Elder Treadways Birthday

Hey Everyone,
This week was a lot of fun. Starting with mission conference in Mendoza on Tuesday where we listened to President speak and then had a mission Christmas party after, including Santa Clause! Then on Wednesday which we know is the 2nd most important holiday after Christmas (my B-day, lol) it was really sweet, the family that we baptized last transfer really like me and so they threw me a birthday party. They invited a bunch of their other family from the other area and we all had soda, some weird dry Argentine pastry things at the start. Then they took us outside and lit off fireworks for 20 minutes. Then sang Happy Birthday first in English! The only words they said were ¨Happy Birthday- happy birtday- Happy biiirrrrrthdaaaay Elder Shreedway, happy birthday for you. (that’s about the best people here can pronounce my name) then they sang again in Spanish, it was So Awesome! Then they had this big cake that they made me bite into, then Richardo the dad of the family came up behind and pushed my face into it, it was hilarious. For gifts they gave me a new bar of soap and spray deodorant. I was just joking and asked if they thought I always smelt bad or something, but the blank looks on their faces when they obviously didn’t understand the humor told me they legitimately thought of it as something sincere. I was extremely grateful to all of them and for everything. (I have pictures of this but I can’t send them from this computer store. I’ll send them next week.) Then my birthday was finished off when we got home that night Elder Porras (from Perú) who lives on our pench came up to me and said ¨happy birthday man¨ then smashed an egg over my head, also something very traditional.
I was hardly homesick for Christmas at all because they don’t celebrate Christmas anything close to how we do in the states. Its not very focused on family, and of course the Catholics celebrate the life of the Virgin Mary more than the Birth of Christ, very strange. At midnight after Christmas Eve they start shooting off Fire Works which lasted until 5 in the morning. The next day it was a complete ghost town. Not a single person was in the street except for a couple staggering drunk people. So we just spent the day in our apartments. Eventually later towards the evening people starting coming out and some stores opened up. Me and my Peruvian friend shared a big bottle of Coke as we grilled a Chicken on our little 3X15 back patio. It was all around a very relaxed day that we didn’t have to feel bad for not doing much because there wasn’t anything we could do. My comp and I had a baptism yesterday, speaking of which. I found out at our Christmas conference that I made it onto the top baptizer list of the mission for the last 3 months. So I thought that kind of cool, I’m determined to keep working hard to see if I can do it again for the next 3 months. Thank you to all my extended family for all your letters that came in my Christmas package. It was really fun to read a little bit from my little cousins. I’ll be doing my best to get letter off to all of you through this next month. And a special big thanks to my immediate family for the bag of Taco Bell sauces, dreams really do come true. I let my Peruvian friend try some and he loved it so much that he says he’s going to go to America just to try Taco Bell. I love you, Happy Holidays, talk to you next week.

Con Amor, Elder Treadway