I’ve been
thinking about how things here are different here than how they are in the
States. Somethings have cooler names in Spanish, some have less cool names,
and some are just weird. Examples:
Cooler: ‘Star Wars’ in Spanish is called ‘War of the Galaxies.’ I know Star
Wars is a classic and the name is known by all, but honestly, War of the
Galaxies sounds so much cooler.
Less cool: The 2000 Stripling Warriors are called the 2000 Young Men.
There’s nothing wrong with the name, because they were 2000 young men, but
stripling warriors definitely sounds better. More powerful. More valient.
Weird: There is no word for ‘toes’ in Spanish. They call them ‘fingers of
your feet.’

Other things that are the same here:
-when they’re setting up a sound system, they say ‘testing, 1, 2, 3…’
Obviously it’s in Espa=C3=B1ol (probando, uno, dos, tres) but it’s the same
-street signs are the same as well. White speed limit signs (in Km/hr but
that’s not important), green signs with white letters with different city
names, yellow warning signs

Differences:
-bread. The bread here is not bought in a loaf, nicely pre-sliced like at
home. They buy their bread fresh daily (which is nice) but it’s in little,
more or less, rolls. They’re flatter than rolls, but they’re individual
pieces and we cut them open and eat them with butter, jam, or avocado. You
can buy bread in a loaf, but I’m pretty sure it’s expensive and it doesn’t
have the same taste or texture as in the States.
-cell phone. There are only 2 cell phone carriers here. Movistar and Claro.
We and all the missionaries have Movistar and we have unlimited calling
from Movistar to Movistar, so we can communicate between each other all we
want. Few people have smartphones, though. Most have a brick phone,
including us. iPhones and Galaxy S5′s exist here, but they’re rare.

There’s a lot more similarities and differences, but that’s all I’m going
to write for now.

As far as spiritual stuff for the week: we had a marriage and 2 baptisms on
Saturday! If you remember, we baptized 2 girls a while back. On Saturday we
baptized their parents! They weren’t married, so Saturday morning there was
a marriage ceremony and then Saturday night we had the baptism. Now there
whole family is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
(it’s weird to say that in English…) We went and visited them on Sunday
after Church and their confirmation, and they’re so happy. Before when we
visited them, they wouldn’t express very much and they wouldn’t appear
happy. But now when we visit, there’s happiness in their home. They’re
smiling, laughing, joking with us. They get along with each other better.
Everything is more happy! And I know it’s because of the Gospel of Jesus
Christ. The Gospel blesses us so much and brings happiness to everyone that
finds it. It’s so cool to see the change in this family and to see the
happiness that they’ve found in the Church.

We should be having some more baptisms soon! This is the work of the Lord,
and He wants that all of His children can find the happiness that the
Gospel and the Church brings.

-Elder Kehoe