my report 17 Mar 2010

Lots of questions, from both sides of the mission veil.

First of all, this is for Bri and Ali. I lost my pen in a huge contacting spree. It will be missed but it will be honor for falling in the line of duty. I was in dire need of a writing utensil so i popped into the nearest "chino" (stores that sell anything and everything and are run by little Chinese people). I needed something with fine tip to write in my planner, and the only fine tipped ones they had were located in the Disney princess collection. I am now sporting a pink and yellow Belle with diamonds. I tell everyone she is my girlfriend. I am starting to convince myself.

Second of all, this is for Susan. YEYYEYYEYEYEYEYAHAHAHAYEHA BLAST OFF! I don't know what that was, but that is the noise i make when i get a package. It was sweet. Green. HA! You rock my socks off.

Third of all, this is for Mom or for anyone who can help. We were eating at a members house and i was telling a story. Of course, my words tend to be conveyed even more loudly by my actions in storytelling and one thing led to another and next thing you know there was a little girl crying, my companion laughing, and a broken glass on the ground. I felt bad even though he ensured me that he wouldn't miss his favorite glass that much. After doing a little detective work i found out that there are two things he wants way bad. 1. A mug from the Olympics of 2002, not sure how available those are anymore. 2. Those little pictures that you put in your scriptures for certain stories and things of the sort. You know, the transparent thingies. Well, if you get a chance to sneak either one of those into the next package coming my way, i would definitely be able to make up some grown with the ward leadership (he is second counselor in the bishopric).

Fourth of all, for Dad. Santo, the recent convert has some serious back problems. In Spanish they change all the words for back problems but from what i understand he has kind of what you had. If you could send some of the exercises that you did and any other ideas that could help him it would be so appreciated, by him and me.

Okay, on to your questions. Lets hit these babies in order.

Guitar students: They are actually doing really good. Last week we actually got an extra guitar. So in total we had 17 students and 2 guitars. Believe it or not, it is actually a really good system because they all end up helping each other learn the finger positions and rock poses.

Missing toe nail: I am doing really good. I feel more aerodynamic without it. I don't even know why we have toe nails, all i can think of is to keep the foot from getting jealous of the hands.

Shoes: I don't think i will ever get used to wearing shoes. With or without toenails. The orthodics save me. I am just meant to be a free footer (i may have just made that up, if i did, i dibs the copyright: DIBS!) i guess.

Elder Kopischke: Amazing. He came and told us that he had no agenda. Whenever any one of the Lord's anointed says that i get super excited. He gave each and every one of us a spiritual round house kick to the face. He flirted with a lot of topics that usually get hit on in every conference, you know, planning, commitments, etc. Each one was incredible and done in ways i had never really thought of. But the killer for me was when he talked about mindset and vision. It sounded like he was stealing some of Mom's ideas. He talked about waking up in the morning and instead of praying right away, spending 1 min to just picture the people you are looking for in white, standing by the font, or a family, kneeling around the altar of the temple. He said that this would let us contact people we already know, because we had already seen them in our heads. He then asked everyone to work on remembering how they felt before they left on their missions. How they expected they would do because those moments and feeling were sacred. That was us seeing our future with our own eye of faith. He said that we are all capable of achieving exactly what we expected before. He then shared Ether 12:19 "Y hubo muchos cuya fe era tan sumamente fuerte, aun antes de la venida de cristo, que no se les pudo impedir penetrar el velo, sino que realmente vieron con sus propios ojos las cosas que habian visto con el ojo de la fe; y se rogocijaron." Sorry if that is wrong, and in Spanish, i don't know it in English. It was really cool. I don't have my notes with me or i would share more. But the coolest thing of all was right at the beginning. He asked everyone to write down what we expected to learn and he promised it would happen. He didn't lie.

EFT: It was a blast. He is an extremely happy, energetic, overweight man. He has some fun spins on it that i had never seen you do, mama. He started by showing the video on the founders website, which is a sweet video and gave my comp the run down and me the update. Tons of fun. We are having a follow up this week again. I will keep you updated. I feel like this is going to be a huge pump for me for the time i have left. Side note: Mike, the EFT man, calls me ORBIT.

Letters to piso: They are getting here super fast. It Is really funny because my companion is now just as excited, if not more to get the letters. He loves reading your letters and now proclaims adoption throughout the mission. I thought it was good idea. Everyone should be able to have an awesome backup family. So far they are averaging 5 days to get here. It is kind of cool being up to date.

Pick up from mish: No more butts about it. Come get me. I think it will be a blast.

The Baptism: It was amazing. I will just post what i wrote to president in my weekly informe.

The baptism this past week was amazing. Carlos did everything possible during the entire week to make sure he was ready to have this amazing experience. His family was an awesome push and support during the entire process, and the refreshments they brought to the baptism were incredible. Seriously though, the refreshments were really good, but they did not beat out the power of his testimony. It was inspiring. He spent the entire week writing and rewriting his testimony because he wanted so badly to do it well. I kept telling him that he would end up just speaking from his heart and in the end that is what happened. He got to the church, reached into his jacket with a smile, the smile quickly faded, and he told me with horror that he forgot his notes. I laughed and told him that it was a sign that he would be amazing without it. He was. He bore the most sincere testimony. He told a bit of his experience, asked for forgiveness, expressed his hopes, and just told us what his heart was saying to him. It was beautiful. it was an amazing experience for everyone involved. He will be an incredible blessing to the church. The church has already been a super blessing for him.

Caleb’s birthday: Caleb? Who the heck is that?

Wow. It is really nice just filling in the topics. Turns out a lot more focused. We should do it like this more often.

Love you tons,

Elder Sky