Almost a Month in Rica!

What a week. It's probably been the most interesting one of my mission so far. The foot fungus has only really gotten worse, so I'll for sure try the Listerine thing. I'll send you a nasty picture of how gross it is. Unfortunately, I think the mission Thanksgiving dinner was just a rumor. Maybe Christmas though. We might eat at the house of some members in another area in our district on Thursday. To answer your question, mom, there are no cell phones in the mission, so we have to make all of our phone calls from our apartment. It's pretty frustrating sometimes, like when we're trying to meet up with other companionships.

We're gonna ask President if we can use Skype for our Christmas call though. Two different members have already offered to let us use their computers for it, so that should be awesome if it works out! The language gets better every day. It still depends on the person though. There are some people that I just have to stare at blankly until I can get enough sense of the tone of what they're saying so I know if I can smile or not. I'll hopefully be able to throw something short together for the ward each month. When I can't though, thanks for being willing to put it together for me!

Some things that have made this week great: We've been putting a lot of focus on this family we call 'Los Quince.' We call them that because a Modern Family-esque array of 15 people all live under the same roof, and about ten of them listen to us every time we go over. Some of them are really starting to progress, and six of them came to church yesterday, so we're really getting excited about visiting them. Last P-day we were in the city, and we went to this fast food restaurant called Mo Joe's. I don't know if it's in the States, but it was SUPER nice for a place here. They even had a door greeter!

I'm turning into quite the city boy. I hate it when it's silent when I'm trying to sleep. It's unsettling. I like the ambience of car alarms and fighting dogs. I don't know if I've mentioned it yet, but stray dogs roam the streets here like it's nothing. They're everywhere. About as common as seeing like birds on the sidewalk in the States. Some of them try to attack us sometimes, but most of those turn and run if you bend down like you're picking up a stone to throw at them. If they don't get scared, you just have to actually find a stone to pick up then throw it and they'll run.

We went to the temple on Wednesday! I was super nervous to do a session in Spanish, but it turned out to not be bad at all! There was even an option to use English headphones but I didn't use any because I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it on my own, and I did. I thought I've been gaining a ton of weight here, but maybe I was just seeing all my MTC fat, because the other day the Elder's Quorum president and his wife told me I'm way skinnier than the week I got here, so that was good to hear, haha.

Mom and Dad, you guys have always told me that I'll find people that only I'll be able to help. I've actually found someone that I'm feeling that applies to! We were at the apartment of one of our investigators, and one of his neighbor/roommate people walked up and started to talking to us. His name is V---. He was telling Elder Baca and I about how Christ is the only person that's really there for him, that his woman left him for another man, and that he doesn't think his son is his. We were trying to eat dinner at this point, but V--- kept talking to me. He said he has a gift for seeing people as they truly are, and he was telling me how he sees me, that I'm really genuine and that I was listening to him with my heart.

It was true. For some reason I had this super strong desire to help this guy. He asked us to come by the next night, and said he wanted to change his life. V--- was drunk throughout this entire conversation, and I knew that, but the Spirit was telling me that I shouldn't dismiss him as just another drunk. We went over the next night when he was sober, and I learned how sad he really is. Because of his sadness though, he's ready to hear the gospel, and I have lots of hope and faith that he really can change, and I feel strongly that as long as I continue to care this much about helping him, and show him that, he's going to progress really well.

Speaking of drunk people, there's a man that lives around the corner from us that I love talking to. We don't know his name, but when we talk about him we just call him Jack Sparrow. He seriously is Captain Jack Sparrow. He looks exactly like him, seems to always be drunk, and has been wearing a shirt with a pirate skull on it for three days now. The funniest part about him is that I doubt he even knows who Jack Sparrow is. He bought us fried chicken yesterday. Anyway, I should get going. Another week ahead of hard work and cold showers. I pray for you guys every night as my family, and as individuals. I pray for individual friends every night too. I love you all and miss you! Thank you so much for putting that package together! I can't wait to receive it. You should get two pictures from me.

--Elder Hampton

Jake and Elder Baca at the temple

Some creepy doll