April 25, 2011
Hello family.
Again another mostly boring week.
On the bright side after long weeks of fruitlessness we found two new investigators and they accepted the challenge of baptism. They're some family of a less active family in the ward. They actually live right next door to them as well. It's another Mother-Daughter combo, Minerva and Dianna being the last one. They're named Rosa and Angelica, both seem much more intelligent than our last mother-daughter combo, they also have they're own car too. Prospects are looking bright.
The downside is that they are just as Minerva and Dianna, we call them every night to remind to read two pages of the pamphlet we left with them and they still haven't done it. And perhaps the biggest "threat" would be that Rosa has a husband, who doesn't want anything to do with us whatsoever. We can't even teach them in their own house, we have to teach them next door in their mothers house which is a crazy nigthmare as it is a tiny house yet there are always at least a couple dozen people going in and out. We call it the house of short-shorts because in addition to the army of small children running in and out of the door there are like 5 or 6 teenage girls going in and out of there always wearing short shorts and high heeled sandals that hispanic women are so fond of -we've never seen them wear anything else ever, even the little girls who are 5-6-7 years old wear short shorts and high heeled sandals, we didn't even know they made that stuff child size! It's difficult to teach in such a place with people coming in and out and yelling at each other, doors slamming, the old grandma yelling at the children and chihuahua puppies everywhere. It's just a huge mess, a lot of clutter and garbage all crammed into a tiny house. And they live a couple streets away from the train tracks so periodically some enormous train will just roar through and lay on the horn like nothing else. I always have a headache after having a lesson over there.
Other than that things are the same. The ward is actually doing a lot better with, well, running itself, and keeping up with our recent converts. Oh this is pretty funny, our last recent convert, Tomas, we've noticed they keep pulling him out of elder's quorum every week, and we've been wondering what they've been doing with him. He has no idea, we asked him one day and he said it was just another class the same as elder's quorum, one day we asked the 1st counselor while at his house for dinner and he said that they've been taking him to be with the High Priests.... We didn't even bother to ask why, who knows what motives the ward leadership has. We thought about it a long time and honestly couldn't come up with a rational explanation as to why the high priests group would be better for Tomas, he's not that old or anything. Well we decided it's not worth worrying about. We only need to worry about if he actually comes to church or not, what they do with him there is up to them.
So yup... That's about all interesting that has happened lately. I hope you all have a good day.
-- Elder Rice
Churasco
April 18, 2011
Hello family,
Well, again not too much to report this week. It was slightly better than last week, we've found some more people now and we have more people to teach. We'll see where they go. And....... yeah...
So my tiredness is still prevailing, on exchanges with Elder Armstrong we were visiting a member, it was his birthday that day and he's old and blind, his family was outside preparing a surprise party for him so they wanted us to go inside and stall him. We were supposed to stall him until they got the fajitas cooked on the grill. So we sat there and talked with him, shared a scripture, and I was really tired and went out instantly. Which was perfectly fine since this Hno. is blind and didn't notice. Armstrong informs me that I was asleep for 20 minutes, and he was getting pretty sleepy too so he was about to wake me up and then we would switch off and he would sleep while I carried on the conversation with this Hno. Actually it was funny that I fell asleep first because Elder Armstrong is probably the most torpid person ever, he always falls asleep. He even fell asleep standing up once. Well one of the kids got home from school and that woke me up, and then we sat there for another half hour or so talking to him, or rather listening to him talk. Finally they motioned to us that the party outside was ready and his daughter led him out and it was a surprise and we stuffed ourselves with fajita. It's been kind of weird actually, this months seems to be fajita month because for the past couple weeks everyone has been feeding us fajita. Which is great, of course that's not good for our health.
Since I got to this area in December I've gained about 10 lbs. We have 6-7 fixed dinner appointments every week, we get almost no exercise and the consequences are starting to show. Since gyms are banned, and our apartment is tiny, and our neighbourhood is not one you'd want to go out running in, early in the morning for fear of getting mugged, we've started going to the chapel every morning and running around in the gym. It's stupid but better than nothing.
So today is day 5 without hot water. It hasn't been fun at all, showering with cold water. We're starting to feel like real missionaries, missionaries that serve in 3rd world countries and live with things like this. Also the dryer hasn't been working for the last month so every P-Day we just hang dry everything in our apartment. Now the members we live are unaffected by the water, they have a separate water heater for their house, and the non-functioning dryer doesn't phase them, they said they'll get a new one eventually. Today the people are supposed to come and fix the water heater or whatever is wrong with it. We think it might just be the lack of gas for the water heater since the stove doesn't work either, there is no gas running to anything. So yeah... We're almost the point of real missionaries now.
One more amusing anecdote them I'm done. So on that same exchange with Armstrong we were in a McDonald's working on the weekly progress report for our meeting that night with the ward mission leader. He's supposed to take the same progress report to PEC the next day on Sunday, but he rarely goes to PEC, he never wakes up in time, he barely makes it to church on time. So we were in McDonald's sitting there and filling this thing out, when this black guy, who was behaving rather oddly, as though he was trying really hard to not be noticeable comes up to us holding two spray bottles, they were name brand cleaning chemicals for car interiors. Well he comes up and starts talking to Armstrong, I didn't hear a single word he said and if I could have heard what he said it's doubtful that I would have understood any of it. It looked like at first that he was asking us to move so he could clean the tables, but he was dressed in civilian clothes, he didn't look like he worked there, then he puts the bottles down on the table right in front Armstrong and sits down across from him, still talking the whole time, and miraculously produces 5 or 6 more of these same bottles from within his pants! I was impressed, he was able to smuggle in like 6 of these thing in his pants without looking like he had them! Then again, most black dudes around here wear such baggy clothes that they could hide all sorts of things in there. Well it was apparent that he was trying to sell us these chemicals (I don't think you can do that in another business establishment). Armstrong, being the mellow soul that he is just kind of sat there looking like he was about to say something. It was about then that the genes I inherited from Dad kicked in and I told the guy rather brusquely that we were not interested and to go away. I would have done it sooner but the revealing of all the spray bottles that he smuggled into there in his pants was impressive enough that I was kind of speechless.
Yeah, so that's pretty much all that's happened this week. I love you all and hope you have a good week. Peace out
-- Elder Rice
Hello family,
Well, again not too much to report this week. It was slightly better than last week, we've found some more people now and we have more people to teach. We'll see where they go. And....... yeah...
So my tiredness is still prevailing, on exchanges with Elder Armstrong we were visiting a member, it was his birthday that day and he's old and blind, his family was outside preparing a surprise party for him so they wanted us to go inside and stall him. We were supposed to stall him until they got the fajitas cooked on the grill. So we sat there and talked with him, shared a scripture, and I was really tired and went out instantly. Which was perfectly fine since this Hno. is blind and didn't notice. Armstrong informs me that I was asleep for 20 minutes, and he was getting pretty sleepy too so he was about to wake me up and then we would switch off and he would sleep while I carried on the conversation with this Hno. Actually it was funny that I fell asleep first because Elder Armstrong is probably the most torpid person ever, he always falls asleep. He even fell asleep standing up once. Well one of the kids got home from school and that woke me up, and then we sat there for another half hour or so talking to him, or rather listening to him talk. Finally they motioned to us that the party outside was ready and his daughter led him out and it was a surprise and we stuffed ourselves with fajita. It's been kind of weird actually, this months seems to be fajita month because for the past couple weeks everyone has been feeding us fajita. Which is great, of course that's not good for our health.
Since I got to this area in December I've gained about 10 lbs. We have 6-7 fixed dinner appointments every week, we get almost no exercise and the consequences are starting to show. Since gyms are banned, and our apartment is tiny, and our neighbourhood is not one you'd want to go out running in, early in the morning for fear of getting mugged, we've started going to the chapel every morning and running around in the gym. It's stupid but better than nothing.
So today is day 5 without hot water. It hasn't been fun at all, showering with cold water. We're starting to feel like real missionaries, missionaries that serve in 3rd world countries and live with things like this. Also the dryer hasn't been working for the last month so every P-Day we just hang dry everything in our apartment. Now the members we live are unaffected by the water, they have a separate water heater for their house, and the non-functioning dryer doesn't phase them, they said they'll get a new one eventually. Today the people are supposed to come and fix the water heater or whatever is wrong with it. We think it might just be the lack of gas for the water heater since the stove doesn't work either, there is no gas running to anything. So yeah... We're almost the point of real missionaries now.
One more amusing anecdote them I'm done. So on that same exchange with Armstrong we were in a McDonald's working on the weekly progress report for our meeting that night with the ward mission leader. He's supposed to take the same progress report to PEC the next day on Sunday, but he rarely goes to PEC, he never wakes up in time, he barely makes it to church on time. So we were in McDonald's sitting there and filling this thing out, when this black guy, who was behaving rather oddly, as though he was trying really hard to not be noticeable comes up to us holding two spray bottles, they were name brand cleaning chemicals for car interiors. Well he comes up and starts talking to Armstrong, I didn't hear a single word he said and if I could have heard what he said it's doubtful that I would have understood any of it. It looked like at first that he was asking us to move so he could clean the tables, but he was dressed in civilian clothes, he didn't look like he worked there, then he puts the bottles down on the table right in front Armstrong and sits down across from him, still talking the whole time, and miraculously produces 5 or 6 more of these same bottles from within his pants! I was impressed, he was able to smuggle in like 6 of these thing in his pants without looking like he had them! Then again, most black dudes around here wear such baggy clothes that they could hide all sorts of things in there. Well it was apparent that he was trying to sell us these chemicals (I don't think you can do that in another business establishment). Armstrong, being the mellow soul that he is just kind of sat there looking like he was about to say something. It was about then that the genes I inherited from Dad kicked in and I told the guy rather brusquely that we were not interested and to go away. I would have done it sooner but the revealing of all the spray bottles that he smuggled into there in his pants was impressive enough that I was kind of speechless.
Yeah, so that's pretty much all that's happened this week. I love you all and hope you have a good week. Peace out
-- Elder Rice
Agriio
April 11, 2011
Hello family.
Well not much to say this week. It's just been the same old stuff, actually this week I've been so tired, I haven't been this tired since I first got to my last bike area. I've been falling asleep during studies, at church (I've almost mastered how to sleep sitting up), at meetings, in the car (not while driving), and even during lessons with people. They mostly just think it's funny.
Other than that not much to report, we're mostly just making sure all of the recent converts keep coming to church. And the other day we fixed someones computer. It occurred to us that it's amazing how far a high-school education will get you. Most of the people we associate with dropped out of school as a child so they could help their families work, then they move here to the US and struggle in school, they usually make it to high school but then their interest in such things wanes dramatically and they drop of out of high school and work the rest of their lives as mechanics, construction workers, cooks, housewives, janitors, and yard workers. They don't read or write very well and many of them simple can't (not at all helpful to us when we try to leave them with homework of reading the archaic scriptures). Reading is just something not very fun for them. So we translate their mail, tell them about how to read a bus map, instruct them in traffic laws, help them pay taxes, help their kids with their homework, use dictionaries, fix their computers, show them how to use the Internet, end e-mails, and just all sorts of stuff like that. We've been doing so much of that for the last couple weeks and they think we're so smart for knowing all of this and all we did was just graduate high school.
Yeah, so that's pretty much all we've been doing. No pictures this week, nothing really amazing has happened. I love you all.
-- Elder Rice
Hello family.
Well not much to say this week. It's just been the same old stuff, actually this week I've been so tired, I haven't been this tired since I first got to my last bike area. I've been falling asleep during studies, at church (I've almost mastered how to sleep sitting up), at meetings, in the car (not while driving), and even during lessons with people. They mostly just think it's funny.
Other than that not much to report, we're mostly just making sure all of the recent converts keep coming to church. And the other day we fixed someones computer. It occurred to us that it's amazing how far a high-school education will get you. Most of the people we associate with dropped out of school as a child so they could help their families work, then they move here to the US and struggle in school, they usually make it to high school but then their interest in such things wanes dramatically and they drop of out of high school and work the rest of their lives as mechanics, construction workers, cooks, housewives, janitors, and yard workers. They don't read or write very well and many of them simple can't (not at all helpful to us when we try to leave them with homework of reading the archaic scriptures). Reading is just something not very fun for them. So we translate their mail, tell them about how to read a bus map, instruct them in traffic laws, help them pay taxes, help their kids with their homework, use dictionaries, fix their computers, show them how to use the Internet, end e-mails, and just all sorts of stuff like that. We've been doing so much of that for the last couple weeks and they think we're so smart for knowing all of this and all we did was just graduate high school.
Yeah, so that's pretty much all we've been doing. No pictures this week, nothing really amazing has happened. I love you all.
-- Elder Rice
Chipocludo
April 4, 2011
Hello Family.
This week was rather slow, really boring, Conference was a good end to it, though we mostly just poked and jeered at each other, mostly to the missionaries who have little time left, whenever one of the many talks about 'GO GET MARRIED NOW' came up, which seemed to be like almost every other talk. Luckily I wasn't the oldest missionary in my district, there are two who go home like a month before me so they received the brunt of our jeers.
Actually the week wasn't too bad because I spent most of it on exchanges. The one thing I like about being in leadership is that you can go on exchanges with other elders pretty much whenever you want. It's pretty fun, it's kind of like a vacation, you get a vacation from your area and your companion, and when in another area you have 0 responsibility to call the shots. It's great. Far too many times on my mission on exchanges when I've stayed in my own area it'll be a day where we will have absolutely nothing to do and you have to say, 'well, I guess we'll go tract or something'. When you're in someone else's area you just to sit back and have them take you around everywhere. So that was fun, most of this week was spent on exchanges.
Other than that....... Not too much has happened. We have only one real investigator at the moment, named Carlos. He's a Catrracho in his 60's or 70's now. The members that live next store to him drag him to church every week and we get to teach him about twice a week, but he won't even touch the Book of Mormon, or eat anything that has the meat of an animal with cloven hooves. He just clutches his little Bible to his chest every time we try to teach him and will refuse to read anything that's not in it. (He hasn't ever read it). We suspect that he's been in with the Adventists or J-Dubs or some other such sect that clings tenaciously to the bible and has dietary commandments that make our Word of Wisdom look weaksauce. The rest of our time is spent doing retention work, guess how many of our recent converts made it to conference? TWO! That's quite good, I was definately expecting worse, but those two, the most recent ones, Rubiel and Tomas, only made it to the sunday morning session. Actually that's pretty much the only one that the members made it to. Often I realized that I took for granted the fact that in Utah you can watch it on TV without needing cable and listen to it on the radio. It's not the same out here, if you have you cable your fine but if you want it in another language that's a whole different story. I don't remember what we did last year to get it to work at some member's house that had cable but basically it's easier for the hispanic members to simply go to the chapel.
Speaking of which... Guess who showed up on saturday morning to set everything up? No one.... We had been told a week before that the satellite box was now functioning. Of course we were the first people to show up and we got it all to function this time, except that the speakers were burned out in the chapel or something was wrong because the sound quality was horrible and you could barely understand anything through the static. The spanish broadcast was to be played in the chapel and english in the Relief Society room. The sound was fine in the other rooms for the english and on the TVs but not in the chapel. We could not figure it out but we came up with an alternate solution, we brought a TV into the chapel, had it going on there as well as the projector screen in the chapel, killed the chapel's audio and turned up the volume all the way on the TV, and it worked well enough.
So that was this week, the transfer also ended, Conference was a good way to end the transfer. Transfer calls came and nothing has changed really, I'm still going to be here with Elder Green. But there were very few changes made. Everyone speculates that President Hansen is trying to freeze everything as best he can, change as little as possible to make it easier for the new mission President who comes in June. I also realized that it will be pretty lame to have my final departing interview with the new president, someone I don't even know, I'd really prefer to have that with President Hansen, he's been a great mission president, I'm going to miss him a lot.
Okay I'm done. I hope you all have a good week, peace out.
--Elder Arroz
Wapiti
March 28, 2011
Hello Family, how's it going?
Not much to say this week, in fact this email will be short. I received an e-mail saying that my registration date is April 5th, which is like next week. So I'll be spending most of my time looking at classes and junk. I really have no idea what to take.
Couple of quick highlights of this week. We had another baptism. This is pretty crazy, like 3 weeks in a row of baptisms. Totally weird. Tomas was baptized, the funny thing is that we've only taught him, like 3 or 4 times. His work schedule is such that he is only available on sundays so we taught him once a week for a few weeks and then he was baptized. Something like that never happens, it was rather amazing. He's the one next to me in the picture, the two members are Hno. and Hna. Galeano, the members who are friends of Tomas and have been bringing him to church.
The only other really interesting thing that happened was that we ate octopus one day. This member family just plopped down these huge plates of octopus tentacles in front of us. They were prepared simply by boiling them with a bit of salt. But served cold. Well as always we can't be rude so we choked them down. It actually didn't taste that bad, but the texture just wasn't fun, kind of rubbery but yet mushy at the same time, and when you bit into it the suction cups on the tentacles would pop off and bounce around everywhere in your mouth. Luckily we had condiments and I was able to eat all of it after drowning it in lemon juice and burying it with lettuce, tomato, onion, and salt. Blech...
So that's all, the other pictures are of some more sweet graffiti. Oh and I will probably send an e-mail off either today or next monday with the classes I want to be signed up for. I'm thinking about maybe having Kent do it, he registers a day before me and there is this sneaky thing you can do where you have someone who registers before you sign himself up for your classes to hold a seat and then drop it right before you register. We'll see I send that e-mail soon. Well I hope you all have a good day. Peace
-- Elder Arroz
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