Big Stupid Giants;)

I actually received some REAL MAIL!!! I got a wonderful six or seven page letter from mom and a whole bunch of dearelders, one from dad and one from Jon, four from Brother Royal (please thank him for me) and a letter from Kaylee Cox. (or at least I hope it was Kaylee Cox because I wrote back to the Kaylee who lives on Amber Wave) It was really nice being able to read those letters over and over and over again. Thanks for all the emails and EVERYTHING!!! But I am glad to hear that you all are doing really well!!! I still can't believe that Alice is talking, and Jon, keep letting Adalynn watch Dora, who knows she might be fluent by the time I get home! Emilee, I am so proud of you and your dancing! Keep up the good work. Miss Kaydee knows talent when she sees it;) How is Taylor doing?.. Every time I think about my favorite blue eyed sister, I have to choke back tears. . . This has been a really humbling experience so far for me and it breaks my heart to think that Tay goes through this every day. . .It really is a struggle, especially when you understand. . but you can't speak your mind, because you can't speak the language. I have a feeling that the work is just going to get harder, but I know that with the Lord it is possible!!!

In our district whenever we talk about home, we always refer to it as, "THE REAL WORLD" It has sort of become a joke. But it really feels like we are on another planet here. We were in Totus today (the South American Walmart) and we walked by the toy aisle and one of the Elders said, "I had fun once..." It was so funny and so crazy to see how much we all have changed. For example. . . When we all have language study on TALL (our language computer program) we are in the computer lab and we all try to finish our lesson as fast as we can so we can watch a couple of Mormon Messages!! Do you know how great they are?!?! And. . Just think when I get home, I can watch "El Juegos de Hombre" (the hunger games). . .

I had a really good P-day today. We went to the Temple today at 8:30 and the session was great and I understood more than I thought I would. But the lady measuring our temple dresses today must not have been wearing her glasses. My temple dress was so short!! But I had the better end of the deal considering Hermana Smith's dress. Poor Hermana Smith is almost 6 feet tall and her socks only come up to the bottom of her calves! So when she stood up you could see about two inches of her calves!! It was pretty comical! We all are giants here!! BIG STUPID GIANTS!!!

On the buses is when we really look out of place though...Today they squished us all on like we were sardines in a can! The buses her are pretty amazing though. One man hangs out the door telling everyone to get on, in slurred, hard to understand Spanish and then we all yell, "El Templo!" In our church dress and horrible gringo accents. We all pile on and try to grab the dirty railing before the bus starts moving. Then as you start to get situated and have a good footing more people pile on until you are so squished in between sweaty toothless South Americans that you don't even have to hold on to the bar anymore! During your ride you give the man with slurred Spanish 50 cents, but if you give him anymore than 50 cents you have to demand change or he will just walk away. When you are at the Temple and you notice that the bus is NOT STOPPING!!! So you yell, "Aqui!!! Aqui!!! Until they stop the bus a block away from your destination. You sanitize your hands and tell the man you already paid him and that is a South American bus ride!!!

Well, I better wrap this up!! My time is out. . Before I go, don't send anything else here. . . Send it to the mission home. I love you all so much and I miss you like crazy!!!!! I still can't believe I am here even though it has bee 7ish weeks!!! It seems like you all dropped me off yesterday!!!

Love, Hermana Welch #1

PS Are we at war??? Someone was talking about Russia and Iran the other day... Just wondering...

PSS My teacher played some music for us in class this week and it was so nice!!! I can't believe how much I miss music!! He even turned up the volume on Andrea Bocelli!!! He is so kind...But so cruel!! I was tearing up during Andrea's song, "The Prayer" It made me think of our gymnastics days and Nick singing all the Italian lyrics like a pro!!! Haha! Love ya!!!