March 16 - Pie or Pi (or Pee)

Hola,

Well, I can legally drink now. I was in fact aware that it was the ultimate pi day (Except for March 14, 1592 at 6:53 and 59 seconds). Except that here, it wasn't even pi day. When they write the date here, they put the day first, probably because it makes sense that way. That means that my birthday is 14/3, and that pi day doesn't exist. And pi is pronounced like pee, so they wouldn't eat pie even if it did exist. Still, it was a pretty good birthday. We helped a family move about a ton of wet sand from the ground floor to the roof of their house so that they can build a third floor. Then they gave us pasole and "cake", which was actually cinnamon rolls bathed in carmel. Still, it was pretty good, and it's always nice to do service for others. I will actually always remember it as one of my favorite birthdays. And thank you for the package, even though it didn't make it to my birthday unopened. (Oops.) Cinnamon candies aren't my favorite, but I do like them, and everything else was great. After 11 months, I'm always glad to see new socks, and I was very happy to have contacts again, but I had to explain to everyone why I didn't have my glasses anymore.

Other than the fact that I'm officially old, today is the last day of the cycle/transfer/I still don't know how to speak English. So, I bet your wondering where I'm going. Well, the answer is... nowhere. That's right, I'm staying in my area. Now I bet your wondering where my companion is going. The answer is... nowhere. That's right, odd as it may seem, I'm staying with Elder Ortiz for another six weeks. (Take that English. That's the secret with a foreign language, if you don't know how to say something, you find a way around it.) I guess we still have something we need to do together. That's OK though, neither one of us wanted to leave, so we're both happy. From what we've heard, not too many people have changes this time around. Only one of the elders in my district, Elder Bramble, is leaving. Poor guy's going back to Valle de Chalco. Other than that, just one of the zone leaders is leaving.

Other than that, things are pretty good here in Ayotla. I'm sorry my last couple letters were a bit more on the down side, we were just having a bit of a rough spell. Still, things are looking up, and I'm ready to face what comes.

I'm sorry to hear about your loooooooooooong week. And to top it off, they didn't even invite you to Oregon with them. Still, it sounds like the weather is nice at least. Here in my area, the weather is pretty nice as well, but there is at least one area in the mission that has snow in it right now, and it's an area with sister missionaries. The world is a strange place sometimes, snow in Mexico and flowers in Utah.

OK, I think that's about it for me this week. I love you, and I'll write you next week.

Love,
Elder Samuel Long, el viejito