Physics review

This week I had a nice physics review of Bernoulli's principle. On Tuesday we turned on the tap and... nothing came out. This isn't good when you are all hot and sweaty after a hard day's work (the winter here is as hot as the summer in Colorado). Luckily the water came on the next morning so we could shower, but what happens is that the water pressure here is on a pump system where each building pumps its own water up to a big tank on the top of the building. If you are on the top floor of a building and everyone is using water... then tough luck. This morning I had a similar experience: I tried taking a shower but only a trickle came out so I ended up showering crouched in a ball because the showerhead was detachable and I could get a decent stream that way. Honestly, I love it. It isn't that bad going without a few of the luxuries of home and now I have some really good stories.

The work is going great. This week Elder Vidal and I reached all the mission goals for key indicators and we have a baptism scheduled for this Saturday. We have a ton of investigators who are progressing and if all goes well, about half of them will get baptized in the coming weeks. The Spanish is going fine. Elder Vidal speaks barely any English, which is wonderful because it forces me to speak a whole lot more Spanish than I probably would have. Lots of the other missionaries and members tell me that my Spanish is really good, but I still have a really hard time understanding them. It's like this: If they are talking about church stuff I can understand 95-100% of what they are saying, but if they are talking about any random subject, I don't know that vocabulary so I get about 60% of what they are saying. Obvious solution: learn vocabulary, but this has been kinda difficult. I've tried writing down words I hear but don't know, but they talk so fast and there are so many silent letters that that doesn't work really well unless they repeat the word a ton of times. I also tried just going through the dictionary from the beginning, but there are a ton of words that you never use, so that didn't work so hot. I'm open for any suggestions on finding vocab to study. Lately I've just been trying to tell Elder Vidal stories and then writing down words I need in order to tell the stories, and that's been working decent, but any suggestions on things that have worked for you guys would be nice, just shoot me an email or send me a letter or something.

Anyway, the church is true!! The work is going great!! I read a great quote the other day that said: "Easy things make a man weak." Salvation isn't easy or cheap. We need to get used to that idea, put our shoulder to the wheel and work on the things that really matter in life, in spite of their difficulty. Love all your guts!!!

Elder Jonathan Spencer

PS. Send Peanut and peanut butter m&ms. We actually have a Walmart in our area but they only carry local goods. (They do have peanut butter though :) They have very little chocolate, and what they have is not that good. Also, remember that little whiteboard that elder Jones had? I tried looking for one here but they didn't have any so if you could send one that'd be cool as well. and as far as recipes go, I donno, really simple recipes that don't require a lot of ingredients. I seem to remember my friend Jason Lyndhurst had a cool missionary cookbook that was small and simple so if you could track down something like that. Also, in the MTC/BYU bookstore they had this really cool dictionary that was subject based and had pictures of everything that I didn't get but kinda wished I had. If you can track any of this stuff down that'd be cool, but if not, don't worry about it. If you do send something, when you declare the customs, just write candy and missionary supplies and *ahem* round down where it asks for the cost because we have to pay half the value of the stuff in customs upon arrival. Oh, and tape a passalong card on the outside. Usually if it says missionary supplies and has a picture of Jesus they don't mess with it.

PPS again, love your guts. I get to call you this week. I'll call later in the week to say what time and stuff I'll be calling on Sunday.