The hardest week of the mission!!! (and one of the best weeks)

To begin to explain why I have named this email "The hardest week of the mission!!! (and one of the best weeks)" I am going to need to explain a bit more about life here in Peru.

First of, remember the water cycle that we learn in like 4th grade, it goes something like this

1) It rains

2) The water is collected in rivers, lakes, etc

3) We use the water

4) The water evaporates

5) The clouds fill up with water

6) Repeat from step 1

Here in Peru in the desert where there is no rain the water cycle is a little different and as you may be surprised to learn it is very interconnected with the trash cycle. Let me explain.

1) It rains in the jungle and the rivers fill with water

2) Everyone gets sick of the trash because there is not a established trash system so they throw all the trash into the river

3) The rivers clog up with trash

4) The rivers flood, which destroy cities and kill many people

5) The people freak out and decide that something needs to be done

6) All running water is cut off to allow the rivers to be dried up and cleaned

7) Rivers and piping is all cleaned from the trash

8) Water runs normal

9) people throw trash in the river and we start all over

There are obviously several consequenses of this, to name a few are the terrible floods, thousands of dollars spent cleaning the rivers, ruined houses, and absolutely horribly contaminated water. Another fallout that I will now outline is the epidemics.

The trash water carries millions of mosquitos into the cities, which carry very harmful viruses. Here in chinch it has become a widespread epidemic, and I got caught up in it all. This last week I have been as sick as is possible. I have ran from having a raving fever to inner chills, from bone aches, and sharp pain through my whole body, not to mention that my whole body broke out with an alergic rash that iched like crazy. It was a very hard week, and I refused to let my companion know just how bad it was, but the good thing is that the virus has run its course and i am now getting back up to full strength and I really do feel good now.

Now for the second part of that title. This week was very good because yesterday we had 3 new amazing investigators come to church for the first time, they show a lot of promise and we are very excited to set baptism dates with them!

much love, Elder Brown

Also for easter I drew on an egg with a sharpie, my companion thought it was weird. I tried to explain it has to do with the easter bunny and he asked how are bunnies and eggs related, Its actually a pretty good question.