Hola amigazos,

Well, this week (on thursday) I finish a year on my mission!  Wow, I feel like I was in the MTC yesterday.  I can still taste the giant bowls of cereal and chicken cordeun bleu.  Haha but seriously, it was the fastest year of my life. 

Ok so today we went to the plaza in San Fernando and ran into the funniest thing I´ve seen my whole mission.  These guys were doing a free puppet show in the plaza and it was way good!  Here´s a picture of one of the acts they did of a boxing match.  They had this little stage with speakers playing music along to the play.  The boxing match started out with eye of the tiger and then had the sounds of a spanish anouncer and a crowd cheering.  IT WAS AWESOME!  I´m serious, everyone watching was rolling with laughter.  Anyway, after the entertainment we went to a pizza libre.  Its like Cici´s where you can eat as much as you want, but they have waitresses that bring it right to your table.  My favorite was the choclo (corn).  It sounds way weird, but you should try it.

Well, this week was pretty rad here in Virreyes.  We found a family of 7, all of them being over the age of 8.  Their last name is Acosta.  We had a way cool experience with them yesterday.  We stopped by, but only Armando (the dad) and Belen (the daughter) were home.  We taught them about the restoration of christ´s church and they understood very well.  Then we talked about how they would know if the book of mormon and what we had told them were true (read, meditate, ask God).  When they understood that we told them, "Ok, you´ve read from the Book of Mormon.  You´ve been meditating it during this lesson.  Now all you need to do is ask God.  Why don´t we do that right now."
So, the four of us kneeled down.  Armando said the prayer.  He had in his hand a little pamphlet with the steps of prayer, which said:
1. Our heavenly father...
2. We thank thee for...
3. We ask thee for...
4. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

So he started the prayer.  These were his words exactly:  "Yeah....uh...God...I would like to know if the book of mormon is true....we thank thee for....we ask thee for...In the name of Jesus christ, amen."

Haha so he kind of followed the steps, but it doesn´t matter.  It was an awesome prayer!  Then we stayed on our knees in silence.  After a while, we asked them how they felt (we knew we were feeling the spirit, it hit us pretty hard, well, as hard as the spirit can hit i guess).  Armando said he felt a shiver run down his body.  Belen said she felt a burning in her heart.  They had received their answer.  Then we challenged them to be baptized and they couldn´t say no.  Way cool experience.  It was just pure communication between heavenly father and his son and daughter.  Anyway, if you haven´t recieved an answer like that, you can do it.  I know it because I just experienced it!

Tomorrow Lidia gets baptized!  Finally!  Aaaah, she´s super prepared and its gonna be awesome.  We´ve tried to invite as many non members as we could.  I´m sure it will be awesome.  Pray for her, por favor.

Well, I hope you guys are doing great.  Its weird that its already summer up there again, but I´m not complaining.  Its gettin nippy down here, and I love it.  Write me!  Si no lo haces, no sos (eres) mi amigo!  Haha just playin.

With love,

Elder J. Hales
KTF

p.s. I have a joke for anyone who speaks spanish:  Por que la ropa de los lamanitas siempre tenía arrugas?  Por que ellos no tenían las planchas!  Jajaja!