Dear Mom,

Bad news, my camera isn't working again. Same problem. I'm going to try and go buy a battery this time to see if that fixes the problem. I'll let you know next week.

Transfers are coming up this next weekend. I'm pretty sure that I'm staying. Good thing too, I really like this area. It's finally starting to warm up a little bit. On Saturday it was really nice. I only needed a sweater when we went out. It was really nice. It dipped back down a little colder yesterday and today. I just have a light coat on. It's a lot better than a heavy coat, scarf, gloves, and hat.

Milko has internet on his phone so we watched it on that. If a member does have a computer we'll just have them put it on. If they can't figure it out, we jump in and help. We're allowed to go onto our missionary email, lds.org, and mormon.org. That's it. We're not allowed to use members computers at all, but if they're having trouble getting somewhere on lds.org or mormon.org we'll help out. We just can't be dumb with it.. I'm not.

That's a super funny story about Chubs! Poor dog.

Thanks for those tips on teaching kids. I do have one of those Gospel Art Books. I guess I should use it more often. I want to sit in on Primary when I get home. It sounds like fun!

We've been eating a lot lately. Unfortunately, it's hard to spread out the dinner appointments. Some days, I'll get home and make something to eat. Other days, I come home and I am stuffed to the max. I can't believe how much I eat sometimes. Saturday we had a crazy food day. First off, on Friday, we went over to a members house (the Ernest family) to see if we could visit them for a few minutes. It turns out that only the older lady in the house was there. (By the way, we're not allowed to enter a house unless there is another man present over 18 years old.) So we couldn't go in. She asked us if we had an appointment with them the previous night because Brother Ernest had made some hamburgers for us. We doubled checked our planners to make sure we hadn't set an appointment and had not shown up. We did not have an appointment. So the older lady (who is also a member) she called up Sister Ernest and it turns out that their home teachers had made an appointment and didn't come. So she wrapped up the sandwiches, put them in a bag with two cans of soda, two bottles of water, and two bananas, and sent us on our way. Very nice! I saved the sandwich until the next day during lunch. So Saturday for lunch, I had a really good hamburger. We had a lunch planned for 3:00 that day, so I had made sure that I didn't eat anymore. That sandwich filled me up more than I had thought though. Then we went to go pick up Alan Castro to come out with us. When we got over to their house, Sister Castro asked us if we were hungry. We said no. Alan said that yes, we were hungry. We said no again. Alan said "No mom, they want to eat." She made sandwiches for us. An hour later, we went to the Robles family to eat. She's from Peru. She gave us something called Causa. It was pretty good, and filling. Then I realized that she hadn't served us the main dish yet. ... I couldn't finish it. Somehow, Alan kept eating! It was so hard to try and eat so much. It's such a terrible feeling to be so full. I guess that's part of the mission experience. We eat another time later on that night. We had pizza.

There's another cool story before that too. The same day. This takes place when we went over to Alan's house to pick him up. He texted us earlier on that day to tell us that his back hurts and he can't come out with us. He's been joking with us lately about not being able to help us out and then saying that he actually can help us out. He's basically been 'crying wolf'. I knew this would happen. So we just went over to his house anyway just hoping that it was another joke. It turns out that something had happened to him while playing soccer the night before. He was lying on the couch and said sorry that he couldn't come out with us. We called a few people and no one else could help us. We were trying to do this an hour before our lunch appointment, in which we needed another man with us. Eventually Alan said that he would help us out if we gave him a Priesthood Blessing. So we gave him a blessing and we headed out (after eating those sandwiches)... While we were walking, Alan started getting pretty excited that his back was healed. Alan has a lot of faith! I don't doubt that his back was hurting pretty bad and that the blessing helped. It was pretty cool. Then Alan wanted to start contacting people. He contacted a few people. We handed him pass-along cards as we headed to our next appointment. It was awesome! Most team ups hardly say anything during lessons. Alan does much more than that! He's going to make such an awesome missionary!

We had a crazy day at Church on Sunday. Last week, we had a crazy (very unnecessary) discussion in Elder's Quorum on all the little things that are 'supposed' to happen when passing the Sacrament. Some good ideas came up on how to make the Sacrament 'proper'. Other ideas were just crazy and they came from some old guys. I think they've lost it a little bit. The counselor in the Bishopric was leading the class. He didn't really know what to do about all the ideas. The discussion was crazy and everyone was trying to say how you're supposed to do it this way or that way. So this week, we had our usually Elder's Quorum teacher teach. His name is Brother Quesada. He's from Chile and a returned missionary. Very smart! He taught a good lesson and then for the last 15 minutes of Elder's Quorum, he brought up the Sacrament discussion we were talking about the previous week. He taught the basics on how the Sacrament is passed by the Deacons, prepared by the Teachers, and blessed by the Priests. He taught out of the teachers manual. Then he taught us how all these little things about the Sacrament: (taking the Sacrament with your right hand, passing it with your left arm behind your back, that you have to wear a white shirt and tie, and things like that) are all traditions, and should not be required. One guy kept insisting that taking the Sacrament with your right hand is a requirement. Brother Quesada kept explaining that they are just traditions. Brother Quesada had studied a lot this past week to prepare for his lesson. I talked to him afterward and he said that he read numerous talks from Apostles and Prophets, and searched in the scriptures, and read out of some books all about the Sacrament. No where does it say that you must take the Sacrament with your right hand. However, it is good to do it with your right hand because your right hand is considered the hand of the covenant. Then Brother Quesada ended his lesson with explaining how these traditions are what take us away from the meaning of the Sacrament. The Sacrament should be sacred to us. We should just make sure that we are worthy and clean and ready to partake of the Sacrament every week. He also taught that the First Presidency has said that Sacrament Meeting is the most sacred meeting that we have in the Church. Over all I learned that Sacrament is sacred and we should treat it as such, and that Brother Quesada is one of the best teachers I've seen. He really is very good! He knows a lot about the church!


Q of the W:

1.  How long are your transfers?  One Mom told me that they changed it to 5 weeks now?

Just this last transfer was 5 weeks. It was to accommodate all the new missionaries coming in. So yes, I will be home a week earlier than we thought! I'll be home for your birthday! Yay!

2.  I can't believe I forgot to ask you, but how was that storm this week?  Did you get lots of snow and wind?

About four inches of snow and good wind. It's pretty much all melted now.

3.  Have you had super good salsa there?  If so, you should get the recipe.  A good salsa from a cute Spanish lady from your mission would be the best!!

Bolivian sauce to go with just about anything: One tomato, two small jalapenos, a little bit of salt. If it's too spicy, throw in another tomato. Blend it up until desired consistency. It's really good!


Love you mom! Talk to you soon!

-Justin


PS. Elder Christofferson is coming this weekend! Yay!