Tuesday, June 1, 2010

When two elephants meet to fight, the earth suffers... 26 May 2010

The subject was brought up by an interesting experience. In the ward there is an awesome nigerian family. They recently made me part of their family tribe. We even celebrated our naming ceremony yesterday. My new Bening City name is Osasu Mwen (pronounced VEH) meaning "God guides me". They are so nuts, you are going to have to meet them when you come. In fact, i already let it slip that you are coming to pick me up and they are counting the days until they get to meet you. They figure that you are a lot like me and that excites them. So much in fact that the head of the family said that he was going to prepare himself for the encounter because "when two elephants meet to fight, the earth suffers". So plan on it. I bet i could even get you all hooked up with your own names.

Quick side note. As we ended the naming ceremony Felix, the head of the family, explained the importance of having a name. It was supasweet. He started talking about how we usually act like the name that we have. It is the thing we hear more than anything so it influences us a ton. He then compared it to the importance of taking upon us the name of Jesus Christ. People should be able to recognize us for the name we have taken upon ourselves. It was way cool because he did it all in his wild nigerian preacher voice. Im currently working a lot on my wild nigerian preacher voice. I have taken the liberty of adding that to the list of things i want to be when i grow up.

So you asked why the other leaders or considered as greasers in my mind? (yep, thats right, i am actually answering a question, feel free to freak) ((double side note: I just accidentally burped really loud. Dont worry though, there is only one other guy in here other than us and my companion took the liberty of being embarassed for me.)) So, as for that, it has everything to do with the movie grease. Naturally they are who they are. The intimidating group of rough necks that have perfect hair and cars. They just fall into place. And its not that i consider myself to be the girl... so maybe i do at times, always, but thats no big deal, right? Okay, im confused on many different levels, lets move on.

Maybe i should just stick to ignoring most of your questions like usual.

Mom, you are such a rebel! I cant wait to see how we work out this whole package thing. Is she planning on visiting the temple? she can just leave it with us there or with somebody around. It will work its way to me somehow.

Okay, im just gonna start popping in some of the happenings of that last couple weeks in no specific order. Sorry for cutting you short last week, i will do my best to get you up to speed. The most important stuff has all played out a bit more so it is even better and more juicy.

First things first, i got to do a baptismal challenge for a cuban last week! The greatest thing i can tell you about the whole experience can be properly expressed in the form of a joke: why do cubans always have such short hair? Because when they get to the barber shop they always say, "cortame el pelo, chico." If you dont get it, ask mom. There you have it, he was elect.

I am going to go ahead and answer your question before you even ask it- No that joke was not part of the interview, it just came to mind right now when i was recalling the experience. He was golden, not much more about it. It was very fun.

I will now share the wonders of Wilson. Wilson is a colombian that we are currently teaching. He is so so so so saweeeet. When we first taught him about praying on his own about the things we had shared he asked us if we could do a fast together so he could get an answer... yeah, no joke. Of course we said yes (while or stomaches screamed NO!) and he felt really good about it. After that whole experience we went on to have another experience, a first for me, at the young single adult family night. That was a treat. Great crowd for nearly the whole time, then it happened... I thought it was a myth or urban legend of sorts, but it happened. I had always heard of people who attends stuff like this that are in no way eligible to be there. You know, the old creepy dudes. Well, these ones blew me away. Like 5 old, and we are talking old, canes and everything, came waltsing (more of a waltz waddle) on in like they owned the place! They didnt fool me with their big smiles and huge hearts, i knew deep down they were pure evil. They hung out in the bag just sucking the youth out of the room with their old person charm. Then the worst part of all- Wilson left to use the restroom for a moment so we stayed to mingle. He didnt come back for a while so i went to investigate. I didnt believe my eyes. He was in the middle of the geyser group talking to them and being nice. I turned to my companion and let him know we were ruined, he was mixing in with the entirely wrong crowd. He didnt seem to see the danger, but it was real. He made it out alive thanks to their need to go home to put their teeth in water. i dont know how many more close calls we can handle. Since then Wilson has done really well. He is a little scared of his own capacities to stay strong after baptism (awesome doubt), but there is some serious progression and promise.

Next you will hear of Leonardo and Jenny. Also from colombia. They are breathtakingly perfect. They are a young MARRIED couple that are here studying. As elder jackson put it, "I have been waiting to find a family like this my whole mission." They are just soaking everything up. It is hard to explain. They just get it. The best part of all is the find. We had set out for what was to be the best day so far this transfer. THe whole evening was filled with super sure appointments. Well, we went from appointment to appointment to find out that somebody forgot to tell the people we were supposed to teach how awesome the day was going to be because they all failed on us. AFter each fail, we set off to work the area and follow the plans. They all failed so effectively, in fact, that we had to stop to decide what we wanted to do. One of the goals we have is to never wander around. Even if that is all we have to do, we will at least plan to wander so it is not just us doing the wandering, but we can at least let the Lord in on it. So this is the best part. I was looking back and i realized that everytime we ran into a failed lesson, we made a move to another place. Each place we went to then led us to another place and another plan. Had we changed one plan, we would have ended up in an entirely different place. This is what i love about this work. The importance of the individual in the sight of God. We ended up on a street we are not usually on all because of hte chain of plans we had carried out. We saw them, felt it, talked to them, and they are incredible. In one lesson they were telling us about how many missionaries they have seen in their lives, it was actually impressive te hear. Then Jenny asked me why we talked to them. That wasnt the kicker, it came when she asked me why none of the others had ever talked to her and her husband. That one hit me to the core. MAde me rethink things a bit. Good one to dwell on.

Okay, i am out of time, sorry.

loves,

Elder Sky

192ish

OMG, i love castles 19 May 2010

So apparently i made it in with the greasers (what i now call the really high up mission leadership, or in other words, those who have cars) because we got an invite at the last minute to go visit another caslte palace place. It was a very different experience. But before i get into that i would like to give you a briefing.

We just barely got back from our northern madrid excursion (add El Escorial, Segovia, Manzanares, and Valle de los Caidos to the visit list) and are dunzo for time. Nothing new i know, but i thought at the very least i would let you know. THis way you have an idea as to why this has to be so shor and vague. Also, i forgot my planner, so i dont have any of the funner more specific details of the week, which i promise to give next week in a super edition weekly email home. Prepare yoursleves because i know i will be preparing my fingers at the very least for the power surge they are going to have to excerpt the next time i am here. I have come to create a great alter ego for the short hour we spend during emails. I feel like i am on my throne just feeding you all my thoughts and.... Why is it that when i have the least amount of time i have the most distractions and random thoughts fly into my fingers? Usually i just delete them, but to save this email from being super short, i am going to leave it.

So back to the trip. We visited a place called La Granja. It was very much like Aranjuez. Actually, that kind of added to the trip. I have seen Aranjuez palace a bunch of times since there is not that much else to do down there and so i kind of know what to expect. Well, there was a really long silence in one of the rooms where the ancient carpetry was hung on the wall for display, and seeing as me and silence have never really gotten along, i kind of pushed myslef into the little group of mission leaders and began to describe the reason the carpets were on the walls. It all consisted mainly of the great spanish winds gust of 1612 that took the entire palace framework and threw it on its side, leaving the carpeted floor as the north wall. They made a great mistake of listening to me, so as you can imagine, it continued for the entire tour. Mostly by their request, i assure you. This was when i realized that my mission experience has been very very different from all of theirs. It was funny to see them react to me, i felt like a bacteria. It was like there was this part of them that wanted to take part in all of it and have fun, but there was this strange impediment, unknown to me, that was holding them back and causing them to be embarassed by me on several different occasions. Can you imagine that? Wierd. There was even a room portraying the clocks of the royal dining room which all happened to be of african statues carrying the clock part on their backs and heads. A little racy, and they almost got me, but then i remembered that when the african people discovered time, they used their superior hunter gatherer skills to steal it from the english that had settled there. These were natrually depictions of that very occruence. That is clearly a lie, but that is how it went down for nearly 2 hours. The greasers are an interesting group. Apparently they have always done little outings like this, so maybe i will either get to see more cool stuff, or stop getting invited. Both sound good to me.

Sorry if this is a wierd email, but like i said, we are out of time, i am plannerless, and my companion is waiting by the door.

I love you dearly, i am healthy, the work is exploding, and you will hear all about all of it next week.

Elder Sky

Weekly email: version number two 12 May 2010

Well, turns out that i just forgot to click send last week. Hmm... I dont wanna talk about it. Ha, my bad. Dont act suprised. I am just surprised it is the first time it has ever happened. I deserve a prize.

Speaking of prizes, If that package is still waiting to be send, i would like to request some beef jerky. Any kind. The other day somebody called somebody else a jerk and it really made me have a killer craving.

Speaking of killer, our neighbor kids are pretty killer. Apparently either them or their parents dont really like us that much. We were walking out of the building the other day and this little herd of spanish chillins came running after us yelling. I was just about ready to bust some skulls but they stopped before they got to us. Their apparent leader spoke up and said two words, "Sois ladrones." Since that mishap i have been planning my attack to take over as the herds new alpha elder. So far they really like the invisible weapon battles i ensue with them whenever they cross our path on the way home. I would rather be a warrior than a thief.

Speaking of thieves, the Elders we live with are theives. This whole whitewash thing has been quite the interesting little persuit. We practically live out of our area book. Our big step has been trying to meet all the investigators we recieved from all the other areas. Well, apparently there was once in particular who was really good. We are talking way good. He is practically already dripping with baptismal water. So we finally got in contact with him the other day, set up an appointment and were set and ready to go. We ended up having to leave early to go meet him, funny thing was, the elders we live with, who work in the other ward, also had to leave early to teach a lesson. To make a long story short, we had both set up the same lesson and showed up for the same person. Turns out he moved the week before to the other ward and nobody told us or updated anything. I was wondering why he was so confused when we called and asked if we could meet with him. Moral of the story: the other elders are theives. There is a powerful rivalry going on since we both meet in the temple chapel.

Speaking of the temple, we got a call the other day as we were leaving the apartment from the temple patron telling us there were 15 non-members wanting a temple tour. The turned out to be an awesome group of mentally hadicap youth from andalucia. It was one of the funnest things i have ever done. When i told them that i have ancestors from andalucia they totally freaked and loved me. The tour was one of the most spiritually irreverent tours ever. It is hard to explain. I realized this had to be special and i wanted to make sure they had a good time and still felt the impact of it all. They loved it. I just gave them all the energy i had. Stuff like this really makes an impact on what i am wanting my future to contain.

Speaking of impacts, i think a pretty big impact was made at the mission council on monday. It pretty much just consists of all the big shots and me getting together to talk about the mission and present concerns and possible workshops for the mission. It was really boring. I kept my cool pretty much the whole time. Well, until we got to the complaints part. I didnt bring anything up, but somebody else said something about all the stuff we fit into the zone conferences and then president asked if we like what was happening in zone conference. Everyone nodded their heads in agreement, except me. I even had a "nope" slip out. Dont worry, it was followed quickly by a soft "oops" when all the heads turned toward me in terror. President asked me why so told him that it was a neat idea but it was really boring and i was tired of hearing from the same people in ever conference. He asked me to expound and some monster inside of me that i didnt even know was there excaped from its cage. It pretty much consisted of the fact that there are a lot of missionaries who get a lot from the zone conference, but they would honestly learn form anything because they show up prepared and seeking something. I felt that we needed to focus more on those who showed up just because they had to, and hated every minute of it. Heck, i had been to a conference or two with that in mind. Luckily i matured out of it, but honestly there are other things i would still rather do. President is so cool to put up with Bratz like me. He really switched the focus of the conference after that. It was cool.

Speaking of cool, we just got back from the wax museum. It was really wierd, but super sweet. They had a ton of spain specific things. Like all the big shot rulers of spain over the last 2000 years, tons of culture specific scenes, and even some pretty gross stuff, like the history of crime and torture in ancient spain. Way wierd. Way fun.

Speaking of way, i thought jason would be interested to know my plant-children are doing way good. Treeancum is growing well. Lion and jeff are still fighting. I need to figure out the watering schedule for them a bit better. I discovered small plant number three in the kitchen closet the other day and i am nursing him back to health.

Speaking of health, i am healthy and strong. Things are happy and going. I will try to get the pictures to you by next week for sure, mom. Sorry for the delay.

Loves,

Elder Sky

Are you ready? 5 May 2010

So we finally found this legendary cultural center that gives free internet, but it took us about an hour and a half to find it, so i am a bit rushed at the moment. Luckily (and sadly) there are no big stories to tell, just humongous events.

So, remember how i was in Barrio 1 just loving life and thinking i was going to be ending my mission there? Yeah, about that... That is not going to happen anymore. We got a call on thursday telling us that they were going to remerge the areas and that only Elder Wallace was not supposed to buy his monthly metro pass. Naturally it all became clear that the brick wallace was to be outcasted to far off pueblo and that my companion, Elder Kay, would end up becoming the companion of the Barrio 5 elders that were with us. We knew one of them were leaving so we just figured they would do the most logical thing because there was no way that i would leave. Well, we were wrong. Apparently President got tired of all the huge changes and is just throwing darts at a map to figure out where to send us. Or at least that is the current theory.

They called saturday with the news and indeed Elder Wallace was to be outcasted. In fact he is so far outcasted that he will now become a missionary of the newly reorganized malaga mission. It was funny. We laughed.

Sadly, that is not all that they shared. I was about to hang up and he said that there was one more change. He told me i was out. It was not funny. I cried.

Shut up, Karston.

So we got the meeting, and it was a seious meeting. Just about the whole mission changed. There were a lot of missionaries going home and only 1 coming in. Plus, all the leadership and just like that had to be set in stone before the mission changes in July. So with how they do it now, we sat down in the meeting and they started announceing the areas and the companionships. Everyone laughed when they announced mine. I cried.

Shut up, Jason.

Due to all the holes and the prospected changes that were coming. They formed a new zone out of the previous Temple and Alcala zones. It is now known and Madrid Este. On top of that they merged the three Barrio 6 areas into one big kahuna of an area. Then they set to work to figure out who would be able to handle the job. Their first obvious choice was an easy one: Elder Action Jackson (as i like to call him). Ex-ZL, Ex-AP, current superstar. Done. Now, who do you think would be a good companion? This is when that one elder with a good sense of humor came in and said, "hey, we should give him Elder Carr." As you know, an idea like that is so absurd that everyone laughs and lets it just die away as quickly as it came up. Well, a mistake was made. Someone in the room thought that comment was serious and made it happen. I dont know who it was, but if i did.... So here i am. Totally lost and totally clueless. Hermana Watkins asked what i was thinking of doing so i told her that i only know how to do one thing well, and that is to be Elder Carr, so i will start with that and see what happens. It is what i have been doing so far and it hasnt been too bad. The white was is super hilarious. We get lost so much. We even have our own phones. Luckily, either nobody trusts me yet or nobody really believes it happened so they never call my phone, but it is kind of fun feeling important. I will hopefully figure this stuff out soon. Our first assignment is to make a workshop for the mission to go through at zone conference. It is going to rock. All the ones that they have done my whole mission have been super sucky. Way boring. This one is going to blow their socks off. We dont know how to do it yet, but my companion has given me free reign on the brainstorming of ideas. That is all i need. They might not learn anthing usefull, but they will remember!

So here i am. You might want to start sending letters to the mission again, i dont know our address yet but i will let you know when i do. My new number is 627486590. I have my own phone now so you can call whenever you want. I will keep planning on 930 for now.

Sorry about the scantyness of the email. As you can imagine, things are little hectic right now. I thought a whitewash was just a special tricks to turn your garments super white.

That comment may be evidence enough of my capacities.

Pray for those that have to put up with me, they will need it.

Love,

Elder Sky