Week 10!

Hey guys!! This week FLEW by, and I'm not sure why.  But here we are at our next P Day!! So that´s been fun.  Actually it´s been super boring today, haha.  Yesterday was Élder Sotoski´s birthday, so I guess I´m just gonna let him do whatever he wants today...which is eat food, and talk with the members.

It´s super cool because here, the missionaries aren't a nuisance.  People genuinely want to be our friends, or at least it feels that way.  There is a guy in our ward named Michael, who served in Brazil, so he made us some prime Brazilian food.  We got to the house, and they had a Feliz Cumpleaños thing on the wall, and sang happy birthday in Portuguese for Élder Sotoski, which was really cool.  I feel like that never would have happened in the states, haha, people are a little nicer here.  

We have been teaching a bunch so that´s been good, and I feel like the language is still coming along...but these people are still so dang hard to understand, haha, they just talk so fast.  Dad says that I need to get a feel for their rhythm and that will help so I'll try to work on that.  There are just about 50 different accents in Colombia, so it might take me a bit.  I just need to remember that I haven't been out here long and that I'm definitely doing better with the language than other missionaries at this point in their mission.  

Yesterday was fast and testimony meeting, so obviously the missionaries had to get up and bear testimony.  Élder Sotoski got up and bawled his eyes out during his testimony, and I was like "Meh, I'm not much of a crier." So I got up to bear my testimony, and like halfway through, I started freaking bawling...LIKE WHAT THE HECK.  I didn't even know I could feel the spirit in Spanish yet, haha.  Who even knows if anyone could understand me.  Another Elder told me this week when we were talking about learning Spanish that "They might not be able to understand English, and sometimes they won't be able to understand your Spanish, but there is one language that everyone can understand, and that´s the spirit." So I hope that people at least understood that part of it.  

I also got my first package this week!!  Which felt super good.  I was glad to get it all in one piece, and nothing missing.  It was such a blessing that it all arrived, and I don't think it took that long either so that's good.  This week has been a lot better, and the homesickness is finally starting to go away (it'll never go away completely) but I think I'm finally getting used to being here. 

That´s funny Giovanni said that I eat a lot, because compared to the rest of Colombia, I eat like nothing.  Maybe he got me mixed up with Élder Sotoski for a sec, 'cuz the guy will eat you out of house and home.  But Giovanni is super nice, and super funny.  I've never met any one with the gift of tongues better than him, haha.  He can sit there and speak English with me, then turn and speak Portuguese with Élder Sotoski, and then go back to Spanish when speaking to his wife, in a matter of like 10 seconds.  He is super cool, and is very supportive of the missionaries.  

So that's about all the went down this week!  Hopefully next week is a little more interesting, haha.  I love you guys! Talk to you next week.

Yay!  He got his package!  With everything in it!  

These are Filthy Johns (in Colombia, Tanner is calling them Filthy Juans, haha!).  They are dollar store kid's sunglasses, and we have no idea why . . . but Tanner is obsessed with them - and has been for a while.  It is important to leave the stickers on the lenses.  LOL!  We sent him enough to share with others.  

We also sent him a bunch of chapstick.  Blue is his favorite.  

Tanner, why must you make this face in EVERY picture???