Email 8 November 2010

Hello my lovely family and friends :)
All is well here still. Things are slowly progressing for me thankfully.
I had another mission conference this last week as I told you guys I was going to. It was with Elder Clark, who is the President of Central America I think? Not really sure. It was a good one though. We just talked about problems we were having in the mission. Most of the Elders have not been out more than 8 months... So, my mission is considered a new mission I guess. It is difficult they say because we don’t have a lot of experience. Elder Clark also told us that we need to become best friends with the Latinos. We are here with them to lift them up in the church. That is why we aren’t in the "easy" state missions haha. We have to elevate our fellow Latino Elders as well as the members. Anyways, I did get some mail. I got one handwritten letter from mom... It was the one on the stationary you used for Derek? I also had 3 DearElders from Mom. The Maznio Family sent me a letter too, so that was nice. I did get one of the packages. A very small one that had like nothing, but my memory card was still in it, so that was nice :) Didn’t have pictures though... That was saddening.
I was hoping the envelopes would be addressed already too, but they aren’t haha. Oh well. As of now, it looks like Mom is the only one that cares. haha. Just kidding guys.
I had a nice, fun experience with a drunken guy on Friday I think it was. My comp and I were going to a little Tienda (a little store) to buy a little snack. This tienda serves as a bar too though... When we went up to it, all the guys that were drinking started talking to us.
We went to pull out money for our little chips, but the drunken guy said that he wanted to pay haha. So he bought us our chips and then insisted that we get drinks too. It was sweet...
We got a baptismal date. We misunderstood Yani last week. She only wanted to set a date that day, so I didn’t have a baptism this last week. She now has a date for the 20th of this month though, so that is good. I’m hoping I don’t get transferred this week because I want to be a part of it. She asked the question, "Where does God come from?" We are answering that tonight. Yay... haha.
We finally met with Margarita last night for the first time in more than 2 weeks. She said that she wants to get baptized, but that she is having problems with some members. I guess some members have been saying some pretty bad things about her and her husband because they haven’t been to church in a while. They both work in the medicine field, so that is why... People don’t seem to understand. It is sad.
We have been contacting/tracting a lot. As you can imagine, that is probably the most unsuccessful way to find new investigators. We went to like 20 houses Friday morning. Didn’t get into one... Oh well. That is the life of the mission.
We went on a hike Saturday morning to try and find someone. Failed...
So we explored for a while. Found a random cave/tunnel thing, a little waterfall, a soccer field in the middle of nowhere, and a bridge made of pvc pipe. It was a good time. haha. I love walking through that mountain.
Had another cool experience with a drunken guy... haha. He stopped us in the street and asked if we played guitar. My comp told him I did and that I was good. So now, this drunken guy wants me to come to his house and play guitar with him like "Jimmy Hendrix".haha. Funny stuff.
My comp and I joined the choir yesterday haha. Our ward is singing for Stake Conference this month, so the 2 Counselors asked us to go. We are definitely the best... And you guys know how bad my singing is, so it is kind of funny. I like listening to them sing.
It has been getting cold... I wear my cute little V-neck sweater pretty much every night now as we are walking around. I love it. haha. Been drinking a lot of hot drinks that members give us. Food is still pretty normal... Haven’t had anything too crazy, so that is still good.
Anyways, I love you all! I’m doing fine here, so don’t worry about anything. I’m just hoping I’m still in Cerrito come Wednesday! Again, I love you! and miss you all :) Love, Elder dbitner