John 06-01-09

Mom you have hiked up stone mountain before… we went when i was in fifth grade. It sounds like you had a good weekend full of parties and going to the temple. So when I get home the temple wont be open? That would be cool to see a family get sealed but I wont be able to see that here. The zone is mas o menos. We are having a few problems with some small disobedience and im not one to correct people a lot but I have got to learn. But this week will be better. Last week was kind of exciting. For our zone conference we traveled to Trinidad. Which is an hour in a plane. And we take the whole zone so elder cheesman with his companion gets everything ready and good for 10 missionaries traveling. And today we are leaving for santa cruz for 2 days. For a zone leader conference. President maynes is amazing. He knows so much. I loved a phrase he used last week… if you don’t like to serve…you probably wont like the celestial kingdom… it made a lot missionaries think. But he is happy with what we have done so far but there is a lot to get better still. The funny thing about last week was that we went to Trinidad and noone told us it was cold down there. The south winds came. So before we left it was about 118 degrees outside and when we were about the land they said it was about 55 degrees outside. So that wasn’t fun. Noone brought any jackets. So for 2 days we were kind of suffering from the cold. And today it got a little cold here in riberalta to cool stuff down. And I met another American who has a change more than me named elder schill. He is in Trinidad the only other American outside santa cruz. I got to work with him for the afternoon he is pretty cool guy. The monkey I played with is really friendly and playful. I played with him in church while my companion was teaching the teenagers. And at the end he fell asleep in my lap. I think he has finally gotten use to me. i always give him part of my food to get his trust in me. he eats about everything. And dad you are working with some big names so does that mean we have money now? Im getting use to working zone leader stuff still. It’s a little overbearing. I told president everything is out of order here and his answer was ..why do you think I sent you there? … so I got a lot of expectations from him. I thought the same thing as steven when you told me about his call. I wont be seeing him for a very long time. But hey there is always time after. Glad to hear the 50 mile hike was fun. Stinks that it rained the whole time. I bet that was pretty hard. I have eaten some pretty cool fruits here. Some are better than others haha. Lots just need to put sugar or make a juice out of it to make it good. Copuazu is a fruit from Brazil. It looks like a small coconut but not as hard. And its all white on the inside. The juice from that is probly my favorite here. But that’s really all that’s going on around here. Just keeping myself busy. I sleep and wake up thinking about who needs what in our zone. So that’s always fun. The days go by even faster now. I don’t think I dream anymore. I close my eyes and wake up. Im enjoying taking around these motorcycles(sorry mom) but here we use them a ton. Because there is not other option. Did you ever send off that package? Just need to know. Well glad everyone is doing well. And I hope yall have a good week. I will be in santa cruz till Wednesday morning. So im pretty excited about that. Well I love yall write again next wek. Elder Cheesman