Concrete Jungle

Hi All--

Yeah, the water is hard. I used to shave in the shower with hot water, so now I have to heat water in a pot, and apply it with a towel to my face. It makes it much more important to have a sharp blade, because otherwise my face doesn't get nearly as soft, so it can get scraped up much more easily!

Also, it's getting pretty hot, and I'm getting a pretty nice tan!

My companion is from Bolivia, and he is very different from me, and is also 3 years older than I am. He did a year of premilitary before coming, because it's mandatory in Bolivia. He's been out for 7 months, and seems pretty well adjusted.

The other companionship in our room is an American and a Peruvian, or Peruano in Spanish. It's really nice to have someone to talk to about the differences between here and there, and just American things in general. The Peruvian is hilarious, and has a ton of stories about previous missionaries, and just seems to enjoy life immensely. He speaks hardly any English, which means that as I learn more Spanish, he gets funnier and funnier! They are pretty cool! Every night we compare the funny things we experienced that day, like meeting a drunk who knows Spanish, or investigators with lingering handshakes, it's pretty great.

And now, the explanation of the title. I figured out what is so weird about a lot of my area. The entire thing is paved!! When I hear concrete jungle, I think of a big city, with the jungle part being mostly people, but here, you literally can only see about 100 ft up a narrow concrete passageway, and there are a million of them all interwoven and it's super cool. They have these main roads that are super loud and have a lot of mototaxis and such, but you can walk for like 5 minutes, and be in relative silence, because of all the buildings that block out the noise! It's like a whole neighborhood, but in like 5 buildings because it's three dimensional. As a consequence, it's like a massive mega-neighborhood, were you only know the people literally right next door, because that's still like 20 people! It's pretty great!

Also, I'm not sure I talked about this already, but we have this family that is so cool! At first it was just a less active member, and then we added a sibling as an investigator, and then the Mom, and then everybody else, and they are so much happier now! When we come now, they are all joking and having a great time! We recently met the Dad, who joined us for the lessons, and it's amazing the effect a supportive, fun father can have on the atmosphere! He was so engaged, and kept all the kids engaged as well with the occasional funny comment, it was awesome! And we had a FHE with them and some other less active members and ward members yesterday, and it was awesome. The hard thing is, we can't eat food prepared by the members, except for lunch on Sundays, and our Pensionista, so we smell all of these delicious homemade foods, and can't eat them. So, we prepared the dessert at their house! It was the most amazing chocolate drink, like hot chocolate, but with sweetened condensed milk! It was so cool! Also, we finally made crepes in the microwave!! They were really good, but I forgot to take pictures, of anything actually this week.... sorry.

Also, in the Book of Mormon, the last verse in Words of Mormon, it gives the recipe for world peace. The world leaders need to "[labor] with all the might of [their] bod[ies] and the faculty of [their] whole souls, and also the prophets". That's how we can have peace, in any size group of people, by working with the prophets, with all our might and faculty. In families, in cities, anywhere. Pretty cool!