Keeping Busy

30 Nov 2009
Ok, I can´t decide whether this week went by fast or slow because a ton of things happened. First, Monday we had the flood (pictures are on their way), and Tuesday was zone conference so I traveled 3 hours to Chaco and three hours back the time in the middle was zone conference. Wednesday was normal (what’s normal?) and then Thursday I traveled 2 hours one way to Esquina, the southern part of the mission, because there are not any missionaries there but there are a couple of members and a house for a chapel I think. So we travel there every once in a while. I did that for the first time this week and we delivered some church materials to the members. And then we traveled 2 hours back.
Then Friday was not normal at all. Our district leader had to have his
gallbladder out. And because my companion is Zone leader the mission president wanted him there for it. So the whole morning we were running around trying to link up paper work and what the computer said at the post office to allow a money transfer to pay for the surgery 2700 pesos...which is only 700 bucks and this is at the PRIVATE clinic apparently the public is 10 times worse according to another gringo. Saturday in the morning we helped him get checked out of the clinic and get him and his companion in a taxi back to their apartment. NOTE: Jordan goes into detail in his letter about the surgery, especially the pain that followed, which I have omitted here.
So anyway I´m glad you guys had a good Thanksgiving, I did alright ,surprisingly,
as it was my first major holiday away from home, since Halloween I don't think
counts haha, my first major holiday that is family centered. In the morning on
Thursday I went off into a room in my apartment and shut the door and looked at my family picture and the pictures I have of both sets of grandparents and the poem that grandpa sent me in his first letter to me. I love that poem ( I always look for centavos), my companion found a 50 cent coin once and I laughed and translated the poem for him or tried he tossed the coin to a little kid that was sitting on the ground nearby.
As far as the language goes I have made a lot of progress this week it seems, I understand more, and I can say more. I understand everything sometimes or most everything or at least the big picture but there are still some people, usually the people that are more ¨hick¨ like, that I have a really hard time understanding.

Jordan