Week 18 (4/19/10) Email to Everyone!

Hey everybody! It is really hard to send you all a good email so this week I will send everyone the same thing, see how it goes. These past couple weeks have been the best so far. Its still a constant adjustment but I am feeling more comfortable. The Spanish is still a struggle but I am still making progress. This week it rained 4 out of the 7 days. It rains a lot, which normally I would love, but when a lot of the streets are dirt and I have to walk around in it, its not as great. On Tuesday we waited over an hour for a colectivo (bus). Elder Sobré and I have been getting along better and I have felt a lot better. Time has gone so fast. Its April. April. Holy smokes. It doesn't really seem weird until I really think about it. School is almost out at home. I have been away for over 4 months. This week, 2 days ago, we had our first baptism, Maximiliano Calio. My first Sunday here, Maxi came to church and that was where we met him. He had his doubts as most people would, but it has been amazing to see him progress and to see the change in his life. At first his progress was slower, but when he started to actually read from the Book of Mormon and pray about it he took off like a rocket. It has been great this past month especially to see him develop his faith and gain a testimony of his own. This week on Wednesday he told us he wanted to get baptized this week. We got everything ready and it was perfect. He is so much happier than he was before and it has reaffirmed my testimony of the happiness that comes from living the gospel. It is hard at times, but it is always worth it. Maxi is a great kid. He is 21 and he says he is looking forward to serving a mission himself in a year. It has made me really happy to see him change his life and be so happy himself. It makes me excited to be able to be here helping other people find this peace and joy in their lives as well. I have also realized how little we actually do. We just pointed him in the right direction and it was all up to him to make the decision to read and to pray-to exercise his faith. It is ultimately up to the people to choose for themselves whether to sacrifice a little time and a little effort to read and pray. It is a sacrifice but it is absolutely worth it. I made a goal on January 21 to read the whole Book of Mormon by April 21 and I finished last night. I love the Book of Mormon. I prayed about it and I know that it is a true book and will bless anybody's life that will take the time to read and pray about it.Food Craving of the Week - Taco Bell!Funny Moment of the Week - Its getting cold here and its becoming time for chocolatada (hot chocolate). I don't have a tea taza to drink it from so when we went to the store I bought one. It was a Disney one with Mickey and Goofy and Donald with race cars. It was pretty legit. Oh and it cost ten pesos which really isn't much but here it is. Anyway we got back to the pench and I wanted to try it out so I washed it and holding it by the handle I shook it the get the water droplets off and the cup broke off at the handle and the cup flew across the room and shattered all over the place. Haha it was pretty funny. I'm sure glad I payed a whole ten pesos for that!That's all for this week. I love you all and hope everything is well with you. Until next time, chao.Love, Elder Woodside