November 29, 2010
Family.
This week was a rather good one. For Thanksgiving we had 5 dinner appointments, it was brutal. That morning we played football with the english wards then played fútbol with our ward. Then we went to our 5 dinner appointments, luckily we weren't biking, we were going to everyone with the sister missionaries in our ward. So I pretty much got sick of turkey. In this ward since everyone is pretty rich and Americanized they all have American style Thanksgiving, unfortunately. I would have preferred Mexican food. So it was turkey, turkey, turkey, and more turkey, I never really liked turkey much before but now I hate it, it just tastes so boring. We got a ton of leftovers as well, and our bathroom has smelt like turkey for the last 5 days...
On Saturday we had the big game of Westgreen vs. Bear Creek soccer game.... 9:00 was too early nobody came until 10:00 and we had to call several people of the ward to wake them up and get them out of bed. This may be the reason why all the little hispanic churches start at 1:00. For the first hour it was Westgreen vs. the missionaries. All the people that had showed up so far was Hno. Lopez, his kids and some of the youth of the ward. Which was sufficient, the score was 6-2 before more people started showing up. 10 year old hispanic boys are far better than any of us. The only advantage we had was that we had longer strides, even Elder Lang, who played soccer in high school and is pretty good was having trouble. More people started to show up and we mixed up the teams a little bit. Only 1 person from the Bear Creek ward showed up, and they even announced in their ward on sunday while our bishop refused to announce it. Kind of ironic. But we did have some non-member friends of a family in our ward that showed up and they live in the sisters' area so they have some new investigators now. So that was a good result of it.
We also found out that Karla did in fact like the cookies, though she said she needed a glass of water because they were spicy. She says the funniest things. Since she's been baptized we've been reading through the Book of the Mormon with them. When we read about the part where Nefi cuts off Laban's head she said: "Oh that's just like this movie Freddy vs. Jason, where they cut off this guy's head and... blah, blah, blah, it was kind of scary." And this other time when we read about the Tree of Life and we read about the river of filthy water representing the 'profundidades del infierno'. She commented on how it was like this movie called 'Paranormal Activity'. It's really funny, she and her sister are some of the most desensitized kids I've ever seen but they somehow are still so innocent. It's really funny.
And now for the good news... I'm getting transferred! Finally! I'm done babysitting Elder Lamoure. He in fact is going to my last area, Oakcrest, which isn't quite what I predicted for him but it's close enough, it's easily one of the worst spanish areas in the mission. I'll be going to Houston, that's right, for the first time on my mission in Houston Texas, I will actually be in Houston. I'll be going to the Houston 3rd Ward, in a way ghetto area, it's the only area that has a part of downtown Houston in it. Supposedly it's puro mexicano, no more white people. I'll be going with Elder Green, this will be his 2nd transfer and I will be "greenie-breaking" him as they say. So I'm excited, I'm still sad to leave Westgreen, it's a great ward, the strongest spanish ward in the mission, most active people, most active youth and everything. But the area stinks, it's hard to find people. Where I'm going is supposedly the opposite, easy to find and teach people but that ward struggles a lot, it's very poor and the members are more concerned about where their next meal is coming from rather than going to church or giving investigators rides.
Well... That's all I got to say today, tomorrow is transfers and I'll go to my new area. So I hope you all have a good week. Peace out.
-- Elder Rice
Arrastrando La Cobija
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
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
Todo anda Sobre Ruedas
November 15, 2010
Hello Family.
This e-mail is going to be very, very short. The people at the college are starting to catch on to us and you need a student ID to log onto their computers. So all 7 of us are using two computers, that have already been logged on to. Hopefully we finish before anyone notices and thy kick us out again. We're going to have to find somewhere new to e-mail next week.
Ummm.... So.... Nothing new really. We got like nothing done this week. Elder Lang had a series of doctor's appointments this week. He's had some rash on his feet lately and the doctor said he is allergic to his shoes. So they had to do some test where they put these strips on his back and he couldn't shower for 4 days. So we didn't really go anywhere. And then for the rest of the week he was "sick". So we taught like a total of 4 lessons. It sucked hard core, probably the laziest week I've had on my mission. I can't stand it anymore, I'm spread really thin and I can't stand the sound of Elder Lamoure's voice.
That's pretty much all that has happened. Yup, nothing new to report. Oh Mom, I did get the package, gracias. And yeah... Well I hope you all have a good week. Peace
-- Elder Rice
Hello Family.
This e-mail is going to be very, very short. The people at the college are starting to catch on to us and you need a student ID to log onto their computers. So all 7 of us are using two computers, that have already been logged on to. Hopefully we finish before anyone notices and thy kick us out again. We're going to have to find somewhere new to e-mail next week.
Ummm.... So.... Nothing new really. We got like nothing done this week. Elder Lang had a series of doctor's appointments this week. He's had some rash on his feet lately and the doctor said he is allergic to his shoes. So they had to do some test where they put these strips on his back and he couldn't shower for 4 days. So we didn't really go anywhere. And then for the rest of the week he was "sick". So we taught like a total of 4 lessons. It sucked hard core, probably the laziest week I've had on my mission. I can't stand it anymore, I'm spread really thin and I can't stand the sound of Elder Lamoure's voice.
That's pretty much all that has happened. Yup, nothing new to report. Oh Mom, I did get the package, gracias. And yeah... Well I hope you all have a good week. Peace
-- Elder Rice
¿Que Te Pasa Vato?
Hello Family,
Well this week has a few good tidings to report. First off we had Karla's Baptism on Saturday as you can see from the pictures, the sister missionaries also had a 9 year old girl investigator baptized at the same time so it was double dunk. It went well, so in the pictures there, Elder Lang is the tall Elder will short hair and Elder Lamoure is the short one with glasses, I don't think I've yet sent you all pictures of them. The Baptism went well, it was funny. Later that night after the baptism, Karla called us and told us she couldn't sleep because she was too excited to be confirmed with the Holy Ghost the next day. She's funny.
Well the situation goes better with my companions, President got wind of their doings through certain means and he called us one morning and had separate long discussions with my companions over the phone, he said he was coming down on Thursday to have some "special interviews". Well he came down we all got an interview from President and to me he just told me that he was grateful that I was staying true even though my companions weren't, he then stressed the need to take a more active role in their missions and keep them in line. Since then things have been going slightly better, obedience is improving but it's a slow going. We'll see what happens. Then the day after we went on exchanges with the AP's. The AP's don't usually go on exchanges with anyone except ZL's so we knew that it was President double checking on us. I went to the AP's area and the other came down to work with Lang and Lamoure, and boy did he work them hard, when we un-exchanged backed they were both exhausted. I actually had a good time in their area. They have a pretty ghetto area, we didn't talk to a single white person all day, it was great, not a single person turned down taking a card from us. It just reminded me more and more of how easy it would be to do missionary work in the ghetto, and how I really want to get transferred to a ghetto area. Hopefully I will, President said that the three of us most likely won't be staying together next transfer so I will hopefully be out. Which is kind of a shame because I really like this ward. It's been my favorite so far but the area is pretty boring.
Well... I don't have much more to write, which is good since we're getting kicked out of the computer lab again. We need to start coming earlier. I love you all and hope you all have a good week.
-- Elder Rice
Agüitarse
November 1, 2010
Agüitarse
Hello Family,
Reporting in after another long week. It went slightly better than most recent weeks have gone, we have a baptism this Saturday! It's been forever since I've had a baptism, but we're finally going to get one. It's that 9 year old Karla girl, she had originally wanted to be baptized on her birthday on November 21st. But Her dad still hasn't showed up and the Sister missionaries in our ward have another little 9 year old girl of a less active family getting baptized so the Bishop wants to get them both baptized at once. So this Saturday we're having a double-dunk. Which is sweet, and Karla said that her non-member family members are going to come so that'll open up some more doors hopefully.
Other than that though things haven't been doing so hot. I am really beside myself about what to do about my companions, the other day I was only barely able to convince them to NOT buy a sports illustrated swimsuit edition magazine when we were at wal-mart. It's bad, on one hand I really hope I get transferred out of here at the end of this transfer so I don't have to put up with them anymore, but on the other hand if I were to leave the two of them together they'd surely get into trouble. Oh, I'm so tired of putting up with all of this. I really want to get out of here.... On friday we had a "specialized training" meeting with our Zone and President Hansen, the subject couldn't have been more appropriate, it was obedience, obedience, obedience. It was a good meeting, I really liked it, President had some good stuff to say. And I think he was trying to scare some of the older lazier missionaries like Elder Lang, by talking about stories of missionaries who wasted their time on their missions, went home and had lousy lives. It was pretty hardcore, he was saying that we pay a high price for whatever pleasure we think we are getting when we are being disobedient, and we are denying ourselves the presence of the spirit and revelation to help our investigators and find new ones. During the meeting I was pretty impressed and felt as though something was getting through to my companions and when we got back we could make some goals to be more obedient. Well this wasn't the case. It was like the parable of the sower, the seed fell by the wayside and President's words fell on the deaf ears of my companions. When we got home they criticized President, the mission rules, and just about everything else. They're really paying a price for it too, we had exchanges with our leaders this week. And Elder Lamoure, who boasts of his whole 9 months as a missionary, can't even speak spanish. We were tracting in the trailer park, talking to people we found in the street and our Zone Leader we were with, would say "Okay Lamoure, this one's yours, and we're not going to help you." And well... It was pretty pathetic, he would start talking a little awkwardly to them and stop in mid-sentence, his mind completely blank, or perhaps a "stupor of thought". He would look at us for help, and I could just see a pleading look written all over his face. But nope, we didn't say a word until the guy we were talking to got kind of freaked out and then we jumped in and saved him. He felt pretty down the whole day, after several more experiences like that. I did feel kind of bad for him, but I also felt a "That's what you get!" Or as they would say in Houston "Tha' wha' you get foo-!"
Okay, I'm out of time now, not much else has happened anyway. Have a good week!
-- Elder Rice
Agüitarse
Hello Family,
Reporting in after another long week. It went slightly better than most recent weeks have gone, we have a baptism this Saturday! It's been forever since I've had a baptism, but we're finally going to get one. It's that 9 year old Karla girl, she had originally wanted to be baptized on her birthday on November 21st. But Her dad still hasn't showed up and the Sister missionaries in our ward have another little 9 year old girl of a less active family getting baptized so the Bishop wants to get them both baptized at once. So this Saturday we're having a double-dunk. Which is sweet, and Karla said that her non-member family members are going to come so that'll open up some more doors hopefully.
Other than that though things haven't been doing so hot. I am really beside myself about what to do about my companions, the other day I was only barely able to convince them to NOT buy a sports illustrated swimsuit edition magazine when we were at wal-mart. It's bad, on one hand I really hope I get transferred out of here at the end of this transfer so I don't have to put up with them anymore, but on the other hand if I were to leave the two of them together they'd surely get into trouble. Oh, I'm so tired of putting up with all of this. I really want to get out of here.... On friday we had a "specialized training" meeting with our Zone and President Hansen, the subject couldn't have been more appropriate, it was obedience, obedience, obedience. It was a good meeting, I really liked it, President had some good stuff to say. And I think he was trying to scare some of the older lazier missionaries like Elder Lang, by talking about stories of missionaries who wasted their time on their missions, went home and had lousy lives. It was pretty hardcore, he was saying that we pay a high price for whatever pleasure we think we are getting when we are being disobedient, and we are denying ourselves the presence of the spirit and revelation to help our investigators and find new ones. During the meeting I was pretty impressed and felt as though something was getting through to my companions and when we got back we could make some goals to be more obedient. Well this wasn't the case. It was like the parable of the sower, the seed fell by the wayside and President's words fell on the deaf ears of my companions. When we got home they criticized President, the mission rules, and just about everything else. They're really paying a price for it too, we had exchanges with our leaders this week. And Elder Lamoure, who boasts of his whole 9 months as a missionary, can't even speak spanish. We were tracting in the trailer park, talking to people we found in the street and our Zone Leader we were with, would say "Okay Lamoure, this one's yours, and we're not going to help you." And well... It was pretty pathetic, he would start talking a little awkwardly to them and stop in mid-sentence, his mind completely blank, or perhaps a "stupor of thought". He would look at us for help, and I could just see a pleading look written all over his face. But nope, we didn't say a word until the guy we were talking to got kind of freaked out and then we jumped in and saved him. He felt pretty down the whole day, after several more experiences like that. I did feel kind of bad for him, but I also felt a "That's what you get!" Or as they would say in Houston "Tha' wha' you get foo-!"
Okay, I'm out of time now, not much else has happened anyway. Have a good week!
-- Elder Rice
Xochitecatl
October 25, 2010
Hello family...
Well once again not much to report this week. This is a boring area, the ward is way cool though, I really like the ward here but the area itself is way boring. Well........ We got our 3rd companion this week. Elder Lang is from Los Angeles, CA. He's actually really old, he's 23 and has about 3 months left on his mission. He's cool, I like him, he'd be a good friend, but not a good companion. This one day we didn't go anywhere because his bike broke the day before and because of his sprained ankle he couldn't walk either. So he spent this one day do nothing except sleeping and eating until 6:00 when the sister missionaries picked us up to go to an appointment with some members. I was going nuts, usually I'm pretty chill and sitting around doesn't bother me too much but not all day. I was getting restless. So needless to say we didn't get too much done last week. Elder Lang had already been in this ward before 6 months ago and the ward really likes him so that's a plus. It's been nigh on impossible to get both of them to get up on time, do studies, or do pretty much anything. After all that work last transfer I finally got Elder Lamoure into a habit of getting up almost on time but he's back to where he was. I've kind of given up trying to get them to do things they don't want to do, hopefully I have only 5 more weeks here and I'll get transferred, and they won't be my problem anymore.
I forgot to mention this last week but during an exchange we had with our district leader I somehow someway lost my name-tag. We have no idea where it went or how it even could have been lost but whatever the case it's gone now, so since then I've been sporting Dad's 80's style name-tag. It's pretty cool, I recall that when I was in the MTC I'd where it sometimes and the staff either thought it was really cool, or they told me to take it off and wear the current one. Out here in the field it's not that big of an issue. My fellow missionaries think it's cool, mission leaders don't notice because whenever we're at somewhere that we'd run into the APs or President we are always wearing our suits, so nobody sees the one you wear on your white shirt, just the clip one that goes on suits. That and people, members and non-members don't notice. One thing I've learned on my mission that I would have never even guessed is that NOBODY looks at your name tag. Since I've been out in the field for over a year now I can count the number of times on one hand when people have actually looked at it and read it and asked why we both have the same first name. Nobody looks at them, maybe they register that there is a name tag there but nobody reads it. So having the old style tag isn't an issue. Hopefully though I will get around to getting a new one, they cost $4 a piece. I'm thinking about getting two, the other one saying "ELDER ARROZ". Elder Bone, whom you all have met, did that same thing, got a tag with his spanishsized name on it 'Elder Hueso'. He ruined it though because since he did it, President has forbidden anyone else to do it but Bone was still able to where his. So I'm thinking about getting one and then not wearing it until my last transfer when we will have a new Mission President. All the members call me that anyway, I always introduce myself to anyone as Elder Arroz, then I'll point to my nametag and they'll read Rice and then laugh, so it's a cheap laugh that helps break the ice when talking to new people. Most hispanics that come here to the states know the english word for arroz. So everyone already calls me that anyway.
And.... Yup, that's about everything interesting to report. I got nothing else. Well I hope you all have a good week and yeah..... PEace.
-- Elder Arroz
Hello family...
Well once again not much to report this week. This is a boring area, the ward is way cool though, I really like the ward here but the area itself is way boring. Well........ We got our 3rd companion this week. Elder Lang is from Los Angeles, CA. He's actually really old, he's 23 and has about 3 months left on his mission. He's cool, I like him, he'd be a good friend, but not a good companion. This one day we didn't go anywhere because his bike broke the day before and because of his sprained ankle he couldn't walk either. So he spent this one day do nothing except sleeping and eating until 6:00 when the sister missionaries picked us up to go to an appointment with some members. I was going nuts, usually I'm pretty chill and sitting around doesn't bother me too much but not all day. I was getting restless. So needless to say we didn't get too much done last week. Elder Lang had already been in this ward before 6 months ago and the ward really likes him so that's a plus. It's been nigh on impossible to get both of them to get up on time, do studies, or do pretty much anything. After all that work last transfer I finally got Elder Lamoure into a habit of getting up almost on time but he's back to where he was. I've kind of given up trying to get them to do things they don't want to do, hopefully I have only 5 more weeks here and I'll get transferred, and they won't be my problem anymore.
I forgot to mention this last week but during an exchange we had with our district leader I somehow someway lost my name-tag. We have no idea where it went or how it even could have been lost but whatever the case it's gone now, so since then I've been sporting Dad's 80's style name-tag. It's pretty cool, I recall that when I was in the MTC I'd where it sometimes and the staff either thought it was really cool, or they told me to take it off and wear the current one. Out here in the field it's not that big of an issue. My fellow missionaries think it's cool, mission leaders don't notice because whenever we're at somewhere that we'd run into the APs or President we are always wearing our suits, so nobody sees the one you wear on your white shirt, just the clip one that goes on suits. That and people, members and non-members don't notice. One thing I've learned on my mission that I would have never even guessed is that NOBODY looks at your name tag. Since I've been out in the field for over a year now I can count the number of times on one hand when people have actually looked at it and read it and asked why we both have the same first name. Nobody looks at them, maybe they register that there is a name tag there but nobody reads it. So having the old style tag isn't an issue. Hopefully though I will get around to getting a new one, they cost $4 a piece. I'm thinking about getting two, the other one saying "ELDER ARROZ". Elder Bone, whom you all have met, did that same thing, got a tag with his spanishsized name on it 'Elder Hueso'. He ruined it though because since he did it, President has forbidden anyone else to do it but Bone was still able to where his. So I'm thinking about getting one and then not wearing it until my last transfer when we will have a new Mission President. All the members call me that anyway, I always introduce myself to anyone as Elder Arroz, then I'll point to my nametag and they'll read Rice and then laugh, so it's a cheap laugh that helps break the ice when talking to new people. Most hispanics that come here to the states know the english word for arroz. So everyone already calls me that anyway.
And.... Yup, that's about everything interesting to report. I got nothing else. Well I hope you all have a good week and yeah..... PEace.
-- Elder Arroz
Cacahuate de Empacando
October 18, 2010
Hello Family.
Well... I don't think I have too much to say today. My 9th transfer has ended and my 10th has just begun, I realized today that I only have 9 months left and it's kind of scary. Unfortunately I will be remaining here and babysitting Elder Lamoure for one more transfer. But I won't be doing it alone. Many new elders are coming to the mission this transfer and not too many are leaving, we have a too many missionaries and not enough areas. There are going to be 4 threesomes this transfer and we're going to be one of them. The missionary who is coming is named Elder Laing, he's only got three more transfers to go so he will likely end his mission here. He's pretty cool, way chill, I like him though I had never wanted to be his companion due to his laziness and blatant disregard for all the rules. I have my hands full already trying to keep Elder Lamoure on the straight and narrow Elder Laing will prove too much, I honestly don't think we will be getting much done this transfer. At least I'll be able to preserve my sanity though. Though it's going to be way awkward in a threesome, especially in a bike area, we're going to take up the whole street. Tracting will be very awkward as well, just the thought of all three of us crowded together on people's porches seems like it would be very intimidating. But hopefully I will only have to endure it for 6 weeks, they try to get rid of threesomes as fast as they can so next transfer I ought to be getting out of here.
The work goes slow as it always does, Elder Lamoure is a dead weight still and it doesn't help at all. Though we're confident that our 9 year old investigator will get baptized, our other one, Hna. Munroy seems doubtful, we haven't taught her in 3 weeks now, she comes to church every sunday but has been "ill" every monday when she's available to be taught. Her family, the members, haven't been very helpful lately either, even them, active members of the church have been ignoring our phone calls and not answering the door when we go over to remind to drag their grandmother to their home on monday nights. I'm so tired of all of this, I don't get it, do they honestly not want to, oh I don't know, live together forever? Jeez, it's times like these when I look forward to the judgment day. Well I'd better stop now before I start getting too "negative".
I don't think I have anything to add on a higher note. But I do need a few things, I'm down to five white shirts; wear, tear, grease, and gum have destroyed about half of my white shirts in the past year. I'm down to one longsleeve and four shortsleeves. Now I'd go buy some myself but once again we don't have a car. So if you could send a longsleeve and like 3 or 4 shortsleeve white shirts, that'd be grand. The size I have is 16 1/2 and 33/32, or something like that. Oh and I need that one-week enzymatic cleaner for my contacts. I ran out a while ago but for whatever bizarre reason they have a one-week enzymatic cleaner famine here in Houston and our Walmart doesn't have it due to a "supply issue" that's lasted 3 months now. So maybe you could send all that with the Ensign and Liahona, and maybe if you can find some, those Friday's Spicy Pepper Jack Cheese fires, they don't have them here and I've been craving them lately.
Okay, the pictures today are of some strange insect we found on our couch one day. We couldn't figure out what it was, but we concluded that it belongs to the beetle family. The other is of millions of mocking birds that were all other this intersection one day. It was kind of scary, they've been everywhere lately in huge numbers, in preparation for the migration no doubt. And the final was taken in the bayou where we saw some sort of huge rodent swimming around next to one of the many drain pipes that go into the bayou. It looks like a beaver but without the tail, it has a normal rat like tail. We've been seeing a lot of them lately and every time I try to get a picture they always swim into the pipes before I can get close enough, but I got a good picture this time. And there was a turtle just chilling there right next to it, there's lots of turtles that live in these bayou's. And the other day some member was telling us about this one bayou where these huge sewer alligators live, we're going to go find it one day.
Okay, I love you all, have a good week.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)