Trek Week

sooo the rats (cui) that's not a joke. i have eaten chicken foot or pata which is good really chewy, and i haven´t tried it yet but chicken balls are a delicacy here. so yeah oh and we literally eat every single part of the chicken minus the tendons and bones. so yeah its great. i´m stoked and no we live with our peinsionista. we are her guests. sister mariela takes good care of us. she has cooked us many breakfasts and dinners, which she doesn´t get paid for. usually its rice and chicken but sometimes its tamales and the tamales here are really different. they make them out of corn that is really chunky with asetuna (olives) pollo, cebolla (unions) ají (a orange pepper super common in like ever dish) and what ever else seems good. and then the wrap them up in the leaves from a banana tree. and boil them they are fan-freaking-tastic. and then they serve it with kimbo to drink.

to be honest the two hardest things for me to stomach so far was some of the juices because they make them fresh and some times the fruit isn´t the best. they make juices by blending fruit with water and straining out the bad bits or with chicha morada (which is a drink made from purple corn.) they boil it. i like the chicha morada if it has enough sugar and it takes quite a bit. haha but yeah its crazy. and did i mention they really like rice. for every meal there is rice and its not like a side dish. its a freaking mountain of rice. we are talking more than half a dinner plate about 4 inches high of rice, and i eat it all cause i´m starving i don´t get its like 04353098753420q485439850938 calories, but man its really good.

as far as my cooking experiences go i made banana foster. it didn´t turn out quite right, but it tasted really good on the crépes. i think it was because i put the bananas in too early but i can´t complain because to be honest the only time i get to cook any thing good is on sundays. but i have made chocolate chip cookie dough and oatmeal cookies. oh and they only have sugar in the raw. nothing else, which i don´t mind, but its not very conducive in cookies. also i haven´t been able to find yeast or wheat flour not that they don´t have it. its just that i can´t find it. another thing is that they don´t have peanut butter. which is sad. cause i really like peanut butter.

that's. enough about the food. i can´t believe how much you crazies have done i mean a wedding and trek and everybody being sick and oh my gosh mckell has a boyfriend eeeeeekkk thhts exciting somebody forgot to tell me. whats he like? how many toes does he have? is his favorite color blue? does he have a mustache? can he sing the alphabet backwards? does he know the words to the poem the raven? where did he serve his mission? does he have desires to run for president? and will he be my partner in crime? i haven´t had a good partner in crime since the last one got married to my sister. 

so my companion loves to sing, but he sings kind of funny. its a sing hum and its high pitched, and he breaths like a an asthmatic. so its like hum la hum la hum la huuuuuuuuuuuuuhh hum la hum la hum la hujuuuuuuuunm. its terrible, but hey i´m probably going to be stuck with him for a while. 

for liesl i have found her dream house. it literally is painted pink no joke. in fact most of the houses here are bright colors. and the t shirts. and almost everything else. which is probably why i fit in so well. and i honestly didn´t notice it for a couple weeks. 

other interesting things. the favored sent for cleaning products from limipa to do to laundry. detergent is baby. which is fine. smells good.

the bananas. they have several different kinds and when you ask some one in the small house stores for bananas they just look at you like your nuts. their is one called. guineo and its just like our banana and it tastes like our green bananas but a tad softer when its almost brown and the maduro verde which is a different thing completely, which i really like. they fry them and also make potato chip like things called chifles which are good. they also make chifles out of yams. they're good. and there is a fruit called the chirimoya. you´ll have to google it because its really good, but there's no way that i could explain it. hands down one of the weirdest fruits that i have ever eaten. i´ll send some pictures of the fruits. 

oh and papaya that is perhaps the nastiest fruit on the planet. smells like vomit and it tastes terrible. if you put it in yogurt its not too bad but man ugh. it´s also not bad in a banana smoothy like drink, but all by itself its just bad.

honestly the hardest part about being on a mission is that i can´t share my experiences with you guys. because there really just isn´t a way to describe the tastes and the sights and sounds. its unreal how cool this place is. the mission work itself is not difficult. it's actually having success as a missionary that's hard. people here will listen to us. but we have a super hard time finding people that will actually accept the gospel and become converted and attend church. i love the people here but at the same time it's so sad to see them choose to miss out on the gospel. i love you all. and wish you the very best. 

may the force be with you.

Elder Preece