Parasites! Oh my!

Alright, so I hope everyone had a good week! My week was...well, interesting. And I will get to that.

First things first, I don´t know how much news of Bolivia gets to the States, but if you hadn´t heard, things are a little shaky. First thing that happened was that sugar prices are sky high right now, like it´s impossible to find sugar here in Bolivia. You can find all of the sugar substitues you could ever want, though. That´s the weird thing.

They refuse to use that. Second, the government put a tax(they call it a tarifaso here) on taxis and trufis/buses/public transportation, so there were a lot of demonstrations and marches and protests, etc, etc.

I even took a pic of one passing our building. Third, milk prices went up, and a couple of riots went off in the night for that, but the police took care of it quickly. So yeah, things are fun here.

Now with me.....hahaha, um well, Tuesday was the start of a very interesting week. I got up, and let´s just say I was sick to my stomach all morning, so I called the wife of our mission president, and she sent me to go do tests and what not(which took all day), and that night I found out that I have parasites(yup you read correctly), which meant expensive pills that I´m getting reimbursed for and the infamous white diet. That consists of every white food possible(lots of rice, potatoes, and chicken), which means I´m eating the same thing everyday....it sucks. And then on Thursday, I had conejo for the first time(also known as guinea pig). It was weird. They boiled it, and then I started to eat the head(yup, la cabeza) without noticing until I realized that there was a lot of bone on this chunk of meat I was eating, then seeing a little eye staring at me.....kinda freaked me out. But yeah.

This week ended really well though! We ended the week with a baptism for an investigatore that we´ve been teaching for the past six weeks, and other missionaries for the past five months, so it was really cool. My compi baptized her. It was a special day for all. We also got another longterm investigador to committ to a baptism this Saturday, so we´re totally excited. I just hope it doesn´t fall through.

Dad- Have an awesome week! I hope the pow-pow is treating you well.

Mom- Hey! Hope you have an amazing week!

Aly- Thanks for the email. I´m totally jealous that you got to go sledding....just wait until I get back! :)

Emi- Hope all is well. Good luck on your tests this week!

Sophie- Hey little cuz!!!! Hope you had an amazing birthday. Luv ya!!!!

That´s all for this week!

Elder Craig

Cochabamba Street Demonstration

Happy Valentine's Day!

Well, happy valentines day to all of you! I hope everyone is doing fantastic....I sure am!

This past week went really quick for me....I can´t believe how quick it went.

So, no baptisms this week, but we did confirm the two new members that we baptized last Sunday, and I confirmed one of them(my first

confirmation!!!) and that was really cool and humbling.

So, on Monday nothing really exciting happened. We got permission to go to this massive open market/bazaar thing called "La Cancha" (it means "The Field") because Elder North, who lives with us, wanted to go get the game Risk, which we found, super cheap, and his companion, Elder Mendoza, needed socks. My companion and I tagged along because we had nothing better to do during P-Day. Tuesday we had our English class, which is going ok.....no referencias from it yet (which is our purpose behind it) but, we´re holding out, and the members of the ward are enjoying it. And on Friday, we had our bi-weekly Missionary Night at the chapel, where we played a game and had a spiritual moment. That was more successful in getting us contacts, we got two that night.

So, we have an awesome new investigator who is READY to hear the Gospel...he´s the father of a recent convert, and he´s totally awesome to teach. This doesn´t happen very often because fathers are usually super tough to teach because they don´t want to open up because religion isn´t very manly.... But this guy is amazing, and I hope he progresses well.

So, yesterday we found out about the changes because this transfer is OVER!!!! And I am staying in Petrolero for at least another six weeks, my companion too( but it´ll be his last transfer here for sure because he´s been here now for 4 and a half months, and six months is the max in one area, and after this transfer, it´ll be six.). Elder North and Mendoza are staying too, so we have a happy apartment. The only real change is a new district and zone leader, so things are staying pretty much the same for now.

Mom- I´m glad you had fun in Dallas, sorry that your NASCAR thing got cancelled. I hope you have an amazing week. Happy Valentines Day!

Dad- Hope skiing is treating you well. Have an awesome week, and have tons of fun! P.S. Every one loves the Milly pic.

Aly- I´m sorry that you had a tough week. I hope you have an awesome Valentine´s Day!

Emi- Hey you! Have and awesome week! Happy V-Day!

That´s all for this week!

Elder Christian Craig

February 7, 2011

Hello everyone!

Yes, it is P-Day again. And I am writing from the land of Bolivia!

So, we started this past week by playing a game of soccer(futbol) and we had a ton of fun. We rented this cancha(turf field) and played for two hours against another zone. I played hard, and that was a HUGE mistake....I was really really sore for the rest of the week! Hahaha.Then I went to the grocery store to buy my breakfasts for the month. This month´s choice of cereal- Chocopics, a Hispanic chocolate cereal.I think it´s pretty good.

Tuesday wasn´t that exciting, but we did have our weekly district meeting.

Wednesday was a long day. It was my first zone conference( I only have about 7more) and it lasted ALL day pretty much.. We got out at about 4 and that didn´t leave a ton of time to do any work, but we did some anyways. Our zone conference was about several things. We talked about finding new investigators, asking good questions during lessons, and some other things that I can´t remember. It was really good, though, and everything went really well.

Thursday was a just a normal day. About half of our citas (appointments) fell through, so we spent a good time knocking on doors, without a ton of success. Friday, was a crazy day. We were freaking out the entire day(my companion and I) about a baptismal interview that we were supposed to have that evening....and it didn´t fall through!!! It was the hermana whose interview fell through three times last week. She was early to her interview too! And that´s wierd for Bolivianos. But after the interview, there was only one problem...the Mission President wanted to talk with her on Sunday during church. That means that there could be no way that she could be baptized on Saturday. So, my companion and I were a bit disappointed.

But, on Saturday, after our appointments, we went and cleaned the pila(baptismal font) because we knew that if the President ok´d it, we could baptize her on Sunday after church. And....WE DID! I included some pics of the baptism.

So, the week ended really well. Also, for the past three days, we´ve had rain in the morning, and on Friday, we had a huge front come in( I included a pic of it....Dad, I thought you might like to see it.)

Mom- Thanks for the letter. I´m glad to hear you´re doing well. Glad business is good.

Dad- Hope you had a good week. Good luck with the Cert III stuff.

Aly- Thanks for the letter and the pics. Glad you´re doing well.

Emi- Have an awesome week!!!!

That´s all for now(folks!)

Elder Christian Craig