What kind of flu did Ben have?

Hola familia,

This week has been pretty crazy. I was sick for most of it. I was stuck in bed for two days straight. It was no fun. I don't ever recommend getting sick as a missionary. First Elder Rodriguez was sick, then I and Elder Godinez both got sick from him. Luckily Elder Tracy has escaped the wrath. As a result we really didn't get very much done.

At the beginning of the week we met a new kid named Sebastian. He is a friend of the Abdala family. So it was a member present lesson! We love those kind of lessons. He had lots of questions and we had lots of answers. He's only 16 but he's very intelligent. Something that I thought was awesome: After we had been talking for a while with him he told me that when he came into the room and I said, "hola como estas" he was really confused. Because when he looked at me I was a white kid. But I guess I had a perfect accent. I was so excited. That made me feel like I was on top of the world. And then of course as I already mentioned I was brought really low by my sickness.

Just at the beginning of my sickness there was a Mother's day activity. All of the men cooked and set up a really nice restaurant for the mother's in the gym. It was really amazing. The food was high quality and all the mother's were really impressed. It was run like a fancy restaurant too. No kids or men were allowed in unless they were waiters or escorts or something. The missionaries jobs were to guard the doors from everybody that wasn't a woman and to escort the mother's to their seats. You would've been really impressed. Then to top it off there was a live mariachi band. I don't know how to spell that. There were five Hispanic guys all playing different instruments and singing. The mother's loved it. They all got up and danced and sang along and had a blast. The good news, they loved it so much so we're going to do it for them again in 20 years. Haha. No that was just one of Bro Woodland's jokes.

I haven't heard anymore than you have from Amy. She probably just had a hard time figuring out using the computer. They probably had a lot to do since it was her first p-day as well. She did write a letter. That might just be what the mission president suggested. I don't know. It seems like she's okay and we'll probably hear more from her when everything’s calmed down a little bit next week.

I wrote her a letter this last week but I lost her address so I couldn't wait until today to rewrite it down from my emails. Oh well. It's a bomb letter she'll love it. And it's all in Spanish. She'll get in some extra Spanish study.

That's exciting that school is almost over for you, Matthew and Jonathan. It's also exciting to hear about all the missionary work that you are doing in the ward. Yes that's what I love to hear about!!!

Oh I almost forgot. Transfers. Elder Tracy and I are both staying!!! I love Elder Tracy. And this area is great. Elder Godinez is going to Pasco to be Zone Leader with Elder Waldo. Elder Rodriguez is staying here and training the only Spanish missionary coming out this transfer.

Also just from how things worked out Elder Harris, who is in our district, is in a threesome with us right now. We had a lot of fun doing some spanglish tracting with him yesterday. We actually had a lot of success. We found three new investigators!!!

Love

Elder Ben Arnold