Hola Mom and Dad:
Well....I sent my decision about my end date to President Blunck and decided the following.................I`LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS!!!!! My official end date is December 17th, but I`m not sure if that means I`ll be home on the 17th or 18th. Mom, you can breathe free and easy now that I`ll be home for the holidays. That means that I have 1 transfer and four weeks left since I`ll be going home mid-transfer in December. No.....I don`t know if I`ll end with Hermana Vasquez because they aren`t announcing transfers until after internet is up......boohoo, that`s always how it is.
Haha...glad you liked the picture of "Charito" the boa. She weighed a ton. The zoo has two boas, but only this one (the shorter one) was available because the other was shedding its skin. Crazy crazy crazy. When the skin touched my neck I about had a panic attack, but held it in long enough to take the picture.
Well...another week has flown by. We officially have 2 weeks in Iquitos now. I guess I should explain a little more about my area.
We have 2 "areas" that make up the ward "Mi Peru." One side is the city side of Mi Peru. It has regular houses and pavement and is pretty city-like. The church is on one of the main roads and we live above the Relief Society President and her family. The other half is called "Versalles" and is one of the coolest things I have ever seen. I always thought of Iquitos with houses built on little sticks and that is EXACTLY what Versalles is like. It is basically built in the middle of the river. In January when the water comes in every year the entire Versalles floods over. Right now the river is dry and so we walk in the river bed with these little houses suspended on little sticks above us in the air. It is SO cool to see. Normally when the flooding comes every year, the houses are high enough that they raise the house up a little more and they walk around on little bridges. Last year, however, the flooding was so bad and rose so high that the majority of the houses were covered in half by water. All the wood now shows water marks covering doors and windows. Lucky for us, we can still work over there because the water hasn`t come in yet. I think that`s one of the difficulties with Versalles because only half of the year missionries can pass by. I`ll try to take pictures this week.
It is always funny that the families that want to get married seem to be the only ones who have problems with their papers. Their birth certificates are nowhere to be found. This one family who came to conference and again yesterday have that problem. But Hermana Vasquez and I are praying so hard to find the last birth certificate because it is the ONLY thing they lack to marry and baptize this month. I guess that`s what will make their baptism so so sweet is because we have worked so hard for it.
This week, Hermana Vasquez taught the Relief Society in their weekly activity. She taught how to make wallets out of Frugo boxes and now all the ladies are thrilled with their recyclable new wallets. Haha we tried to use it to get references, too, becuse we instructed all of the sisters that they had to call us whenever someone asked them where they bought their new wallet. Haha....we actually had a reference the other day funny enough!
I think it`s time to end this letter because I am sweating so hard that my fingers are slipping on the keys.
Hermana Bowles
VERY exciting!! We fly in on the 18th so maybe we'll see each other at the airport!!
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