Hey hey hey
So sorry I forgot to tell you last week, but PDay got moved to tuesday this week for some reason, so I wasn't expecting a letter from you mom, so it's ok. I'll just have one BIG long one to read next week! haha
Dad-Yeah, the bear was really crazy! It was freaking hilarious though! I'll put the memory card in the mail and you can see all my pictures, all the way back to like, Sept. 17th I think. And yeah, when we go to Henrico or some other apartment, we just end up sleeping on the floor or couch. I've been on floor both times. Last time (last Tuesday) I was on floor, elder washburn and elder Nelson as well and then Elder Lusk was on the couch and elder Pasker (his greenie) was on the recliner. I know, how crazy is it that missionaries have a recliner in their apartment!? And it's only Elder Wheatley and Elder Hernandez in that apartment! Thats ridiculous! But yeah, thats how it works up here in VA. And Brother Bear in spanish was AWESOME!!!! I think I might have a new favorite disney movie (besides Nightmare Before Christmas of course!) And also, Phil Collins did the music for that movie, and he redid his songs in spanish for the spanish version! It was sick! I think you'd really like it dad!
Mom- Sorry for the lack of info about P-Day being moved! It's ok though, I just get to type a longer email this week! maybe haha! So have you gone out with the missionaries yet? Oh man that's gonna be so sweet! SO how's work going, gearing up for the holidays! It's going to be like, your 2nd year straight working there right? That's insane! I've never had a job for longer than 8 months! hahaha
Mallory- Thank you SO much for the scarf and cookies! I opened the package last night and immediately put on the scarf and wore it around all last night. It was like, 72 degrees in the apartment, but I didn't care. That thing is SWEET! all the other elders in the apartment are so jealous of it cause they all have little wussy not awesome scarves! And the cookies are AMAZING! oh my gosh they're SO good! I had to hide them cause I don't want the others to know how good they are! But yeah, thank you sooo much!
But this week has definitely been interesting. We're supposed to be teaching a minimum of 20 lessons a week, which really shouldn't be too hard, but it's actually really tough to get that consistently. We had 2 lessons last week by P-Day, which was really bad. But by Sunday night we were up to 18, which isn't too bad. But we've been trying to be a lot more effective and teach more lessons consistently, but yesterday was not a good day for that, but I think I changed a kid's life yesterday! haha We helped Lulu move some furniture and I found 2 rupees from India in there and she told me to keep it, so I put it in my pocket. We end up going to Kroger(a grocery store here) and we run into Sis. Sanchez, so we help her carry her groceries out to the car cause she's prego. So we're talking to her and her kid, and she asks him if he wants to go on a mission someday and he says "I'm going to India to be a missionary!" SO I was like, "Oh, hey, I can help with that dream!" and I pulled out the Rupees and gave it to him. So our ongoing joke since yesterday is that he's going to get his call to India when he's reporting out he'll tell the story about the day the missionaries gave him Indian money! But then I started to get mad. We went over to maricela's house and I only wanted to spend like, 20-30 minutes there, but Elder Nelson and Washburn decided to spend 2 HOURS there!!! I was so mad! And then when we FINALLY left we went over to Rosi and Elder Washburn makes a joke and says "Elder Nelson only has 340 days until he's getting married!" (cause he leaves in 340 days!) and he got super ofendido and upset and it was just super awkward and then Elder Nelson got mad at me for saying a prayer to share a message and then end with a prayer, so it was just super crazy and contentious last night and ridiculous. And then we had to clean like CRAZY today because last week the crisis decided to rearrange the whole house so they moved their beds into their study room, our beds into where theirs used to be and their study room into the living room where we were sleeping. So our room is practically one giant gay bed(i'm not even kidding, there's about 2 inches between each bed) and it was absolutely filthy and cluttered and just ridiculous. So we had to clean forever this morning! But yeah, hopefully that's behind us and we can start getting to teaching lessons again, because we met our daily lesson goal on Thursday, the first time that had ever happened on my mission, and I was SUPER STOKED!
So funny story, we were at Maricela's last Friday adn I needed the other elders to get up off the couch really fast, so I yelled "Levantaos" which means "Get up" but it's in a conjugation that they really only use in the bible and in spain, and I didn't even think about what I said, it just came out like that, and Maricela just looked at me and the other elders jumped up and looked all strange and surprised and then we all just started laughing and it was really hilarious. Then on Saturday, America got baptized. She's the daughter of Juan and Lulu. And the baptism was amazing! All done in spanish and I understood everything and it was sweet! But Elder Nelson was in the bathroom before, the one with the lever to fill up the font. Elder Washburn and I are standing outside and we end up reading something and not noticing the mujer walking around the building. Well, we didn't notice her walk into the bathroom behind us until she shreaks (kind of) and comes out and says to us "I thought there were only two of you. Is he going to be awhile?" and it was super awkward and hilarious! But Juan didn't do the baptism. I don't know what it is with Hispanics, but they think that Missionaries and Bishops have special powers. The bishop did the baptism, but luckily Juan confirmed her, and the Spirit was just like BAM! in the room! It was so crazy. And then the next day, Roselyn finally got blessed, but once again, Juan had the Bishop do it. But it was funny, we asked Juan last Monday who was going to do the blessing, and he just sat there for a little bit, then said "the bishop. And all the old people." We asked why and he says "Because old people know a lot of stuff." Well, we couldn't argue with him about his baby's blessing, so we just said Ok and that was that! but yeah, it was an interesting weekend. I translated all of Elder's Quorum again, and the guy that taught is CRAZY smart and has a vocabulary the size of Texas and maybe Louisiana. He's a REALLY good teacher, but its' impossible to translate for him! But it was super good parctice. The primary program was also that day and Hermano Jones translated and a bunch of times when the kids would just yell something into the Microphone, he would just pause and say "no sE" or "ni idea" and all the hispanics are laughing out loud and the white people don't get it. It made me love being a spanish speaking missionary even more. But on Saturday, I talked with Hno. Jones about improving my spanish (because he talks sooooooo good in spanish) and he told me about this little exercise where you put a pen in your mouth sideways and hold your tongue underneath it and talk in spanish. It sounds stupid and idiotic, but it strengthens your tongue in the way you use it for spanish, so I tried it and my tongue is still sore! It was crazy! SO I think I'm going to keep doing that. And then he also told me about a game he and his companion played in Ecuador where any time one of them spoke english, they had to buy the other a candy or something. Now, things are a little more expensive here in VA than in Ecuador, so we upped it to every 5 times. I was the first loser. But we've barely spoken any english at all over the past 3 days. It's crazy. I feel like it's already helped sooo much. I'm trying to convince Elder Nelson to only talk to us in spanish even during planning, but he didn't like that idea. Oh well.
Anyway, I think that's about all for this week. Love you all and miss you. Hope you have a great day. Can't wait to hear from you next week. Adios
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Nov 25, 2009
Hey there.
Wow what a week. Virginia Beach is awesome! I spent all of Wednesday packing and then Elder Washburn and I went to say goodbye to Pancho and Juan and Lulu. Thursday, we were supposed to be in Richmond by 9:40 for the transfer meeting, but that didn't happen. The guy who was going to give us a ride caled us at 9:00 and said he couldn't make it, so we threw everything in the van and hauled down to richmond in the remnant of a hurricane :) it was pretty sweet! But we got down there and I talked with Elder Gleave and Bishop and Elder Bishop had been telling all of the members here about me and how they could expect great things out of me, so I have to live up to the reputation he started for me now! haha But the drive down here from Richmond was like, 3 hours, but we got here and I met Elder Darbro and we went back to the apartment which is right down the streeet from the Library. My new address is 4633 Soho Court. Virginia Beach, VA 23455. It's a really nice apartment, and only me and Elder Darbro are living in it, so it's nice to be able to take a 10 minute shower if I want! So our area here is huge! I mean biggest area in the entire mission! We cover 4 cities here- Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Portsmouth, and then we also have suffolk in our area and we even have part of North Carolina in here. It's insane. But we only end up going to the 4 cities. We've been spending a lot of time in Norfolk to find investigators, because we need a lot of new investigators. But norfolk is GHETTO! I mean straight up morenosville! It's SO GHETTO! But its sweet! We were walking through this apartment complex yesterday and we asked this black guy if he knew if any of his neighbors were hispanic and he ignored us for a little bit, but we asked again and he just said "You better get out of here before something bad happens to you." It was sweet. But yeah, we spend a lot of time in Norfolk. There are hispanics dispersed throughout the entire area, so we use a TON of miles everyday, but we haven't gotten any new investigators since I've been here. But that'll change fast. This area is about to explode! I know it!
So we were involved in an accident on Friday on the freeway. The cars in front of us slammed on their brakes so we had to brake abruptly, and we come to a stop and we just hear SCREEEEAACHHHHCH behind us and I say 'OH FREAK!" and elder Darbro just says "HOLD ON!" and the mujer behind us slams into us. We were alright, but there was a ton of paperwork to fill out because it's a church vehicle, so that sucked. But yeah, now I've been involved in knocking out a bear with a car and getting rear ended on my mission! I told you this mission was going to be sweet!
Dad, you're going to love this. On Thursday when I got here, the first thing Elder Darbro asks me is "How many talks have you given in spanish before?" So I had to prepare a 15 minute talk in 2 days to give on Sunday in Sacrament. And I got it done. It was so nerve wracking. I was ready to vomit up on the stand, but I got it done and everyone was amazed that I only have 5 months out on the mission. The members here are really nice and yes, they feed us plenty. The branch president's wife asked us on Sunday if we had an appointment for thanksgiving and Elder Darbro told her no, so she just goes "Now you do. Be at our house at 7." So yeah, we're having a mexican thanksgiving.
We get hooked up so much in this area. The branch president owns a hair cut place, so they cut our hair every 3 weeks. This less active lady works at these dry cleaners across the street, so she dry cleans our suits and even repairs them for free. THe members feed us a ton. Every Sunday afternoon, monday afternoon and evening, Thursday lunch and Saturday dinnner we have fixed appointments with members, and then investigators give us stuff all the time. SO yeah, we get taken care of. It's awesome.
I do need a huge favor though. We're navigating the biggest area in the mission with a map right now, because the elder before me took his GPS with him. So we're very limited in where we can go and we've gotten lost a ton this last week. So if you could get the GPS out to me ASAP that would be a life saver. Like, you don't even know! SO yeah, as soon as you could do that, the better. Thanks.
So, what's new with the family this week? Any good news, bad news? On the flipside, Elder Darbro and I have already been planning our seperate trips to spain to find wives after the mission, so that's nice. I actually have it all figured out already, but you'll have to wait 19 months to hear about it. Maybe actually only like 16 or something, but still. SO yeah, that was definitely an effective use of our 45 minutes of freetime after nightly planning. Anyway.
Mom- Could you tell the feldmans I'm really sorry I haven't written them back? I got their letter a long time ago but I accidentally threw it out, so I don't have their address. So I would really appreciate that. How's the calling going still? Have you gone out with the sisters? I can't wait til you do, you're going to LOVE IT! The sisters have some magical power that the Elders don't or something, I don't know. People just seem to do what sister missionaries tell them to do! It's crazy! Elder Ghelfy, the spanish elder here before me, is a convert. He was telling us his conversion story and he said "The sister missionary just pulled out a calendar and told me I was being baptized on this date. She didn't even give me a choice. And I did it. I don't know why." So yeah, I hve a feeling the sisters in Reno are going to be getting some people wet, if you know what I mean!
Ok, well I think that's about all. I don't really know what else to write about this week.
Oh, actually, I DO! Dad, there's this Hermana here named Sis. Lagos here from Chile and she's from Santiago, and she left Santiago in 1978 or 79 I think. I just thought that was pretty cool. She's wayyyyyyy old and talks a TON but she's really sweet. And I had some lady from Peru tell me that I talked like a German because my pronunciation is really strong I guess. I didn't know what to make of that, but whatever. Then this Catracha (Hondurian) told me that Campbell is a name (apellido) in Nicaragua and Honduras. I thought that was weird. SO hey, we might have some central american family members! How sweet would that be? hhahaha yeah right
But now I've met people from Puerto Rico, Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, Chile, Brazil, Peru and Argentina. It's like I'm touring the world in Virginia, right? Just thought that was pretty sweet. But yeah, that's all now.
SO if you could please remember the GPS, that would be fantastic. Love you all. Have a great week. Talk to you in 30 days! Can you believe Christmas is only 30 days away? Thats crazy!
Skyler
PS- I'm going back to Top Gun on teh 19th of December. Lucky me! NOT! haha
Wow what a week. Virginia Beach is awesome! I spent all of Wednesday packing and then Elder Washburn and I went to say goodbye to Pancho and Juan and Lulu. Thursday, we were supposed to be in Richmond by 9:40 for the transfer meeting, but that didn't happen. The guy who was going to give us a ride caled us at 9:00 and said he couldn't make it, so we threw everything in the van and hauled down to richmond in the remnant of a hurricane :) it was pretty sweet! But we got down there and I talked with Elder Gleave and Bishop and Elder Bishop had been telling all of the members here about me and how they could expect great things out of me, so I have to live up to the reputation he started for me now! haha But the drive down here from Richmond was like, 3 hours, but we got here and I met Elder Darbro and we went back to the apartment which is right down the streeet from the Library. My new address is 4633 Soho Court. Virginia Beach, VA 23455. It's a really nice apartment, and only me and Elder Darbro are living in it, so it's nice to be able to take a 10 minute shower if I want! So our area here is huge! I mean biggest area in the entire mission! We cover 4 cities here- Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Portsmouth, and then we also have suffolk in our area and we even have part of North Carolina in here. It's insane. But we only end up going to the 4 cities. We've been spending a lot of time in Norfolk to find investigators, because we need a lot of new investigators. But norfolk is GHETTO! I mean straight up morenosville! It's SO GHETTO! But its sweet! We were walking through this apartment complex yesterday and we asked this black guy if he knew if any of his neighbors were hispanic and he ignored us for a little bit, but we asked again and he just said "You better get out of here before something bad happens to you." It was sweet. But yeah, we spend a lot of time in Norfolk. There are hispanics dispersed throughout the entire area, so we use a TON of miles everyday, but we haven't gotten any new investigators since I've been here. But that'll change fast. This area is about to explode! I know it!
So we were involved in an accident on Friday on the freeway. The cars in front of us slammed on their brakes so we had to brake abruptly, and we come to a stop and we just hear SCREEEEAACHHHHCH behind us and I say 'OH FREAK!" and elder Darbro just says "HOLD ON!" and the mujer behind us slams into us. We were alright, but there was a ton of paperwork to fill out because it's a church vehicle, so that sucked. But yeah, now I've been involved in knocking out a bear with a car and getting rear ended on my mission! I told you this mission was going to be sweet!
Dad, you're going to love this. On Thursday when I got here, the first thing Elder Darbro asks me is "How many talks have you given in spanish before?" So I had to prepare a 15 minute talk in 2 days to give on Sunday in Sacrament. And I got it done. It was so nerve wracking. I was ready to vomit up on the stand, but I got it done and everyone was amazed that I only have 5 months out on the mission. The members here are really nice and yes, they feed us plenty. The branch president's wife asked us on Sunday if we had an appointment for thanksgiving and Elder Darbro told her no, so she just goes "Now you do. Be at our house at 7." So yeah, we're having a mexican thanksgiving.
We get hooked up so much in this area. The branch president owns a hair cut place, so they cut our hair every 3 weeks. This less active lady works at these dry cleaners across the street, so she dry cleans our suits and even repairs them for free. THe members feed us a ton. Every Sunday afternoon, monday afternoon and evening, Thursday lunch and Saturday dinnner we have fixed appointments with members, and then investigators give us stuff all the time. SO yeah, we get taken care of. It's awesome.
I do need a huge favor though. We're navigating the biggest area in the mission with a map right now, because the elder before me took his GPS with him. So we're very limited in where we can go and we've gotten lost a ton this last week. So if you could get the GPS out to me ASAP that would be a life saver. Like, you don't even know! SO yeah, as soon as you could do that, the better. Thanks.
So, what's new with the family this week? Any good news, bad news? On the flipside, Elder Darbro and I have already been planning our seperate trips to spain to find wives after the mission, so that's nice. I actually have it all figured out already, but you'll have to wait 19 months to hear about it. Maybe actually only like 16 or something, but still. SO yeah, that was definitely an effective use of our 45 minutes of freetime after nightly planning. Anyway.
Mom- Could you tell the feldmans I'm really sorry I haven't written them back? I got their letter a long time ago but I accidentally threw it out, so I don't have their address. So I would really appreciate that. How's the calling going still? Have you gone out with the sisters? I can't wait til you do, you're going to LOVE IT! The sisters have some magical power that the Elders don't or something, I don't know. People just seem to do what sister missionaries tell them to do! It's crazy! Elder Ghelfy, the spanish elder here before me, is a convert. He was telling us his conversion story and he said "The sister missionary just pulled out a calendar and told me I was being baptized on this date. She didn't even give me a choice. And I did it. I don't know why." So yeah, I hve a feeling the sisters in Reno are going to be getting some people wet, if you know what I mean!
Ok, well I think that's about all. I don't really know what else to write about this week.
Oh, actually, I DO! Dad, there's this Hermana here named Sis. Lagos here from Chile and she's from Santiago, and she left Santiago in 1978 or 79 I think. I just thought that was pretty cool. She's wayyyyyyy old and talks a TON but she's really sweet. And I had some lady from Peru tell me that I talked like a German because my pronunciation is really strong I guess. I didn't know what to make of that, but whatever. Then this Catracha (Hondurian) told me that Campbell is a name (apellido) in Nicaragua and Honduras. I thought that was weird. SO hey, we might have some central american family members! How sweet would that be? hhahaha yeah right
But now I've met people from Puerto Rico, Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, Chile, Brazil, Peru and Argentina. It's like I'm touring the world in Virginia, right? Just thought that was pretty sweet. But yeah, that's all now.
SO if you could please remember the GPS, that would be fantastic. Love you all. Have a great week. Talk to you in 30 days! Can you believe Christmas is only 30 days away? Thats crazy!
Skyler
PS- I'm going back to Top Gun on teh 19th of December. Lucky me! NOT! haha
Hey hey hey
So sorry I forgot to tell you last week, but PDay got moved to tuesday this week for some reason, so I wasn't expecting a letter from you mom, so it's ok. I'll just have one BIG long one to read next week! haha
Dad-Yeah, the bear was really crazy! It was freaking hilarious though! I'll put the memory card in the mail and you can see all my pictures, all the way back to like, Sept. 17th I think. And yeah, when we go to Henrico or some other apartment, we just end up sleeping on the floor or couch. I've been on floor both times. Last time (last Tuesday) I was on floor, elder washburn and elder Nelson as well and then Elder Lusk was on the couch and elder Pasker (his greenie) was on the recliner. I know, how crazy is it that missionaries have a recliner in their apartment!? And it's only Elder Wheatley and Elder Hernandez in that apartment! Thats ridiculous! But yeah, thats how it works up here in VA. And Brother Bear in spanish was AWESOME!!!! I think I might have a new favorite disney movie (besides Nightmare Before Christmas of course!) And also, Phil Collins did the music for that movie, and he redid his songs in spanish for the spanish version! It was sick! I think you'd really like it dad!
Mom- Sorry for the lack of info about P-Day being moved! It's ok though, I just get to type a longer email this week! maybe haha! So have you gone out with the missionaries yet? Oh man that's gonna be so sweet! SO how's work going, gearing up for the holidays! It's going to be like, your 2nd year straight working there right? That's insane! I've never had a job for longer than 8 months! hahaha
Mallory- Thank you SO much for the scarf and cookies! I opened the package last night and immediately put on the scarf and wore it around all last night. It was like, 72 degrees in the apartment, but I didn't care. That thing is SWEET! all the other elders in the apartment are so jealous of it cause they all have little wussy not awesome scarves! And the cookies are AMAZING! oh my gosh they're SO good! I had to hide them cause I don't want the others to know how good they are! But yeah, thank you sooo much!
But this week has definitely been interesting. We're supposed to be teaching a minimum of 20 lessons a week, which really shouldn't be too hard, but it's actually really tough to get that consistently. We had 2 lessons last week by P-Day, which was really bad. But by Sunday night we were up to 18, which isn't too bad. But we've been trying to be a lot more effective and teach more lessons consistently, but yesterday was not a good day for that, but I think I changed a kid's life yesterday! haha We helped Lulu move some furniture and I found 2 rupees from India in there and she told me to keep it, so I put it in my pocket. We end up going to Kroger(a grocery store here) and we run into Sis. Sanchez, so we help her carry her groceries out to the car cause she's prego. So we're talking to her and her kid, and she asks him if he wants to go on a mission someday and he says "I'm going to India to be a missionary!" SO I was like, "Oh, hey, I can help with that dream!" and I pulled out the Rupees and gave it to him. So our ongoing joke since yesterday is that he's going to get his call to India when he's reporting out he'll tell the story about the day the missionaries gave him Indian money! But then I started to get mad. We went over to maricela's house and I only wanted to spend like, 20-30 minutes there, but Elder Nelson and Washburn decided to spend 2 HOURS there!!! I was so mad! And then when we FINALLY left we went over to Rosi and Elder Washburn makes a joke and says "Elder Nelson only has 340 days until he's getting married!" (cause he leaves in 340 days!) and he got super ofendido and upset and it was just super awkward and then Elder Nelson got mad at me for saying a prayer to share a message and then end with a prayer, so it was just super crazy and contentious last night and ridiculous. And then we had to clean like CRAZY today because last week the crisis decided to rearrange the whole house so they moved their beds into their study room, our beds into where theirs used to be and their study room into the living room where we were sleeping. So our room is practically one giant gay bed(i'm not even kidding, there's about 2 inches between each bed) and it was absolutely filthy and cluttered and just ridiculous. So we had to clean forever this morning! But yeah, hopefully that's behind us and we can start getting to teaching lessons again, because we met our daily lesson goal on Thursday, the first time that had ever happened on my mission, and I was SUPER STOKED!
So funny story, we were at Maricela's last Friday adn I needed the other elders to get up off the couch really fast, so I yelled "Levantaos" which means "Get up" but it's in a conjugation that they really only use in the bible and in spain, and I didn't even think about what I said, it just came out like that, and Maricela just looked at me and the other elders jumped up and looked all strange and surprised and then we all just started laughing and it was really hilarious. Then on Saturday, America got baptized. She's the daughter of Juan and Lulu. And the baptism was amazing! All done in spanish and I understood everything and it was sweet! But Elder Nelson was in the bathroom before, the one with the lever to fill up the font. Elder Washburn and I are standing outside and we end up reading something and not noticing the mujer walking around the building. Well, we didn't notice her walk into the bathroom behind us until she shreaks (kind of) and comes out and says to us "I thought there were only two of you. Is he going to be awhile?" and it was super awkward and hilarious! But Juan didn't do the baptism. I don't know what it is with Hispanics, but they think that Missionaries and Bishops have special powers. The bishop did the baptism, but luckily Juan confirmed her, and the Spirit was just like BAM! in the room! It was so crazy. And then the next day, Roselyn finally got blessed, but once again, Juan had the Bishop do it. But it was funny, we asked Juan last Monday who was going to do the blessing, and he just sat there for a little bit, then said "the bishop. And all the old people." We asked why and he says "Because old people know a lot of stuff." Well, we couldn't argue with him about his baby's blessing, so we just said Ok and that was that! but yeah, it was an interesting weekend. I translated all of Elder's Quorum again, and the guy that taught is CRAZY smart and has a vocabulary the size of Texas and maybe Louisiana. He's a REALLY good teacher, but its' impossible to translate for him! But it was super good parctice. The primary program was also that day and Hermano Jones translated and a bunch of times when the kids would just yell something into the Microphone, he would just pause and say "no sE" or "ni idea" and all the hispanics are laughing out loud and the white people don't get it. It made me love being a spanish speaking missionary even more. But on Saturday, I talked with Hno. Jones about improving my spanish (because he talks sooooooo good in spanish) and he told me about this little exercise where you put a pen in your mouth sideways and hold your tongue underneath it and talk in spanish. It sounds stupid and idiotic, but it strengthens your tongue in the way you use it for spanish, so I tried it and my tongue is still sore! It was crazy! SO I think I'm going to keep doing that. And then he also told me about a game he and his companion played in Ecuador where any time one of them spoke english, they had to buy the other a candy or something. Now, things are a little more expensive here in VA than in Ecuador, so we upped it to every 5 times. I was the first loser. But we've barely spoken any english at all over the past 3 days. It's crazy. I feel like it's already helped sooo much. I'm trying to convince Elder Nelson to only talk to us in spanish even during planning, but he didn't like that idea. Oh well.
Anyway, I think that's about all for this week. Love you all and miss you. Hope you have a great day. Can't wait to hear from you next week. Adios
So sorry I forgot to tell you last week, but PDay got moved to tuesday this week for some reason, so I wasn't expecting a letter from you mom, so it's ok. I'll just have one BIG long one to read next week! haha
Dad-Yeah, the bear was really crazy! It was freaking hilarious though! I'll put the memory card in the mail and you can see all my pictures, all the way back to like, Sept. 17th I think. And yeah, when we go to Henrico or some other apartment, we just end up sleeping on the floor or couch. I've been on floor both times. Last time (last Tuesday) I was on floor, elder washburn and elder Nelson as well and then Elder Lusk was on the couch and elder Pasker (his greenie) was on the recliner. I know, how crazy is it that missionaries have a recliner in their apartment!? And it's only Elder Wheatley and Elder Hernandez in that apartment! Thats ridiculous! But yeah, thats how it works up here in VA. And Brother Bear in spanish was AWESOME!!!! I think I might have a new favorite disney movie (besides Nightmare Before Christmas of course!) And also, Phil Collins did the music for that movie, and he redid his songs in spanish for the spanish version! It was sick! I think you'd really like it dad!
Mom- Sorry for the lack of info about P-Day being moved! It's ok though, I just get to type a longer email this week! maybe haha! So have you gone out with the missionaries yet? Oh man that's gonna be so sweet! SO how's work going, gearing up for the holidays! It's going to be like, your 2nd year straight working there right? That's insane! I've never had a job for longer than 8 months! hahaha
Mallory- Thank you SO much for the scarf and cookies! I opened the package last night and immediately put on the scarf and wore it around all last night. It was like, 72 degrees in the apartment, but I didn't care. That thing is SWEET! all the other elders in the apartment are so jealous of it cause they all have little wussy not awesome scarves! And the cookies are AMAZING! oh my gosh they're SO good! I had to hide them cause I don't want the others to know how good they are! But yeah, thank you sooo much!
But this week has definitely been interesting. We're supposed to be teaching a minimum of 20 lessons a week, which really shouldn't be too hard, but it's actually really tough to get that consistently. We had 2 lessons last week by P-Day, which was really bad. But by Sunday night we were up to 18, which isn't too bad. But we've been trying to be a lot more effective and teach more lessons consistently, but yesterday was not a good day for that, but I think I changed a kid's life yesterday! haha We helped Lulu move some furniture and I found 2 rupees from India in there and she told me to keep it, so I put it in my pocket. We end up going to Kroger(a grocery store here) and we run into Sis. Sanchez, so we help her carry her groceries out to the car cause she's prego. So we're talking to her and her kid, and she asks him if he wants to go on a mission someday and he says "I'm going to India to be a missionary!" SO I was like, "Oh, hey, I can help with that dream!" and I pulled out the Rupees and gave it to him. So our ongoing joke since yesterday is that he's going to get his call to India when he's reporting out he'll tell the story about the day the missionaries gave him Indian money! But then I started to get mad. We went over to maricela's house and I only wanted to spend like, 20-30 minutes there, but Elder Nelson and Washburn decided to spend 2 HOURS there!!! I was so mad! And then when we FINALLY left we went over to Rosi and Elder Washburn makes a joke and says "Elder Nelson only has 340 days until he's getting married!" (cause he leaves in 340 days!) and he got super ofendido and upset and it was just super awkward and then Elder Nelson got mad at me for saying a prayer to share a message and then end with a prayer, so it was just super crazy and contentious last night and ridiculous. And then we had to clean like CRAZY today because last week the crisis decided to rearrange the whole house so they moved their beds into their study room, our beds into where theirs used to be and their study room into the living room where we were sleeping. So our room is practically one giant gay bed(i'm not even kidding, there's about 2 inches between each bed) and it was absolutely filthy and cluttered and just ridiculous. So we had to clean forever this morning! But yeah, hopefully that's behind us and we can start getting to teaching lessons again, because we met our daily lesson goal on Thursday, the first time that had ever happened on my mission, and I was SUPER STOKED!
So funny story, we were at Maricela's last Friday adn I needed the other elders to get up off the couch really fast, so I yelled "Levantaos" which means "Get up" but it's in a conjugation that they really only use in the bible and in spain, and I didn't even think about what I said, it just came out like that, and Maricela just looked at me and the other elders jumped up and looked all strange and surprised and then we all just started laughing and it was really hilarious. Then on Saturday, America got baptized. She's the daughter of Juan and Lulu. And the baptism was amazing! All done in spanish and I understood everything and it was sweet! But Elder Nelson was in the bathroom before, the one with the lever to fill up the font. Elder Washburn and I are standing outside and we end up reading something and not noticing the mujer walking around the building. Well, we didn't notice her walk into the bathroom behind us until she shreaks (kind of) and comes out and says to us "I thought there were only two of you. Is he going to be awhile?" and it was super awkward and hilarious! But Juan didn't do the baptism. I don't know what it is with Hispanics, but they think that Missionaries and Bishops have special powers. The bishop did the baptism, but luckily Juan confirmed her, and the Spirit was just like BAM! in the room! It was so crazy. And then the next day, Roselyn finally got blessed, but once again, Juan had the Bishop do it. But it was funny, we asked Juan last Monday who was going to do the blessing, and he just sat there for a little bit, then said "the bishop. And all the old people." We asked why and he says "Because old people know a lot of stuff." Well, we couldn't argue with him about his baby's blessing, so we just said Ok and that was that! but yeah, it was an interesting weekend. I translated all of Elder's Quorum again, and the guy that taught is CRAZY smart and has a vocabulary the size of Texas and maybe Louisiana. He's a REALLY good teacher, but its' impossible to translate for him! But it was super good parctice. The primary program was also that day and Hermano Jones translated and a bunch of times when the kids would just yell something into the Microphone, he would just pause and say "no sE" or "ni idea" and all the hispanics are laughing out loud and the white people don't get it. It made me love being a spanish speaking missionary even more. But on Saturday, I talked with Hno. Jones about improving my spanish (because he talks sooooooo good in spanish) and he told me about this little exercise where you put a pen in your mouth sideways and hold your tongue underneath it and talk in spanish. It sounds stupid and idiotic, but it strengthens your tongue in the way you use it for spanish, so I tried it and my tongue is still sore! It was crazy! SO I think I'm going to keep doing that. And then he also told me about a game he and his companion played in Ecuador where any time one of them spoke english, they had to buy the other a candy or something. Now, things are a little more expensive here in VA than in Ecuador, so we upped it to every 5 times. I was the first loser. But we've barely spoken any english at all over the past 3 days. It's crazy. I feel like it's already helped sooo much. I'm trying to convince Elder Nelson to only talk to us in spanish even during planning, but he didn't like that idea. Oh well.
Anyway, I think that's about all for this week. Love you all and miss you. Hope you have a great day. Can't wait to hear from you next week. Adios
Friday, November 6, 2009
Nov. 4, 2009
Hey, so this week is kind of weird. Last week on P-Day after I emailed you, we went hiking on Humpback Rocks off of Blueridge Parkway (you should really look this place up, it's INCREDIBLE!) and we went
to this waterfall after. So on the way back, all of a sudden the elder driving slams on the brakes and I feel this big thud. Someone shouts "Was that a bear?" Yeah. We hit a bear. A black bear ran out from the woods and hit the van. So we get out and we start getting a little closer to the bear (don't worry, like 50 feet away) and it doesnt look like it's breathing. So we start to get a little closer adn we're like "That thing is dead, it's not getting up." As soon as I took 2 pictures, the things head lifts up and I turn around and spring towards the van and jump in the open trunk and see the bear running off into the woods and it was ridiculous! I haven't run that fast since High School! It was crazy! But everything is alright and we're all fine, don't worry. But yeah, that was last p-day.
Last Saturday, the Crisis had a baptism and we had 2 people show up. Maricela came and enjoyed it, but she was scared by how hard Elder Gomez dunked the lady under the water. Then we had crazy Cristiano
Jose come. This guy is an illegal from Honduras, but he talks and acts like a mexican. He told us that he was an illegal in Mexico and the migre there pick on central americans, so he learned to talk and act like a chilango (someone from DF or district federal in Mexico City) and when the migre came on teh bus down there, they asked if anyone was from central america and he said "No, I'm from the state of Mexico" and just started naming off cities there, so they let him pass. He's crazy. On Sunday, Rosi and her husband Joel came to church and Joel told us he's going to try to get work off on sundays so he can keep coming! Then we went over to Juan and Lulu's and they had taken a pizza out of the oven, so they start handing us slices and I say "Ya comI" which means I already ate and she just replied "No te preguntamos" which is We're not asking you! Monday we didn't do anything really, we raked Rosi's yard as a surprise and also this old lady Dorothy's yard. She's so lonely its really sad. She lives with her 53 year old son who's got some mental disorder and she just sits inside all day with her 14 cats so she was so excited to have us come over and she cooked us dinner and wanted to just sit and chat forever and I felt so bad when we had to leave!
Then yesterday we came down to Richmond for zone conference and we went to Wendy's before conference and as we walk in, this construction worker walks in and I go up to order and he jumps in front of me and says "Put all these guys in suits on my bill." So we're like what the heck? and he tells us his son served in Fiji and he loves missionaries and wanted to take care of us. So taht was pretty sweet. Then zone conference was awesome. It was pretty much a 3 hour rundown of what we're not doing and what we could be doing better and how we could be doing it, but I absolutely loved it! It was awesome! Then we spent the night in Henrico and got up at 5:30 this morning which SUCKED! but yeah, we have zone p-day today and we're gonna play soccer and watch Brother Bear in spanish! Should be pretty fun! So yeah, that's my week.
I got the package from the Wanlass's and I'll be sure to write them a thank you note. Also, if you could just tell everyone on the blog that if I don't write them back, I'm really sorry. I'm super busy, especially on P-Days lately, so I don't have much time to write letters anymore! Which is a bummer, but it happens.
All I know is this transfer only has 15 days left! It's going by INSANELY fast! So yeah, the spanish is coming along great. The accent is good, and I've just given up on trying to help Elder Washburn. But it's ok.
Ok, well I think that's it for this week, until I remember something when I walk out the door :) haha But until next week. Love you all. miss you. Still not enough to come home though!
to this waterfall after. So on the way back, all of a sudden the elder driving slams on the brakes and I feel this big thud. Someone shouts "Was that a bear?" Yeah. We hit a bear. A black bear ran out from the woods and hit the van. So we get out and we start getting a little closer to the bear (don't worry, like 50 feet away) and it doesnt look like it's breathing. So we start to get a little closer adn we're like "That thing is dead, it's not getting up." As soon as I took 2 pictures, the things head lifts up and I turn around and spring towards the van and jump in the open trunk and see the bear running off into the woods and it was ridiculous! I haven't run that fast since High School! It was crazy! But everything is alright and we're all fine, don't worry. But yeah, that was last p-day.
Last Saturday, the Crisis had a baptism and we had 2 people show up. Maricela came and enjoyed it, but she was scared by how hard Elder Gomez dunked the lady under the water. Then we had crazy Cristiano
Jose come. This guy is an illegal from Honduras, but he talks and acts like a mexican. He told us that he was an illegal in Mexico and the migre there pick on central americans, so he learned to talk and act like a chilango (someone from DF or district federal in Mexico City) and when the migre came on teh bus down there, they asked if anyone was from central america and he said "No, I'm from the state of Mexico" and just started naming off cities there, so they let him pass. He's crazy. On Sunday, Rosi and her husband Joel came to church and Joel told us he's going to try to get work off on sundays so he can keep coming! Then we went over to Juan and Lulu's and they had taken a pizza out of the oven, so they start handing us slices and I say "Ya comI" which means I already ate and she just replied "No te preguntamos" which is We're not asking you! Monday we didn't do anything really, we raked Rosi's yard as a surprise and also this old lady Dorothy's yard. She's so lonely its really sad. She lives with her 53 year old son who's got some mental disorder and she just sits inside all day with her 14 cats so she was so excited to have us come over and she cooked us dinner and wanted to just sit and chat forever and I felt so bad when we had to leave!
Then yesterday we came down to Richmond for zone conference and we went to Wendy's before conference and as we walk in, this construction worker walks in and I go up to order and he jumps in front of me and says "Put all these guys in suits on my bill." So we're like what the heck? and he tells us his son served in Fiji and he loves missionaries and wanted to take care of us. So taht was pretty sweet. Then zone conference was awesome. It was pretty much a 3 hour rundown of what we're not doing and what we could be doing better and how we could be doing it, but I absolutely loved it! It was awesome! Then we spent the night in Henrico and got up at 5:30 this morning which SUCKED! but yeah, we have zone p-day today and we're gonna play soccer and watch Brother Bear in spanish! Should be pretty fun! So yeah, that's my week.
I got the package from the Wanlass's and I'll be sure to write them a thank you note. Also, if you could just tell everyone on the blog that if I don't write them back, I'm really sorry. I'm super busy, especially on P-Days lately, so I don't have much time to write letters anymore! Which is a bummer, but it happens.
All I know is this transfer only has 15 days left! It's going by INSANELY fast! So yeah, the spanish is coming along great. The accent is good, and I've just given up on trying to help Elder Washburn. But it's ok.
Ok, well I think that's it for this week, until I remember something when I walk out the door :) haha But until next week. Love you all. miss you. Still not enough to come home though!
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