A Rainy Week and a Broken Patio Door

5/26/2010 A Rainy Week and a Broken Patio Door
Well, from the title you´ve probably already guessed that it´s been rainy this week and our patio door is broken. It rained ALL week, and when it finally stopped I put some clothes out to dry... and when I came back inside the lock on our door broke. We can´t unlock the door to get back outside to get my clothes...Oops! "Go out the window!" you say. Well, bad news about that, our window has bars on it. All the windows here have bars on them. So we just have to find someone to fix it.
Speaking of finding someone to fix our door, we couldn´t get anyone this weekend because it´s a national holiday. Argentina is now 200 years old, which means that nobody worked this weekend. They ate and slept and cleaned their houses and went to the campo to see their distantly-related uncles. It was nothing like the 4th of July. Sure, they had asados and took days off from work, but let´s face it: they do that all the time. Maybe it was bigger in Buenos Aires, but they didn´t even have fireworks! So light off some extra fireworks for me. I know I left some at home, and they might even still be in the trunk of the Hyundai.
For the holiday weekend, we had a branch FHE. Everyone came to the capilla and we (Hna. Perkes and I) shared a spiritual thought, then we all played some crazy games together, and then we ate. Eating is a very popular thing here. And everyone makes amazing desserts. Hna. Perkes made brownies and I made bread pudding and everyone loved it.
They really love American desserts here. But here they have something called pasta flor and one of our investigators makes the best pasta flor EVER. It´s like a... pie/cake base (bready but sweet) with dulce de membrillo on top and she makes us one every time we go to her house. Anyway, she came to the activity (hooray!) and she made two, and some kind of pound cake, and I´m not sure if I mentioned this yet, but Mom, she´s going to come live with us and cook for us. Ok? So anyway, I hope everyone is content now that they know everything I´m eating. Ty requested that I talk more about what I eat for every meal.
And this week I finally learned the Argentine version of "Eenie Meenie Miney Moe" (if that´s even how you spell it). For anyone who is interested:
Ta te ti,
Suerte para mi.
Si no sale para vos,
Sale para mi.
So that was a major victory. I´m very content now and I feel like my mission is complete. Ok maybe not. I´ll keep working.
We had two really great lessons yesterday. We met with Mirian and we were talking about 3 Nefi 11 and she had a lot of questions about baptism. She doesn´t believe in baptism for children, and she thinks that people should be baptized by immersion (like Christ). I´d say those are some pretty good ideas. So we talked to her about baptism and priesthood authority, but we still need to get her to the capilla. She wants to come to the district conference this weekend, so I hope we see her there. We also taught Guadalupe. We´ve been to her house 5 or 6 times, but we´ve only taught lesson 1 and we usually just end up sharing random scriptures to answer her questions, but yesterday we came in and sat down and asked us how we resist temptation, and that led into an entire lesson 2 with her asking questions the whole time. She really understands everything well and loves what we teach. She tried to fast with us this weekend, but after about 12 hours she changed her mind :) That´s ok, I´m glad she tried. At the end of the lesson, she said she´s trying to change her work schedule to be able to go to church. She went once, but she hasn´t been able to go back.
The work here is still great. Hna. Perkes leaves in 4 days, but she´s still going strong and I´m very grateful for that. I´ll find out who my new companion is at the end of this week, and I´m excited to know who it is :) Since it´s only my second transfer and I already have a new companion, she´ll be my "step-mother".
I know I say this every time, but the mission is great. I get to meet so many great people and have all kinds of awesome experiences sharing the gospel here.
I love you all, and I hope you have a good week.

Love,
Hermana LaPray
P.S. Mom, tell Josh I got him a sweet knife with a raptor claw handle.
We talked about it on the phone. Now he just has to wait a year for it. :)