August 1st

Hello familia!

Well yet another week bites the dust here in good ol Concepción! I am still loving it here and my zone and my companion and everything! I love my comp even more than I liked her before. She is super super sweet and is quite the funny little thing. She cracks jokes all day long and keeps me laughing. Last week, we had to pay off some debt that the other Hermanas left on the house so we had literally ZERO food and ZERO money the entire week. But this change we decided to work on the Christ like attribute of ESPERANZA (hope)! So we just kept on saying...oh its alright, we wont starve cause we have ESPERANZA!!!! Or, its ok that our investigator hates us...cause we have ESPERANZA! And guess what? People invited us to eat over every night. AND people randomly kept on giving us food! We lived off of some Platanos that some lady picked off her tree for us for like 3 days! It was great! We have sooo much esperanza! haha

So we also have a ton of esperanza that we are going to find families to baptise. We{ve found a lot of new investigators this week and I give all of the credit to all of the esperanza that we have. We also have 2 baptismal dates!! Sandy, the older sister of the twins (Jose and Samuel) is getting baptised the 13th and also her neighbor, Evelyn. They are super excited and its cute. Im especially happy because when we first challanged them to be baptised, they flat out said no because they werent ready to give up certain things that they liked to do. But not they are excited and ready to get baptised on the 13th. Evelyn also told us yesterday that her mom would like to listen to us so Im really hoping that something comes of that.

In answer to your questions, yes, it still rains every day. Only in the afternoon though, its strange. It is sooooooooooooooooooo sunny and hot in the morning. But after lunch we go home and change into our boots and grab our umbrellas cause it rains every single day after lunch. And it doesnt stop until the middle of the night. Also, you can pretty much expect the lights to go out every night. Normally I am ok with it cause I have a super cool, strong flashlight (thank you Lan). BUT unfortunately the flashlight cant cook my food. I swear the light ALWAYS go out right in the middle of cooking food. Like when the eggs are half cooked or something. What a burden.

As far as nursing, nothing else is really new. I was talking to the President this week and he asked me if I am sick of being the nurse yet and if I would like to be released. I told him that I would do whatever he needed or wanted me to do. When I said that, he smile huge and gave me a fist bump and said..."I NEED YOU! INCREDIBLY!" Then he told me that I was going to be in Reu my whole mission and asked me if that would be a problem. I said no but he told me that if I ever get sick of being here, I can take off to any other part of the mission. He said if I want to go to the cold in San Marcos, all I need to do is tell him and hop on a bus. He said I could stay in a hotel for 3 days if I want and work up there. So that will be pretty fun! Ill actually get to see more parts of the mission then I would normally be able to this way!

Now, for my funny stories. Last week I was ordering subway. And a drunk man came up to me and grabbed me! He was trying to get me to come with him! So I just told him to go away and that I was not going to go with him. Then he started motioning at my chest and telling me how HUGE it was! I just turned my backpack around so he would stop looking. Anyways, eventually, the police came and had to take him away. He kept on telling them that he was waiting for me to be done ordering so that he could go with me. Everyone in the place was staring and laughing. What a nightmare!

Another funny thing that happened. I was walking by an old man and I said "Buenas Tardes!" and he said "Adios, Virgencita! (little virgin)" bahaha! I am used to people calling me bonita, canchita, hermosa, princessa, reina, hermanita, gringita and lots of other stuff, but virgencita is new for me! I loved it.

Well I think thats all I got for ya this week. But I love you all sooo incredibly much! Thank you for your support and letters and emails and at least pretending like you care about whats happening with me over here. You are GREAT! Until next week!!!

Love, Hermana Kami Alyse Alston