Hunter Has A New Companion

Hey guys, 

So I was not able to do a voice recording this week so I apologize. 

I am currently sitting in an internet and this old guy is just watching spanish rap videos and rapping along with them fairly loudly. He sways his body back and forth as well. 

This week was a very long week. We had transfers which means I usually have a lot to do. I went to the airport 3 times between Tuesday and Wednesday. It is somewhat draining just driving to the airport so many times but it was not that bad. 

Also, this week they announced that here in the mission and I think a lot of other missions here in South America, that we would be switching phone carriers. I don't know how but part of my job is taking care of the phones so it was all up to me to get everything ready. 

The thing was that on Friday (yesterday) at one point all of the sim cards in the mission were going to stop working and that everyone was not going to be able to make phone calls or anything until they put in their new sim card which I had given to them. The numbers were all supposed to stay the same and everything was supposed to be smooth. 

I didn't put my sim card in until like 10am to avoid the phone calls. It turned out that almost all of the numbers were different and I had not register of any of them. That was disaster number one. 

Number 2: Presidente and Sister Whitesides were in Lima Peru in a seminar with all of the other mission Presidents from a couple countries. Their phones did not work correctly either so we could not communicate very easily. 

Number 3: The church headquarters in Bogota accidentally sent me the sim cards for Ipiales which used to be a part of our mission but now is part of Ecuador Quito north  mission. I didn't know until he called me on Monday and transfers had already started so I had no free time until Thursday. I asked them for an address but they didn't give it to me until Thursday afternoon so I hurried to the post office (that is not what it is but it is the American equivalent) and sent it but it was not going to get there until Saturday which meant that Ipiales would not have cell phones for a whole day. I am pretty sure that their mission thinks I am a huge idiot but I don't really mind lots of people probably think that! 

So at the end of the day I pretty much stopped answering my phone and let the fires burn. 

I also have another new companion. Elder Villon is now the secretary of materials and Elder Chacon is my new companion. He is from Peru. He is super funny. Also, he is pretty good at soccer. We have had fun so far being companions. 

This week the hot water heater in the house ran out of batteries and we never had any time to buy some and the water was pretty cold but by the time we bought some batteries I was pretty much used to it so it wasn't all that bad. 

I took two of my previous companions to the airport this week to send them home. Elder Vallenas and Elder Alcorta. 

Elder Vallenas was my second companion in the mission and is one of my best friends. He had some rough patches in his mission but he went home a good missionary. 

Elder Alcorta had been my companion for the last 6 months. He is from Argentina. Also one of my best friends. 

The more times I go to the airport the easier it gets to say goodbye to people. It is not that bad anymore. It was not easy but I am glad that they are home and starting their lives.

Today we played soccer and it was pretty fun. After we were all like dead we just played Russian which is a game I taught everyone that we would play to warm up before indoor games. There is a point system for the way you score goals and everything. 

Elder Villon went to go do a sideways bicycle kick and jumped in the air but he completely missed the ball and his body just made this loud slapping noise when he hit the ground and it was probably one of the funniest things I have seen.

As for my investigators we are currently fasting to have a noche blanca (white night) on the 26th. It means that there are more than 5 baptisms on that day. The goal in our district is 14 on that day in total. 

The 5th of May is the baptism of Diana and her 2 kids and then I am not quite sure who has a date when for now. I know that we have a lot of people that are getting closer and closer to baptism. 

I have not gotten my package yet just so you know I don't exactly know what happened but it still is not here. 

As for my package for my birthday, Elder Chacon would really like a ring like the one I have. It is the CTR ring with the wood on the inside and silver band. I think that 9.5 would be a good size. You should probably get one for Elder Villon too because he never got one. I would get him a 9 though. He is little. 

As for things from the states, most of the things I need I can buy here but I would appreciate some snacks. I will list them right now. Remember these are ideas I do not expect you to buy all of them. 

Hot cheetos (lime), Dynamitos (doritos brand), takis (always the purple bag), gardettos (never the mustard or the cheese flavor), flamin hot funions, jerky of course (I dont know if you would be able to get the jerky from Idaho falls that is like local that I would always buy from that one local store there), something else that I want the latinos to try are those super sour hard candies. They are the warhead brand I can't remember if they have a specific name but it would be a great video to have them all try them. If there is anything else you see feel free to put it in there. 

The only like thing from the states that I thought about recently (I dont know if it is possible) but it would be super cool to have a soda stream here because there are not very many sodas here. If you could send one that would be cool but if not that is totally cool. If you can't send a soda stream I could use the syrup. If you could send rootbeer and maybe lemonade or something that would be great! 

Other than that there is nothing else I have in mind but never feel obligated to send me everything I list! 

Anyways, that is all for now! Have a great week! Love you all! 

Con amor, 

Elder Reese