Hey mom and pops,

Mom: I got your packages!! I opened the card, you guys put a TON of stuff in there. Dont worry I am going to wait till xmas to open it up. My other comps also go their packages but we are all going to wait till xmas. Things are going really good here. I gotta keep this one short but know that I love and miss you. I hope you all have a great thanksgiving, and a HAPPY BDAY!!

Thats good to hear the fires are all out, it sounds like they were pretty bad. It has been FREEZING here, even in the day when the sun is out. I have been wearing two jackets and even bought a pair of gloves. Sorry the pictures didn’t get through last week, I don’t know what happened. I forgot my camera today but next week I will have some, we have 4 baptisms planned so I will have some good ones. Thanks for checking out my bank statement, I’m going to try to do what you said. At the beginning of the month we get 1000 pesos ($100) and the first thing I do is go to the grocery store, and I usually have about 700 pesos left over for the month and I budget it daily. Although, sometimes we have to buy gas to heat the water and cook which is 300 pesos, and my companion loves to go to Carls Jr. so that doesn’t help us, lol.

I had my interview with President Cox, it was great as usual, he tells me he is preparing me for the future. He says I will be a bishop someday, I usually just laugh.

Things have been kind of tough here lately, we are having a hard time finding new people to teach. The missionaries who have experience in the mission tell me that the farther we get into December the more Catholic traditions there are and the people are even harder because they focus on worshipping the Virgin Mary. The other day we were knocking doors and an older man let us in, we entered his house and sat down. As we were sitting down about to start teaching, his wife came out and demanded that we leave because they are Catholics, that we are a false church because we don’t believe in the virgin and she basically threw us out into the night in the freezing cold. It was kinda rough but that’s how some people are...

Well I gotta run, but everything has been going really well, I am having a lot of fun here with my comp and being in this area. I can’t believe how much time has gone by and how fast. I will answer your questions...

Love Elder Benj

1. What are the ward members like?
--------They are really good people and pretty strong in the faith, our ward here compared to others is huge, we have about 170 people that come to church,they are going to divide the ward soon.

2. Are you getting fed regularly by the ward, and how often?
--------Yeah we get fed everyday by members at 2:30 pm, except sometimes they forget, thats when we go get Carls Jr!

3. How is your apartment?
--------Its a pretty nice house, we keep it pretty clean, we have two rooms to study and we all sleep in one big room.

4. Do you guys do any cooking?
--------A little bit, only in the morning. We have a microwave which is nice, but im not too sure if putting something in the microwave counts as cooking, lol...I dont think so.

5. Tell us about your companion, and the Zone Leaders.
--------The zone leaders are Elder Dalton from Saint George utah, he has 20 months in the mission so he goes home very soon. Elder Hines is from Gainsville florida and he has about 16 months in the mission. Elder Hine’s mom and grandparents are actually peruvian. His grandparents actually live in Lima Peru. Before the mission he learned to speak a little bit of Spanish. They are both good guys, except when they eat my food!! Elder Lopez is from Tijuana he is a district leader here, he is learning to speak English and its coming along well. His Dad was just released as stake president there. He is the oldest of 3 boys. He’s a really great kid with a good personality, everyone we come into contact with really likes him. He is a lot of fun because when he was living at home he used to go to San Diego a lot and he likes to skateboard so we have a few things in common. Everyone in the house here is a lot of fun.