And speaking of funny animal stories....

So we hiked up Camelback Mountain this morning. I can't wait for you to see the pictures. It is so different than the mountains in NH. No trees. Tons of cacti. And all rocks. And you can see a 360 view of the entire valley from the top. You should look at it in Google or something. Gorgeous! I took a ton of photos on our hike today. And a bunch of stereo ones. I hope they work. And I did remember to bring my camera to the bautismo that we had on Sat. So I do have pictures of that.

I got Mom's 2 letters. That sounds hilarious! You have to fill me in on the rest of the story about the rooster. And I love the way you wrote. It reminds me of me and makes me feel like I'm there. Probably because it is a play-by-play letter. So fun.
I also got Min's [Whitney's] card.

[Here is a shortened version of the rooster story from Mom's letter...
An unknown rooster showed up in front of our house one day and wouldn't leave. The family had a very late night celebrating Grant's birthday and that rooster was still there the next morning, doing what roosters do... crowing. Argh! Thankfully we had a rooster loving friend who came the second evening and simply picked him up and took him away. Peace. And quiet.]

And speaking of funny animal stories.... So we were standing outside talking to a man and his little white Scottie-dog was running around. He was checking us out (the dog, don't worry Mom :) ). I think he decided that he really liked me because he came up behind me and lifted his leg! Luckily I was prompted to look down just at that moment and was able to jump away with a screech. Sooooooo funny!!!! We laughed so hard. The man might have been embarrassed, but we thought it was just hilarious.

So I have another story. First of all, we had rain for about three days straight. Everything was flooded. One of the days we were out all night and towards the end of the night we gave in to the temptation to jump in the puddles/lakes. :) My shoes are still drying out. :} And since it has been raining, it has been cold. I have actually been using the electric blanket. It is lovely!

Tengo un chiste para ustedes! Pero es en Ingles, entonces....
Hna Ghan told us this one.
There was a man and a woman who were very much in love. Her name was Lorane. One day he met another woman and fell head over heels for her. He knew that he would have to break up with Lorane. So they were walking in a park. It started raining. They were by a river and the bank was slippery. All of a sudden Lorane fell in and died! And the man started singing, "I can see Clara now Lorane is gone..."
:DI hope you get it. The people here love this joke because someone dies. They only get it if they speak/understand a little English. We are always singing "I can see clearly now". We have lots of laughs. :D

[Did you walk to the temple to get the grapefruit and then walked back to the apartment for breakfast?]
We walk/run to the temple almost every day. We run around the front lawn of the VC [visitors center] casi todos los dias. Yeah, and too bad I can't eat citrus [on this diet]! :P And did I not explain about the white trees? They paint the trunks white to prevent the sun from burning them up and killing them. Tons of the trees are painted.

Oh, and I already have permission to drive so mis Hnas make me drive every few days. You can brag about that to the elders. :P :D
love you, all of you!
talk to you next week!
Ella:)