Adam's January 5th and January 12th emails

January 5th

to me, Glenn

Happy New Year, Everyone! Man, can you believe it's already 2015? I can't believe it's already been 4 months since I left! It's super crazy! New Years made quite the week down here in Iquitos!

To my surprise, New Years was about 5 times as popular as Christmas! I asked one of the people we taught why and he said that Christmas was a child's holiday, whereas New Years was for everyone. There were balloons tied up everywhere, tons of barbeques, and about a million kids playing with fireworks. (I'm also surprised with how many things people do down here that you'd be caught dead doing up in America).

One of my favorite traditions they have here for New Years is that some of the people make little mannequins of themselves. It's really kinda cute. They take some old clothes, fill 'em with paper, draw an adorable face on a balloon and make that the head. Then they put them outside on a chair for everyone to see...

...Then they burn 'em.

I'm not quite sure what it's supposed to signify, but I'm pretty sure it's not what I think (which is that they like watching themselves go down in flames). I later learned that they don't only stuff the mannequins with paper, but also with fireworks, so instead of watching their doppelgangers burn to ash, they can watch 'em explode too!

Yeah, it was probably one of the most interesting New Years Eve things I've seen. For New Years, I got sick! Hooray! (It's all better now, though). It was the first time I actually had to go to a clinic, because they thought I might have caught a little Amazonian disease called dengue. Didn't. Whew. Just caught a little bug going around, but it's all fine now! When I was at the clinic, however, they took my weight and I've realized just how much weight I've lost here. 25 pounds! W00t! Finding out my weight gave me my New Years resolution for weight loss. I'm gonna stay here on the mission, keep going to the gym, and keep eating the food. Yup. I did the math, and by the time I come home, I'll weigh about as much as a balloon. I might not even need a plane right home! I can just float! 

Thinking about my weight got me hungry though. Hungry for lemons. However, since there are few lemons here, I bought myself a few limes (which, in the Amazon, are just as big as lemons in Utah). It felt good to eat them the Dixon way, too. The good ol' way my sisters taught me. Like a man.

Anyways, that was pretty much my week. How is everyone over there? I fasted for Katie and I'll keep praying for her. Next week, I might get a transfer. Not sure yet, but it's possible. 

Anyways, I gotta fly now! I'll talk to you next week!

Love,

Elder Dixon

 

January 12th

 

Dear Family,

There's not much that's happened this week, but I did get Tom's package! Thank you so much for that! Everyone down here loves the tie! They all wanted to trade with me. 

This week, we changed apartments, and now we live in a bigger space (hooray!) with two showers! It's nice to be showering at the same time and saving tons of time. The owners of the apartment are super nice too, and sometimes bring us some dessert while we're planning. I'm not sure how long I'll be in that apartment, though, since we have changes this week. I'll find out later on today if I'm transferring or not.

From Thursday to Monday, we got to serve in a little missionary trio with an elder that's finishing his mission this week, whose name is Elder Perez. His last companion just happened to be the elder who was my companion in the MTC, Elder Arns! The elders I was with in the MTC have been emailing each other every week, and Elder Arns has said that he's gained 10 pounds since he came here.

I thought that was a bit strange, seeing as how I've lost 25 pounds in the same mission. He said the reason was because of the hot chocolate around Christmas time, but even then, 10 pounds from just hot chocolate was strange, so I asked Elder Perez.

Turns out, in the area they served in, there was a KFC, and every P-day, they would get themselves a huge bucket of chicken. Yep, that'll probably do it. That surprised me as well, because that area isn't in Iquitos at all. Iquitos doesn't really have any chain restaurants, yet it's nearly 6 times bigger than the one with KFC.

But that's pretty much all that happened this week, besides multiple trips to the clinic, because they had to do more tests on me. I don't have dengue or malaria, but I do have an intestinal infection and possibly a parasite. I feel fine, though. I think whatever I had is completely gone now.

How is everyone over there? I'm praying for Katie, I know that through Heavenly Father, all things are possible. Dad said that the people who are doing the bone marrow transplant might contact me. If that's the case, what will happen? 

I love you all and I pray for you all! I couldn't ask for a better family!

Love,

Elder Dixon