Colombo semana 9

Well we broke a rule this week that most missionaries never break... On Friday we went swimming. We swam for about 5 miles from out in the boonies, back to our house so we could change clothes. :)

We had been teaching out in a little neighborhood called Jardim el Dorado (which is kind of a Portanol name that means golden garden) that is quite far from our house. We had several appointments scheduled for the late afternoon/evening in the same area and were there for most of the day. But when we had left in the morning, we didn´t take umbrellas with us because it was bright and sunny. Every single one of our appointments fell through, but we stayed in the area talking with new people while we were waiting for our later appointments. At some point we saw a huge thunderstorm developing off in the distance and realized that we were going to die if nobody was home... sure enough, no one was home... So at about 7:00 we started heading back when IT arrived. At first we thought that maybe we were just going to catch a little corner of the storm, so we hid under a tree in the jungle just on the edge of the neighborhood. We were sorely mistaken. We caught the full brunt of a huge storm that moved through and turned all the roads into decent sized rivers of mud and rock. I had my rain jacket with me, which I tossed over my backpack but there´s only so much you can do when the rain is coming from every direction :) We started `swimming` home (which is only a slight exaggeration) and by the time we got to any sort of store/restaurant where we could hide out, we were already completely soaked... So we swam all the way home to change clothes and get ready to go visit a family in the branch. It was great! Singing all the way :)

But apart from the rain, we are doing very well. This week was very productive. We are helping a man quit smoking and drinking but he is having a very hard time. He has already left the hard drugs, but these last two addictions are very hard for him. It also doesn´t help that there are 3 bars on every block, including two within spitting distance of his house... But he is making steady progress.

Good to hear from Travis! I hope all is well in P-town, and that O-chem doesn´t kill you :) Paper letters take about a month to get here, but I´d love to hear about happenings. And Christmas was great!

Well Mom said that Carsten is driving... Don´t know how I feel about that ;) Glad that I´m far enough away that I´m not in danger... I know he´ll be great!

Love,

Elder Conner House