Monday, November 24, 2014

First "cambio" finished

I finished my first transfer, or "cambio" as we call them here. Things are going good.  I can actually speak Spanish.  Not good Spanish, but Spanish none the less.

We put up a little Christmas tree.  We would follow the tradition of not doing it before Thanksgiving, but I don't think Thanksgiving is much of a thing here.  I don't know what more to say about that.
 
The houses here on the outside all look really similar (and dirty), but on the inside they are all different.  Some of them are really nice and others are dirt floors falling apart.  Saturday we knocked on a door, inside was nice, apart from the fact that it was about the size of our bathroom.   We brought the guy to church.  It seemed to go pretty well.  Funny thing was the first thing he really ever heard was a really good talk on the law of consecration. 
 
I really love all the letters and e-mails and stuff I get from you guys.  And please do send me Rick's letters.  That would be great.  I love hearing about the house too and anything you want to tell me.  I' ll see what I can do about sending pictures.
 
For Christmas, if you're planing on sending a box, please include another of those magical thin towels that you bought me.  Also, if you could find a nice looking notebook or two of lined paper.  The book I use to take notes in church and meetings is getting close to full.  The last thing,  I have that sewing kit that Grandma Walker gave to me.  I've used it a couple of times and it works great, but I lost the needles.  I would just try to find some here but they're so small I don't think it would make a difference if you just put one or two in with whatever you send.  Oh, and if you could send some pictures too.  Some pictures of the family and some of Oregon so I can show people my home.  And maybe some pictures of the house.
 
I will now proceed to answer questions.  I know we can play some types of discs but not all.  We have a little portable DVD player.  Also you can plug a USB drive into it.  I'm not sure what your question was about that.  (I wanted to send him some music and wasn't sure the best format to send it.)  We don't try to talk people down (I asked him how it works at the markets.  Do they try to "wheel and deal" or just pay the asking price), nothing is expensive, and we don't buy a whole lot.  I am assigned to one ward.  It's hard to say who is well off and who isn't, well unless they're really well off or homeless, but everybody in the ward seems pretty normal.
 
It's pretty normal here to call people what they look like.  There's a guy in my ward that everybody just calls "conche." (I don't know if that's spelled right) A "conche" is just someone that has lighter skin.  (They might have to be a Latino though.)  I've been called "conche" at least once. (I wonder how many people mistake him for a Latino.) Anyway, this person I was talking about, I think I heard his name for the first time yesterday.
 
Some people here speak English.  Some better than others, but everybody knows that the elders speak English (well at least a third or so of us, probably less).  So people just yell random English stuff at us.  Most of the time it's, "what's up dude?" or "good morning," even if its five thirty in the afternoon.
 
Anyway,  I'm out of time.  Have fun.  Love you guys.
Elder Jarvie

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