Hey Family!!

This week has really just flown by super fast! I really dont even remember anything that happened. We had exchanges so I went to another area for a few days. That was pretty cool. We went to translate for some of the teachers at an elementary school (since it was parent teacher day) and while we were there waiting we got to read some of teh stories on the outside of the classroom walls and I just was laughing so hard at some of the stuff. It made me remember when I was in elementary and some of the stuff I wrote. One of my favorites went something like this. " Have you ever been jumped by goats? Well I have and let me tell you about it.  hahah so this kid talks about how he went out into his backyard and there was 2 goats staring at him. One brown goat and one white goat. Then the next thing he knew he said one goat tied him up and the other one splashed a bucket of water on him. hahahaha I dont know if thats funny to you guys or if I am just wierd but I seriously couldn't stop laughing. hahaha then the teacher commented on it and was like. I really cant belive that that happened to you. hahahah it was so funny. I think was mightve happened is the goat was on a leash and accidently caught his feet in it and then the other hit a bucket of water over or somthing. It was so funny. That was probably the highlite for funny events. The other experience I had was really really cool and almost made me cry.

Something that you have to understand here is that most of the hispanic people are illegal and the Dads have to work really far away from home sometimes because the economy here isn't the best and to find a job is really hard. With the construction jobs many of the people often leave the state for periods at a time to work in say Alabama, South Carolina etc.. So often times the kids and the moms stay at home and see the dads every weekend if they are luck or every other. So when we were at the school translating one of the boys came in with his dad and the teacher started to express concern about the boys working habit. How she can literally tell when Dad is leaving for work and when he is coming home. The days he has left the boy would come to school almost in tears and just wouldn't want to do anything the entire day at all. He would get frustrated with the teacher and really just shutdown. The days leading up to the dads return she would see a huge improvement and he would work super hard. This kid was super smart too. Almost all A's. As she talked about it the boy started to cry because he missed his dad and I think it really hit his dad just how much his son loved him. He said he was aware that his son got sad when he had to leave but didn't realize to what extent it really affected him. It was really sad but cool to see that because it really made me want to always be there for my family. Obviously the Dad has to work and things and thats respectful but I guess it just showed me how important that is for the kids. It was cool.

Thats pretty much everything I can think of. Tonight we get calls to see who is transfered and who stays. It should be intersesting!

Love ya!

Elder Anderson