Dear
family,
I
got a wonderful package from home. I
also got a package from the Victory View Relief Society. It had candy,
letters, oat meal, and ramen noodles. It also had a lot of CTR stickers.
Please be sure to tell them thanks for me.
Did
I tell you they have Subway here in Concepción?
And Dominos pizza too. It is awesome.
That
is awesome that the Olympics are up and going.
I love you all more than the number of peanuts it would take to fill an
Olympic ice rink for these games.
Love,
Elder
Withers
Dear
family,
We
are writing a little bit early today because we have the Hermanas from Santa
Elena who spent the night over at our place (our zone is having a special P-day
today.....volleyball on the beach of the Parana River and a member is BBQing
for us.....sweet!)
This
week really was so typical I struggled coming up with things to write about.
But don’t fret! There is always something to write about :)
Earlier
this week we were riding a colectivo, which is bus system that EVERYONE uses. Interesting
to note is that there is no capacity or limit they have for the amount of
people that can be riding it at once, they just keep shoving more and more
people on when its rush hour. Anyway we
were riding the bus from the furthest part of our area (about an hour walk)
back home for the night, when the bus pulled over at the next stop, to let some
people off and others on. The new passengers got on, the bus driver put
the thing in gear, and seconds after that a car going decently fast slams into
the back of the bus. In my head I was thinking, great this is going to
take forever....now we have to wait for police to come and check everything
out, make sure everyone was okay, and so on....considering that it might be
better to just walk home at this point The bus driver got out to go check out
the situation, was gone for about 30 seconds, got back on the bus, and kept
driving as if nothing happened. I was floored..... thinking.... don’t you
need to exchange information for insurance purposes in case of necessary
repairs or liabilities?! Ha! Oh
well. The laws are clearly not the same here. May God Bless
America.
On
Tuesday we had a rainstorm that would put Portland to shame......it was
raining SO HARD when we woke up, and was like that solid all day until 4 in the
afternoon.....it didn’t even stop or let up once. It flooded some houses
and made a mess of all the roads, but it cooled everything off and everything
looked so pretty with the gray clouds for a backdrop and the moisture in the
air. Funny thing though. You know how we say in English that it’s
raining cats and dogs and how even though the expression makes no sense, you
still know what it means? Well in Spanish they say it’s raining
pitchforks.....an expression that also makes no sense but everyone here knows
what it means. You should have seen us talking to the member about it, he
was trying so hard to explain what a pitchfork was, and we were trying so hard
to figure out what the heck he was talking about. We gave up, wrote down the word and looked it
up later. We get it now :)
This
week we had a small adventure at the doctor’s office for my companion. Hermana Giuliani gave us a list of doctors we
could go see. My companion looked at the
list and said, "I want to go to Dr. Lawrie.....his name looks the least
Argentine and most reliable." I was like.....ha okay. All
these docs are going to be Argentine, but pick whoever you want. (It’s
not that we don’t love this country, we do....but when it comes to medical
things sometimes being in a foreign country is scary.) We made the
appointment for that afternoon, showed up and ended up waiting for 2 1/2
hours. When the doctor finally got to
us....he read her name and then in English says, "she speaks English, come
on lets go into my office!" We got
into his office, and he goes onto explain that he was born and raised in La Paz
but that his grandma was very strict and that every time they went over to her
house they had to speak in English or they didn’t get to eat. He said,
"You can talk in English or Spanish to me....it’s all the same
concept" and I think he was right. His English was incredible, if
not fluent. He said he learned English with a British accent, and it was
kind of funny to hear him speak british english with an argentine accent....but
he really does know English.....it was so cool! My companion starts to
explain what has been happening, and he gets a wicked grin on his face and
says, "you know we have a little problem.....I would love to help you but
I am an orthopedic surgeon....I have no idea how to help you"
Haaaaa...........what a bust. The list of doctors Hermana Giuliani
gave us weren’t all general practice ones like she thought they were. He
gave us our money back and we were on our way out. We have an appointment
with the doctor’s brother (who works in the same office but is general practice
and can also speak English!) It was just a huge waste of time more than
anything, but we are working on making it all better!
This
week really was a great one! All is well
and life is good. We have visitors over for today and its going to be a
great day with volleyball and barbeque and zone meeting tonight.
I’m
doing well and love you all. I love you more than all the glasses of
chocolate milk I have consumed this summer!
Hermana Withers
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