Hola Familia!

Wow Dad, I must say that you look incredibly comfortable in that last picture you sent me in the hammock. Those are a pretty big deal here actually. Almost every house has one and that´s how they put the little kids to sleep by rocking them in the hammock.

It sounds like you all had great weeks! I hope you´re not all too sad about the summer ending. I remember thinking that I was almost ready for school to start after three months off, but then about one week into the school year I was ready for another summer break haha. I´m glad that the weather has been pretty nice for you during these last couple of weeks. For us here the weather has been so perfect. Cloud coverage, but without any rains. We felt extremely blessed =)

Maybe I didn´t explain very well in my last letter. The city here is called Ventanas, and the branch is named Sibimbe. Sibimbe is a little suburb area in the city. Our sector consists of Sibimbe, La Gloria, Un Solo Toque, and El Centro. It´s not that big, but it´s not that small either which is nice. I also got your package last Tuesday, and I was very grateful. You guys are so nice to me! You´ll also have to tell Lisa and Scott a huge thank you for me as well.  That´s so nice of them to help out.

For us here we´ve had a pretty interesting week. We´re working with a man named Edwardo whose wife is the district primary president. His grandaughters are going on missions in about three months and he´s actively come to church for three years, but he´s not a member. It´s a very interesting story. Every Sunday he wakes up at 4 AM and goes to the Catholic service before our church at 8 AM. We´ve been trying to help him understand about the Book of Mormon, but to me that has been one of the most interesting things here. There are Catholic roots in almost everything in the country, and especially small towns.

Yesterday in our Elder´s quorum class for the first Sunday, we watched the Jeffery R Holland talk about feeding the Lord´s sheep, and it just gave me another reminder that the true love we can show for our spiritual brothers and sisters is through service and sharing the restored gospel with them. 

I´m glad that Isaac and Dad were able to enjoy their time together at Boy Scout camp, and that Jospeh was able to have fun in his soccer tournament! It also seems so weird to me that Jacob is going to be starting his junior year. What happend to my little freshman younger brother? =)

I love you all so much and I hope you have a great week!

Elder Hales =)

Reid in his hammock at scout camp