A long weekend...

Well, with Jessica setting such a good example of updating her blog regularly, I've decided to do the same and try to keep up. This past Friday we had a little going away party for one of Maria's friends at church. It was a lot of fun. Everyone brought a some food and we ate, danced and all the women played a "secret friend" game which is a lot like what I know as "white elephant." Here are a few pics from friday night and a couple videos. The first video is Maria dancing with her brother, Maria describing her "secret friend" and her brother dancing with one of Maria's older friends. (what you see in the video is the ONLY dancing Maria did that night:)

(Us)

(Here are a few of Maria's friends from church.)


(Maria dancing with her brother, Augusto.)

After the party, Maria spent a few hours putting together some goodie bags filled with sweets and cookies and waking up two hours later to make all the sandwiches. We are the young single adult advisors in the ward and so we organized a trip to a local orphanage. We spent a couple hours at the orphanage with the girls talking about the real meaning of christmas and handing out sandwiches and drinks. Here are a couple pics:

(Some of the girls at the orphanage.)

(Maria and Carolina with some of the girls.)

(I jumped in real quick on the far left, Maria is third from the right, back row.)

After the orphanage visit, we went to a moderately poor village called Balzar. Maria has family there on her mothers side. Her nephew Alex and his two brothers Rolando and Gabriel live there as well. Alex and Rolando were baptized Saturday night in the Catholic Church.

Here are a few pictures and a video:

(Maria standing at the door of the church.)

(Rolando, Maria, Ezequiel, Alex and myself.)

(Here I am awkwardly holding Gabriel)


(Me, Maria and Alex)

(Maria playing with Gabriel.)

(Maria with Rolando, Gabriel, and Alex)



(Here is a video of us waiting for the priest. When he showed up two hours late he candidly asked if any of us were upset...I raised my hand. Then he charged us ten dollars per baptism.)

...ALL VIDEOS COMING REAL SOON!