February 27, 2012

hey mom!
well this week wasn´t too exciting. we don´t have any investigators, so no stories really to tell about people progressing. it´s kinda hard, all we do is contact, which just means walking for miles in the scorching sun and humidity, trying to find people to listen. but really no one wants to. people are generally nice and will let us in, so we share a quick message, but then no one wants us to come back. and contacting isn´t my favorite thing to do, cause i don´t know how to talk ¨normally,¨ in that i mean basically my vocabulary is church based, so it´s really a struggle to try and just talk with people. and it´s even harder cause i do want to talk, i do want to just chat with people, show people that i´m not just some gringo, but i can´t, and it´s really frustrating. i think this first area is a blessing though. the Lord knew that i could stand the walking, it´s not fun, but i can do it. even the heat, it´s not bad enough that i just quit. and the food, it´s weird, and not what i´m used to at all, but at least i haven´t been forced to eat anything too weird, like pigs feet or something gross like that. the Lord knew how much of a struggle the language would be, and my companion, so it seems like he let me ease myself in with the other things. and i´m super grateful for that. i don´t know what i would do if i had to eat weird things or had one more trial like that put on me. so yeah things are rough for sure, but i´m also sure they could be worse.
if one thing has come out of my first few weeks, is an appreciation for the little things. things like a clean house, and mom, i´m really sorry that i ever left dishes out or things on the counter, cause it drives me crazy here haha. my companion is a mess. so there are bugs everywhere, but then my companion spills food on the counter so all the bugs just eat it, and it´s gross. i cleaned it once awhile ago, but my companion wrecked it again so i gave up haha. things like running water, we hardly ever have that so it´s really annoying. even things just like nature. i never really liked just looking at nature, and this is probably gonna sound cheesy, but i enjoy just looking at the stars or all the flowers and stuff. i like taking pictures of things and all that. so yeah i don´t feel like the language is coming really, but at least i´ve learned to appreciate a few things :)
things are kinda getting hard with my companion. i just am getting frustrated with him. it´s hard cause he is my trainer, and has been out longer and knows a lot more than me, but just some of the things he does i don´t agree with. there´s a name for the latino elders that aren´t obedient, they call them ponchetas, and it´s sad, but a good majority of the latino elders just aren´t obedient. things like using headphones, sleeping in, little things like that. but my companion isn´t a complete ponch, he´s actually really good comparitively, but still a few things drive me up the wall. he lets me teach things, which is good, i need to learn, but he just kinda looks at me, expects me to teach something, so i do my best, but then he just goes back and teaches everything in his own way, and personally i don´t know why or see the point. maybe i just don´t understand something, but it´s weird. and we have pmg, and i know we´re supposed to teach people, not lessons, but we´ve never taught an entire lesson in pmg. and we don´t need to every time, but he just likes to use the pamphlets that we have and expects them to get a testimony out of a pamphlet, which doesn´t seem right to me. so i don´t know, maybe i´ll learn these things are right, but right now they irritate me. we have changes next week, and president has told me on more than one occasion that i´ll be getting a new companion, so i really hope that´s true. i don´t mean to bag on my companion, but i need a change.
a couple of interesting things did happen this week though. i´ll start with the good. so this was our second time teaching someone, which is rare, but we hadn´t been there for maybe a little more than a week, but she complimented me on my spanish and told me i´m learning fast, so that was good. it´s always nice to get some outside reassurance :) so that was good, and a kind of medium thing, probably more on the good side, we were teaching another lady, also the second time, and she said that it looked like i´ve lost weight, so i can´t really complain about that haha. but now for the bad things. so we were talking to a less-active family, and as we were leaving, they have this dog right? and he was just kinda sitting there, but as we were walking by he just flipped and attacked me. so i ended up getting bit by this dog, but then my companion chased it away. but before you start freaking out, it really wasn´t too bad. it only punctured in like 2 places, but didn´t really bleed. it hurt like the devil though. the rest of the night i was not happy haha. but oh well, i survived, and it´s a good story at least :) next dog though that tries to attack me i´m gonna kick it as hard as i can, that´s not gonna happen again haha. and then in another lesson, there was some bird in the rafters, and just my luck he decided to poop on me. only on my shirt, but i wasn´t too happy about that either haha. so i just changed my shirt, so no big deal, but still haha.
so that´s more or less my week. as far as my plaque, i´ve found a ton of good scriptures, but the one that´s stuck with me the longest is ether 3:26. that story is just my favorite. with the oil for the clippers, it´s not a huge deal, i´ll survive. really don´t feel like you have to make this a big deal or feel like you need to give me everything, i´m getting along just fine. with the music, president says anything that´s tranquil is fine, and with a flash drive i really think it´ll work, my old ipod doesn´t work right anyway i don´t think, i think the sound is funny, but maybe you can try it and find out for sure. but my companion just has a flash drive and speakers with a usb port, so i can just ask him where he got the speakers and should be fine. and i don´t think there´s itunes on any of these computers so i can´t use that. with the molas, they just stitch stuff on, so it´s not a big deal, just as plain as you can find work the best i think, and probably just one or two, i guess you can buy white ties at the temple here, but i don´t know when we´ll go to the temple, but yeah from distribution works well i think, and maybe just one or two would be good. and everyone says that putting pictures of Jesus or the Virgin Mary on the box really does work. i don´t know for sure, and maybe you can research that a bit, but yeah just saying.
so i think that about wraps it up. nothing too interesting to tell. still just trying to plug along the best i can. i really do appreciate all the prayers and support, i definitely couldn´t do this without ´em! i hope everyone and everything is going well! until next week!
much love,
elder paskett