12/13/10

Doesn´t sound too hot, although we´ve been in mostly short sleeves this week. I don´t think we´ll get any snow here, though. That´d be a Bilbao section thing.

Well, it´s been a more normal week this time around. We´re still working on getting the area built up, though I`ve been told President is pretty pleased with our numbers for this week, so we´ll have to keep working.

We finally got the window replaced that Elder Benito broke (long, long story), and thankfully they didn´t charge us for it. Still trying to get the hot water heater looked at (apparantly they´re supposed to be coming tomorrow.)

We´ve got just one baptism set for the 25th at the moment, and one for the 18th. The other that was set for the 25th will probably be a January baptism.

Funny story: Saturday we took a trip out to a pueblo to eat with one of our recent converts (who´s from Scotland, so everythings in English) and we were just sitting (all four) when she was bringing out two plates. One of them tipped a bit and dropped a little gravy on the ground. She just says ¨Oh, s***¨, no warning. It was exactly how your mother usually says it. (she´s about sixty too) So we all managed to keep quiet until she went back into the kitchen, and then all about died with laughter. Just really unexpected.

Thursday, we go out to this little dumpy pueblo called Campoclaro. We were just going to mainly kill time and pass by some former investigators. First, a less active from Africa stops us and asks where the church is. So we set a lesson with him for the next day. Then, another lady stops us and asks whether there´s the ward Christmas party this year. We set a lesson with her for the next day too. Later, we´d gone pretty far out into a pretty rough looking area, it´s getting late, and I finally said ¨All right, let´s get out of here.¨ We´d had to pass by some gangs on the way, and now it was getting fairly dark.

As we´re headed back in that direction, this huge African guy waves us down and starts walking with us. Talking about how he´d heard about the church in Africa and all kinds of stuff. Walked with him all past the gangs to the bus stop, then got his information and set up an appointment for the next day.

So, next day, we go out to Campoclaro again. All three lessons fired on us. The third person wasn´t even interested and didn´t remember giving us his information (my comp thought he might have been drunk).

Personally, I think he was just sent there to walk with us and keep us from getting robbed, so...needless to say we don´t work in Campoclaro anymore. At least not at night. Our information member told us that´s not an area we should be in anyway.

We´ve been having a lot more fun this week. Now that everything is finally split, we just have to make sure the other companionship isn´t trying to make inroads into our area (the zone leaders hit that pretty hard during their visit on Tuesday). We´ve gone out for churros a few times, (haven´t hit a candy shop yet), but we´re still working hard.

I´m going to try to send out all the Christmas letters today. Should be able to get most, if not all, in the mail. They should make it to the US before Christmas.

Today, I´ve got to get more lightbulbs (it would figure these turds all go out around the same time. The ones in our bedroom and my Study Cubby(now renamed the Tarragona Norte offices) are little Halogens that are running us 2.50 for a two pack for the junkiest versions. Like 12.00 for a name brand.

I put together the christmas tree last week, and I´ve got pictures of it. It wasn´t too difficult.

This week, we´ve got to just get things ready for the baptism on the 18th. Apart from that, it should be pretty calm. Going to relax this p-day, and probably just kick back a bit, maybe take a few pictures.

I´ll try not to open the presents. Hopefully the paper doesn´t accidentally rip or something. Or they don´t end up going through one of the x-ray machines at the train station.

Yes, you can tell your parents I got the card, and no, the post office didn´t steal the money. It´ll sit with the stash of Dollars I´ve got for a while, probably.

I keep telling the new missionaries that President wears a Santa suit for the Christmas party, but I´m not sure they believe me. I think it´ll mainly just be a simple little thing for four hours like the schedule says. I´ve got to find a white give for a White Elephant game they´ll be holding.

Okay, that´s probably all I have for this week.

Bradley.