11/2/09 DAY OF THE MUERTS is not like Halloween.

wow!!! so much going on at home! i hate getting the news of those that have passed, it seems like it has been at least one a week. so its raining every day here and when it rains...it RAINS!! im getting good use of my rubber boots. ha. the zone leaders are going right now to get the package for our zone so i still dont know if my package came but i will let you know. we have a family of 5 who were lining up to baptize and theyre married, which helps the process. its a couple about 60 years old with 3 daughters about 21 to 28 years old. also, we have a baptism this week for Marleni, who weve been working with since my first weekend here! shes 18, and is very smart and knows how important all the laws and ordinances of the gospel are. also, we are teaching a couple who is married and the dad is great but he only comes home on the weekends because he teaches in a pueblo 4 hours away. all is well here and we went to trujillo today to go shopping and we are now back to the cold here in the mountains. i weighed myself today and i now weigh 176 pounds!!!!!!!! so depressing, but yesterday my pensionista started giving me half the rice and im not eating bread anymore. as well, im not gonna have seconds like i do once in a while. all in all, the work is great and this morning i realized while showering and getting ready, how powerful my calling is and how powerful and real our setting apart is as missionaries. NOBODY could serve a mission without the apartamiento. i love being a missionary and helping FAMILIES become happier and closer, not only to themselves, but to our Heavenly Father. halloween wasnt much here, but dia de los muertos, the same day, all they do is put flowers on the graves and get drunk. its horrible, because when people die, they body is in open casket for 3 days while the friends and family just drink around it, and the thirdy day the have a lunch and then march to the cemetery. how great a way to remember their loved ones.
love and miss you all, and most of all i really enjoyed your letter Dad. i miss doing yardwork with you and think about you constantly. hope all is well with work for you, as well as you Mom. let all my friends know i miss them and say hi to the ward. ¡ciao!