Letter from Aug. 5, 2009

Greetings from the bomb shelter. So, two interesting stories this week! On friday, we had a TRC appointment, where they give us scenarios that we'll face in the field and we have to teach the lesson based on the investigator and such. Elder Washburn and I were teaching the Carriers, who are both like 100 years old and they fall asleep all the time. Well, we're talking about Jesus Christ's atonement, and I decide to say Jesus Christ suffered for my sins. Well, that is a preterite tense conjugation, and I've been having trouble with that since we got here. But I totally figured how to say it and I was super duper stoked, so I say "Jesucristo sufrio para mis...pescados?" and I turn to Elder Washburn and say "pescados?" and he says yeah thats totally it, so being all confident, I say it again, "Jesucristo Sufrio para mis pescados!" and I'm all happy with myself. Well, the teacher who was watching us embarassingly whispers from behind me "peCADos". I sit there and think about it for a little bit, and it hits me! I said "Jesus Christ suffered for my fishes!" Yeah, I ACTUALLY said that! Can you say embarrassing? Then yesterday, Elder Washburn and I got a chat in the RC from some guy named Trevor. He wants to know about priesthood and the spirit. He's from the Church of the Nazarene and he says he can heal people in Jesus's name and that he holds the priesthood. Well Elder Washburn and I just keep disproving everything that he said out of the bible, and we were using the Bible to do it, so instead of answering us, he just keeps moving on. He then gets to the point where he says John the Revelator passed his priesthood on and that LDS made up that lie. When I tell him that I've received an answer to my questions through prayer, he says "Skyler, don't be a robot for LDS! Read the bible without your Book of Mormon and see the truth for yourself!" We finally get to the point where we can ask him to read a scripture out of the Book of Mormon, and when we push him the link to Alma 40:11, 12 and 13 in response to "Did Hitler go to heaven?" he just logged off. It was sad. I wonder if in the next life I'll see him and he'll say "Hey, you're the one I talked to that day! I was so close!"? Anyway, this week has been ridiculous! I didn't get released as District Leader unfortunately, I thought they revolved them every 3 weeks, but apparently not. Oh, so I didnt' get to chat with Clairr again. Dad, what we do is set up a return chat appointment through email which she gave, and i told her that I would be on on Sunday at whatever time, but she never got on and asked to be transferred to me. Oh well. So yeah, this week has been really hard with grammar. We did passive voices which are really hard to understand. Passive voice with Se is kicking my butt!! Luckily we have an amazing tutor here, so he's been a huge help! Unfortunately, Hno. Ortiz is leaving this week for the rest of our stay here, and he's a better teacher than Hno. Del Toro, but oh well! SO funny coincidence story! Last Wednesday night, Hno. Ortiz took us around to talk to the advanced students which was really intimidating! We met some guy who spoke English, Spanish and Japanese before his mission, and now he's learning Hmong! He said this sentence that was just different tones of "gu gu gu gu gu gu gu gu" and it meant I threw the ball, it hit the wall, it came back to me. How crazy is that? Well we went into the native speakers classrooms, and Elder Washburn and I got assigned to talk to Hna. Salazar from Houston Texas. When I told her that I was from Reno, NV, she says "Do you know the Wilsons?" And I'm thinkin, "I know like, 4 Wilson families!" So she says "Cielle Wilson?" and I get all excited and say "yeah, her mom was my seminary teacher last year!!!" Turns out that Cielle is Hna. Salazar's sister-in-law! How crazy is that? So I blessed the Sacrament in church on Sunday, in Spanish, which was interesting. Elder Washburn said the blessing on the bread, but accidentally started reading the blessing on the water! That was embarrassing! So then I got up and bore my testimony and it was great! We heard the 1st lesson in English the other day, and it was SO weird to hear it in English! Its so natural to speak and think in spanish now its crazy! We're all trying to speak in spanish more, but we still don't know how to say that much, so its a lot harder than we thought! But we only have 21 days left exactly! How crazy is that? I've been in here 42 days already!!! Its ridiculous! Mallory, thanks for the pictures! I was so happy when I got them! I showed everyone and was like "mis sobrinas son mas bonita que sus sobrinas" to everyone, which means my nieces are cuter than your nieces! And I'm super glad you've started reading the scriptures again! I started the BoM over on the 21st and I only have like, 50 pages left! sorry to hear about your ring incident! That kinda sucks! Juliann, sorry to hear things are still goin rough. I know you weren't undermining what I'm doing. But Sis. Krueger, my branch president's wife, said "how can we expect blessings like abraham if we don't sacrifice like abraham?" Just remember that. Once you make it through this, your blessing will be so many you won't know how to count them! Just keep on keepin on, things will look up eventually! Dad, I hope you have a blast on your hike! Be safe and don't get eaten by any bears.Mom, sorry they've been working you like crazy. Hopefully you'll get a break soon! So if anyone sees any awesome Paisley ties in purple, dark red or any other awesome colors, or some sweet small floral prints in the same colors I would love some more ties! I've made 3 sweet trades so far, but everyone wants to trade me for dads peruvian tie, my scottish wool tie or my mormal tie! I'm not gettin rid of any of those! Ok, well I gotta go get my laundry! Love you all and miss you. Cant wait to hear from you! Flight plans next week hopefully! -Skyler