Dear Family,

This week was pretty boring, probably about the same speed as your's but more spiritual. Here are the highlights of the week:

Hilary's birthday- this week was the birthday of a little girl in the ward who got baptized 6 months ago. Her grandma gt baptized too, and traveled to Trujillo, so now she is the only member in her household. Hna Clariza bought a cake for Heydee, her daughter, and Hilary because they're friends. Hilary couldn't come to eat the cake at the pension, so we took it to her. When we got there, her mom, who has a broken leg, and she were crying. Her mom was asking forgiveness because she didn't have money to buy a cake or candy or anything, and she felt really bad that she couldn't celebrate her daughter's birthday. When she grew up she didn't even know when her birthday was, and she had to find food to eat in the street, so she wanted to be able to give her kids something better. Her husband didn't remember the birthday of his daughter and was out drinking. Hna Garrison and I started crying too, but we brought out the cake and cheered things up with the cake and a game. The only thing that marred the party was when the dad arrived home drunk. It was a learning experience for us.

No lights- Sunday there wasn't electricity in all Huancayo all day. You couldn't really tell in the morning and afternoon, but we couldn't go out to work in the night because there were no street lights, and therefore it was dangerous. But we still managed to teach a lesson and play with the fire from the candle. The problem was that there wasn't water either, so we couldn't bathe Sunday, and today there was only water in the sink, not the shower, so we had to improvise with the sink water and a bucket. I am really looking forward to a long, hot shower.

Fellow countryman- A guy from the U.S. showed up at church yesterday (but the other ward). He doesn't know a word of Spanish. We were shocked to see and hear his good Idahoan accent. He apparently met and married a Peruvian while in the US. They now live in Alaska. He gave us a reference, well really his wife gave us the reference, her sobrina or little sister or something. We really didn't talk that much, but I hear he is from IF, Idaho. If I knew his last name, I would ask dad if he knows him, but I don't know.

That's about it. Thanks for the postcards, but was it a joke sending a postcard of the testing center? Next week are cambios. We are pretty sure that one of us will be transfered. There are rumors that they are opening Bolivia back up for North Americans, so if that is true, Hna Garrison could get sent there seeing that it is her original assignment. Thanks for all your love and support.
Your favorite daughter,
Sarah Afton