Bull fighting
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Mis semana de bombo y platillos Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Sweet! I’m glad the package arrived ileso. Let me know how the pics are received.
Oh, and I would like it to be publicly known that I made an effort to write a heartfelt letter to every sibling, and Jason is the only one to reply. Come one! JASON even replied! You know, the younger one of the family who gets on the family website once every leap year. I hate to say it, but you have all been burned by your youngest of kin.
Well done lad.
Back to the mission thang...
I think my favorite quote for the week was what Elder Wallace said in english classes. We teach the more advanced class and we were talking about vacations and so naturally we got on the topic of Disneyland. Elder Wallace made the comment, “Disneyland is the funnest with little kids...” then after a short pause, “and Elder Carr.” I am the oldest Ï have ever been (duh), and people still call me a child! Its okay, I will kill them later.
Oh yeah, I visited the coolest place last week: BABYLON! After we taught this atheist guy we were hanging out talking to the rest of his family and they thought we were cool (totally fooled ‘em) so they invited us to their daughters birthday party. She was turning 7. Totally harmless, right? WRONG! We walked into their apartment, and as any good host would do, they handed us some beers. I was super thirsty so busted them both down immediately. Ha, JK. They were shocked we werent accepting free beer, I mean, this was heineken for heaven’s sake, HEINEKEN! Their interest was peaked at this point. To fuel the fire, I am shameless, and even moreso around sinners, so I got to preached my first repentance sermon, Elder Carr style. It was cool, they all migrated to the door (since we just hung out right there, you know, easy escape in the case of stoning) to get a load of the show. One of my favorite little Dominican bombshells was there and she yelled out, “you dont even know what your missing!” and so i said, “your right, because none of you will be able to tell me about it since you wont remember a thing.” It was so much fun, but one of them actually asked if we would let them in to the church if they came on Sunday. Only if they were sober. We actually went back a couple days later and they said it was no fun after we left and invited us to the grandpa’s party next month. They even asked us what drinks we like so they could have something ready just for us. It was so sweet.
I know it is hard to believe, but we do actually do real missionary work. The other day we were stopping by an investigator but he wasnt answering his intercom. Some guy came walking by and since I say hi to everyone, i gave him a shout out. He stopped, thinking we were his friends. When he saw us he realized his mistake and asked if he knew us. Wrong move. We jumped him and now we are friends. We got to teach him and his son on Saturday and it was awesome. His kid is 10 years old and he is way sharp. I love how the parents learn more when their kids learn more. We pretty much taught everything to the kid. When we went to pick them up for church the kid showed us that he read what we had given him and he really liked it. The dad was blown away that his son was so into it, he hadnt even opened the book yet. I looked over in sacrament meeting and he was reading through what we had given him, and the best part, he had one of those “WOW” faces on. They are sweet. Their names are Angel and Angel. We will be going tonight it he gets home on time from work.
Well, things are good. I am healthy (one of the only missionaries who is not sick), happy (not too rare), and fightin’ hard.
Loves,
Elder Sky
p.s. 187,39 pounds (85 kilograms) = Im so skinny! Why does my face still look way plump?...
Oh, and I would like it to be publicly known that I made an effort to write a heartfelt letter to every sibling, and Jason is the only one to reply. Come one! JASON even replied! You know, the younger one of the family who gets on the family website once every leap year. I hate to say it, but you have all been burned by your youngest of kin.
Well done lad.
Back to the mission thang...
I think my favorite quote for the week was what Elder Wallace said in english classes. We teach the more advanced class and we were talking about vacations and so naturally we got on the topic of Disneyland. Elder Wallace made the comment, “Disneyland is the funnest with little kids...” then after a short pause, “and Elder Carr.” I am the oldest Ï have ever been (duh), and people still call me a child! Its okay, I will kill them later.
Oh yeah, I visited the coolest place last week: BABYLON! After we taught this atheist guy we were hanging out talking to the rest of his family and they thought we were cool (totally fooled ‘em) so they invited us to their daughters birthday party. She was turning 7. Totally harmless, right? WRONG! We walked into their apartment, and as any good host would do, they handed us some beers. I was super thirsty so busted them both down immediately. Ha, JK. They were shocked we werent accepting free beer, I mean, this was heineken for heaven’s sake, HEINEKEN! Their interest was peaked at this point. To fuel the fire, I am shameless, and even moreso around sinners, so I got to preached my first repentance sermon, Elder Carr style. It was cool, they all migrated to the door (since we just hung out right there, you know, easy escape in the case of stoning) to get a load of the show. One of my favorite little Dominican bombshells was there and she yelled out, “you dont even know what your missing!” and so i said, “your right, because none of you will be able to tell me about it since you wont remember a thing.” It was so much fun, but one of them actually asked if we would let them in to the church if they came on Sunday. Only if they were sober. We actually went back a couple days later and they said it was no fun after we left and invited us to the grandpa’s party next month. They even asked us what drinks we like so they could have something ready just for us. It was so sweet.
I know it is hard to believe, but we do actually do real missionary work. The other day we were stopping by an investigator but he wasnt answering his intercom. Some guy came walking by and since I say hi to everyone, i gave him a shout out. He stopped, thinking we were his friends. When he saw us he realized his mistake and asked if he knew us. Wrong move. We jumped him and now we are friends. We got to teach him and his son on Saturday and it was awesome. His kid is 10 years old and he is way sharp. I love how the parents learn more when their kids learn more. We pretty much taught everything to the kid. When we went to pick them up for church the kid showed us that he read what we had given him and he really liked it. The dad was blown away that his son was so into it, he hadnt even opened the book yet. I looked over in sacrament meeting and he was reading through what we had given him, and the best part, he had one of those “WOW” faces on. They are sweet. Their names are Angel and Angel. We will be going tonight it he gets home on time from work.
Well, things are good. I am healthy (one of the only missionaries who is not sick), happy (not too rare), and fightin’ hard.
Loves,
Elder Sky
p.s. 187,39 pounds (85 kilograms) = Im so skinny! Why does my face still look way plump?...
estoy cachas Wednesday, February 10, 2010
He-ey,
A package sent my way already? Oh gosh. Thanks for the guilt trip. It took you 3 days... I am hitting 3 months... Oh well, guilt gone. I have finished the mission library a couple times so President is letting me read the Miracle of Forgiveness. Nothing really makes me feel guilty anymore. I am about half way through, and to put in bluntly, that book makes you feel like crap. I’m glad I’m my mother’s son so that when I come across somthing outrageous I can just say, “I’m glad I dont agree with that.”
Thanks a ton for the package, I can’t wait to get it. If you want, you can start sending stuff to me here. One of these days you will get somthing in the mail from me, hopefully. Go ahead and copy it from there. Well, that is if you still love me by then.
Oh yeah, the Haiti stuff is super sad. I dont know how bad/good things really are down there. We dont hear much anything, but when we do it is just quick glimpses on the unfiltered news networks. A lot of really graphic stuff. Stuff they cant show in the states. And although gross and inhumane of me, I did manage to find humor in it. I am speaking of the high amount of Dominicans that live in my area. They are all very racist towards the Hatians. I enjoy standing up to them. They are some of my favorite people because they are all nuts, loud, and outspoken. As you can imagine, we get along really well. Everytime I hear one of them ranting about the how evil the Hatians are I tell them to be careful because soon they are going to share a state with them. After what I say sinks in and they ask me what I mean, I tell them about how the U.S. had to go in with troops and in order to solve all the problems it will just be the easiest to go ahead and take the already broken country as a colony. You know, help it from the inside out. And since there are only like 20 Dominicans in the Republic since all of them are in New York and Alvarado (neighborhood in Madrid where they all live, known as “little Dominicana”) we will just go ahead and take the DR as well. We can call it “La Republica Americana de Haiti.” It is so funny to see them flip out, but in the end everybody wins: they get their American Citizenship and I get my beach house.
Back to the missionary world, things are going great. The baptism was awesome. For the first time in my mission, the water was warm (us: 1, devil: 0). There was a really good turn out (us:2, devil: 0). There was a musical number that was supposed to be done by the Hermanas, but for some reason they asked me to help them at the last second (us: 2, devil:1). Luis Miguel (he who was baptized) made his very own programs and has volunteered to make all the programs from here on out because he loved doing it (us: 3, devil: 1). He went down in one try even though the water was a bit low (us: 4, devil: 1). Best of all, his testimony at the end was awesome and the spirit was incredible the whole time, I even got his testimony recorded so we could make a CD for him with the pictures and all (us: 5, devil: 1).
We win.
Real quick, I made a mistake on the boundary changes. All of Bilbao is getting split in two. The eastern half goest to Barcelona and the Wester half (coruña, leon, etc.) becomes part of our mission. There you go. I will continue to keep you updated.
There is a bit of a buzz in the mission as of late. President Watkins’ new system for transfers is, “if he doesn’t need to move, why move him?” This last transfer there was only one change and it was only because there was a new Hermana coming in. Funny enough, she is now in our district. Her first day was when we had District Mtg so we all got to meet her right off the bat. She was doing really well. Later in the day we were walking down the street and I was just thinking about my first day and how crazy it was. Luckily I spoke spanish so it wasnt all that bad, but I was wondering what it would have been like had I come in like she did. I suddenly wished I could see her face. And as you know, the church is true, so she came rolling around the corner in front of us. The look was priceless. She had the joy and excitement of finally getting to be a missionary mixed perfectly with the fear and horror of realizing you are in a strange place with a strange tongue and have a long rode ahead of you. It reminded me of one of those faces guys make when they are playing around with kids, and as always happens, one of the kids lays a blow to the tenders, but to save face they try to play it off like nothing happened, you know, smile your troubles away. It was cool.
Well, that does it for me, for now...
Love you bunches,
Elder Sky
Ambassador to La Republica Americana de Haiti
A package sent my way already? Oh gosh. Thanks for the guilt trip. It took you 3 days... I am hitting 3 months... Oh well, guilt gone. I have finished the mission library a couple times so President is letting me read the Miracle of Forgiveness. Nothing really makes me feel guilty anymore. I am about half way through, and to put in bluntly, that book makes you feel like crap. I’m glad I’m my mother’s son so that when I come across somthing outrageous I can just say, “I’m glad I dont agree with that.”
Thanks a ton for the package, I can’t wait to get it. If you want, you can start sending stuff to me here. One of these days you will get somthing in the mail from me, hopefully. Go ahead and copy it from there. Well, that is if you still love me by then.
Oh yeah, the Haiti stuff is super sad. I dont know how bad/good things really are down there. We dont hear much anything, but when we do it is just quick glimpses on the unfiltered news networks. A lot of really graphic stuff. Stuff they cant show in the states. And although gross and inhumane of me, I did manage to find humor in it. I am speaking of the high amount of Dominicans that live in my area. They are all very racist towards the Hatians. I enjoy standing up to them. They are some of my favorite people because they are all nuts, loud, and outspoken. As you can imagine, we get along really well. Everytime I hear one of them ranting about the how evil the Hatians are I tell them to be careful because soon they are going to share a state with them. After what I say sinks in and they ask me what I mean, I tell them about how the U.S. had to go in with troops and in order to solve all the problems it will just be the easiest to go ahead and take the already broken country as a colony. You know, help it from the inside out. And since there are only like 20 Dominicans in the Republic since all of them are in New York and Alvarado (neighborhood in Madrid where they all live, known as “little Dominicana”) we will just go ahead and take the DR as well. We can call it “La Republica Americana de Haiti.” It is so funny to see them flip out, but in the end everybody wins: they get their American Citizenship and I get my beach house.
Back to the missionary world, things are going great. The baptism was awesome. For the first time in my mission, the water was warm (us: 1, devil: 0). There was a really good turn out (us:2, devil: 0). There was a musical number that was supposed to be done by the Hermanas, but for some reason they asked me to help them at the last second (us: 2, devil:1). Luis Miguel (he who was baptized) made his very own programs and has volunteered to make all the programs from here on out because he loved doing it (us: 3, devil: 1). He went down in one try even though the water was a bit low (us: 4, devil: 1). Best of all, his testimony at the end was awesome and the spirit was incredible the whole time, I even got his testimony recorded so we could make a CD for him with the pictures and all (us: 5, devil: 1).
We win.
Real quick, I made a mistake on the boundary changes. All of Bilbao is getting split in two. The eastern half goest to Barcelona and the Wester half (coruña, leon, etc.) becomes part of our mission. There you go. I will continue to keep you updated.
There is a bit of a buzz in the mission as of late. President Watkins’ new system for transfers is, “if he doesn’t need to move, why move him?” This last transfer there was only one change and it was only because there was a new Hermana coming in. Funny enough, she is now in our district. Her first day was when we had District Mtg so we all got to meet her right off the bat. She was doing really well. Later in the day we were walking down the street and I was just thinking about my first day and how crazy it was. Luckily I spoke spanish so it wasnt all that bad, but I was wondering what it would have been like had I come in like she did. I suddenly wished I could see her face. And as you know, the church is true, so she came rolling around the corner in front of us. The look was priceless. She had the joy and excitement of finally getting to be a missionary mixed perfectly with the fear and horror of realizing you are in a strange place with a strange tongue and have a long rode ahead of you. It reminded me of one of those faces guys make when they are playing around with kids, and as always happens, one of the kids lays a blow to the tenders, but to save face they try to play it off like nothing happened, you know, smile your troubles away. It was cool.
Well, that does it for me, for now...
Love you bunches,
Elder Sky
Ambassador to La Republica Americana de Haiti
how do you spell "Akuna Matata"? Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Wow, looks like we have a lot of business to take care of. Lets get right to it.
You can do whatever you want with the email notices.
The street i live on is called Bravo Murillo in #127.
I will not come home early. January it is.
Thank you so much for taking care of all of that. I have been with a lot of missionaries who have had to do it all here and it is very distracting.
We are starting up some guitar classes and I was wondering if you could send as much of the loose sheets as you can. Also any popular songs that may catch your eye that would be easy to teach here. Lastly, if you get a chance, could you go buy a book for playing the hymns on the guitar and send that my way? Nothing too fancy.
Sorry about all the requests. Last one. Instead of sending the family website stuff in the mail could you start sending information like the notes from the seminar. Anything and everything would be amazing. We had a conference a few months ago about the importance of the spiritual creation and how we are the most important spiritual creations there are. The basis of it all was that we can spiritually create ourselves. I have been trying to figure this all out for myslef on the limited info they gave us and totally didnt even think of the gold mine I have at home with y’all. I want it all.
Big news. We just got an announcement that in July the mission boundaries are changing. We are losing all of our southern rim pueblos to Malaga and are gaining the Canaries . All this is happening because Bilbao is being absorbed into Barcelona. Sorry Mike.
Oh yeah, almost forgot to tell you. We are going to be having a baptism this weekend. His name is Luis Miguel and he is hilarious. Best part is, he is a spaniard! He met a venezuelan girl on the internet who was a member which got him curious. He fell in love with her and became very curious about the church. He realized he has lived right next to a mormon church his whole life and never gone inside. So one day he just walked in and started getting taught. He was being taught for a while by the I got here, but never really wanted anything. Looks like now the time is right. Huge blessing. I will let you know how it goes, plus some of the others I forgot to tell you about in the last few weeks.
We had an awesome Zone Conference last week. So badly needed. The whole conference was focused on street contacting and nothing else. It was so perfect. Instead of having it be a “tell how” it was a “show how” conference. Tons of practices. I think it was the funnest time i have ever had in a conference. They kept asking me to be the dummy becuase they said it was the most “real person experience” they could get. Before going in i would ask them what they would like to practice and then my companion and i would act it out. Two missionaries wanted to practice contacting old spaniards on a bench. I tore them apart. They now know everything about my childhood experiences growing up in the hunger stricken slums of talavera in the 20’s. After i realized that they had been standing there with their mouths open for a few minutes, i finally let them say something. Then another group wanted to contact a small family. Interesting fact: i always end up being the worman. Not sure why that is. We were walking with a stroller and then they contacted us. My hubby didnt really want anything and told them that we werent interesed. Who told him he could speak for me? I exploded at him about how he never pays any attention and i am not even sure if he loves me any more. So i made the missionaries put down my number so that they could fix my husband. After that they stopped asking me to do it. Too real for them.
Okay, all the other missionaries are waiting for me.
Sorry to cut the stories short. I always wonder if what i say makes any sense...
Probably not.
Love you,
Elder Sky
You can do whatever you want with the email notices.
The street i live on is called Bravo Murillo in #127.
I will not come home early. January it is.
Thank you so much for taking care of all of that. I have been with a lot of missionaries who have had to do it all here and it is very distracting.
We are starting up some guitar classes and I was wondering if you could send as much of the loose sheets as you can. Also any popular songs that may catch your eye that would be easy to teach here. Lastly, if you get a chance, could you go buy a book for playing the hymns on the guitar and send that my way? Nothing too fancy.
Sorry about all the requests. Last one. Instead of sending the family website stuff in the mail could you start sending information like the notes from the seminar. Anything and everything would be amazing. We had a conference a few months ago about the importance of the spiritual creation and how we are the most important spiritual creations there are. The basis of it all was that we can spiritually create ourselves. I have been trying to figure this all out for myslef on the limited info they gave us and totally didnt even think of the gold mine I have at home with y’all. I want it all.
Big news. We just got an announcement that in July the mission boundaries are changing. We are losing all of our southern rim pueblos to Malaga and are gaining the Canaries . All this is happening because Bilbao is being absorbed into Barcelona. Sorry Mike.
Oh yeah, almost forgot to tell you. We are going to be having a baptism this weekend. His name is Luis Miguel and he is hilarious. Best part is, he is a spaniard! He met a venezuelan girl on the internet who was a member which got him curious. He fell in love with her and became very curious about the church. He realized he has lived right next to a mormon church his whole life and never gone inside. So one day he just walked in and started getting taught. He was being taught for a while by the I got here, but never really wanted anything. Looks like now the time is right. Huge blessing. I will let you know how it goes, plus some of the others I forgot to tell you about in the last few weeks.
We had an awesome Zone Conference last week. So badly needed. The whole conference was focused on street contacting and nothing else. It was so perfect. Instead of having it be a “tell how” it was a “show how” conference. Tons of practices. I think it was the funnest time i have ever had in a conference. They kept asking me to be the dummy becuase they said it was the most “real person experience” they could get. Before going in i would ask them what they would like to practice and then my companion and i would act it out. Two missionaries wanted to practice contacting old spaniards on a bench. I tore them apart. They now know everything about my childhood experiences growing up in the hunger stricken slums of talavera in the 20’s. After i realized that they had been standing there with their mouths open for a few minutes, i finally let them say something. Then another group wanted to contact a small family. Interesting fact: i always end up being the worman. Not sure why that is. We were walking with a stroller and then they contacted us. My hubby didnt really want anything and told them that we werent interesed. Who told him he could speak for me? I exploded at him about how he never pays any attention and i am not even sure if he loves me any more. So i made the missionaries put down my number so that they could fix my husband. After that they stopped asking me to do it. Too real for them.
Okay, all the other missionaries are waiting for me.
Sorry to cut the stories short. I always wonder if what i say makes any sense...
Probably not.
Love you,
Elder Sky
the happenings Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Hey there sweet cheeks (I will not specify who this is, you know who you are),
It has been a good day. We got to go to the mission home for a zone pday which is always sweet. They mission home is in the ritz of Madrid. No city noise. Makes my volume levels seem a lot higher than usual, well, so says the zone.
Quick interjection: I just had a funny quote experience come to mind. It comes from one of the sisters in our district. We were in the middle of our coordination meeting with the mission leader and we were chatting about an investigator who had some problem or other. Amidst the exchange of warm fuzzies and hopeful prospects for this investigator, one of the sisters piped up during a silent pause, after not having said much of anything, and said, “bueno, si Dios le quiere.” Now keep in mind this sister has a heart the size of a small utility vehicle stuffed inside her small, childlike frame. Her american accent made it come out a lot more sarcastic sounding than usual which made me lose it. I was laughing so hard. There is a term that is used very often that goes “si Dios quiere” = “God willing”, but when said “si Dios le quiere” it then becomes, “well, if God loves em.” Get it? Hmm, well, now that I read over it, it is not as funny.
Dang.
So back to the point at hand. The happenings.
To answer your question about the moving of missionaries, there is reason to the madness of it all. There are a lot of missionaries being taken out of pueblos to meet greater needs (more on that in a moment) so they are getting shut down. Our situation had more to do with the fact that before I got here there used to be 8 missionaries in the ward. They lived in the middle of the area but when the numbers dropped they went ahead and moved in with the other ward’s missionaries. Only thing is, they live 30 minutes out of our area. Very crummy. So they had us find one that would be central for both of us. Oh, and it is sweet. It has now been tagged as the best in the mission (more on that another day). But as for the removing a missionaries, it is sweet. President Watkins is so cool. Aparently the focus of the last mission president seminar was on the need to work where the gold is and focus on going from the inside out. Like starting where there is a strong base and working out from there. Not just sending out randoms to wierd places and hoping they build from scratch. Well, we are only getting 2 missionaries per unit, but there are some that have too much for just 2 and other that are dead. President wrote an email to all stake presidents telling them what was up. He pretty much just said that if there are no meetings taking place, no mission leader, no ward/branch missionaries, and no ward support for the missionaries, then they will lose said missionaries. It has been intense. 4 places have had the missionaries removed. My favorite part is that success has nothing to do with it. Baptisms change missionary to missionary and depend on the Lord, but support is something that is always under the control of the members. There were a couple places that didnt surprise me that they lost missionaries, but there was one that has had a bunch of baptisms in the last couple months and still lost the missionaries. There is not support and no help for the missionaries so they lost them. Of course, there is alot prepared as far as still helping the wards that dont have missionaries, but in the short time I have it will have to stay at that. As you can imagine, all the units have boosted up their meetings and support in the last few weeks. Super sweet.
Before I forget, could you give me jasons current email. Something he will check. I have a bone to pick with him.
Oh yeah, cool story. Well, before that, I gotta tell you something I think was funny. So my companion looks a teeny tiny bit like Jude Law. Of course, I have taken the liberty of reminding him of that every single day. He has denied it a lot, well, until now. The new sherlock holmes movie came out and there have been tons of posters everywhere of Jude Law. He was trapped, but I didnt expect to be pulled into it. We came home one day and one of the other Elders said that he saw our companionship at a bus stop. We didnt ride any buses so I was lost, but then he told us that it was on a picture. He said that our companionship is totally the sherlock holmes duo. Me, apparantly, as Robert Downey Jr. and my comp as Jude Law. Even better, the members at church all commented on it too. I found a small picture in a newspaper so we cut it out and we put it on the door to our room. So, since I have been failing at sending home pictures, you can assume that is how I look now.
Alright, back to the cool story. This is kind of funny too. I am now illegal in the country. There has been a hold up in the office on the renewal of papers and my card has expired. Luckily, I am not as bad as my companion. He visa waited (also in chicago) and got here a couple months late. He has been forgotten about. We got a call about it the other day and had to go to the police station to take care of it. They said that it was their fault in the email and they would go ahead and get his process started right away (and then me in a few weeks). So, we went off to go get him fingerprinted. I love going to the residnecy office, there is such an interesting feel to the building. All those immigrants hoping to make it through the system as soon as possible. A strong sense of hope and fear, similar to what we all feel about baby Casen. Anyways, we got there and they sent us up to a special room and I took seat and let my companion go take care of it. Well, we got a bad one. The lady we got would love the DMV. Very disrespectful, and just horrible all around. I was enjoying all this from a nice, safe distance. It then got a little bad, she saw that his passport had expired and refused to attend to him because he had not followed the guidelines. She sent him off. We called the office and they said to try again and show her the info they sent us. She refused to look, refused to listen, and threatened to kick my comp out. He tried again, and she sent him to her colleague who was just as bad. He came back, a little confused and a little scared, looked me in the eye, handed me his papers and said, “we are calling in the cuban.” I had been preparing myself for such a thing to happen, but when he said that, I lost it again. So when I was done laughing I trotted on over to the that wicked old witch and ask if I could just ask her a quick question. She started to rant at me and I just let her roll. Then when I got a second I gave her the speal, not really sure what I said, but it was mostly just along the lines of just apologizing for being dumb americans and asking to just look up the info, it was all there that they made a mistake. She started saying no mistake was made, we were lost, and she was done. Then I went way american on her. I asked if we could speak to a supervisor since she was finished. I got to him and gave him the speal, pretty much just letting him know she was done with us, which was wierd because she never even started. She started yelling to him that there was nothing for us. I told him, “I am positive we are not lying, but I would love to be proved wrong and get out of here.” He took the paper, typed in a number, the info came up and he took care of everything in about 5 minutes. She didnt say a word after that. It was super fun. Stuff like this keeps happening. It was cool being able to go into such a crummy situation knowing that we were right, not becuase of the papers, but because I know we are supposed to be here.
Alright, gotta run.
Love you bunches,
Elder Sky
It has been a good day. We got to go to the mission home for a zone pday which is always sweet. They mission home is in the ritz of Madrid. No city noise. Makes my volume levels seem a lot higher than usual, well, so says the zone.
Quick interjection: I just had a funny quote experience come to mind. It comes from one of the sisters in our district. We were in the middle of our coordination meeting with the mission leader and we were chatting about an investigator who had some problem or other. Amidst the exchange of warm fuzzies and hopeful prospects for this investigator, one of the sisters piped up during a silent pause, after not having said much of anything, and said, “bueno, si Dios le quiere.” Now keep in mind this sister has a heart the size of a small utility vehicle stuffed inside her small, childlike frame. Her american accent made it come out a lot more sarcastic sounding than usual which made me lose it. I was laughing so hard. There is a term that is used very often that goes “si Dios quiere” = “God willing”, but when said “si Dios le quiere” it then becomes, “well, if God loves em.” Get it? Hmm, well, now that I read over it, it is not as funny.
Dang.
So back to the point at hand. The happenings.
To answer your question about the moving of missionaries, there is reason to the madness of it all. There are a lot of missionaries being taken out of pueblos to meet greater needs (more on that in a moment) so they are getting shut down. Our situation had more to do with the fact that before I got here there used to be 8 missionaries in the ward. They lived in the middle of the area but when the numbers dropped they went ahead and moved in with the other ward’s missionaries. Only thing is, they live 30 minutes out of our area. Very crummy. So they had us find one that would be central for both of us. Oh, and it is sweet. It has now been tagged as the best in the mission (more on that another day). But as for the removing a missionaries, it is sweet. President Watkins is so cool. Aparently the focus of the last mission president seminar was on the need to work where the gold is and focus on going from the inside out. Like starting where there is a strong base and working out from there. Not just sending out randoms to wierd places and hoping they build from scratch. Well, we are only getting 2 missionaries per unit, but there are some that have too much for just 2 and other that are dead. President wrote an email to all stake presidents telling them what was up. He pretty much just said that if there are no meetings taking place, no mission leader, no ward/branch missionaries, and no ward support for the missionaries, then they will lose said missionaries. It has been intense. 4 places have had the missionaries removed. My favorite part is that success has nothing to do with it. Baptisms change missionary to missionary and depend on the Lord, but support is something that is always under the control of the members. There were a couple places that didnt surprise me that they lost missionaries, but there was one that has had a bunch of baptisms in the last couple months and still lost the missionaries. There is not support and no help for the missionaries so they lost them. Of course, there is alot prepared as far as still helping the wards that dont have missionaries, but in the short time I have it will have to stay at that. As you can imagine, all the units have boosted up their meetings and support in the last few weeks. Super sweet.
Before I forget, could you give me jasons current email. Something he will check. I have a bone to pick with him.
Oh yeah, cool story. Well, before that, I gotta tell you something I think was funny. So my companion looks a teeny tiny bit like Jude Law. Of course, I have taken the liberty of reminding him of that every single day. He has denied it a lot, well, until now. The new sherlock holmes movie came out and there have been tons of posters everywhere of Jude Law. He was trapped, but I didnt expect to be pulled into it. We came home one day and one of the other Elders said that he saw our companionship at a bus stop. We didnt ride any buses so I was lost, but then he told us that it was on a picture. He said that our companionship is totally the sherlock holmes duo. Me, apparantly, as Robert Downey Jr. and my comp as Jude Law. Even better, the members at church all commented on it too. I found a small picture in a newspaper so we cut it out and we put it on the door to our room. So, since I have been failing at sending home pictures, you can assume that is how I look now.
Alright, back to the cool story. This is kind of funny too. I am now illegal in the country. There has been a hold up in the office on the renewal of papers and my card has expired. Luckily, I am not as bad as my companion. He visa waited (also in chicago) and got here a couple months late. He has been forgotten about. We got a call about it the other day and had to go to the police station to take care of it. They said that it was their fault in the email and they would go ahead and get his process started right away (and then me in a few weeks). So, we went off to go get him fingerprinted. I love going to the residnecy office, there is such an interesting feel to the building. All those immigrants hoping to make it through the system as soon as possible. A strong sense of hope and fear, similar to what we all feel about baby Casen. Anyways, we got there and they sent us up to a special room and I took seat and let my companion go take care of it. Well, we got a bad one. The lady we got would love the DMV. Very disrespectful, and just horrible all around. I was enjoying all this from a nice, safe distance. It then got a little bad, she saw that his passport had expired and refused to attend to him because he had not followed the guidelines. She sent him off. We called the office and they said to try again and show her the info they sent us. She refused to look, refused to listen, and threatened to kick my comp out. He tried again, and she sent him to her colleague who was just as bad. He came back, a little confused and a little scared, looked me in the eye, handed me his papers and said, “we are calling in the cuban.” I had been preparing myself for such a thing to happen, but when he said that, I lost it again. So when I was done laughing I trotted on over to the that wicked old witch and ask if I could just ask her a quick question. She started to rant at me and I just let her roll. Then when I got a second I gave her the speal, not really sure what I said, but it was mostly just along the lines of just apologizing for being dumb americans and asking to just look up the info, it was all there that they made a mistake. She started saying no mistake was made, we were lost, and she was done. Then I went way american on her. I asked if we could speak to a supervisor since she was finished. I got to him and gave him the speal, pretty much just letting him know she was done with us, which was wierd because she never even started. She started yelling to him that there was nothing for us. I told him, “I am positive we are not lying, but I would love to be proved wrong and get out of here.” He took the paper, typed in a number, the info came up and he took care of everything in about 5 minutes. She didnt say a word after that. It was super fun. Stuff like this keeps happening. It was cool being able to go into such a crummy situation knowing that we were right, not becuase of the papers, but because I know we are supposed to be here.
Alright, gotta run.
Love you bunches,
Elder Sky
oh gosh Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Okay, first things first because that is probably all we are going to have time for. I just barely got done moving and worst/best of all, dealing with our cranky landlords and their cronies. More on that in a moment. There are bigger fish to fry right now.
Like the following fish (I don’t know how this earned a fish theme, but sometimes that’s just the way the cookie crumbles):
“Speaking of El Prado. I will begin to work on plans for our trip next month. You should let me know if there are places in Spain you want to go to that should be included.” - Maria Carr
Either I read this all wrong or you are actually going to try to eldernap me. Well, to be honest, I think I understand it now that I have posted it over. Oh. That’s a bit embarrassing. You are going to begin planning next month… Youre not actually taking your trip next month. Gotcha. You gave me quite a fright. Its too early to plan that stuff anyway. You make a list of stuff you want to see, I will add and edit.
I love my ESL mother.
Some may ask why I didn’t just erase that to save face. Well, I have absolutely no time and am about to become a disobedient missionary for the day just to satisfy my Cubriarch… Its okay though, president is really happy with us right now and I think this is the only chance we will get. Others of you may now be asking why I am continuing to comment on this strange interjection. I would include myself within that group of people.
We have not done anything today other than move. The only change was when we went to our piso at night to meed our landlady, who actually turned out to be our landlady, her husband, and her lawyer son. Last night we had planned to meet them so we could work today, but she called us, screaming and yelling, that she refused to meet at the time we had settled on because she wanted to meet at her own time. Apparently we are breaking our contract and leaving the piso 6 months early due to the drop in missionaries from 120 to 66. The thing is, we have had this piso (I will keep saying piso because it is shorter to type than apartment) for 16 years and have payed them almost a quarter of a million dollars. You’d think that 6 months would not be that big of a deal. Well, it was. I had to hold back a lot on the phone, but succeeded. I called up Elder Thompson, the senior missionary in charge and he gave me a little lesson on Pundonor (sp?). Very interesting stuff. Apparently people of latin decent have been proven to show a bit of pride in situations where a loss is at stake. Explains a lot about my life. But anyways, he told me that I needed to do my best to be an angel and try to get them to show some kindness. As he said, they could hold our hands over the fire if they wanted to, but we will try to get out clean. So I went ahead and called her back and asked her if there was anything she would like us to bring or have ready and thanked her for being so willing to meet. I kind of took her aback which might explain why she brought her family reinforcements. It was a blast. I may not be the best scripture guru or golden child, but I love things kinds of situations because I feel like I was made for them. They came in hating us. They were screaming about all the things that were wrong and somehow by the end we were all just chatting like best friends. I even got to bear my testimony to them when they were asking why I came out here. They said they were still going to fight it out with Thompson, but they said that they would thank him for having attended them so well by having us there. It is really cool how the strengths and weaknesses of every inch of my life have all been pushed to their extremes and beyond. I have found out so much more about myself while trying to forget myself. To be honest, I haven’t changed much, but I didn’t come here to change, I came to grow.
Alright, I really gotta run.
Sorry sorry sorry,
Love you love you love you,
Elder Sky
Tell Jason he is nuts.
Tell Graham to go watch some highlights of the Soccer game last Saturday (I think) between Real Madrid and Bilbao (Atleti… not sure). The goalie was nuts, he pulled a huge upset.
Digale a Mamina que ella tiene Tumbao… al mejor no me entenderá, pero voy a estar sonriendo toda la semana por causa de eso.
Like the following fish (I don’t know how this earned a fish theme, but sometimes that’s just the way the cookie crumbles):
“Speaking of El Prado. I will begin to work on plans for our trip next month. You should let me know if there are places in Spain you want to go to that should be included.” - Maria Carr
Either I read this all wrong or you are actually going to try to eldernap me. Well, to be honest, I think I understand it now that I have posted it over. Oh. That’s a bit embarrassing. You are going to begin planning next month… Youre not actually taking your trip next month. Gotcha. You gave me quite a fright. Its too early to plan that stuff anyway. You make a list of stuff you want to see, I will add and edit.
I love my ESL mother.
Some may ask why I didn’t just erase that to save face. Well, I have absolutely no time and am about to become a disobedient missionary for the day just to satisfy my Cubriarch… Its okay though, president is really happy with us right now and I think this is the only chance we will get. Others of you may now be asking why I am continuing to comment on this strange interjection. I would include myself within that group of people.
We have not done anything today other than move. The only change was when we went to our piso at night to meed our landlady, who actually turned out to be our landlady, her husband, and her lawyer son. Last night we had planned to meet them so we could work today, but she called us, screaming and yelling, that she refused to meet at the time we had settled on because she wanted to meet at her own time. Apparently we are breaking our contract and leaving the piso 6 months early due to the drop in missionaries from 120 to 66. The thing is, we have had this piso (I will keep saying piso because it is shorter to type than apartment) for 16 years and have payed them almost a quarter of a million dollars. You’d think that 6 months would not be that big of a deal. Well, it was. I had to hold back a lot on the phone, but succeeded. I called up Elder Thompson, the senior missionary in charge and he gave me a little lesson on Pundonor (sp?). Very interesting stuff. Apparently people of latin decent have been proven to show a bit of pride in situations where a loss is at stake. Explains a lot about my life. But anyways, he told me that I needed to do my best to be an angel and try to get them to show some kindness. As he said, they could hold our hands over the fire if they wanted to, but we will try to get out clean. So I went ahead and called her back and asked her if there was anything she would like us to bring or have ready and thanked her for being so willing to meet. I kind of took her aback which might explain why she brought her family reinforcements. It was a blast. I may not be the best scripture guru or golden child, but I love things kinds of situations because I feel like I was made for them. They came in hating us. They were screaming about all the things that were wrong and somehow by the end we were all just chatting like best friends. I even got to bear my testimony to them when they were asking why I came out here. They said they were still going to fight it out with Thompson, but they said that they would thank him for having attended them so well by having us there. It is really cool how the strengths and weaknesses of every inch of my life have all been pushed to their extremes and beyond. I have found out so much more about myself while trying to forget myself. To be honest, I haven’t changed much, but I didn’t come here to change, I came to grow.
Alright, I really gotta run.
Sorry sorry sorry,
Love you love you love you,
Elder Sky
Tell Jason he is nuts.
Tell Graham to go watch some highlights of the Soccer game last Saturday (I think) between Real Madrid and Bilbao (Atleti… not sure). The goalie was nuts, he pulled a huge upset.
Digale a Mamina que ella tiene Tumbao… al mejor no me entenderá, pero voy a estar sonriendo toda la semana por causa de eso.
on time, finally Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Hey family,
I'm getting a missionary plaque? For reals?? OOOH, I'm so giddy. I have always had to listen to all the other lame sauce missionaries brag about how cool their plaques are to all the other missionaries... now I get to be one of those lame sauce missionaries! Hmm, gotta make it good. First one that comes to mind, naturally, is Alma 10:4. However, even though it is the most accurate and true, I think it would offend the members of the other ward we absorbed. So, to avoid contention, my second choice is Alma 26:36. It is even better if you combine the two into one super verse. But since the super verse would probably not fit (on the awesomeness scale, not just the plaque), I will sacrifice and just go with the latter. Let me know if it passes the social filter.
The Prado? That was sweet. My favorite part was the trip there. We walked down the street 5 minutes and there it was. It is huge. If you want to plan it in you will probably have to pick a whole day. It took us about 3 hours to go through everything at missionary speed. Some really sweet stuff. My favorite painting was of little-toddler Jesus and little-toddler John the baptist playing together. Interesting piece of doctrine. Overall it reminded me of what our house probably is like right now. Lots and lots of little naked, chubby babies flying around.
Hold on, President is calling...
I love that man. In my interview last week, we had a really good talk. He was telling me something or other, I dont really remember what, but whatever he said reminded me of a question I had. I told him that I have been having a really hard time lately understanding obedience. I told him straight up the problem I have always had with coming home on time. I have just never been able to agree with it as easily as others do. I told him that the majority of those we teach dont get home until after 8, buy since we live 30 minutes out of our area we get home late very often. I have just never been able to find the desires to come home and skip teaching someone. He smiled and asked me why I came on the mission. I told him, “i have to figure that out every single day, but I know it was not to come home on time.” He laughed and said, “you have been called to teach. He pointed all dramatically to preach my gospel and said, “you are a teacher, everything else comes second. There are some people who will only have time at 2 in the morning, if that happens, call me, I will come and pick you up and we will go together.” I love him. He just told me now that we have permission to make copies of CDs with hymns to give to members who in turn will give them to their friends. We have been doing it for the past little while through members, but now we want to streamline it because it is working really well.
We taught a recent convert this past week who said he needed to apologize for something. When we asked him what, he said that he didnt have the pamphlet we had given him anymore. He said he was down at a locutorio the other day and he was preaching to the owner and he gave it to him.
I dont think we will ever be able to forgive him for that.
Solid.
This whole health purge has been a funny kick. Mom, I think you are going to have a blast molding my diet when I get home. I have been noticing a lot lately how I feel when I eat well. And seeing as it says in my p. blessing that I need to take care of my health, it is starting to kick me into gear. I now get soy milk, which actually isnt too bad, and my companion is very grateful (those who understand lactose intolerance will understand why). I have been getting lots of fruit and veggies too. The Roneys are gonna flip if they hear about this. I wonder how long this will last. We shall see.
Well, I am out of time, but I love you all the same.
Elder Sky
M83
I'm getting a missionary plaque? For reals?? OOOH, I'm so giddy. I have always had to listen to all the other lame sauce missionaries brag about how cool their plaques are to all the other missionaries... now I get to be one of those lame sauce missionaries! Hmm, gotta make it good. First one that comes to mind, naturally, is Alma 10:4. However, even though it is the most accurate and true, I think it would offend the members of the other ward we absorbed. So, to avoid contention, my second choice is Alma 26:36. It is even better if you combine the two into one super verse. But since the super verse would probably not fit (on the awesomeness scale, not just the plaque), I will sacrifice and just go with the latter. Let me know if it passes the social filter.
The Prado? That was sweet. My favorite part was the trip there. We walked down the street 5 minutes and there it was. It is huge. If you want to plan it in you will probably have to pick a whole day. It took us about 3 hours to go through everything at missionary speed. Some really sweet stuff. My favorite painting was of little-toddler Jesus and little-toddler John the baptist playing together. Interesting piece of doctrine. Overall it reminded me of what our house probably is like right now. Lots and lots of little naked, chubby babies flying around.
Hold on, President is calling...
I love that man. In my interview last week, we had a really good talk. He was telling me something or other, I dont really remember what, but whatever he said reminded me of a question I had. I told him that I have been having a really hard time lately understanding obedience. I told him straight up the problem I have always had with coming home on time. I have just never been able to agree with it as easily as others do. I told him that the majority of those we teach dont get home until after 8, buy since we live 30 minutes out of our area we get home late very often. I have just never been able to find the desires to come home and skip teaching someone. He smiled and asked me why I came on the mission. I told him, “i have to figure that out every single day, but I know it was not to come home on time.” He laughed and said, “you have been called to teach. He pointed all dramatically to preach my gospel and said, “you are a teacher, everything else comes second. There are some people who will only have time at 2 in the morning, if that happens, call me, I will come and pick you up and we will go together.” I love him. He just told me now that we have permission to make copies of CDs with hymns to give to members who in turn will give them to their friends. We have been doing it for the past little while through members, but now we want to streamline it because it is working really well.
We taught a recent convert this past week who said he needed to apologize for something. When we asked him what, he said that he didnt have the pamphlet we had given him anymore. He said he was down at a locutorio the other day and he was preaching to the owner and he gave it to him.
I dont think we will ever be able to forgive him for that.
Solid.
This whole health purge has been a funny kick. Mom, I think you are going to have a blast molding my diet when I get home. I have been noticing a lot lately how I feel when I eat well. And seeing as it says in my p. blessing that I need to take care of my health, it is starting to kick me into gear. I now get soy milk, which actually isnt too bad, and my companion is very grateful (those who understand lactose intolerance will understand why). I have been getting lots of fruit and veggies too. The Roneys are gonna flip if they hear about this. I wonder how long this will last. We shall see.
Well, I am out of time, but I love you all the same.
Elder Sky
M83
me and my experiences Thursday, January 7, 2010
Go Tara! I didn’t know you could skip the baby and childhood stages and just give birth to a miniature man, but you did it! Interesting name you picked. K.T.? Sounds a lot like Katie. Is this due to the single-mother status that Tara is currently in? It works. Karston is gone a lot. I haven’t even seen him for almost a year and a half. Seriously though, I think Johnny Cash was just kidding about naming your kid Sue to make him tough. But then again if he wasn’t, we will find out soon enough.
God speed little KT.
That rhymes (I think. In Spanish, everything rhymes).
Ooh, a missionary plaque. I will give it some thought. Remind me to return and report next week.
So this weekend was an experience. That is all.
Ha, just kidding, I will let you know what happened.
Miracle Story.
We planned an activity for the recent converts to all go to the temple together. By together, I mean together with us. We had the go-ahead from President, all but one of the recent converts, and we even had a carpool! (Yes, that is me getting excited about a carpool. I am turning into such a soccer mom.) I was ready and rearing to go. I don’t really know what rearing means, but it also sounds like something used to explain stomach discomfort, which I will use right now. Upon entering into the metro, my stomach started rearing (see, it works). After the first stop, it started roaring. Im not a spewer, but I am pretty sure my body was ready to try it out. By the end of the trip I was standing against the wall with my eyes closed, breathing slowly yet heavily, and trying not to hurl (wow, sounds like pregnancy. I will go ahead and calm your fears now, it wasn’t.). We managed to get me to the church where I sat and tried not to think of cookies, because I was about to lose them. At this point I was a little caught up in trying to weigh my options. Going home would be a relief, but a huge huge huge downer. Going to the temple was the desire, but an impossibility. So, I prayed. I just asked to be able to go to the temple. That’s all. Whatever else I had to feel, I was willing to take it, but I just wanted to have enough relief to avoid throwing up in temple (I am pretty sure that sin lists right below murder and adultery.). I climbed in and as soon as we unloaded, my desire to unload went away. It was like all the massive storming came together and formed some huge dense rock. I knew it was there, but nothing more. Then it kept getting better. They asked me to be recorder. Amazing. They let me sit in a chair the whole time and not move. Exquisite. They never had me touch or baptize any large object or man. Wonderful. I was on top of the world. Then we left. Then I died. Barely made it to the piso in time. I wont be too graphic, mostly because I am out of ways to creatively describe the process of emptying ones stomach through the same source in which it entered, but we did have to set up a bed next to the bathroom for my convenience.
According to the mission doc I got a virus, but that is his answer for everything.
That is pretty much my week. All better now.
Skinnier too.
Loves,
Elder Sky
M83
God speed little KT.
That rhymes (I think. In Spanish, everything rhymes).
Ooh, a missionary plaque. I will give it some thought. Remind me to return and report next week.
So this weekend was an experience. That is all.
Ha, just kidding, I will let you know what happened.
Miracle Story.
We planned an activity for the recent converts to all go to the temple together. By together, I mean together with us. We had the go-ahead from President, all but one of the recent converts, and we even had a carpool! (Yes, that is me getting excited about a carpool. I am turning into such a soccer mom.) I was ready and rearing to go. I don’t really know what rearing means, but it also sounds like something used to explain stomach discomfort, which I will use right now. Upon entering into the metro, my stomach started rearing (see, it works). After the first stop, it started roaring. Im not a spewer, but I am pretty sure my body was ready to try it out. By the end of the trip I was standing against the wall with my eyes closed, breathing slowly yet heavily, and trying not to hurl (wow, sounds like pregnancy. I will go ahead and calm your fears now, it wasn’t.). We managed to get me to the church where I sat and tried not to think of cookies, because I was about to lose them. At this point I was a little caught up in trying to weigh my options. Going home would be a relief, but a huge huge huge downer. Going to the temple was the desire, but an impossibility. So, I prayed. I just asked to be able to go to the temple. That’s all. Whatever else I had to feel, I was willing to take it, but I just wanted to have enough relief to avoid throwing up in temple (I am pretty sure that sin lists right below murder and adultery.). I climbed in and as soon as we unloaded, my desire to unload went away. It was like all the massive storming came together and formed some huge dense rock. I knew it was there, but nothing more. Then it kept getting better. They asked me to be recorder. Amazing. They let me sit in a chair the whole time and not move. Exquisite. They never had me touch or baptize any large object or man. Wonderful. I was on top of the world. Then we left. Then I died. Barely made it to the piso in time. I wont be too graphic, mostly because I am out of ways to creatively describe the process of emptying ones stomach through the same source in which it entered, but we did have to set up a bed next to the bathroom for my convenience.
According to the mission doc I got a virus, but that is his answer for everything.
That is pretty much my week. All better now.
Skinnier too.
Loves,
Elder Sky
M83
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