here you go

Yoddle,

Sorry about the lateness of the email, we have had a pretty packed day. We got invited to go see Las Ventas bull fighting ring with some Elder and then right after caught the tail end of a multi zone bbq…. featuring Aranjuez. All the city zones like to have activities because they are all really close together, but since our zone is the pueblo zone, it is a bit on the impossible side. Luckily, the other missionaries like us, so we get invited... also a small chance we are invited out of pity. No matter, at least people are beginning to hear of Aranjuez.

Las Ventas was cool. According to them it is the most famous bull fighting ring in the world. According to them. I had never heard of it. I found it interesting how the tour guide tried to almost minimize the actual brutality of it all. She kept saying that the bull fighters get extra points if they can kill the bull with the least amount of suffering possible. I for one am indifferent to the sport, but I figure that if you are going to be hanging out in the outlying edges of Babylon, you might as well just go party in the center and quit fooling yourself. No need to cover up. A grown animal is being slaughtered in 20 minutes for the entertainment of others. Admit that the crowd cheers more when the kill is hard. And they cheer even louder when the bull starts to win. All I know is that the whole time I kept having the whole gladiator deal running through my head.

Maximus!

Oh yeah, I also thought it was really funny how they blindfold and armor the horses. I could just imagine a horse chilling there in the dark thinking: its nice of them to dress me up like this, but I would really like to know what is going on out there, everyone sounds like they are having a great time- ooouughgghugoouughg! What the heck was that!? Did I just get hit by a car?

As you can tell, I got a lot out of the tour.

Sorry about the distractedness. This last week a went through a bout of strep throat which was no fun. I didnt want to call the mission nurse because she just loves to drug people up on the cheap medicine. So instead I went downstairs and knocked on our land ladies door. Turns out that she and mom attended the same herbology class at Hogwarts because she is a pro. At the end of the day I came home to a basket full of lemons on my desk and a jar of all natural honey. The instructions were a nice echo of what I maybe should have remembered from my home treatments. I am over the throat issues and now moving through a baby cold which does a nice job of simply draining me completely.

And here I am.

I just hope what I am writing makes sense.

Its okay if it doesn’t make sense. Nothing now a day makes sense. It is like there is something missing. Some link somewhere. For a moment I thought the missing link might be baby Cal, seeing as he is clearly beyond any norm or standard known to us, but then I realized that there is no chain in existence big enough to consider him as a link. I remain in confusion. Sometimes fear. Especially when I look at the pictures of Cal before going to bed.

Something to ponder.

Well, time is almost spent, but I did do missionary work this last week, so I guess I could share something.

We have been teaching this really nice Romanian man and his wife for a couple of weeks now. He is a strict Orthodox and loves to read the bible. We were teaching him the other day about the book of mormon and we ended up reading a chapter with him. About half way through the Chapter I got this funny thought that we should switch it up. Just switch chapters. I thought it would be weird to just cut it short right there, but the more we read the more bored I felt about the topic we were reading. So finally, I just stopped him and told him to switch to 2 Nephi 4. We started reading and I felt way better. I have always loved this chapter. While he was reading he kept pausing and asking us if he should keep going. It was weird because every time we just told him to go ahead and finish the chapter. At the end I started talking and began to ask him a question, but out of nowhere I just went blank. I couldnt think of anything to say. Impossible you may say, but it indeed did happen. So instead of trying to push something out, I just shut up. He stayed there staring at the page. It was totally silent. We were all quiet for about 5 min. Finally, I looked up at him and I saw a tear running down his face. He looked at us and told us that this was word for word how he felt. He said that many times he had thought about these things and he felt a strange burning in his chest. He couldnt describe it. I had one of those cheesy realizations after. We are all trying to teach as the perfect companionship: us and the spirit. Sometimes when we are teaching, we have to give the spirit a chance to teach.

He is not married yet so he will take a bit to get baptized, but he knows how much of a miracle he is.

Sorry, time is gone.

Love you bunches,

Elder Anthony Skyler Oluwa Seun Carr