This week had kind of a slow start. I had a stomach illness on Tuesday, and was starting to get better by Wednesday morning, then by lunch that same day Elder Van was sick with the same thing. He didn't start feeling well until like Friday morning. So we didn't leave the apartment much besides for important visits we had, for short times.
It did give us a good opportunity to clean up a little bit for apartment inspections which we had on Thursday, and we passed, though we didn't have to do much because we are both pretty organized. I did get a lot of time to study, which I enjoyed, and I learned a lot. But no one can study all day straight. Staying home is pretty overrated, there's nothing to do but study. It's kind of hard not to feel a little baggy when you're left to your thoughts for too long. Haha! But, thankfully, we were able to get out of the house and work by Friday.
Here they celebrate Easter all week. The celebration is called semana santa. They decorate the whole town in religious posters and colorful banners and streamers and stuff. Most of the celebrating happens on Friday. They have parades and food all week. One cool thing they do is make cool designs on the streets from colored sawdust called alfumbras, which literally translates to rugs. Here in Chiantla, they also do a really famous reenactment of the crucifixion that people from all over come to see. Elder Van and I were going to steer clear of it, but every member here said we should go see it. So we just stopped by for a second and watched a part of it from the back of the crowd. It's a little crazy, the guy that plays Christ actually has to carry his cross, and gets whipped, and has a real thorn crown and stuff.
We have interviews with President Smith coming up this week to "look forward to." I will also be going on divisions with the district leader sometime soon. Other than that, everything else is pretty much normal. Still hot, still working hard, still eating some variation of chicken and rice almost every day, and I'm still enjoying my time here no matter what.
Thanks for everything! Love you! Talk to you next week!
