Lluvia!

Hey guys!


So after a little miscommunication, we are finally in our own apartment. We have been chillin' out at the Resource Center this week, because we have not been able to start the workshops due to lack of publicity. But.. we are starting them this weekend, in a beach town called Camana, about two and a half hours from where we are right now.

So guys, we need your teaching tips. We're really excited to start teaching the workshop.

It rains here every day in the afternoon, and it's their summer. Weird. Yesterday, we went to a museum with two friends we met at the institute in the Centro de Plazas, which has the famous frozen ice princess, Juanita. She is not there from January to April, so Sarita is in her place.. I thought it was so awesome!!! The Incas would offer sacrifices on top of the volcanoes, we're surrounded by three, and a lot of them have been frozen for about 500 years.

After that, we explored the catedrals made out of the volcanic rock, sillar. They make awesome backgrounds in fotos.

Jenny is an expert at making refried beans. It's a long process that takes about three hours to boil them, and that's after soaking them afternight.. She's going to a be a pro bean maker by the time we're done..

Tips, give us your tips!

Hope you're all doing well!

The Lord isn't going to do CachiBachi with us!!

Okay team. I am proud to say that Lindon and I are proud owners of hips that move like some of the latins we danced with on friday! We went to the institute kickoff and I had been told that there was a dance but didn't really believe it until Lindon and I entered the dance floor and it was packed, we only had about an hour to get our groove on...so we did. We learned bachata and salsa dancing before the night was over and went home peacefully to our humble aboad at the temple. Saturday, we didn't think we were going to teach but last minute our assistant director told us that we would be traveling to a pueblito called Monte Plata, about an hour and a half away from the capital. We adventured onto a public bus that took us there with no hiccups. We taught about 18 people in a beautiful capilla and it went well from all aspects. We were dropped off by the branch president there to a restaurant that looked like a tahitian hut, we enjoyed incredibly sizzling pork chops with choices of french fries or tostados (patacones or fried plantines...a delicious treat) It was a super satisfying experience I would say. We then proceeded to where the bus was...was supposed to be I mean, it had left 10 min before we arrived so...Jeff you need to read this and believe this man...here in this town they do not have taxis...they have moto-conchas...I know that second word is bad for you but...its like a moto-taxi okay...anyway out in front of this bus stop/station there are like 7 or 8 men and their bikes, and once there here the phrase "Where did the bus go?" They saddle up on their boss hogs and come to our rescue! Lindon and I got on the backs of these guys motorcycles with them...like it was a taxi...but it's motorcycle and we were raced off to try to catch up to the awaiting prize...the bus...only to mention...the last bus out of Monte Plata. They raced as two flipping greyhounds after the bus and as we were approaching and nearing and approaching and getting closer...the bus left our eyesight and we thought all was lost. The moto-taxis left us on the side of a road...literally and after recieving their wages...30 pesos they were on their way. They told us to wait because hopefully a bus would be coming from some other place that I don't remember the name and would pick us up. After about 20 min of waiting we were picked up and started our journey back home to the temple housing.

Now, to explain the title...Does anybody know what the word Cachibachi means? It was definitely used in sacrament meeting today during a talk about youth and their leaders and the family proclamation to the world. If anyone has any comments or revelations about this word...please do tell. We went to a different ward this week in a place called Nazao. We were invited by our good friends The Roberts (A missionary couple here in the temple) who have been very kind and generous with us. We went to a cute 60 person branch in a place about 45 min from the capital and met a future major league baseball player and his coach which was super cool! He is a 16 year old kid who just got signed to the Texas Rangers for $800,000...yep let me say that again...$800,000. He is 16...that kid is making bank! It was a fun adventure! And the rest of the day has been pretty chill for us, we ate, and speaking of food...the avacadoes here are to die for!! I feel bad because I practically ate the entire thing! Anyway...this is how the cookie crumbles! haha

Wall-e

So, it's not actually the animated Character in Wall-e, but a re-invention of Volleyball. And apparently it's kind of a big deal here. We spent most of the day playing Wall-e with employment center workers from each stake and from other centers. It was so fun, it's inside so you get to use the walls to bounce the ball off of AND you can kick the ball over the net too!! Afterwords, we spent most of the day at the pool getting a tan. After playing a few games in the pool, our manager randomly started showing off his doggy paddle while making a strange barking noises that sounded more like an otter. We couldn't keep from laughing. jajaja. Then they took us all to this really expensive Argentinian restaurant with the rest of the staff. That was the best meat ever! I brought home enough leftovers to last me for a few more meals :)

This week has been pretty laid back as it was our only week off. We went to see Enredados (tangled) ...There was a two for one deal so we got in for aboubt 3 dollars total. Everything is sooo cheap (a full meal is about 2$). Also, we went to the zoo and saw Tigers fighting each other and llamas, and finally, monkeys. Also, I got my interview done for grad school and sent it off!! Hooray, so now I just have to wait (keeping my fingers crossed).

We've had a lot of fun getting to know the single adults here. Last weekend we went to a wedding. It started at about 10pm and went until 5am. We danced salsa and merengue to a live band! Then, early the next day we went on a 3 hour bus ride with the YSA to some waterfalls in the middle of the Jungle and swam and played soccer on the beach all day! We're loving it!

Back in Action

Well, it's official. One workshop down, and several more to go. Me and the assistant manager headed off to a town called Santa Maria on Tuesday for my first workshop. He wanted to go down there with me to "help me out." I don't know how helpful it was to have him there, but it was certainly fun to be there with at least one person that I know. So Tuesday night, we went to the church downtown to start up day one. The first day, there were 15 people there and 9 graduated. They were all really fun, and we had a really good time together. The assistant manager taught the Introduction and I taught the first cornerstone. He left me about 45 minutes. I tried to fit in everything that I could.

The next day, he came back to Porto Alegre to finish up some things here and I finished up the workshop alone. My hotel was really sweet. Holy cow! I was honestly a little surprised, but I enjoyed it nevertheless. During the days I was able to get a lot of homework done, and I taught the workshops at night. Last night, after the workshop was finished, the manager in Porto Alegre had come to say goodbye to everyone in Santa Maria since he's moving. So I just hitched a ride with him back home. We left there at about 11:30 and got home around 2:30 in the morning. He was driving so fast. It was nice to get home quickly, but I was a little worried for my life.

Today, me and Garrison went to the mall for a while with the assistant manager to eat some lunch and make some purchases. It was pretty fun to hang out a little after my "rough" week of work. We are having a good time here, and have enjoyed hearing from all of you. Keep us posted.
This was me with my peeps at a family home evening last Monday. The kid in the green shirt was my really good friend in the MTC in Brazil.

Vaughn and Garrison

BYU Basketball.

Enough said.

BOOM BABY!!

Team!
We taught our first workshop today which was incredible! We had about 18, super qualified, happy, loved crazy clap, people in our workshop which made it a blast! We were suprised at how fast the time went by. They each has great ideas for their lemon stands, they didn't quite think of the one in a lifetime idea of PUCKER UP but they had great ideas and are STOKED to learn about this stuff. We had a guy come in named Jesus who wants to start a gym and he wouldn't leave the workshop till he had finished his homework, he had it all planned out! It was AWESOME!!

This weekend was AWESOME!! Here in the Pais it was a long weekend from two holidays magically falling on friday and monday so on friday we went to a YSA activity which had a whopping 8 people, we played volleyball and watched the new Preach My Gospel videos which was actually really cool. The youth here are super strong and really desire to do what is right, and they have made us feel welcome.

On Saturday we were invited to a HUGE villa close to a beach with a young single adult and her family. We pretty much chilled by the pool and sipped lemonade in martini glasses with cool little beach umbrellas in them. haha just kidding. But we did chill by the pool. On Sunday they made us give talks about the second coming and the millenium to welcome us to the ward...just kidding! haha Our ward rocks! We have the biggest number of returned missionaries in the whole stake in our ward! Yesterday on monday we went to a YSA family home evening where we blessed the house of a member of the ward who had recently changed homes. Lindon and I were lucky enough to understand and laugh at some of the jokes that were said at the dinner table but we still draw blanks sometimes when they ask us questions and expect us to understand when they talk a million miles a min. :)

We love you guys and pray for Lindon who isn't feeling so good right now.

Tyler and Lindon

Semana Loca

So I felt bad when I looked on the blog to see that there was three pages of unread posts... I read all of them, and it made me so excited for you guys and what we're all doing.

The food is absolutely amazing, just like I had imagined Argentina would be when I got my mission call (I was disappointed by the food there, but here it's fulfilled my dreams).

We teach our first workshop on tuesday, and, like Steven mentioned, we have six planned. It doesn't seem like a lot, but supposedly there are forty-eight more blended in somewhere in the background... Our first few days of were crazy. Monday we spent nine hours travelling with our manager making visits and running errands. Tuesday we spent 13 hours! On the drive home I thought about those interns who spent forty/sixty hour weeks travelling and decided we couldn't do it. Luckily, the next morning I work up at three in the morning with a stomach ache and thought, "I'll use this as an excuse so we could rest and get some homework done." Little did I know that that stomach ache would keep me on the bathroom floor spooning the toilet until later in the day. I didn't get any homework done but I did rest. And the soup my manager bought me was fantastic.

The people here are so much, we went to a friend's house last night and played Halo and watched an english movie Grown up with spanish subtitles.

Loving the mexican life so far. Too bad I have to go a few days without eating picante.

Diego y Esteban.

One workshop down...

We finally taught our first workshop this weekend! We taught on Friday and Saturday night in a city about 1 hour outside of Puebla called Tlaxcala.

We had our first taste of "true authentic Mexican food" in Tlaxcala with our director and his wife. It was a buffet which included lamb, cow stomach, tongue, milanesa, and cactus leaves, which are a popular vegetable here. It was all actually super yummy!

We taught 37 people the first night and 32 the second. Our group was awesome and we had a ton of fun.

So My Camera's Busted...

And I am not very happy about it. It's weird, when I go to take pictures, the screen looks fine. But then when I take the picture, it comes out white. Sometimes it takes a normal picture, but most of the time, it takes white pictures. I am kind of sad because I keep having these really cool things that I want to take pictures of and when I try to take pix, they come out white. I don't know if there is something that I am just not seeing, but for now, I have no idea what's wrong.

Other than that, things have been going quite nicely. This last week was really fun. I had several opportunities to get to know the city a little bit better. Our manager is moving to Sao Paulo next week, so he has been trying to get everything ready for the move. This makes me really sad because he is really cool. I love his family. Hopefully, the new guy will be just as fun.

So today, instead of having me go to church alone, our manager came and picked me up. I went to his ward with his family. That was really fun. And I met this kid that was in the MTC with me forever ago. He just happens to be our stake president's son. So we got to hang out a lot today and get to know each other better....since I speak Portuguese this time around. After church, we had a big feast at his house. It was seriously just like Tucanos for those of you that have had the privilege of eating there. And then I hung out at their house for a while. After a while, they all wanted to hop in the pool for a little Sunday swim. They seemed a little surprised when I didn't want to. They thought I was little overboard not wanting to swim on Sunday...needless to say, we didn't get in. But it has been very fun to get to know everyone. I love being in Brazil again.

I have chatted with Lizzy and Kirsten, and Jeff and Lauren on skype. It is fun to hear how everyone is doing. I start teaching this week in a town called Santa Maria that is about 3 1/2 hours from Porto Alegre. Garrison will get here on Wednesday while I am gone. But then after that, we should be on a pretty normal schedule finally.

Good luck to everyone.

Vaughn

Oh, and I want to see the picture of all of us that we took at the Church Office Building if anyone has that!

Downtown Tour

Rebecca took us to downtown Accra to see some of the famous government sights.  We also went to some of the big markets down there.

This first picture is from Thursday but I just wanted to share it anyway.  You might have to look closely to understand why I would share this picture.  We went to this lunch wagon that parks near the temple and they said they had ride with chicken or fish.  I ordered chicken and Kirsten ordered fish.  When we got back to the ERC she opened up the box to find a whole fish in there.  The thing was starring at her while she tried to eat it.  The chicken that I ate was really good but I'm not so sure about that fish.  

Here we are with Rebecca on the steps of the Parliament House.  

They are currently doing some renovations so that is why you can see the scaffolding on the outside.

This mural was inside the National Convention Center.  It represents a baobab tree.

Ohene Djan Stadium (aka Accra National Stadium)  

 

As we were walking past the stadium we decided to see if there was 

someone who would let us in and check the place out. 

 Luckily we asked the right security guard, who was willing to take us on a personal tour.  

Of course he wanted a tip but that was fine.  

I hope that we get to go to a game while we are here.

Just as we came out of the stadium I looked across the street and saw Lizzy's Frozen Foods. 

I was so excited and Kirsten and Rebecca just thought I was weird.  

The other day I also saw Lizzy's Pub.  Apparently my name is quite popular here.

Independence Arch

Black Star Square

Normally people can walk around here but the guard with the machine gun told us that it was closed for the day.  Then he proceeded to tell us that the President and his cabinet members were sitting right under the arch having a meeting.  I think they might need to work on their security measures.

I don't think this lady wanted me taking her picture but

I was so impressed with her skills that I just had to.  

Isn't she amazing??

P.S. I'm interested to know if any of you have foods that you are missing yet.  Personally, I miss cheese!

Viva Bolivia!

Well, so we saw monkeys, that was pretty cool! Here's a picture:

It is so green here, literally, we live in the jungle! However, we have been without internet for a few days, but we just got our Tigo cards (internet service cards). Hmm, where do we start? Well first of all room service at the hotel was questionable and I (Ashley) got sick. Luckily, it all came out quickly while Cristina was in the shower. I'm not really sure what it was because we shared the same plate. So we're pretty happy to have an apartment now. The flip-side was that it was disgustingly dirty when we arrived for the 2 seconds that we would have until noon the next day. I guess its not too bad because someone cleaned it for us while we were away the next day. I guess the tides have switched because we now share a bed. :)

 Yesterday was terribly long, but our friend Camilo (a volunteer) helped us out all day to get the basic necessities for the next few days (sheets, food, cleaning supplies, etc.) We just made it back in time to teach our nighttime workshop. (people didn't come until an hour after it started and there were only three people, so they canceled it). On the bright side, we had a chance to breathe for a moment. We had our morning workshop bright and early and had no chance to prepare for it. So, we prayed. I was at the doctor when we did this workshop for training, so I basically taught something I didn't know...ha ha. We love our class, they are young and really intelligent. They graduate tomorrow!!! We will finish our first workshop and it was not even bad at all, so fun and easy! Also, we already have our first wedding invitation tomorrow!

Bolivia is a crazy place! We already had a flood for a 1/2 day. There is a political revolt on milk prices right now, and only families that own houses can register their kids for school (those that rent can't right now). The average monthly salary is about 100$. There isn't much work, so most taxi drivers are college graduates. There is also a lot of racism between the Collas and the Cambas (the indigenous indians vs the whiter immigrants).

Aventuras en Peru!

Hola de Peru!

Sounds like all of you are having a blast. Jenny and I are currently staying at our director's house in southern Arequipa, which is a spiral staircase, three storied house. SO NICE!

We flew into Lima on Friday night and played around Lima for four days with Jenny's best friend, awesome, incredibly hospitable missionary companion from their mission in Ecuador. We felt right at home with her mother, her step dad, el abuelito, and occasional visitors.

Highlights of our four day adventure in Lima-

Exploring the catacombs in Centro de Lima where there are about 25,000 bones.

Went to the Lima Temple- I got there too late to do baptisms,  so I stayed outside and watched little Junior, while his mom went inside to do a session. I taught him how to say "SI!" like an hombre, AND a mujer. So cute.

On Sunday, we toured a lot of Lima, accidently, and found Jenny's missionary cousin in a wardhouse. Let's just say he was super emocionado when he saw Jenny after about two years.

Visited Los Cerros de San Cristobal- we took a tour bus up to the top of a hill overlooking all of Lima. 10,000,000 call Lima their home.

MISSIONARY REUNION- along with Hermana Llanos, Jenny got to see Aldo and Fabio, two other missionaries from their mission in Guayaquil North, Ecuador.

Brazil, Here I come!

So, with all of the hub-bub surrounding my visa, I am pleased to let you all know that my visa was approved and I will finally be reunited with Vaughn next Wednesday. Also, as a side note, we switched rooms so we now have two beds (one for each of us ;). See you all in 3 months!

-Garrison

A day for first timers.

Kirsten and I had an exciting and adventurous day of many firsts today.  I will write about them in the order that they happened.  

1. After sitting in on the Career Development Workshop this morning Kirsten and I went on another adventure with Rebecca.  She decided to take us to the mall.  We already went there on Monday but I wanted to go back and get a few things so we did.  The exciting part of the adventure was that we got to take our first ride on a Trotro.  Basically, it's a taxi/bus/van that you are share with 15 other people.  Below is a picture of Kirsten and I on our first ever trotro ride.  There will probably be many more to come.  

2. We purchased our first Ghanaian cell phone today.  It's a small little thing with only basic functions but it is exactly what we need for right now.  It actually does have a few extra features that I've never really seen before.  1. It has an FM radio built in.  It even came with headphones that double as a hands free system.  2. The ringtone I have chosen is called "The Secret is You."  It is a hilarious, cheesy love song but I chose it because it is the only ringtone without super high, obnoxious tones throughout the song.  3. There is a setting where it will send you reminders when it is time to pray to Allah.  It's a cool feature to have built in.  

3. This morning during the Career Workshop the teacher was out of the room when her cell phone started ringing and playing this groovin' reggae song.  The other students told us that it is Kojo Antwi.  They had a good time listening to us try to pronounce his name.  Today when we were at the mall Kirsten and I purchased our first real African music.  We listened to it all evening.  We just wish we knew what it was saying. 

4. Kirsten got her first marriage proposal (of sorts) today.  After the mall we were walking back to the trotro stop when we walked past a few gentlemen waiting at a stop to take the trotro headed in the opposite direction.  One of them started speaking to Rebecca in Twi so we had no idea what he was saying.  Rebecca told us that he asked her if she wanted to sell one her friends to him.  I offered up Kirsten and Rebecca said that is the one he asked for.  Kirsten seemed so flattered. NOT!

Since everyone else is showing off their sweet homes, we thought we'd show off ours.

Tyler enjoying our sitting room. We went with a discoteca theme.

Me out on our front walkway. Pretty nice.

Volcanoes!

Did we mention Puebla is surrounded by 4 Volcanoes? So cool!

This is the view from sunset tonight right outside our front door. 

(our house is the first floor of the white building on the right.)

This is the view of the same volcano from the windows at the Employment Center.

Ghanaian Adventures

Kirsten and I began all of our orientation activities yesterday.  This week we are focusing on that and then next week we begin training on Tuesday.  We will teach every other week.  On the weeks we are not teaching they will be teaching the Career Development Workshop at the ERC.  Today Kirsten and I sat in on the Career workshop and well... it made me grateful for that week of training in Salt Lake.  It also helped me to learn a lot about some cultural things here in Ghana.

This week the Manager, Atobora, is out of town on vacation so the Assistant Manager, Alex, is helping us to get all settled in at the Center.  Yesterday morning he gave as a 2 hour tutorial on Ghanaian history and culture.  It was very helpful in knowing some of the best ways to help the workshop participants to learn and grow.

The Center is located on the ground floor of the stake center that is just next to the Accra Ghana Temple.  On the other side of the temple there is another building that houses the offices for the Africa West Area.  Every time we go in there we get somewhat lost but we also find the nicest and most interesting people to help us find our way.  They have also helped us with many other things.  The new Area Controller and his wife arrived the same day as us.  They live in the building just across the parking lot from us so we have been able to get rides into the office with him.

Yesterday after meeting with the Area Welfare Director we walked outside to run some errands and we saw this little treasure in the parking lot.  Apparently FedEx does things a little differently here in Ghana.  Motorcycles are allowed to just go between cars rather than waiting in traffic so I'm sure the motorcycle method is much more efficient.

Today our new friend Rebecca took us on a walking tour of some of the areas near the temple.  She took us to this shopping area called Osu.  They sell everything you could ever want that says Ghana on it.  Of course everyone tried selling to us because we are white.  We did buy coconuts and drank the milk.  Then we went to this awesome Ghanaian restaurant.

This is a picture of Kirsten and I at the end of the our first real Ghanaian meal.  I meant to get a picture before we started eating but once I took the first bite I forgot because it was so good.  This dish is called red-red.  It's fried plantains, fried chicken, and some spicy beans.  It was so delicious!

Rebecca is taking us on another adventure tomorrow and I can't wait!  This is surely the most fun orientation I have ever participated in.

Life in Puebla has been great so far!  This week we have just been getting organized and getting to know the city and find our way around.

Not to make those of you jealous who don't have a permanent place yet :), here is a photo tour of our apartemento:

Living Room

Dining Room

Kitchen

Bathroom- (Jeff was thrilled about the bright pink shower curtain)

Guest bedroom for those of you who want to come visit us! :)

Our bedroom 

 

This week Ranulfo will take us to see more of the city and get in contact with the banks, micro-credit institutions and other resources we will be working with. 

We teach our first workshop on Friday! Ranulfo hasn't wasted any time with us and yesterday he showed us our schedule of workshops. We teach every Tuesday-Friday with an occasional weekend trip to a far away stake like Veracruz and Oxaca. I counted them all up and we'll be teaching a total of 15 workshops. We are very excited. We definitely have our work cut out for us but we are ready for the challange.

-Jeff y Lorena

Livin' the Life

well, it sounds like by now, that most everyone is settled down and doing well...for those of you that have houses of course. haha

even tho i really do miss little garrison, life has sure been fun down here so far. since gary's not here, i don't have any workshops this week. but starting next week, we have one scheduled every week in different cities here in the state of rio grande do sul. and the last week are here, our manager has left open for us to visit rio de janeiro. that should be pretty fun.

so yesterday, i got my little office all situated and what not. then me and the assistant manager went to the mall and bought us a cell phone. and of course we had to eat lunch at mcdonald's. i mean, it's been a whole three days outside of the usa. haha that was really fun. then after some more messing around. me, our manager, and his son that just got back from being a foreign exchange student in texas went to a different mall to develop some pictures. while he was waiting for the pictures, he gave us 50 bucks and told us to go 'have fun.' their malls are super nice and beautiful here. so it was fun to hang out with his son and drink some milkshakes. i found an outback steakhouse, an applebee's, and a few offer american restaurants so far. i'm gonna have to make some stops there pretty soon.

then last night, all the young single adults from a bunch of different stakes had a big fhe. i was surprised that they called me up and invited me. they came and picked my up and the fhe was super fun. it is fun to already have some friends down...since i'm all alone. they all make fun of my jungle accent. but every day, my southern accent is getting better. haha

hope everyone's having lots of fun. i'm jealous about the krispy kreme's find. lucky. well peeps, boa sorte!

vaughn

Krispy Kremes

You had better believe that we convinced a young single adult to take us out to enjoy the night life of Santo Domingo and we ended up at Krispy Kremes! (and no that is not my purse I'm unconsciously reaching for)

Viva Mexico

So we sat down and had our formal orientation today with our manager. Sounds like things are going to be great. We also were able to go out and start meeting leaders of the volunteer employment centers and other local church leaders. A couple places we went to include Benemerito de las Americas, a private LDS high school, and the Academy for Creating Enterprise. Right now they are still constructing the Academy in Mexico, but we still got to talk to Jeremy, the guy in charge, and were able to learn a lot.

On another note; I'm learning a lot about where I am and the people I am going to be helping. Did you know that the minimum wage in Mexico is 40 pesos a day? That's about $3.30. I'm also learning a lot about the informal economy and how it effects the country.

I guess I'll end on some positive notes. Turns out our employment center rocks! It has a great setup with computers, newspapers, job postings, bathrooms, a lecture room, and Diego and I each get an office! I know right. It's legit. I'll have to send pictures at some point. I guess that is all I have to say. So, the rest of you take care.

P.S. Our manager was totally a translator for President Monson! Here's a link to the video on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dik9wS6r16k I guess he found out he was going to do it about ten minutes before. Crazy.

-Mexico City

Well this is interesting

So it's our third day in Santa Cruz. We still haven't found an apartment, kind of like Mary and Joseph (no room at the inn). We just found out that we are training a number of employees at the center tomorrow morning and all week long. We possibly have another workshop scheduled at night time while still are homeless and have not unpacked. Yesterday our manager's car broke down while we were sightseeing, so the tow truck came. And we rode in the car while on top of the tow truck bed. It was a bumpy ride. Our manager always talks about how great La Paz is and how there's nothing here that it's unsafe and uncivil. But, they caught 25 gang members in the city today so that was good. When we walked in the Employment Center this morning, our manager urged us to go inside his office. He then proceeded to tell us that the guy sitting outside was dangerous. He used to live in La Paz and held up the office with a gun and demanded $20,000. The bishop had to come and talk him out of it. Ironically, the bishop still sent him on a mission....that only lasted three months. He just comes in and sits on one of the tables for a couple of hours everyday. They think he's observing the center, but they won't kick him out. What's more, is that our manager tells us that we can't walk outside alone. There's not enough police here so yeah, welcome to the jungle.

INTERESTING FACT! Bolivia may be the only country with no McDonalds. Apparently it's too unsafe for even McDonalds here.

On the bright side, we get to get used to teaching the workshops quickly. We get to go to La Paz for Carnaval. Our manager is SUPER helpful with everything. And it's warm. We still have two beds. And we are hopeful that we'll find a REALLY good condominium with a pool and washer. And internet. We can still dream.

Cristina y Ashley

Locked out

Like Tyler said we we went swimming for a little while. I tanned nicely while Tyler has been complaining about his sunburn since than. ha. After our church meeting we went out to eat with a friend of his and were already meeting all of the sweet Young Single Adults down here. nice. Our church building is three stories high. The bottom floor is parking, the middle floor is classrooms, and the top floor is our sacrament meeting room. We lucked out and have the only chapel in the stake with air conditioning!

Only hiccup since we got here was they locked us out of our apartments because our managers credit card bounced. It took like two hours to fix but they finally let us back in. whew.

I'll take a picture of Tyler's sunburn later and post it ;)

Lindon

Um....I love Brazil.

well, even though i am seriously retarded at this kind of stuff, i have officially managed to get this far. and not that any of you really care that much about what i'm doing, i'm keeping you up to date anyway...hehe. i had a smooth trip here. i was a little sad that kirsten and lizzy totally ditched me in new york without even saying bye. whatever. i just thought we were friends though...

smooth sailing to porto alegre. i got here at about 11:30 in the morning on saturday. and like lauren said, i did get to chat with her and jeff for a while. that was fun to see that they were still alive. and that they have my same situation with the one bed thing. of course, they probably want to sleep with each other...haha that should be interesting. i told them about the one bed thing and they said that would probably get changed. not that i don't love garrison or anything...there is the famous bed---> haha

so last night, i went out dinner with some of my peeps from the mish. that was way fun. except for they are both married so that was little awkward...i decided i'd have to hurry up a little faster finding my brazilian wife so i can fit in. church was super fun today and i got a sweet tour of porto alegre with the assistant manager here. he is super chill. we even went home teaching together. then, we showed up at some his church building tonight to take a look, and they were having some huge meeting about the first ever EFY outside of the usa that will be taking place in porto alegre and other select brazilian cities. the assistant manager was quick to mention that i had been to a real american EFY and suggested that i should tell that 5 bazillion people there about how cool it is. that was kinda funny. so i went up to the front and talked about EFY for a while. they all thought that was random but hopefully enjoyed it. sooo...

anyway, i am doing well. i can't wait to get started and see how everything turns out. hope you are all doing great. i loved the updates and pictures! peace out.

vaughn
(and, in spirit, garrison)

We have arrived.

So we left Utah at 8 am and despite our ridiculous layovers (denver to houston to lima to santa cruz), we ended up being on the same flight to Lima with the Peru girls! Cristina's dad picked us up for our eleven hour layover and on our way to their house, we saw a robbery YAY! Luckily, it wasn't us :).

We finally did get to our destination Saturday at 3pm and we were glad to see that our manager had gotten our emails and was waiting for us.  As we were walking to his car, we were told he had good news and bad news, but said we should sit down before he tells us the bad news. Good news: all our workshops are scheduled and ready to start on Tuesday! We will get to go to Cochabamba and have 4 workshops there, and possibly we will get to go to La Paz as well. Bad news: we don't have an apartment yet, both deals fell through and he gave us the option of living with a 70 year old grandma from Uruguay. hmmmm, we haven't decided yet if we want to live there or somewhere else. For now, we're at a hotel smack down in the middle of town across from the most popular restaurant/playhouse called "Dumbo." Our manager took us there to eat last night, and we ate Silpancho with fresh squeezed lemonade. it was really good. It's pretty hot, about 90 degrees and HUMID, cold showers are great! 

Church was good, we got a couple calling cards from everyone and we have rides to tonights fireside. The only 2 problems we now face are who's paying for the food at the hotel and the Spanish is a bit difficult to understand for both of us. But on the bright side, we each have our own bed :)

Cristina y Ashley

PS here are our skype names:

ashley.maag1

cristina.lesley.collazos

PPS Today at church, a lady who was talking to us and later gave us a ride thought Ashley was my mom. 

As a follow up to Kirsten's post I just wanted to post some pictures from our arrival in Ghana so you can see the sky that she was talking about.  Also, we got to deplane down stairs (bottom left corner of the picture) instead of just going straight into the terminal.  I thought that was exciting.  

When we got to the bottom of the stairs there was a little shuttle that drove us about 50 yards 

and then dropped us off by the door into the airport.

Akwaaba!!!!!

Welp! Lizzy and I made it to Ghana without any major hiccups. We did have to wait at the airport for about an hour for someone to pick us up, but thanks to the seemingly nice man who offered his phone (he then demanded a tip), we got in contact with our office manager Atobora and he arrived shortly thereafter. After a trip to the grocery store, we settled in, upacked, took some naps, and then went to the apartment above us where a missionary couple lives. Luckily he is the area doctor, so should we ever get sick, we know who to go to. They taught us how to bleach everything that has the remotest possibility of coming within a 10 foot radius of our mouths, including all fruits, vegetables, and eggs. I can honestly say I've never had to give my carrots a bleach bath. Have you? Our apartment is a lot nicer than expected. We have AC, so the mosquito nets will have to wait (darn) and a tap with filtered water (score!). We've also just arrived in time for the Harmattan-- a wind originating from the Sahara bringing dust and sand into the air. And here we thought we were leaving the inversion when we left Utah! It should only last about two out of the three months. I am NOT complaining about being in 85 degree weather AT ALL. It feels awesome! But anyway, we have orientation tomorrow so hopefully we'll get our schedule of when we're teaching. Glad to hear from you all! I think it's cute that Vaughn and Garrison will have to share a bed. Pictures please!

We arrived here in the DR at 11:50 pm which was crazy! We had both been up since 4 am. Anyway we got here and it was AWESOME! We got picked up by a guy named antonio who works for the church. He took us to a hotel where we be staying till tuesday, the day the entregarnos our apartment, which is super close to the centro! Anyway, we finally get to the hotel at like 1 am, and our director is there with his wife and he asks, "Are you hungry?" Lindon and I look at eachother and shake our heads, "sure!" So we went out to dinner at 1:30 am and had some seriously good food. It's a Dominican specialty called Mofongo. Its a combination of cheese and platano and it was SO GOOD!! They also gave us some soup with it, its called sancocho, I don't know if you guys have had it but its like a beef soup. And we finally got home to the Marriot, where we both have our own rooms and our own King size beds! IT IS HUGE!! I get lost in it! haha Today we slept in and went to la piscina and had church meetings. Miss you GUYS!!
Much Love...and remember GAME TIME!
Tyler and Lindon

Ciudad de Mexico

Like Lauren said, we all arrived in Mexico safe and sound; even though Diego had his bags searched in both the US and Mexico. Despite the change in office locations our apartment is great. It has two bedrooms, a bathroom, a living-room/dining-room, a small kitchen, and a small room with a washer. Today we got to walk around the neighborhood and even went to the local mercado. That was exciting. I don't think I've ever seen so many tomatoes.

Our manager is excited to have us and we can't wait to get started. This is going to be a great experience and we can't wait to hear all of your amazing stories.

Esteban y Diego

Arriving to Puebla

Jeff and Laur made it to Mexico yesterday afternoon on the same plane as Esteban y Ortego. We were received by our Director from Puebla, Ranulfo, and their director from Mexico City. They wasted no time in introducing us to some real authentic Mexican tacos!

After lunch we drove to Puebla (it took about 3 1/2 hours because of traffic), got situated in our apartamento and went to walmart to get some necessities.
Our apartment is one street down from the Employment Center and right in the center of Puebla. We love it so far, and can't wait to hear about everyone else's experiences!

(Plus, we got to skype with lonely Vaughn this morning who informed us that he and Garrison will be getting to know each other really well since there is only one bed in their apartment!! hahaha)

Pictures to come!