Matt's email 11/29/2010

Another week has come and gone, but what a great week it was. We had the opportunity to celebrate Thanksgiving with the neighbors in the same apartments complex deal. It wasn´t the same as home, but it is what it is. We bought 7 kilos of meat and had a killer asado, definitely something I will be bringing home with me. Perhaps the coolest part is that none of the neighbors are members, so we had a lot of chances to share points of doctrine with them and show them that those mormon missionaries are some pretty cool kids. Nobody really understood why we celebrate the holiday, but that is against the point. The good thing is that a lot of people got exposed to the Gospel. The other way we celebrated the thanksgiving weekend was with a baptism. I don´t know if I have written about brian, but he is the 10 year old brother of Franco, the kid I baptized about a month and a half ago. I had to opportunity to do the ordinance, which was an awesome experience to excersise the priesthood. Yesterday, the day of his confirmation, was the primary program. I have never, ever been more grateful for a well planned primary program. This thing was terrible. There were only like 15 kids, but I was seconds away from leaving. But to make a long story short, the bishop didn´t let me participate in the confirmation because I let Brian use my tie when he got confirmed. I guess he wanted to look legit, but it is what it is. It was the first sacrament meeting that I can remember where I didn´t wear a tie. I´m just trying to do what Jesus would do ha. Those are about the only two cool things that are worth writing about. Other than that this week was pretty average. Elder Orduña and I will probably be together one more transfer, but we have some great people lined up. We are hoping for the best here in Albardon. The fruit up here is incredible by the way. The peaches, apricots, and plums are all in season and I have never tasted anything quite so sweet in my life. We have bags and bags of them in the fridge and everytime we pass an orchard we always pick some goodies off the trees. I feel almost like I am in the Garden of Eden, except it is full of white garbage bags and cigarettes. I love it up here though. The weather is great. It gets hotter than hot when we sleep and I always wake up soaking wet, but it´s all part of the experience.
It sounds like everything went well on Thanksgiving day. I´m sure there is a lot of left over turkey in the zip lock bags. I want you all to know that I´m doing great. I am loving it here on the mission, it is nothing I thought it would have been, but it is awesome. I love you all and hope you have a great week