I am not sure if I should say "Oh dear..." or "TMI" or both!
Lisa
November 22, 2010
Hey fam...
This week I actually have something interesting to report. On Tuesday we had Zone Conference, 8 AM to 3 PM, it was a killer, I can't stand long meetings anymore, I could barely handle church before my mission now it's just gotten worse I can't handle meetings. Well after Zone Conference Elder Lamoure talked with President and Sister Hansen about his bowel problems (up to this point he hadn't pooped in 10 days and it was difficult for him to walk). They called up Missionary Medical and they decided that Elder Lamoure should go to the emergency room. So we went to the ER, the english Elders dropped us off there and we were there for the next 6 hours. Elder Lang and I hung out in the waiting room all that time, it got pretty boring. At about 10:00 PM they finally let him out, they gave him two "enemas" I'm not sure what those are but to make a long story shorter they didn't get it all out, just enough so that he could get around comfortably, they said the problem was out of their league and they said he needed to go to a GI doctor. But they did tell him something he could get that would help, so the english elders picked us up at 10 and we went to the local drug-store where he went to get his thing. The whole time in the car he was complaining and complaining about his problem, and how the doctors can't figure it out. I got tired of it, he tells everyone that he's tried everything including a healthier diet and lots of exercise. I got tired of hearing it and I called him out and told him that if he actually tried to stick with a good diet and really exercised he could do it. Elder Lamoure probably has the worst diet of anyone I ever met, it consists of soda, beans, pizza, chili cheese fries, and cereal. He hates eating fruits and vegetables, I've been with him for almost 3 months now and that's all he eats. I told him that, also told him that he doesn't really exercise, we go to a ghetto little gym in our apartment complex and all he does is sit on the bike machine, peddles a little bit, and watches the TV in the gym. I told him that if he honestly tried he could probably overcome this. Well, he got mad and had another one of his hissy-fits.
I'm so sick of him, he's so negative about everything all the time, and that's saying something, I know that I'm rather pessimistic but Elder Lamoure makes me look like a ray of sunshine. It's simply suffocating to be in his presence when he's talking, and he keeps bringing up the same subjects over and over and over again as if we've never heard them before. If there is anything I have learned from my time with him it's that we should try to have a positive attitude. Luckily though this is the last week of the transfer, I'm pretty sure that I won't be with Elder Lamoure. So I only have one more week, I just need to hold out a little longer without killing him. He might actually go english next transfer, President was asking him if it was the hispanic food that gives him these problems, President is thinking about sending him english, which is the greatest fear of all spanish missionaries. That's what happens to all of the useless spanish elders, they go english. There was one elder who was a slacker and didn't keep up on his spanish and just didn't really care about being a missionary much and he got sent to an english area to be an english area, that would suck hardcore. I think Elder Lamoure is in for the same fate, especially seeing as though he's had almost a year in the mission and his spanish is at the same level mine was in my 2nd transfer. He's in for it.
On a higher note I have a more happy, amusing story. Yesterday was Karla's birthday, our recent convert. The last time we were at their house was Thursday, she was eating a bag of hot cheetos as she told us it was her birthday on sunday, we said that we were going to have to make her a cake or something, and then we jokingly suggested that we make her a hot cheeto cake. She said that would fine, she proceeded to tell us that she loves spicy food and she eats everything with chile. Which is odd, Karla and her family are Hondurans, and in Honduras they don't eat anything spicy at all and most hate spicy food. But not Karla, she's been mexicanized and eats everything with chile and lime. Fast forward to saturday when we remembered that it was Karla's birthday the next day. We wanted to make her something. I recounted to my companions that my mom had made jalapeno cookies once and that they were pretty good, and since Karla loves chiles we should make some jalapeno cookies. My companions were a little skeptical at first, but I pressed them so we decided to do it. We went to Mcdonalds (because it has free wi-fi and Elder Lang has an i-touch, one of the reasons why he likes to going to Mcdonalds all the time). We looked up recipes for jalapeno cookies. Elder Lang chose this recipe for jalapeno-cranberry cookies. It sounded interesting so we decided to do it. We went to Wal-Mart and bought the necessary ingredients. We decided to make them sunday morning before church and give them to her at church. (Our ward meets at 2:00, they hate having the late schedule but they've had for two years in a row now because the english wards don't want it either and when it comes to push and shove the spanish wards always get the shaft, it's quite sad actually. The english wards blame everything on the spanish wards, messes, and maintenance and everything.
Anyway... The dough was made of cream cheese, butter, and flour. We had fresh cranberries and jalapenos and you make this mixture out of it using vinegar. I don't really know, Elder Lang made the sauce I did the dough, and Elder Lamoure slept. What we were supposed to do was cut the dough into 2 inch squares, dabble a tablespoon of the cranberry jalapeno sauce on it and make a roll-type-deal by bringing just two of the opposite corners of the square together. Well it was taking too long to measure and cut 2 inch squares out of the dough so we found a ginger bread man cookie cutter and used that, dabbled the sauce onto each gingerbread man and then tucked their heads in between their legs, thus making a sort of roll shaped thing. We were supposed to use something called "confectioners sugar" but we couldn't find any at wal-mart so we used regular sugar instead. We baked them for 12 minutes and then pulled them out. They didn't look too pretty, some of them looked okay but most looked like small exploded animals. I forgot to take pictures (sorry mom). But they looked edible, and they were actually really good. I liked them a lot, Elder Lang really liked them too, Elder Lamoure wouldn't try one, he's lame like that. So we put them all (we had like 30 of these cookies) in a tupperware along with a birthday card we got for her and some pictures of her baptism. Everything was going according to plan. The sister missionaries picked us up to take us to church. They were impressed with our cookies, or rather they were impressed that we made the effort to make cookies, but not so impressed with how they tasted, they didn't like them at all. At chruch before sacrament meeting when everyone mills around during the prelude music everyone was like "Oh Elder, for me? You shouldn't have."or "Heeeyyy... What do you got there Elder?" And then I'd tell them and they'd go "Ewww... Really?" And nobody wanted to try one. Also, one thing about having jalapeno-cranberry sauce in a cookie is that it starts to smell very... pungent... after a while. People would smell it and go ewww.... Of all the people that dared to try one, only 2 liked them, 1 said it was okay, and 4 or 5 others ran to the bathroom or the nearest trash can to spit it out. So we were really striking out with these cookies. I guess hispanics don't really do the whole sweet and spicy thing, it tasted a lot like jalapeno jelly and whenever I tell them that back home we grew habaneros and made jelly out of them and ate it with peanut butter in a sandwich they are usually aghast at such and idea. And to top off the whole thing, the Enamorados didn't show up. Karla didn't come. So for a the whole 3 hour block we had these strong smelling cookies on us. Which was kind of a blessing, it gave Elder Lang and I something to eat during Elder's Quorum.
Well later that night after chruch we went by the Enamordo's to at least give all the stuff to Karla, they weren't there but some guy who'd we never met before named Javier was there (this is very typical of hispanic households, there are so many people coming and going that might be family that you meet someone new every time you go buy. We gave him the junk and told him to give it to Karla. We then went home and went to bed. Twas a lame ending of a lame day. It was kind of funny though. And those cookies were good, Mom, you should make some. Though I think that only you and maybe the boys would like them.
Well that's all I have to say. This week should be pretty fun, eating and soccer. We set up a soccer game between our ward and neighboring hispanic ward for saturday. We planned it with the missionaries of that ward for a while now but come sunday our Bishop refused to announce it because he said that activities involving multiple wards needed approval from the stake. So we just went around telling everyone that there was going to be soccer on saturday morning in a park and if another ward just happened to show up wanting to play soccer then what a coincidence it would be. We're also playing with the ward on Thrusday, and the missionaries are playing today for P-day. And for Thanksgiving we've had like 5 families invite us over. So we're going to go to all of them, 2 plates per house we decided, Elder Lamoure does not like that idea, he'll probably explode but I wouldn't have a problem with it unless he explodes anywhere near me or my stuff. So this will be a week of soccer and food so I'll be having fun. And mom I'll get you a Christmas list for next week, so have a good week, I love you all!
-- Elder Rice
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