Gatos y Perros

September 16, 2013

Hola, (sometimes I feel like this is still the only word I can say that will be understood haha)

So I was going to send you guys some photos this week, but about 15 seconds after I turned on my camera to plug it into the computer, it died... so you'll have to wait for the next week. 

So we visit this family about once a week that has a daughter that is preparing to get baptised, and they live in a house behind the grandma's house. It's more temporary and is just one room for the 12 of them. The 2 parents, 2 kids, and 8 gatos!! That's 8 cat's in case you didn't know. hahah It is crazy how many cats there are! It's such a good thing that cats are one of the few things that I'm allergic to... haha. Since it's really cold though, my runny nose just looks like I have a cold when I'm in their house haha. Although one day I made the mistake of touching my eyes and I looked like I was getting super emotional from our lesson because of how watery and red my eyes were haha.

Now the perros- there's this alley that we walk down every day to and from our apartment, but we have to be super careful cause sometimes the dogs gang up on us. Now there's always a ton of dogs everywhere, but this alley has a billion! Nearly all the dogs seem to hate us to. One day we stood for about 5 minutes in the same spot cause about 8 dogs decided to gang up on us and we were so sure that they were going to attack. I think they know that my companion is super scared of the dogs and that's why they're always after us. The dogs really can be vicious (I can't for the life of me figure out how to spell that word)... but anways, the other day, we saw something in the street, so we walked up to it and it turned out to be the leg of a dog! The dogs had literally torn this dog apart! I've seen lots of dead cats from dogs, but that was the first time i'd seen that. Sorry if that was too much... 

Although that's all part of the mission, it's really not the stuff that I'm going to remember the most. The truth is that it's this work in general that's amazing and the people that I'm going to remember. These things are more difficult to put into words though than stories about cats and dogs. 

A scripture that really helped me this week though was Alma 38:5. Read it and think about it. Also, if you can, look up a talk that was in the September 2012 Liahona- It's called "como viven los discípulos de cristo en tiempos de guerra y violencia" by David Brent Marsh. It's helped me a lot this week. 

I love you all so much and pray for you everyday. I'm sending some special prayers for Mark and Heather and the Crawford family and Dale and Bill as well. 

Hermana Ashcroft

P.S.- It's still cold.... I realized the other day that i've been living in the cold for a year now... try not to get too depressed thinking about that haha.  

P.S.S.- spanish is still hard. 

P.S.S.S.- I still am so happy to be here though! Even when I'm not happy, I'm happy. If that is even possible.

P.S.S.S.S.- I really do read your letters and love them, sorry if I forget to reply to things though.

P.S.S.S.S.S.- that's all the P.S.'s for now.