All things Halloween

Wow, so many scary creatures, but I think Brooke wins the prize for the spookiest!!  And then there's the little bugs -- getting their first introduction to the world of  SUGAR!!  Yes, that delicious extract that makes all things happier.  I'm affraid R-hen-teen pastry just doesn't quite get it.  But we do have stuff here that isn't available in the States -- like milk in plastic pouches.  Yep, that's how they package and sell it.

  

And that's how we buy a lot of our bread -- in these long rolls (the one Mom has is cut in half).  It's always a trick to cut the corner off a full pouch of milk and pour it into a pitcher without spilling it all over the place.  And what do you think of our spacious kitchen?  Just out of view to the lower left is our little gas stove and that's it -- pretty cozy.

 
This is a typical construction site -- they tear down the old, throw all the debris out into the street (this is the main street through the middle of town) and then reconstruct the new building where the old one stood.  The interesting thing about it is that they tear down the old building ONE BRICK AT A TIME using a hammer and chisel.  So they're pounding pounding pounding all day long.  And since almost all buildings share walls, the noise reverberates throughout adjacent buildings -- that's what we've been listening to for the last six months -- construction pounding going on on both sides of us almost all day every day.  We wonder if they'll ever be done.  Nothing is built out of wood -- there just isn't any around here except what's trucked in to make furniture. 

Well, I was going to share a funny exhange we had the other day.  We were riding along in a taxi (which is how we get around most of the time if we have to go any distance) and got to talking to the driver about his family.  So he tells us that he's lived here in Saenz Pena for 30 years and has, he estimates, 150 to 200 relatives in the area.  But, he says, his parents passed away recently and everybody misses them.  So, being the good missionary that I am, I figured this was an opportunity to share something about eternal families.  So I pose the question "So where are they now?"  He doesn't say anything and then looks at me very wierd and says "They're in the cemetary" -- like what kind of people do you think we are down here.  So I start to explain that I was talking about their spirits, at which time he starts laughing.  So now the guy's laughing at my explanation of sacred things and I'm wondering what kind of pagan am I dealing with here.  Then he explains that he simply misunderstood my question and was laughing at himself, whereupon we both had a good laugh at the whole situation.  Ahh, the joys of cross-cultural communication.  He did ask a serious question though -- they do have souls don't they?  I assured him that they do and gave him a mormon.org card to follow-up.

Well, Mom wants to add her own post, so I'll say good-bye for now.  Thank you as always for your thoughts and prayers -- I think the Lord is receiving a lot of prayers from all of us for each other these days and He's listening.  Thank goodness we have the gospel in our lives.  We love you and miss you.

XOS,
Dad