November 6, 2011

We finally found a place.  It has two bedrooms a washer/ no dryer, a small gas stove that doesn’t light yet.  It’s furnished, has dishes etc. but still need to buy a few things like towels, dish towels, toaster etc.

We washed clothes this morning only to find out that the washer stopped working. So we had to take the clothes out of the water, rinse them and then hang them up wherever we could. Good thing the flooring is all tile. In this humidity, they will take days to dry. Someone is supposed to come at 1:00 to fix it. However, being on time just doesn’t happen here. We went to the archive to start getting some work done but the software we need isn’t set up yet from Salt Lake so we are here back at home patiently waiting until someone arrives to fix the washer. Can’t do much until we get the things we need to clean around here. There was a layer of dust on everything. I’ve done what I could with paper towels but need some good rags and cleaning liquid. We are on the 6^th floor and get a good cross breeze thus, all the dust. So here we are waiting patiently hee hee.  Then we can go shopping. J

I’m writing from our apartment then sending when I get to the CCM  tonight.  It is now 5:35. They don’t go on daylight here so it will be 4 hours difference now from San Diego instead of 3 hours now that San Diego is on regular time.  Yesterday, Saturday, we spent a few hours getting the things we need. We also bought a water filter at the Church Distribution Center which is right next to the temple. Now we can clean our dishes and wash our vegetables and fruit without using Clorox.  I tried making tortillas but they turned out a little tough.  I think the high humidity affects the flour. I also found a source of Serrano chiles but don’t know if they will always be there.  It was in one of the open air markets. So I was able to make salsa fresca. There isn’t a microwave in our apartment or a blender. We can survive without a microwave but without a blender it will be difficult. I will have to make salsa some other way. They eat a lot of rice here, plantains, chicken and pork and black beans. Their beans have a nice flavor. They use a lot of cilantro in their cooking.

We went to church today in one of the local wards. I found it very difficult to understand at times. They speak very, very fast and use a lot of expressions I don’t understand and, of course, the accent is very different. This afternoon we went to the CCM (Centro de capacitación misional) for a devotional that was a video from one of the recent Tuesday devotionals from the MTC in Provo. Elder Anderson spoke. Tonight at 7:00 we go to fireside also at the CCM. There I will send this update off. I took pictures of our apartment and will try to send them also. Can’t wait till we get the internet hooked up. 

Estoy escribiendo de nuestro apartamento, luego lo enviaré este mensaje cuando vamos al CCM esta noche. Son las 5:35. Aquí no cambia la hora así que será 4 horas de diferencia en vez de 3 debido a San diego ya se ha cambiado a tiempo regular. Ayer, sábado, fuimos de compras comprando algunas necesidades. También nos compramos un filtro de agua en el Centro de distribución de la Iglesia que es junto al templo. Ahora podemos lavar los trastes, y  la fruta y verduras sin usar cloro. J Traté de hacer tortillas pero no salieron bien, poquito duros.  Pienso que el alto humidad afecta la harina. Si una hermana tiene una idea en cómo puedo preparar mis tortillas favor de decirme.   También encontré dónde podemos comprar chiles serranos pero no sé si siempre va a tenerlos. Los encontré en un mercado libre. Así que podía hacer salsa fresca. J No hay microhondo ni una licuadora en nuestro apartamento. Puedo sobrevivir sin microhondo pero sin  licuadora será dificil. Tal vez tendremos que comprar uno. Pero las cosas aquí son caras.  Sin licuadora tendré que hacer salsa de otra manera. Si ustedes tienen una idea como puedo hacerlo favor de escribirme. Aquí comen mucho arroz, plátanos machos, pollo, puerco, y frijoles negros. Sus frijoles tienen un sabor muy rico. Cocinan con mucho cilantro.

Asistimos a uno de los barrios locales hoy. Era muy difícil entender. Hablan muy rápido y usan diferentes palabras y tienen un acento muy diferente. Una gran frustración para mí L) Esta tarde fuimos a un devocional en el CCM. Nos enseñó un video de uno de las devocionales recientes de martes que tenía en el MTC en Provo. Elder Anderson discursó. A las 7:00 vamos a una charla fogonera también en el CCM.  Allí voy a enviar este mensaje y también unas fotos de nuestro apartamento. Espero al día cuando podemos recibir la red.  Debe ser esta semana.

CIAO