Seventeen Mangoes

We heard about the earthquake in Japan. We hear about all of the major world-wide headlines. That's pretty amazing to hear that all of the members and missionaries were kept safe. As far as an earthquake hitting home? I guess I don't really have any reaction to that... There's no reason to fear anything. To me, it'll just be a big headache. I think the precautions you'd want to be most particular about is with keeping the business safe. Considering that if we lose that, well, we lose just about everything. Well, that's life I guess. We're always one loose stone away from death, so, I guess it's really nothing to worry about. I'll pray that it doesn't happen though. ;)

So, lucky for Elder Lancaster, he broke his fever Monday night, so we didn't have to go to the hospital. There was much rejoicing. He's pretty much back to normal, save for his stomach, which still feels off. He can keep stuff down now though, and that's great.


And wouldn't you know it, it's my turn to be sick this week. I felt it coming on through the week, but it really struck last night. Some kind of 'fresh cold.' I'm certainly enjoying the DayQuil I brought with me, and look forward to a wonderful night of NyQuil. I definitely don't have it as bad as my companion did, but I'm still not enjoying it.

Regardless, this week was pretty interesting. I got the letter from Mom with the $20 and stamps she hid in the Staples catalog. It was pretty funny, because it was the Assistants and the Roggias that brought mail. I opened it, and I couldn't find anything inside. I thought Mom had maybe forgot to put the stuff in it. Sister Roggia took it and said that maybe it just needed a mothers' touch, and indeed that was all that it needed! I gotta admit, those things were very well concealed! The other Elders got a kick out of that.

So, about two months back, I bought a side bag to use for proselyting (my backpack is HUMONGOUS, and rather cumbersome). It was a really sweet Puma bag that I bought on the street for 25,000 le. Unbeknownst to me, it was a ready-made Chinese piece-of-trash. Turns out that here in Salone, you want to go to the "junks" if you want to buy something nice. The Puma bag spoiled last week, so I had to go in search of a new one. The junks have all sorts of wonderful imported stuff from everywhere in the world. Mostly from the UK and US. Think street market Value Village. I scored a really sweet "2004 Republican National Convention" side bag at one of the junks for only 20,000 le. I was pretty excited.

Oh, and guess how many mangoes I ate this week? Seventeen. Remember that mango stand I told you about last week? I hit it up a couple times this week. Oh baby, I enjoyed. Those 17 mangoes cost me about 12,000 le ($3). It was marvelous. I'm sending a picture of me with my little babies (there's only 7 in that picture).

Other than that, not much to report this week. The stone is rolling forth. Til next week!

Love,

Elder Vaughan

Oh, and if you need any more ideas on stuff to send, you could always send a couple pairs of socks. Kids have "teefed" about four of mine, so... Thanks! :)