¡Junio!‏

And so we have began the month of June and I'm still here in Trinidad. It seems like just yesterday I was still down in Santa Cruz; crazy how fast the time flies. This week also flew by quickly because of al the great things we did. Well, not that we did that many things out of the ordinary, but still, we had a good week. And the best part is that it hasn't been super cold this week, just a little bit of rain this morning to get the streets a little wet.

We started our week off playing some vollyball as a zone. It's always interesting to play vollyball with latinos since they always seem to use their feet more than their hands, making for crazy rebounds. No one has been injured yet, so I guess it's fine. And then we had our normal proselyting time. Tuesday we were busy all day visiting different people. In our travels, we decided to contact a house. It turned our to be the house of campesinos that only come for a few weeks a year before returning to the fields to work away the rest of the year. Some interesting folk. They told us that they're good with the word of God since a señora passes by their cabin to read the Bible. When we asked them how frequently the señora visits, they told us 'normally 2 times a year.' Yep, they're fine.

Wednesday morning we went to play some more futbol over in Paititi. It's a fun time I guess, but it kind of sucks getting up earlier than normal. Someday I'll be able to sleep in again. The most important thing about this day is that, in the evening, the Flia Gaston got married and thus completing that last requisite for their baptism Saturday (more on that later). The day between futbol and the wedding was normal, without too much to comment on. We did a little contacting and found a family with 3 childen, all of which are named Maria. Of course each one has a second name, but I still think that the creativity level was kind of low.

In our weekly district meeting Thursday, we were asked to give the class on the Holy Spirit, which we did. I think it went well. And then we had our normal visits. Friday we once again went to play futbol in the morning before having our weekly planning. After a full day of sharing the gospel, a family wanted to invite us a dinner in celebration of the birthday of their child. But they didn't tell us that until we got to their house, expecting to share a lesson. It's common here to eat something called picante de pollo for special events, or every Friday. Both of the reasons came to together, and it looks like we won the prize.

And then, to start the weekend, we went to play some more futbol as a zone in the early morning. Very much futbol here is played; maybe one day I'll get good at it. Maybe. When we went to visit our first house, we found the family getting to make rellenos benianos to sell. For those unfamiliar with the relleno, it's basically meat and some other things cooked inside of an inflated cow intestine. It tastes a lot better than it sounds. But, as we were visiting, the inflated intestines were hanging up over a stick by our heads. It made for a very intersting lesson that we ended quickly. And, as we walking to other families, we realized that we had forgotten to fill up the baptismal font, so we ran down to the chapel to start the process.

Luckily the font in our chapel here filled up really fast, so it was ready in time for the baptismal service. It was a simple and beautiful and very spiritual. E' Quiroga was asked to baptize the father, and I was asked to baptize the mother. Everything went fine the first time through, and we all returned home happy. Then the Flia Gaston were confirmed Sunday morning; 2 more precious sheep returned to the fold! Now we only have to make sure that they don't escape again, which should be the easier part. I hope.

With lots of love,

Elder Yates