Birthday Cake

Wow good emails this week! Lots going on it sounds like! Emma is so so cute in the water and with her swimming suit, Jennie your swimming suit was really cute too!

I am so glad that you got the alfajores! They got there a lot faster than I expected. The red ones really arent that great but they were super cheap. the blue aguila ones are the best. Also, Amy I got your package last week! With the hat the cake mixes and frosting and p. sugar and all. I don´t think any of the packages I have received have been tampered with, knock on wood. Did I mention how much I enjoyed the butterfinges renita and judy sent? American candy is so much better than the stuff they have here. I miss it and I was never even a big candy person.

Well anyways, so we have been teaching this couple maria and pablo and they are kind of duds. They have two cute kids though and the little girl is hilarious. This week we actually did have a really good lesson with them and we brought a member who did awesome and got them to commit to come to church and be baptized. So during this lesson they told us ana paula was having her birthday on sat and i decided i could make one of the cakes amy sent and share it with them. I also put together a cute little gift. I will tell you more about this in a letter but basically we made the cake and even used the rainbow chip frosting and it turned out so delicious (we cut off the edge before we took it over) but we got there and they were really awkward and didn´t eat the cake nor did they give us ANY and there were these guys that were really rude to us and one of the took pictures of me with his phone like a was an animal. After we left I wanted to cry, THEY DIDN´T EVEN GIVE US ANY OF THE CAKE AND I USED THE RAINBOW CHIP FROSTING!!! And then they didn´t even come to church so now they lose their baptismal date. Ugh, I was so peeved, like I said I will give you more deets an a letter. But amy thank you so much for the package! We also made the soup one day and it was so amazingly delicious. We addedj some tomatoes and corn and it was really good. You guys are awesome package senders! As I have said before though don´t feel obligated to send them, I know it can get pricey. But for the record I do really like twix and reeses (wink wink).

Other news, I got bit by a dog this week, don´t worry it only ripped my tights, not my skin. Last night i plugged in a hairdryer, something popped and now we are without power. Tried flipping the switch thing, not luck. I have fallen in mud multiple times. It rains here a lot, it is cold, it is gray and bleak and I decided I hate winter here. People always ask us if it gets cold where we live. We just say yes and shrug it off but hna salisbury puts it best, yes it gets cold there but it isnt such a big deal because we have central heat and cars. Here there is no escaping it. and there is no such thing as good lighting so I feel like I am always in the dark. Luckily though today was sunny and we played ultimate frisbee in a really pretty park. Took some fun pictures hope you enjoy.

Are you getting letters from me about once a week? Amy and Jennie a sent a sticker request in a letter to each of you. You should get those letters this week. Amy thats funny that you follow hna salisbury´s blog. Do you like it? I can´t say that I really love being here yet, but I am really grateful that I have an awesome companion. She is great and I love her so much. Yes we go running pretty much every morning, I bought new running shoes before I came, ask jennie she was there. We get up at 6:30 and dress and are out the door at about 6:40 and get back at 7 and do crunches and stuff. I like it but I hate it at the same time. Mostly I just don´t like doing it so early. It is dark and SO cold. I usually sleep pretty warm though. It is so weird that the weather is like this in june. I want to be where you are enjoying the warm temperatures! We haven´t had any investigators to church this whole change. Yesterday I actually thought we would get a few but the weather was no good and half the members didn´t even come. It´s hard because it´s not like they go into there garage and get in a car and drive to the church. They don´t have garages let alone cars. And there are tons of people with little babies so they dont take them out in the winter. I have a feeling it will always be a struggle during winter to get people to church.

Some things I really want to be grateful for when I get home are carpet, central heat, nice walls, good lighting, cars, nice shower (we are getting a new curtain, the old one was sick nasty with mold-note picture), sink in the kitchen with two sides and temperature settings, an oven, a stove and pretty much any modern day convenience.

This week hna salisbury and I were talking about how being here is like camping all the time, then later we met some people who had lived in newark n.j. for a while (there are a lot of people here who have lived in newark) anyways these people told us that being in uruguay must be like camping for us. They actually have a pretty sad story but are really nice happy people. In a nutshell they went there and worked and found a better life, there visa expired after six months but the stayed for ten years and got deported and there kids are still there and they cant get back to them. there kids are like 17-19 thereabouts. they were so humble though and despite all that they were like, we are so grateful to your country though because it showed us that there are some places in this world where if you work you can actually have a nice life. It is sad and true, really people here have hard time getting by even if they do work. Anyways, out of time. Love you so much!! I miss you and will keep my fingers crossed for letters tomorrow at district meeting!

Love Jessica