Almost August... No Real Update

Mom speaking:  Time is ticking down.  Slowly the emails are getting shorter, less pictures are sent and updates... well, no real update today.  I'll piece together some of our emails we swapped.


Here we go...

Mom:   I actually hung up and put away all your clothes that have been sitting on your bed for almost two years!!!  It’s true!  Before I wasn’t quite mentally up for doing this task, but with single digits to go I was feeling inspired!  And I even dusted a little.  :)

Brandon:  haha you hung up my clothes and dusted my room?  That's hard core!!

Arial fireworks are a big thing out in Utah now?  They are here too, everyone has fireworks, and for absolutely no reason at all!  Haha ya they can basically do whatever they want down here, no firework laws.

Mom:  When are transfers?  Soon?  Do you think you’ll stay there since you’re headed out?  What is church like in your new area?  Are you catching onto the weird language?

Brandon:  We will get the transfers on the 10th, so two more weeks.  I'm pretty dang confident that I will be staying here, I might get a new comp, but I hope not!  I would be totally happy to die with the comp I have right now.  Church is a little strange in this area, cuz about half of sacrament meeting (or more than half) is in Quechua, so that makes it REALLY difficult to focus haha.  And no, really not understanding anything of Quechua, I just know how to tell them I don't speak or understand haha.

Mom:  That’s crazy about sacrament meeting!  When you go to investigators homes do they speak Quechua too?

Brandon:  Oh ya, most everyone speaks Quechua here, and some of them speak Spanish too.  But it's not uncommon at all to find someone who just speaks Quechua, that happens a lot, and we just say hi and have a good day haha.

Mom:  Are you guys still working out?

Brandon:  We do work out still, not quite as often, cuz there are just so many freakin things to do in the mornings! 

Mom:  What are you doing today?  Anything fun?  Any pictures today?  Get any packages?

Brandon:  Today we are just gonna play some more futsal, which is soccer, just smaller scale, its 5 vs 5.  I think I've played more here than in any other area haha, its fun though!  no pics though, sorry!  packages no.

Mom:  So what does your normal day consist of?  That’s funny you just say hi and continue on.  Why doesn’t someone teach you guys the language once you get there?

Brandon:  Oh ya, most everyone speaks Quechua here, and some of them speak Spanish too.  But it's not uncommon at all to find someone who just speaks Quechua, that happens a lot, and we just say hi and have a good day haha.

What do you mean normal day?  Of P day or like a week day?  Cuz it would take way too long to actually sit down and learn the language, its literally from like the freakin Incas so it has absolutley zero relation to Spanish haha

Mom:  Normal day.  Not a P-day...

Brandon:   Uh normal day.  Wake up, exercise, breakfast, get ready, study, random stuff till lunch.  Then its basically just walking around and teaching all afternoon, and then dinner at like 7:30 or so, and that' s the day.  So we get to hang out and relax and get ready for bed, and all that good stuff.

Mom:  You’re so funny…. “random stuff”, “good stuff”.  You crack me up!  Do you make appointments or just knock on random doors?  Or talk to people in the street?

Brandon:  Well working with appointments is definitely what we want, so that's what we shoot for, but it doesn't always happen that way.  So we have to do a little bit of everything, talk to people in the street, knock on doors, stuff like that.

Mom:  Are the Bolivian people nice or are they rude about listening to you when first approach the about the Church?

Brandon:  They aren't rude, but they are super shy, they don't like to talk to strangers.  So they aren't mean to us, but man is it hard to find people who want to talk!

Mom:  Is it like that in all the areas or just Belle Vista?

Brandon:  Its kinda like that everywhere, but especially in BV.

Mom:  Bummer.  Do you have an update today?

Brandon:  Oh dang, kinda totally spaced the update, probably cuz I got nothing to talk about haha.  So no, no update this week, but don't worry, your not missing anything!

Mom:  That’s hilarious you forgot your update.  C'mon there has to be something that happened not in the ordinary!

Brandon:  Absolutely nothing

Mom:  Well, that’s not very helpful!  And you know that EVERYTHING is out of the ordinary for us! Parker Skousen is leaving this week on his mission to Spain, Brianne Mortensen entered the MTC and Rachael Miller goes soon.

Brandon:  Spain will be sick, Phillipines..... good luck.  Japan....  No thanks.

Mom:  I think Bolivia has been good to you.  What do you think?

Brandon:  Ya its been good, I definitely could have gone somewhere worse, so I won't complain haha

Mom:  Keep your head up and keep smiling!  You’re almost there!  FINISH STRONG!  I love you to Bolivia & back!