Happy Birthday Donavaghn!

The family reunion pictures look pretty cool (see below).  Mostly the Chinese shirts and the beach.  I really want to go swimming when I get back

   

To answer one of your questions, I've been in the city my whole mission, and the same city.  The Durazno was my only area that wasn't much city, it's like right outside the end of the city.  Esperanza was almost the edge too.  The difference is my area now is like downtown, zone 1, smack dab in the middle of the city.  The place where all the buses leave and a lot of the government buildings are pretty close to here.  There is a place here where you can find a bus going to any part of the city and most parts of the country.  Personally, I consider myself more of a country person, but it's nice to be in the city every once and a while.  The down side to being a missionary in the city is that you're not allowed to go anywhere in the city except for your little zone.

   

We had a pretty good week.  Things have gone pretty well with my new companion.  The area needs a little work, but I'm happy as long as I have a good companion.  There are a few great people in the area too.  There is an older lady we've visited a few times who speaks English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese.  She's a super great lady and kind of funny sometimes too.

   

The long flight isn't a big surprise.  On the way here, if I remember right, I left pretty early in the afternoon, and left the airport at like 4 in the morning.  Last time I went to Salt Lake, then to LA and then Guatemala.

   

So... does the water heater in the house work well?  I ask because most of the houses I've lived in here don't have hot water in the showers, and I really like hot water.

   

We've got a few things planned for my birthday.  Today we are going to eat pizza and play soccer and tomorrow we are going to go with a few members and stuff like that.  There is another member in the ward who has the same birthday as me.

   

I found a bunch of square pieces of paper and was teaching my companion how to make origami.  There is one that you fit a bunch of pieces together and it makes block shapes.  So we bought colored paper and have made a few tetriz blocks.  We've only made three so far, we don't have all that much free time but they came out pretty cool.

   

Thanks for everything.  I'll talk to y'all next week I guess.

Love 

Elder Jarvie

 

All but 3 grand-kids - Donavaghn (serving a mission in Guatemala), Gordon Walker (serving a mission in Hong Kong) and Jeff Walker who just started a new job. The Chinese symbol on our shirts was the surname given to my dad when he served his first mission in Taiwan.