December 12, 2011 - Hola mi familia,

December 12, 2011
Hola mi familia,
Alla en los estados unidos. No puedo creer que estoy en diciembre. Por fin!!! 6 Meses, jaja, wow incredible. Can you guys believe I'm 6 months into this thing already? I sure can't. That's so crazy and look, my spanish is getting much better:) So my first week, with my new companion was horrible. He is half crazy. I don't know if I can deal with him for much longer. I might hit him. He has only taken one shower this whole week and sleeps in a coat!!!.................haha, just kidding! Really this week has been GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so happy. All those things aren't even true. Haha, he is way cool and we get along like brothers. It's way cool. We are always joking and talking, in spanish, may I note. I'm definitely not good at it by any means but he understands and I understand 99% of what he is saying. I about understand everything but talking is a little difficult, but oh well, with time it will all come.
Ok, so first thing. I beg you to never send me a package with a white sticker again. I still haven't gotten it and I have to go back to central AGAIN for the 3rd time Monday and I have to pay $50 to get it. The central is over an hour away and they have to check it and all. Please just stick with green stickers, please please please. If I was any further away from central, they wouldn't have given me permission to go retrieve my package. Oh what a pain. Really, I don't care how big it is or anything, I just like getting something small. It's just as good. I promise, I'm not lying. I'm grateful for a letter when I get it:) I got a letter this week from Sarah and she had pictures in it. Wow, I just love her so much:) She's so pretty and I just miss her so much:)
So, this week has been interesting. I have some things that are kinda funny. First thing, there was a guy catching birds and the guy just scared them and they fly off but he was so fast he would just snatch them out of the air with his hand. The best part is that he is 75 year old or older. So because of the package ordeal, we have spent a lot of time on Ecuadorian buses and wow, there is crazy stuff that goes on here. They are safer than the buses in Peru but they are still scary but I love it. It's an adventure. You get to the point where anything out of the ordinary is just great. But on the bus, there are people who get on and do acts for money. This one guy stuck a 6 INCH NAIL IN HIS NOSE straight back!! ahhhh, then if that wasn't weird enough, he would take a knife and play a song on the nail that was stuck back to his brain, (if he even has a brain) ahh crazy. Oh and then today there was a preacher that came on the bus and started saying how if we gave him money, we would be saved and the best part is people actually gave him money! I was thinking, we should hop on some buses, sing a song and hand out pamphlets haha. Oh, also, guess what?....I had my first talk in church yesterday. Wow, I was scared but believe it or not, I probably wasn't understood well but they got the message and it was like a good ten minutes in spanish. I think it was alright. When I get nervous, I forget spanish. Me and my comp are working on this with me right now. This week we had a day without lessons til about five, which is a bad day and we had tracted for 2.5 hrs without anything. That's also unheard of here but the people are very hard here. There are several cases where we would go just to ask questions and they would show nothing but hate and just really crude tones and would just say ESTOY OCUPADO!!! which means I'm busy always! I tell you, it takes a lot of patience because I get really worked up sometimes, but I have finally learned how to keep my mouth shut when it needs to be. Something I have struggled with my whole life. Sometimes I just want to tell them they are going to burn in hell or something. Haha, oh well, laugh out loud. So we got to a house where they were scraping paint on the house. We used that as an opportunity to teach a lesson. They were busy with that, so I took the scraper and got to work and after 30 minutes, they knew we were serious. After I was covered in paint flakes in my shirt and tie, haha, and we got in a lesson:) SO IT WORKS!
This is how the Christmas phone call will work. I will precall you guys to your cell phone and then you will have my number and I'll tell you a time to call me. I'm really excited to hear your voices. I love you guys lots:) I'm so excited :) Thanks for everything:)
Love, Elder Profaizer