Allyson with Sister and President Balledos

Hello everybody!

So our new apartment is nice! There are ten million bugs, but it's manageable. It's in our area so it's convenient. Also, we each have a bathroom because the new people [another set of sister missionaries] don't move in for 3 more weeks.

So yesterday we went to a huge Filipino birthday party. Everyone in the ward always invites all 6 of the missionaries to birthday parties and other events so that's nice! I ate goat, liver, and tiny little whole fish that look like minnows. Just put a spoonful on some rice-- yum. Then yesterday we were trying to find this less active in Santiago Sur (that's the mountainous part of our area). He told us he lived really far away and he was right. We hiked for at least 1.5 miles maybe 2 miles in a rainstorm through the jungle. There was just this little dirt path that was soooo slippery because it was raining so hard. So we had to go so slow because we were sliding all over the place. Then we had to go down a mountain that was so steep to get to his hut. The only thing I can compare it to is our fishing hole at the outlet….Except steeper and muddier and about 10 times as long. So his house was in sight and I thought to myself "wow, this is miraculous that I haven't fallen yet" then bam. I hit the ground and literally slid down the mountain on my butt. I was already soaking wet and now I was completely covered in mud (Oh, and Caribou [water buffalo] poop too was mixed in there). So we taught the family a good lesson then hiked back to the road in the rain... that sure was an adventure! I hope next time we go to that family it's not raining! Haha, we tell all our investigators that story and they think it is so funny though.

On Saturday, I witnessed probably the grossest thing ever. We were visiting a less active and it was dark outside and they live in this creepy little dark place where we have to walk in the alley for a long ways and climb over all sorts of junk to get to. And everyone is just squatting on the side of the alley doing laundry or cooking and they just stare at me. So all of the sudden I see this giant heap of feathers that is moving blocking the alley. Then I realized that is was probably 10 or 15 chickens. They were about to kill them, so they crippled them. Their feathers and heads were all at weird angles and they were just slowly moving waiting to die. Oh my gosh! It was so gross. So we had to squeeze through this heap of almost dead chickens to get through. It was so awful.

So our lessons are going pretty well! We have a family that is really progressing and I like teaching them because they understand English really well. Haha. We taught the 84 year old woman again and had a great lesson. I had a million more things to tell you, but I'm almost out of time and I still need to send pictures.[which never came!] I got Gr. Tell's package! Thank you so much! All those snacks are the best! So I think it took a month from the date.

You might get a fb message from someone named Rose Salvatera. She said she wanted to message our moms. We always go to her house and she feeds us delicious food and gives us wisdom and she just takes good care of us. She reminds me so much of Gr. Tell. She has a daughter that lives with her (she's less active and we've been teaching her).

I love you all very much and thank you for everything! Have a great week!

Love, Sis. Mortell

PS. The rumor that there are no good toiletries here is a lie. I bought some Irish Spring soap and some Secret deodorant. They also have Colgate toothpaste.

 

[Thank you to the Dinkels for these pictures]