cochinas

OKAY. So our apartment SUCKS and half the time we wake up.. THERE IS NO WATER. We don’t know what´s wrong. But let me just say… I'm one of those people that HAS to shower everyday, ESPECIALLY here. Where I'm walking around sweating. And ya just can't do that if there's no freaking water. Its disgusting. So the sister missionaries in Yaquiba are hard core cave-manning it. 

WE ARE COCHINAS!

I really am camping.

SHOUT OUTS.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY… to some cousins :-) to Brock, Owen, and my little man, Caleb. I hope it was awesome, don’t grow up too fast without me!!!

Also, happy birthday to my Abuela Melba, my dad´s mom. I cant wait to go home and talk to you all… in Spanish :-) I love you so much!!

And, shout out to Hermana Blanco, my mission mom, and Hermana Lyon, my best friend. They both hit their half-way mark this past week! So weird because when I GOT HERE.. THEY HAD JUST FINISHED TRAINING! The mission goes by so fast.

Okay. So Yaquiba actually has missionary clothes.. and I've gotten to the point where the worst part of everyday is standing in my towel, staring in my closet like..

"what to wear… what to wear.. what to wear…"

Because I freakin' HATE ALL OF MY CLOTHES.

So. I went on Monday with Hermana Ruiz and bought some new skirts. The whole way to the tiendas, Hermana Ruiz was freaking out, she was so excited to go shopping! When I asked her why she was so stoked she said..

"Because I've always had North American companions and they always raise the price for us!! But you don’t LOOK North American. So I´m going to know how much everything really is!!"

I laughed way hard.

We then took them to a cute lady in our ward to fix them up – they were a little too long. And now. . I'm a happy camper.

Wednesday, Hermana Ruiz and I went and did service for one of the less actives we're trying to rescue – La Familia Alvarez. Silvina has 2 kids, is pregnant, and her husband works all day. She´s been super sick due to her pregnancy and she needed help washing clothes. So that's what we did.

The problem was… This Hermana had more clothes to wash than all of mine and Hermana Ruiz´s clothes put together. So we didn't finish washing all of them, but we did a lot!

Now everyone go hug your washing machine.

Yesterday at church, I met a couple more people. Because I'm  a new missionary here, it takes a bit of time to get to meet all the members. Yesterday I met a woman and we were talking for a second.. and she asks where I'm from. I tell her I'm from "Los Estados Unidos"

And she's like: "LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS?? Pense de era de Santa Cruz, ya tiene accento Boliviano, No se puede notar que es gringa!"  ("THE UNITED STATES??  I was thinking Santa Cruz, you have a Bolivian accent, I never thought you were a Gringa")

And… ugh.

The problem with this whole "Bolivian accent" thing is that Bolivians speak very.. sloppy Spanish.

I think of my Dad's Spanish and it's very clear-open mouthed-rolled "R" s-spanish.

Bolivia isn't like that. It's slurred, letters aren’t pronounced, it's.. sloppy.

For example.

If someone here says: "Como esta Usted?"

They say it: "Como e-ta U-te"

The other day, one of the Young men came up to me and said: "Usted es de Los Estados Unidos, no ver?"

But it Sounded like: "U-te é de Lo E-tau U-nio, no ve?"

And I'm just like… what? I understand them.. but sometimes it takes some effort. And if I go home and my Spanish sounds like that… my dad is going to kill me.

Also this Sunday.. I went to church. And there were no new Easter dresses, or Easter ties, no primary presentation, no talks about the resurrection, no Easter songs, no Easter.

No Nothin'.

Nimodo.

There is a family here, la Familia Vargas. They're members.. and I LOVE THEM. They remind me of my family at home. Their house is "the missionary hang out home".. like my house in Utah haha

They are so awesome. The Hermano, Fernando, went to New Jersey on his mission so we like to speak English and we have so much fun with it. We laugh and laugh.. it´s great. He loves English slang.

Sometimes it's so weird being in their house.. because they have so much money. And every other place I teach.. has dirt floors. Its so different. But they are so humble and so loving and they always feed us when we go there and they love us. Which is so different than all the other members. Haha But I love them. I'm hoping I can go there to skype my family on Mothers day so that they can meet them :-).

Well. That's about it. The mission… is now hard. Our weekly numbers don’t do our weekly work justice. But… asi es. Hermana Ruiz and I are working super hard. We have a few people with baptism dates, but we have to help these people live the word of wisdom, get married, pay tithing.. and all kinds of stuff that will definitely test their faith.

But I love them. And I have lots of faith in them. Pray for them, will ya?

Love you all –

Hermana Cedeño