March 19, 2012

hey mom!

well this week wasn´t too much fun to be honest. so yeah i did end up getting a new companion, and things just aren´t really good. so yeah his name is elder aguilar, and he´s from mexico. he´s actually only 18, i´m almost a year older than him, and he has about a month more in the mission than me. so we´re both brand new, so things are really tough. to be completely honest, it already feels like i´m a better teacher. my spanish is really holding me back, but i feel like if i could speak like a native does, i could teach better. maybe that´s a little prideful, but he just does some things that i really don´t understand. maybe it´s cause he is so young, or he had a bad trainer, or something, i don´t know. but there are a lot of like little common sense or courtesy items that he doesn´t do, and it´s really irritating. most of it is just little things, but they all add up pretty quick. he doesn´t go to bed on time, or get up on time, barely studies in the morning. plus he listens to music that´s just super horrible, it´s bad even for non-missionaries. i´m trying not to get after him for everything and just get over it, but like just this morning i asked him to turn his music down, so he does just one click. he blasts it, and so the whole town can here, and i´m about ready to explode. i let it slide, but if it happens again i´m gonna say something. and then he never lets me talk when we teach either. we really have had lessons where i´ve said nothing. i should probably speak up, but i don´t feel like my spanish is strong enough to just interpose, i still need some help, but he won´t give it to me. when i do finally just say something, hoping it´s right, he just takes it right back as soon as he can. it´s like that one calvin and hobbes comic strip, where calvin is talking about how conversations are like a game, and whenever you can stop someone´s thought and put in your own you get a point, or i think that´s how it goes anyway. but yeah he steals it whenever he can, so i get super frustrated. and then he tells me how bad he thinks the week went, so i told him we need to share the lessons more, but that same day he just dominates. i don´t know, maybe this change i´m just supposed to learn patience, but it´s hard with an area that has no success, a super difficult companion, still a new language. oh well, i´ll endure it, but it should be the longest six weeks of my life.

but on a more happy note, so last week we went to portobelo for pday. it´s basically like this old coastal defense system, with like walls and cannons and towers and everything. it´s super sweet. so we walked around there for the day, and it was fun. and i guess there, they believe Jesus is black, so in one of these big churches there´s just a black Jesus statue, and it´s super weird. i took some pictures and i´ll try to send them. there was also this little monkey tied up and some lady´s house, and so we got to play with it. he was friendly enough, and so he let you touch him, and he would like swing on your arm and stuff, it was funny. i was taking some pictures of him, and he just decided he wanted my camera, so he grabbed the little wrist strap thing and almost took it from me, but i held on for dear life haha, it was kinda freaky, but funny too. so yeah that was pday last week, and i think today we´re going to the canal, so it should be fun!

we also had divisions a bunch this week too, i´m not sure why, but both the district and zone leaders wanted to, so i got to have two gringo companions this week. it was a ton of fun. for 8 weeks now i´ve wanted to just talk to someone, but haven´t been able to, so it was fun to just talk in english and have fun. it´s probably bad, since i really should be talking spanish all the time, but i just get frustrated, and so i had to take the opportunity haha. plus my companion now doesn´t ever talk, so we just walk down the street in silence and it´s super awkward. so yeah i´m not gonna be learning too much spanish this change cause he won´t talk to me.

i´m glad you guys got to have a little break. i actually miss yellowstone, and after the mission i´ll just drive and sit as much as dad wants haha. as far as the package goes, i´m not really expecting to get it for like 3 more weeks haha, just between travel time and when the zone leaders go to Panamá City to get mail, things are pretty slow, but i´ll be sure to let you know when i get it!

so not a very exciting email again, i´m sorry. i´m still struggling, and so it´s hard to find some good stuff to tell. but i´ll survive, i have learned a lot so it´s all good. but yeah i better run, i hope everyone has a good week!

much love,
elder paskett