Week 6 - Only slightly eaten by bugs. The allergy isn't as bad anymore

And happy. Very much so. To start off, here are some pictures. I have no idea what the format is going to do when I send it. (Dad - I copied all my pictures to my hard drive -muchas gracias for that, by the way, but it means I have less time to write. However, a picture is worth a thousand words, right?)

With the sweaty face. Yup, shouldn't have used
flash. But I figure you, as my family, won't mind too much.

a typical street where I'm serving. The green is
much more vibrant in person.

While those are loading, we had a baptism on Saturday! The day was really completely crazy, but it was wonderful. I haven't known Ana as long, but I know that the road to baptism has been long and bumpy for her. Her husband's brother is on a mission, and right before the baptism he expressed to her his own desire to resolve the problems that are keeping him from baptism, and to be baptized before his brother comes home. It was really powerful when he bore his testimony to support her, because at the 11th hour she wasn't sure. We had 5 investigators come to the baptism, one of which was a street contact who called us on his own and said that he wanted to come to church. We met him on the way to the baptism, and he brought a friend. The next day, they both came to church! I think we'll have a couple more baptisms soon.

Bits and bobs: We eat lunch with various members of the relief society, at two in the afternoon, or 3, depending on when we get there or what we're doing beforehand. They feed us delicious things like chicken soup and mole or broth that they removed the vegetables from and then we put back in. And corn tortillas, every day. Sometimes we'll eat something little when we're in the apartment at night, but we don't have 'dinner' per se, more like an evening snack.

I drink milk here. It comes out of a box and for some reason tastes better. Eg, I can swallow it without gagging. I would bow, but you can't see me.
Mangos. Mangos are delicious. Mangos for breakfast, mangos for evening snack, agua de mango with lunch - I love mangos. They put chile on their fruit here, too. on the mangos, on apples, on oranges. Spicy is kind of the mantra around here.

So, technically today is the end of my first transfer! I totally cheated though - I've only been here two weeks :) None of the four of us in Cacahoatan were transfered - the other set of sisters also has a sister-in-training. The first week went by really slowly, but it's starting to speed up. I hear that at a year is when it really really starts to fly.

Mommy - funny story for you. This morning because it's transfers, we had to super-clean the house. I'm still getting used to the difference in cleaning supplies here. Anyway, I was filling a bucket with water, soap and clorox to clean the bathroom, when one of the sisters hands me a bottle of green Fabuloso! And we actually used it, to clean pretty much everything, from finishing off the bathroom to the patio (speaking of which, Dad, remember the pictures of the tank of water from my house in Ecuador? That's where we wash clothes... I'll send you pictures next week if I remember). But yup, they really use fabuloso. confession: It made me miss you.

Love you all! I love the Gospel, and I love my Savior. He makes me so much stronger than I could ever be on my own. Enjoy general conference, and invite a friend :)

Love always,

Hermana Juliana