic. The little plastic plates here in Venezuela only last for 5, 6 days. But the soles of my shoes are holding up great. Ecco I definitely recommend. And polishing them really helps keep them in good shape, and waterproofs them. My shoes are wonderfully waterproof, which is vital here. I'm switching off every day, too. This is good because if the shoes stay constantly a little moist, the leather breaks down much faster.
Travel in Puerto is horrible - there are hardly any busses, which are necessary for us to travel from one urbanizacion (neighborhood) to another. Our area here in Puerto Cabello Fortin (we named it because we're the first missionaries with this exact area) consists of Santa Cruz, Rancho Grande, San Esteban, and Las Llaves. These are urbanizaciones.
The letter from Sis. Gifford is like a chain letter thing - it follows a route that entails all the missionaries in our ward; I'll write a letter and put it in, and when the letter gets back to me again, I'll take it out and put another letter in. So yes, it did have the letters from Sis. Gifford, Mike, James and Doug.
Christmas List! I need seriously: pants (1-3 pairs would be fantastic) in any dark color of blue, black, grey or brown (keep in mind I only have ties for black and blue) - you know the fabric rule- and waist 36; length 34 (larger if you can't match the size in waist or length). The least amount of pleats the better! Please no 3 pleats. 2 is okay; 0 is wonderful! If you get them hemmed, please leave lots of fabric on bottom insides so if I need to repair them I have fabric already. And if you could augment or somehow reinforce the inside corner of the butt pockets :) Pants I'm in most dire need of, but I could greatly use mesh garments with my name on them. These seem to last more time in the field, and they're easier to wash and dry. But everyone has them, so please mark them. Also, socks please :) That's about it. If you see neat ties, get em! I like ties with yellow or red in them, so keep an eye out especially for those. Thank you! I'd imagine it'd be the best to send out the packages early so they don't get lost (one Elder got his X-mas package in May because it got lost) or get swiped. I dunno . . . what do you think?
Elder Hullinger took my place in Los Guayos! He's probably using my bed, he has Elder Speirs as a comp, he knows my families . . . how small a world! I left him a bunch of food (we normally don't take our food with us in transfers, and I remember my first day I had no food, and shopping was lame because I didn't know what to get, what word meant what, and I didn't know if something was expensive or not, or if we could even eat it or not), too. But I didn't know that he was taking my place until I was already here in Puerto and I visited the office, where I saw his pic next to Elder Speirs under "Los Guayos/Paraparal." They're living in the house of the familia Avlar! Because the Avlars moved to the US they rented the house to the mission. He's living in the house of a family I baptized! How weird! :P
As for this mom whose son is going to Maracaibo: the bed covering thing is a good idea - when it rains and the bed gets wet, the mattress doesn't get wet at all. You just wipe off the water. And it guards against bugs and stuff. Get your pants big (not too huge). Venezuela is definitely not uncivilized (where the missionaries live.) Take a cheap watch. Just in case. I think in Maracaibo they have to use a fanny pack instead of a backpack. Check into that. Bring duct tape and packing tape. A Leatherman is such a handy tool. Bring plenty of socks, and a pack of colored pencils, and hangers - plastic. A cheap calculator. Lots of shirts. Shoes 1/2 size large. Nice sandals. Don't bring a raincoat. An umbrella - nice but small. That's what I can think of right off :) Gloves, too.
The padded envelopes I had to get at Zone Conference.
Business cards? Not worth the trouble.
We get the Liahona, Ensign, and Church News, so thank for the G.C. talk but I already had it. :)
Tell Natalie that I'm planning very much to go to school at Logan when I return, and that I will already have friends there, too. So stay in Logan!
Keep me informed with the ward. Still my ward! :)
That finishes up the Q/A part
This week we're going to marry 2 of our investigators! We call them the familia Prieto, but not because they're married - they just live together. We've been trying and trying and finally it's going to happen. Neat, huh?
How'd you like the letters I sent last week?? I had to send them to Natalie, because she's a student. I assume you've heard that I sent her letters and pics via Fed Ex for free! I could hardly believe it until I walked out of the building without having payed one bolivar. It was fantastic! What it is is a business here called MRW lets families here send documents to their relatives who are studying in another country, for free! I can do it once a month, and it arrives via FedEx. Please tell me how everything went, if I should keep doing it, etc. I think I'm going to start to send home my letters so they can be guarded and so they don't take up so much space and weight.
I'll finish up with a cute little story that happened to us while we were teaching a charla of New Converts to a 16 yo kid. His family - grandma, sister, dad, step mom and step sister (5) were all gathered there around him listening to the charla too, even though they aren't members. We're in the middle of the discussion and I barely notice little 5 year old Gracy skirt off into the house. A minute later, I hear Mr. Mosquera burst into laughter from behind me. We all turn around and he was just laughing away, while holding a little paperback book that little Gracy had given him. He said, "Look what Gracy brought me," and lifted up the little book. "She said that you missionaries look like them!," and pointed to a little drawing of tiny angels singing, all dressed in white.
It's no wonder why Christ loves little ones so. I love you all so much and thank you for your love!
Nick