Monday, July 16, 2012

Monday July 16, 2012: Hermana Bowles--HOT, HOT, HOT


!Hola! 
Yep...it`s another hot one.....It`s barely 10:00 in the morning and I`m already sweating because I wore jeans (thinking I`d pick up my shorts in the laundry).....but it turns out that the shorts aren`t here because I confused the day that I sent them and they`re actually back in the house.....wow I am really going to sweat this P-day.  I try to laugh when they tell us that the hottest part of summer wil come end of july-august so that I won`t cry thinking about the heat.
I`m glad you saw the matching uniform picture.....I haven`t been able to figure out how to send pictures from this computer....I`m really trying, sorry.  The zones always end up doing zone polos, but this time around the zone leaders had the brilliant idea of doing completely matching uniforms (on our backside on the shorts it says "tarapoto").  Haha....we joked that we should do socks and headbands, too, (because there are so many hermanas in the zone) but in the end it was sufficient with our shirt and shorts. They delivered our uniforms and we went to a tourist place to have a barbecue and play soccer.  Awesome.  We felt a bit like we were in Elementary school again because of the matchiness, but it was really quite funny.
Here in Morales, we have a regular church building.  Right now they`re scouting out somewhere to have a casa capilla here in Morales mismo (where they can rent to have services) because our branch meets in the limits of Tarapoto....which is a bit far for the members in Morales.  Hopefully something happens in the coming months.
All the apartments have mini-fridges.   We stock our yogurt, milk, fruit and whatever else we want to eat so the ants don`t go crazy. Our apartment itself only has a fridge. o sea, there`s nothing to heat anything up....That said, however, we live right off the landlady`s house who loves us and`nos presta su microwave or stove to heat something up if we need it.  Yes, the water is still cold.  Supposedly we`re supposed to have these mini-water heaters, but I don`t bother for many reasons: A. they break every other second B. I kind of welcome the coldness now after baking all day in the sun.
Que vacan that reception!!   It sounds incredible.....however, I think weddings at home are going to put me into shock when I see one again.   They are so different from the ones here.
Do crawdads taste like shrimp? Do you eat them skewer-style or what?
It keeps getting hotter and hotter......the tan lines on my neck and feet have become more defined lately.  If you could see them I think you would start laughing.
Jack and Mariela and their three boys (Alexander, Alexis, and Axel) have become such a highlight.  Whenever we visit them or even passby and find their boys in the street, two year old Alexis runs up and we`ve "trained" him to say "Hermana Va-quez" and "Hermana Bosh".  I need to record it because I think it`s one of the cutest things I`ve ever heard.  Anyway, he runs up, says our names, shakes our hands, and then runs back to his house--Alexis runs like a chubby little penguin with his arms waving at his sides.  He doesn`t use shoes and he kind of waddles as he runs and smiles away :)
The current project is working on Jack and Mariela`s papers from Iquitos and Tamshuyacu (a pueblo about 1.5 hours from Iquitos).  Members in the branch are helping a lot and Jack and Mariela are excited for their marriage and baptism in August.  They are the perfect example of teaching people, and not lessons.  I`ve learned so much from them in only one week that it is never about checking lessons off of a teaching record.  It is so much more than that--it`s teaching so that they can feel the Atonement and really have a conversion with their families that matters.  With Jack and Mariela it`s about keeping them TOGETHER...their sweet family together.
It`s neat being in a branch with six missionaries.  It`s neat collaborating about the investigators and seeing them progress and everything.  We have an awesome district.  It`s wonderful to see how the branch has really grown and is gaining more unity and how missionaries working with the members is really key to that.
It was such a week of really teaching people, not lessons. I can`t describe it any other way.
Love always,
Hermana Bowles

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