Hila!
That’s cool that Spencer is going home! Crazy! I’m a little
jealous! When I get down to Argentina I won’t be jealous anymore though. So the
other day I got a call from the mission office telling me that I need to go
down there on Monday at 10 because all visa waiters need to be refingerprinted,
and so I went and did that this morning. There was about 12 of us, and it took
forever just sitting in the waiting room at the police station. Some of the
sisters had been in the mission 6 months plus. And we heard rumors that when
you go to get fingerprinted it meant that you were getting close. And so they
were all made that us Elders that have only been in the field for 2 months were
there. But we'll see what happens.
So I got funny stories this week. So quick to answer
questions yes it is getting cold. It has snowed once on us but it didn’t stick.
And it rains super often! So we were riding our bikes home to go get food. A
lot of times we get the food dropped off at our house or something like that
and we have to drive through a church parking lot to get home and as we were
riding through I saw a weird green bug on the floor. So my companion turned
around to look at it and as I turned around my bike slid and it just slid out
from under me and I landed right on my belly. Nothing hurt. It was all pretty
Graceful. I just kind of landed on the floor haha! I got pictures. It was
really funny and quite fun but I wasn’t going to try it again! =P
2nd funny story! We are riding our bikes kind of towards
where we were having dinner on Saturday (Everything bad happens around dinner
time apparently!) so as we are riding along I just hear this LOUD BANG!!! And
suddenly I feel a gust of wind and smoke come up in-between my legs! I knew
exactly what had happened. My back tire just exploded. There is this Giant hole
in it, I didn’t run over anything. It just randomly exploded. And so we have
been walking and begging for rides everywhere. My companion says there is a
bike shop that will come pick up the bike. Fix it all up and everything and all
I have to pay for is the cost of materials. For missionaries they don’t charge
for labor. Just my companion hasn’t done it yet. I don’t know why. So when we
got to dinner we were eating with what seemed like a single guy. Super nice and
we had a Great conversation. But he asked us where we wanted to go and my
companion said Fortune Buffet. Which you could imagine was just a Chinese
buffet and so we all ate way too much and we all just felt like throwing up and
taking a nap! Only difference was that he could go take a nap and we still had
2 hours to work! And had to walk our bikes home from the furthest point from
our home! Haha! Good times!
Next I’m going to talk more about food. So one dish that is
very popular in Venezuela is called Arapas. They are a tortilla. But not one of
those flat tortillas. It’s a thick one. And they cut into it and they put food
inside. Meat, Lettuce, butter, sauce, etc. Anything they want! They are SUPER
good! I took a picture of some that we ate! It was really fun at that house cuz
they were helping me with my Spanish. They didn’t give me time to think I would
just talk and whenever I said something wrong he would correct me and then
finish the sentence haha! Super nice guy he is in the Young Men’s.
So Sunday night we got to take the Rubio’s family to Temple
Square. We were really struggling with finding a ride. But we found a ride for
our investigators. They brought the whole family. So there is Emilio and
Raquel. They are the parents. They are
on date for this Sunday. And their son Alejandro and his wife Maria. And they
had their 3 kids with them. So we found them a ride and me and my companion
were going to take the tracks(basically the light rail). When we got on the tracks
we got a call from the people who were going to take them and they thought that
there was going to be 2 cars and they planned on taking the whole family. So we
weren’t exactly sure if they would be able to take them and we were getting on
the tracks anyways. So the family took both of their cars and they just brought
everyone! There was 14 of us with like 5 little kids! Haha it was crazy! So the
Tour went really well. It was bad cuz they thought it was supposed to be in English.
And so they sent us English sisters. But one of them was like its okay I’m from
El Salvador I speak Spanish. So it went over really well and the other sister
just kind of hung out haha! But it went really well and we put Alejandro and Maria
on date for the 27! Whoo! So after wards we had planned on taking the tracks.
We sent them off and started walking to the station. We looked for the schedule
to see when the next one was. A train pulled up. It was a blue train going to
draper and we needed to go to west valley on the green train so we let it go.
We found the schedule. And that was the last train that ran on Sunday night!!! On
every night it runs till midnight. Except for Sunday! So we were stranded in
Downtown Salt Lake City! We started calling people for a ride but it was 845
and NO one was answering their phones. Finally we called one of the WML (Who is
a BOSS) and he said that he could come and get us. So we got home about 920. It
was a super intense night but it was a good one.
So one of the nights this week we had to do a Lesson
exchange with the zone leaders because they speak Spanish. And so I got to go
over to their area for about 2-3 hours. Elder Roberts who is also waiting for
his Visa to Buenos Aires Norte used to be companions with these zone leaders
(same situation I was in) and he just got transferred out to my old zone. so
while I was with Elder Birch we talked in Spanish the whole time and we taught
a inactive lady and talked to one of their investigators and when he dropped me
off he told his companion that he was mad at himself because my Spanish was WAY
better than elder Roberts and that he failed as a trainer. And he just kept
talking about how good my Spanish is. And a lot of people have said how good my
Spanish is compared to our people at 3 months in. So that’s pretty cool! =P
So just a quick report about our investigators. Maria
Castro. She fell off date because she didn’t come to church. She still needs to
be married but we are going over there to talk to them tonight. And she works
on Sunday at a Swap Meet and it closes when it gets cold and so once it closes
she will be able to start coming to church! Then we have the Aburtos. They are
2 kids. We haven’t gotten in to talk to them but they were on date until they didn’t
come to church. The mom is less active and the dad is non member. Basically
from now on we aren’t going to let the parents stand in the way of those kids
salvation. And so we are going to send members to pick them up for church and
try as hard as we can to get into lessons. The parents don’t have a problem
with the kids getting involved, it just seems like they don’t want to do
anything. So we will be seeing them soon. Hopefully good things happen! Hope
things go well this week! Love ya! I pray for all of ya every day!
The Mission Home Borrowed Bike had a Blow Out!
Arapas A Venezuela Tortilla Sandwich
Wait Elder, I see a Cool Green Bug
Rubio's Trip to the Salt Lake Temple
