It doesn't feel like I have been gone for a month yet, the time in the mission is so weird that way. If this keeps up, and I hope it does, this mission isn´t going to last a really long time. That is not to say that I want the mission to go quickly, but I don't want to ever feel like it is dragging on. The key is for me to continue to work hard. I haven't really had any sort of culture shock or anything because that isn't really my way. It was pretty overwhelming at first (like 2 or 3 days) but there is really no point in wasting time to get into the work and it doesn't serve a purpose to be all depressed. There are definitely parts that are not my favorite, but I just move past those things pretty quick.
We probably won't have any western food except for the typical hamburger, pizza, fries, hot dogs - that kinda stuff. I am not expecting to have steak here (just the first day I get home :) ). There definitely is seafood here but you don't eat it all the time. It's roughly equal with how much you eat all the other types of meat, so not really a ton, but it is really fresh and really good. I am eating as balanced of a diet as I ate at home I think. I have not been eating too much extra fruit and veggies other than what is in our lunches, but today I think that I am going to buy avacado to put on my bread in the morning instead of jam, so that should be pretty good.
That is cool that dad did a photoshop course and is looking to get the new Photoshop software (will be fun to play around with when I get home).
That sucks that Spencer got his report date delayed, but with his job opportunity it might turn out good for him. I know they have really bad luck getting visas some places like Brazil. I got lucky not needing to do it until I got here.
For our last P-day one of the members had a big van so we just went with him. The trip to Calama on the bus is about 10$ which I think is pretty good. The P-days like that are fun, but they take up a lot of extra time. We were going to go to Calama again today to play soccer, but we didn't get tickets so we didn't go which I'm kind of glad for.
The Internet here is pretty much only done through Ciber´s (cyber cafe´s?), but they are everywhere so it's not that bad. It´s a little over a buck an hour so it's really cheap. I'm not really sure what percentage of the people here have computers, but at least in Tocopilla, it's less than at home. We are not allowed to use member's computers anyways, so its not that important to me at this point.
I have been writing in my journal everyday. Not a lot, but it will be something to spark my memory later.
We actually didn't do a lot of proselyting this week, so I don't have anything much to say about that. We did have the opportunity to do a big service project this week. We were at the home of hermana Isolina to build the wall so that we could move in and it was really fun. For about a day and a half I got to do construction stuff and I had so much fun doing it. It was a nice break from the regular routine and it was something that I had quite a bit of experience in so I really enjoyed the challenge of figuring it out and building it.
That being said, we finished that project up on Friday night and spent Saturday moving into the new Pension. It is so much nicer than the old Pension. There is some stuff that we still need to do to get it totally ready, like buy a shower rod and they are getting shelves built in our room today. It is about double the size and once we get the mess cleaned up it will be so much better.
I am working on getting pictures into my e-mails but I don't have a ton of time and necesito comprar un cable para mover mis fotos a la computadora (Oops, switched to Spanish and didn't notice?? Translation: I need to buy a cable to move my photos to the computer), but with my limited time and Revi´s detest to do anything other than teach, I will have to make time to go do that.
Love,
Jord
