Guess what? That's right! I found
future subjunctive in the New Testament! I haven't had time to properly study
it, but I'm pretty sure it's a quote from the Savior. Perrrrrrfect. It proves
that it is a higher tense, a higher mood, only to be mastered by those with
true gifts.
Another note: if at any time in
any of my emails I seem like I am whining, I am not. I'm probably being
sarcastic or something. But I always have a smile and am always finding ways to
laugh at even the worst of situations. So this is weird to say... but I have a
good attitude. So read all the random stuff I say with that in mind, please!
I haven't got any
snail mail, or packages or anything like that this week. Maybe next week. I
also have written a few letters but I haven’t found a place to mail
them. Granted, I don’t have time to look, but they will be sent...
eventually. There just isn’t time. I'll have time to write letters when I get
home. But by then, "we can talk face to face so that our joy may be
full" (see the Epistles of John).
To talk about a few of the
questions that were mentioned.
Every missionary apartment has
a DVD player thing to watch the District training videos. I think it’s
a great idea for missionaries who are going to work, and for the missionaries who aren't going
to ... well, I guess it keeps them busy too so they don't go out and
do stupid stuff.
Side note: it’s funny to think
back to just like 6 months ago, or even 3 months ago and think about what I
thought the mission was going to be like. I was so clueless. Almost everything
I could have imagined is different. Thinking about June 1st, and October 1st,
so much has changed. It’s odd. But good I guess too. I
definitely didn't fully understand what I was getting into. I did and
I'm so glad I made some of the choices I did, but
I definitely was a little bit confused, which can be healthy at
times, to a certain extent. Anyway, to be a little less ambiguous and to bring in
an example, I was certain that I would want an iPod or something else like that
out here. Frankly, right now I don’t need that. Maybe I'll want it next year
but for now I'm fine.
The music situation is kind of
funny. As most, some… does anyone know this? I don’t really like hymns very
much. Well some hymns I love. Like “A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief.” That’s
bomb. And, please don’t shoot me, I don't like motab [Mormon
Tabernacle Choir]. Luckily for me, I am learning how to like it. We listen to a
lot of hymns here on a mission in one way or another, whether it is a meeting
or in the shower, hymns are all around us. Although singing in the shower and
in meetings are very different experiences. I don’t have my back up crew when
I'm belting it in the shower :).
I hope I don’t say this too much
but I do miss music a lot.
So to sum all that tangent up, I'm
set for right now in the music category. I don't have too much time
to think about music anyway, there is work to be done!
Right now, I am emailing you
from a Family History Center on Pecos and Osage (idk if anyone has looked at
where we are or anything). The computers here are so sweet! They have sick
glass screens and the monitors are huge! They are like 18' deep! It’s so
awesome. There are holes and stuff in the sides and top so I think if I tried
to play music it would come out of there, but I don’t know. I didn’t try. They are called Gateway 2000's.
It must be a new brand or something that came out since I got on the mission.
They are totally wicked.
No one uses the Family History
Centers on Mondays, so we just come in here and write and read our emails. Mail
gets delivered on Mondays too. If for some reason I didn’t have to buy
food or do any other p-day activities we could sit in this lab for the whole
day writing poetry home or something.
But I'd go crazy.
I'm not perfect. Anyone reading
this knows that from first-hand experience, and everyone else knows that
because I have to pretend I'm human sometimes. I have an impatience problem.
Not a huge one. But I've noticed, and I think this is a mission specific issue,
that I don’t like down time. Maybe it's because I'm messed up, or maybe that's
how missionaries are supposed to be, but I hate just sitting around talking. Or
not doing missionary stuff. The problem is that most 19 and 20
year olds love down time and love just talking about whatever. I
always just get super impatient. And it’s hard because I almost understand
that everyone needs breaks. But come on, it's been five minutes, we have
happiness to bring. More on imperfect me later.
Random thought -- when you think
about it a zombie apocalypse is a lot like the civil war.
You don't know who you are going to have to kill. It might be your
brother. On the subject of zombies, if they attacked right now I'd use a paper
cutter arm. That thing could do some serious damage. Terrible, terrible
damage.
The water situation here is so
weird. No one drinks water. And we live in the middle of the freaking desert.
Dere be some crazy peeps here. Anyway, a perfect example was yesterday at
dinner. I am dyingggg because of how hot it was and how much we had
biked. When she served us dinner (delicious mole chicken, oh soooo soo good),
she asked if we wanted water. I think a tear came to my eye as I said "por
favor hermana, muchisimas gracias, usted es mi segundo salvador." She
laughed and brought me back a coke. Like coca-cola. I graciously accepted.
A few minutes later after I tasted the deliciousness of what she had cooked, I
asked for some water and she looked at me funny and told me that I already had
some and pointed to my unopened can of pop. I looked down and then realized
what she was talking about. Then I tried to explain that I wanted water. She
then brought me a nice .... cold glass of the water that we aren't really
supposed to drink... It's a crazy world out here. I know I shouldn’t drink pop,
if y'all can remember, I vowed to never drink pop unless I had to, but I have
had many a dinner when pop really was all I could drink. Some vow right. Maybe
that's God showing me who's boss or something. I especially shouldn’t drink pop
out here, but it’s a cramp or death. I'm not ready to be a zombie yet, so I've
been having to drink pop. BUT! I haven’t had a cramp or anything like that. I
drink like 32oz of water every hour of study in the mornings, so by the time I
leave for the day (I've peed thrice at least). I have a nice belly fully of
clean water (the senior missionaries bought us a filter. They're so
sweet/cute).
If you are going to write to me,
just make sure you tell me how you are doing. And ask specific questions. That
makes everything easier. I like hearing what new is going on. As for events and
all that? I really couldn't care less. I can find out when I get home about all
that junk. Not trying to be overbearing or anything, but I've been blessed to
not think it's important right now.
Now I finally can tell you about
the week.
Monday. After all the p-day
stuff we did we biked around for 2 and a half hours and didn’t get to talk to
anyone. We contacted a few people in the streets but none of that was
effective. Then it’s about 8:30 and we are thinking about going home. I
suggested we work up until 9, and thankfully they listened to me (maybe only a little
begrudgingly). We tried to stop by Blanca Guerra's house. (That's right, her
name is 'White War'). She wasn’t home, which was almost the straw that broke
the camel's back but I said we should just try to knock on her neighbors’ door
(to give some context, my trainer had never knocked a door before—he's been out
15 months). A young man named Jacob opened the door and talked to us for a
while and then after he brought his mom Carmen. Their house was a mess, so we
had a lesson outside. Lo and behold Carmen does family history work. We talked
about that and talked about the eternal nature of families and she says
something to the effect of, yeah, yeah, I've always known that. And we are like
shocked. Then we begin to talk about the temple and she says "oh yeah I
have a son that lives by there, I never knew exactly what it was, but I have
always known that'd I'd go there someday." It was crazy. She was like a
golden contact. We talked about so much other stuff and she bore her
testimony of service and all these things. We almost invited her to be baptized
right then. But it was about 9 by then, so we set up a return appointment and
headed off. Only catch is that she speaks English so she's technically not our
area to teach. But it was still awesome to talk to her. If the Lord prepares
people for us to talk to, she was definitely one of them.
Tuesday was interviews. It was
so, so cool. I don’t want to talk about everything that President Neider and I
talked about but it was all great stuff. The spirit was very strong in our
short meeting. I then talked to Sister Neider and told her about my weight loss
and what I eat for lunch (Spinach Carrot Broccoli Banana Strawberry and Peach
smoothies) and she talked about how proud of me she was. That felt good. Then
she read me what Bishop Barlow and President Lantz wrote about me and that
felt really good! They wrote some really nice things about me. She
said that she doesn’t usually do that but she wanted to because of what they
said.
While everyone else was getting
interviewed, we had a training session which was pretty cool. We talked about
Roger Barriston [?Bannister?], who I have a lot of respect for. What a bouse.
That night we knocked on another
random door and had a great lesson and prayer with a family. Only problem was
they weren’t in our area... (we were early for dinner). But it was cool to have
another experience like that. The rest of the night we spent riding around
trying to find more people to teach with no success. At about 9, we headed home
while biking down the road my bike seat broke. Like the screw snapped and
everything fell apart and I fell off again and re-cut open my hands and arm. But
this time, because the fall was so weird, I ripped my suit pants. It wasn’t
super hard because they are about 6 inches too big now, but it was about a 5 or
6 inch rip so I have to fix them before I can wear them again. But that was the
least of my worries, because my bike no longer had a seat.
I wish I could say we rode home
and found a replacement and everything was better. But that didn’t happen. I've
been riding all around since Tuesday without a seat. THAT is a leg
workout.
It’s really hard to bike all day
standing up. My legs get exhausted, especially going up the big hill. I feel
like I'm swimming in Jello or something equally as ridiculous.
But wait! Now and I'll
include a second free of charge! Just pay shipping and handling.
No, just kidding. But because I
have to bike standing up I am putting a lot more pressure on my front shocks.
And every time I go over a curb or something it spits grease up on me. So I don’t
have a seat and when the shocks compress I get squirted with black grease in my
face and all over my white shirts.
It’s been an unlucky week for
me.
BUT NOTHING GETS ME DOWN! :)
Wednesday we spent most of the
day at a new missionary training meeting which was really cool. Then we spent
the rest of the day tracting. But we didn’t meet anyone or have any real
lessons.
Thursday we had a good district
meeting. Good stuff. Elder Fischer taught us to teach the atonement, not
people. Just kidding, but he almost said that. We had dinner at Juana's, which
was really delicious. I had to go to the bathroom and when I got there, I was
seriously pissed. Juana lives with her boyfriend Juan and their two kids (3 and
5 -- remember?). I get to the bathroom and there is porn everywhere. The walls
are completely covered in it. Juana is an amazing woman and she works so hard
to support her family and it makes me sad to see that that stuff was on the
wall. I know its Vegas and all and that thing is usually accepted, but
it made me just so mad to see that. Little kids see that every day and Juana
has to live with that on her walls. It made me really sad. I don’t fully
understand the situation so I shouldn’t judge. But man, grrrrrr.
Friday, we had weekly planning
so that took most of the day. We didn’t have too many lessons, so we had a
bunch of contacts which was pretty good. Moving on!
Saturday, we had a baptism for a
family taught by the sisters in the district. We also were on exchanges with
the zone leaders, so we got to spend the day with Elder Hardy, great guy. He is
teaching himself Spanish and he's actually getting really good. His accent
needs some work but he's a stud and all the people love it when he talks
because he is trying so hard. That night we started a fast with Juana for her
situation and after we finished praying she called us her angels and that made
me super happy.
Sunday. So as you remember my
1st suit got ripped real bad. So I had to wear the back up today and the backup
suit is even bigger and my smaller belt doesn’t fit in the loops. So it’s
bigger pants with a bigger belt. And I thought I'd be fine, but it was a recipe
for disaster on my bike. I tucked my pants into my sock, as I do every morning,
but it wasn’t enough. There was so much extra fabric and because I don’t have a
seat, I am moving up and down a lot, these pants got caught in the chain as well
and now they have a huge rip. SO, both my suit pants are badly ripped. Just my
luck!
It sucked real bad that that
happened. But it was funny how much bad luck I've had this week. I
literally laughed when my pants ripped. Not like a cynical, or sardonic, or
crazy, or even pissed laugh. It was just kind of funny.
SO, that's pretty much my week.
I had other things I wanted to write but I don’t have time.
District meetings are once a
week but I don’t know about the other ones.
For exercise, I do 100 sit-ups
and 50 pushups and 50 hammer curls and 50 forearm curls and sometimes some fly
stuff. I do that every morning and on nights when we finish planning before 9:30
I do it all again. I don’t have any weights so I use an exercise band and
gallon jugs of water. It's not bad.
My stomach is doing much better
but I have noticed that the days I forget to take the medicine I sleep
different. I can’t describe why, but it’s different.
Ahhh!!! I think that’s
everything. Actually I know it’s not, but duty calls.
I love you all and thank you to
everyone that has been supporting me with mail! You guys are the best!
Insert
Movie quote here.
I'm
pumpppped for conference!
I
hope you all are as well.
Embrace
the doctrine.
love
yall.
byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
the
c was intentional.
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