49 weeks -sick :(

Hey everybody =)

First off, Thank You for all of these awesome pictures and for all of the information about our ancestors! I'm really excited to hear more about it and how I'm related to all of these people! Grandpa looks great! I hope you told him he's gotta stick around for at least another year so that I can visit with him one more time =) But if he decides he won't stick around, I'll just have to wait and be happy that we have the Plan of Salvation!

You guys went to Sarah's house? How did you know where it was? What did her parents say? They are really nice people, I'm glad that Haylee liked them =) I'm glad that you guys liked them. I hope that they are used to my family just dropping in haha the same thing happened the first time that I met them. They didn't know that I was coming either. Hopefully they don't think we're crazier than we already are =p 

To answer your questions: No, I didn't get electrocuted this week. My legs are as good as new. No, I'm not quite all healed up...I finally got really sick! I was in a Priesthood meeting on Saturday night and my nose started to get stuffed up and to run a little bit. I went home afterwards and took some medicine that I have for that and thought everything would be better the next day. Yesterday (the next day), I woke up and felt horrible. My nose was stuffed up and running, and I just felt tired. However, it was my luck that it was Sunday, and Sunday is not a day of rest for the missionaries. So, we went to church and were hoping to have a baptism, but he didn't show up. By the time church was over, I was feeling worse, so we went back home and stayed there for the rest of the day (this was about 1ish that we returned home). I got home and just went to bed. We were supposed to go to our other meeting at 4, but when the time arrived to leave, I couldn't do it and we just stayed in the house. A few hours later, I had aches and pains all over my body, I felt exhausted, my nose was stuffed, and I had a headache, so I called the other Elders to come by and give me a blessing. The Zone Leaders called about 15 minutes after I fell asleep, so I had to wake up and talk to them (wasn't too happy) but they were calling to see how I am, so I'm grateful they called me. I feel a little bit better today, but I still have a fever, a few aches, and not too much energy so I'm gonna go to the hospital after lunch and see what they say. Hopefully it's not dengue because you can only have dengue two times and then you have to go home. But, I don't think it will be anything major, so no worries!

On to bigger and better things! The week was really good! We didn't teach as much as I would have liked, but this week will be better! I received three packages!!!! Amy and Davis, Grandma and Grandpa Huhmann, and Matt and Mione all sent me one! When you talk to them, make sure to say THANK YOU!!!!!! It definitely made my week! I received peanut butter, drink mixes, gum, old spice, candy, and all kinds of cool stuff! Have you sent the package you put together yet? If you haven't, could you send me a baseball too? No worries if you already sent it! I was just wondering =)

We also had the chance to meet with President Castro this week! He came to have interviews with us and see how we are all doing. He is great and is speaking my language. Before, the attitude was baptize, baptize, baptize! And now, it's still baptize baptize baptize, but also temple temple temple! Our goal is eternal families, not just cleaned of sin. I am learning a lot from him and he wants all of us to be on the same page. He's even going to send us the training he received to become a mission president. Talks from the Presiding Bishopric, 70s, and either a talk or testimony from every member of the 12! I am really excited to get my hands on that and to read all of the things they had to say about the missionaries and this great work!

I also had the experience of helping the Sisters here in my Zone. We were all leaving the church the other night and the Sisters and we had to use the same road to get back to our houses. As we were walking, a drunk and his buddy (who was also drunk) called out to us saying that we are very special people and very important people. This isn't an uncommon thing, so we just kept walking. However, the guys then decided to cross the street and try to talk to the Sisters. Elder Calcangoto and I weren't going to let that happen, so we got to the drunks before the drunks got to the Sisters. The Sisters took the hint and began walking faster to get ahead of us. Elder Calcangoto and I began walking slower to try and delay the guys. I began talking to the main drunk just as if I were making another street contact: what's your name, where are you from, my name is, I'm a missionary, etc. but he definitely didn't want to talk to me haha. He said that I'm not important and that the Sisters are more important than me, so I responded by saying that I am important because I'm a son of God and that he is too. We continued like this for a few more minutes and he wanted nothing to do with us, only the Sisters. I handed him a Gospel of Jesus Christ pamphlet and explained about faith. He just put it under his arm and kept walking. By this time, the Sisters had reached the corner and were out of sight. We arrived at the corner a minute later, and the Sisters were nowhere to be found, they had ran as soon as they were out of sight. The guy was not happy about this haha and tossed the pamphlet on the ground. His friend picked it up and then said how much he likes to visit churches. I told him that the door is always open to him and to anyone who wanted to visit. I was waiting for the other guy to try and hit me, I could tell he wanted to, but he knew better than that and so he didn't. We left and I called the District Leader of the Sisters and explained what happened. He called them and then called me. They had made it home safe and sound and now I have one more adventure in the mission haha!

That was about it for the week, tell everyone that I said hi and that I love them =)

Elder Sanderson