Week ...I've lost count

It is hard to believe that another week has gone by! The days are weeks and the weeks are days. Crazy that next week I'll be half way done, (or something like that). First off, the thank yous. Thank you very much Mike, Jess and kiddies for the letter, and you too Eric. Y'alls both came on the same night so you tied for last place. I have snail mail written y'all back and have mailed them so keep an eye out for the next few days. Mom, as far as packages go ...whatever you feel so inclined to include will be very much appreciated. Packages here are very fun, the whole district gets excited and gathers round like it's Christmas morning.

But I digress, we got to go to the temple again today (like every Pday) and it was very good. I had a hard time staying awake because the last two nights I have slept terribly. My companion snores somewhere around the volume of a grizzly bear, so it's a race against time to fall asleep before him, otherwise you'll be up for a while. But we all still love him.

Over the course of the few weeks that I've been here I've caught every bug that has gone through the district, so adding together all the times that I've felt 100% healthy would probably come out to about half a week. But that's ok, it's never been anything too bad or disabling. My roommate was very sick yesterday so me and his companion took shifts staying with him while the others went to class. So yesterday was kind of slow, but still good. The language is coming along nicely, my sentence fragments are slowly becoming more and more coherent.

I can't recall if I've mentioned this, but because our teachers have been sick and going on vacation we've had a ton of subs, one of whom is a good friend of mine from BYU. He was in the same ward as the girls me and my apartment hung out with, so we hung out with him a lot. He's a really nice guy and way good teacher. He's from El Salvador, it's a fun accent to listen to. All the Elders in the zone have finally found out that we knew each other outside of the mtc and are constantly asking me questions about him, I guess they can't picture him outside in the real world.

And on the topic of our teachers, this is our last week with them because one is quiting to go to medical school and be on the BYU track team, and the other is switching over to the tutor position. So we will have two new teachers, both of whom are native speakers. The hermano is from Chile, and the hermana is from peru. Speaking of south American missions, dad, which Bolivian mission did you serve in? My companion's dad served in La Paz Bolivia, and that sounded familiar to me, but he's younger than you are so he would probably have been there several years after you, assuming it is the same mission.

It was a lot of fun to hear everyone's different accounts of Whit and Cody's wedding, sounded like it went over real well. Mom and Dad, are y'all going to try to find someone to buy the van, or just sell it for parts? I can't imagine that old piece of junk fetching too high of a price. I say piece of junk, but I did love that piece of junk. Well my time has almost expired, oh mom, if you were wanting to send pictures of wedding stuff, it would be best to do so by snail mail as opposed to email. And I think I've touched on everything major from the past week. Thank you everyone for your love and support and prayers. I can't wait to get out in the field and do some real work. I love you all and pray for you all each night, take care, and I will see y'all in two years.

Love,
Elder Richards