Week 12: PHOTOBOMB AWAY‏

I don't think I have any photobomb pictures, but I call it that because, well, I've got a lot of pictures today.

I mentioned these two in week 10. The hermano is an honest miracle, as well as his daughter. They make baptisms two and three for me!

A "Libro de Recuerdos" that I put together. Other missionaries write in it or I put stuff I find in it. It will be fun to look through after the mission.

SO WE GOT TRANSFERS TODAY!

And my new compa is Elder W. He's got 15 or so months to his name, and speaks really good Spanish. Basically, we'll be speaking very little English.

Life is feeling a lot more normal for me now, and now that I've completed the first transfer (got myself an achievement for doing so!), I'm feeling pretty confident. I'm still in N, if anyone was wondering if I'd gone somewhere new or anything like that. Nope. That'll happen next time.

And I completely forgot all the questions that everyone had. BUT that's okay - the pictures should keep you all occupied long enough in order for y'all to forgive me.

Especially the one with the ghost in it.

Pues... well, we had no baptisms on Sunday - but we did have 5 possibles by the end of the week. By which I mean we started with three, got two more, then all 5 more or less fell flat, which, to be honest, was quite disappointing.

Especially since I had to carry around all the baptismal things all around the N area yesterday.

Oh well.

SO THAT'S ABOUT IT. Unless your a part of my nuclear family.

LATER.

Week 11: This is Way Too Short‏

District Box: Well, we're almost done with our first Transfer. Good job, all!
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Okay, I'll have to send y'all the pictures next week, because today, we are way to pressed for time. It just means that you'll have a lot of pictures to admire.

Also, we saw two baptisms this week - which, to be completely honest, was great and proof of the power of the Gospel. I'll tell y'all why later.

And also, evidently today is my Birthday. Or at least, the people at Chili's thought so. So I got cake.

...Yeah...

Alright, that's it for this week. Sorry!

Elder N

Week 10: Why That's Impossible and the Box That Everyone From District 62B Ought to Read‏

Not really a box, but if you're from my MTC District, read this 'cause this is the only way I can respond to y'all.

I've been entertaining myself in harder times (like when I have to wake up at 5:30 to prepare to help other Elders in the Zone to bring their investigators to Church) by remembering all of your terrified faces and comments during my evil and maniacal laughs. I'm surpressing one right now.

But continuing in seriousness, I think that we all need to meet with each other after the mission.

In Kansas. In winter.

This concludes your District Box for the week. Keep up the good work!

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Now to the regularly scheduled E-Mail.

Okay, so I've got one or two pictures for y'all this week 'cause there weren't any baptisms yesterday - just five confirmations.

IT'S THE BATHROOM. Also, side note: Angry Birds, Plants vs. Zombies, and The Simpsons are more or less everywhere around here. And I mean EVERYWHERE.

IT'S THE MAIN ROOM! Specifically, my desk. ...Yup. ...Huh.

So anyways, the significance behind the title of "Why That's Impossible." E. V thinks I'll be married two months after the mission - 2 weeks to look for a girlfriend, two weeks to date her, one month to plan the Temple sealing and the other things that marriage involves (like cake. I hear there's cake involved in marriage), and at the end of that second month, I'm sealed. But, as we all know, that's impossible, and there's a reason for that: I can still count on two hands how many dates I've been on.

IN MY LIFE.

That and President Hinckley said "Marry in haste, have a lifetime to repent" or something like that.

MOVING ON BECAUSE THAT IS A WEIRD SUBJECT...

Regarding the deletion of my Tumblr, DESTROY IT ALL and just leave a message for 24 hours or so that says I'm loving the mission, everyone should call up their local Missionaries and get baptized, and that each blog will be viciously destroyed by 1000 Angry Suns from Super Mario Bros. 3. You know the ones I'm talking about. Also you don't need to say that specifically, but either way, just let whatever followers I have left know that their favorite blog will soon be nothing but reset binary code and human memories.

Flawed. Human. Memories.

Also my (insert clothing article here) is doing fine, but some of my white shirts are already stained. Turns out, suncscreen stains white.

I've also been blessed to see the power of the Gospel in a person's life this week - and I feel as if any attempt to describe it in the limited time I have left will do it no justice. So I"ll talk about it during a General Conference talk or something like that. If I'm ever a General Authority, that is.

Speaking of which, we got a lot of investigators this week - one of them being a guy named D who lived in the States for 12 years and is back here. So, naturally, he knows pretty good English and Spanish (since he was born in Mexico), so we taught him the Billingual Version of the Plan of Salvation. We taught him about the Fall, and he said - without us needing to tell him - that it seemed like it was necessary for the Fall to happen.

Astonishment from both Elder V (who, I think I failed to mention, hails from T and likes sports) followed.

Let's see... what else... I think I might've accidentally permanently redesigned the Jij, literal familial brothers. Oops. I'll probably send a letter with their new design. Don't hate me. Also I saw a little statue today that reminded me of the little baby Weeping Angels in that one Doctor Who episode. I was a little creeped out.

SOOOOOOOOO I think that's more or less it for this week - although it's hard to believe that I'm more or less already 10% done with the Mission - not exactly, as it's 104 weeks long and not 100 weeks long, but still - It's practically 9.5% or something like that (no I didn't do the math - but you can't sue me for laziness. At least, not in regards to that).

Also, I don't need to buy as much water any more, so that's good.

Okay, I'm going to write the Family-Only part of the e-mail now.

LATER, Y'ALL.

Week Nine: PIZZA'S ON THE SEVENTY and Missionary Childcare Services‏

So this week was pretty interesting... I'll show some of it by way of pictures.

My comp celebrated his nine-month anniversary (I just barely completed my two-month), so we bought this hulking beast. And then the next night, an Area Seventy bought us one of these as well.

And four liters of soda.

AND CAN YOU SAY FIRST CONVERT BAPTISM? I thought so. Although M (since that's her name) learned more or less everything in O, we found her working, and she mentioned how she was taught by missionaries and went to Church and then she went to Conference and then she got baptised and then here we are.

I baptised these two (Hermana's work again) on Saturday. This is where the Childcare comes in - all the missionaries had to keep all eyes we had and more on these two while their parents filled out papers and things. They were handfuls, but fun to be around, too.

And then I set up these things: a calender to see how far I've gotten and a set of goals that I want to achieve (in the form of Acheivements. I've gotten two).

Bueno bueno bueno.

So I was only able to really watch the final session of conference - we're prohibited from watching any Saturday sessions, and on Sunday morning, nobody told me until AFTER the session that Conference came in English. I could barely understand anything in the Spanish version - as it turns out, my brain doesn't like seeing English but hearing Spanish.

Speaking of which, one of the things I've missed most, as I said last week, is English.

I really enjoyed all the talks, but of course, Elder Holland's talk is the one that's stuck with me the most, especially the phrase "Hope on. Journey on." I really want to make that my motto. Conference really inspired me this time around, and has also greatly changed the way I'm looking at the mission. Instead of looking back with longing, I'm looking forward with Hope. Instead of looking at how far I've yet to go, I'm looking at how far I've gotten. And sooner than I'll want, I'll be at home.

And when that happens, the first thing I'm doing is sleeping in.

On purpose.

Later!

Week Eight: Robin, Get me the Bat Book of Bat Idioms!

Date: Mon, 1 Apr 2013 17:42:06 -0600

Week Eight because we just finished Week Eight. Picture time:

Remember this guy, Dad? Served in your Zone in Salina Cruz. You've probably already gotten an e-mail from him (Javier Uribe). It was nice being able to talk about someone that knows you. We ate Lunch with him.

The local Catholics, every Easter, do an Easter Pageant in timing with the actual Easter. E. V and I saw these guys, so naturally, we had to take pictures with them. And then I bought this: 

Hot dog, Oaxaca cheese, american cheese, pinapple, more... man, that thing was delicious.

Now, on to the Idioms. Last night, on the way to Comida (the meal we have with the members), we were driving down a hill that I thought I'd have to climb back up, while wearing my suit, in high heat. As we were driving, my mind randomly came up with "SWEET LOWERED EXPECTATIONS I'M GOING TO DIE."

Sweet lowered expectations? I don't even.

Anyways, I didn't have to climb back up 'cause the members we ate with drove us to a house where two investigators who once lived in Utah and had been attending Church for, I think, three years, lived. So, E. V interviewed them and then this happened:

Yup. Baptism! I didn't have extra undergarments with me, but still, baptism. And yes, it was the Sisters that taught them. Everyone we were/are teaching was on vacation or something. Hopefully they're all back by now.

Idiom 2: turns out, M does Daylight Savings Time as well. I learned that at the Baptism. So, after saying I don't know how to say this in Spanish, said, "I thought I dodged that bullet!" The guy investigator, who knew enough English to talk with me, asked what it meant, so then I taught him the meaning.

It was so nice talking with someone in English. You all don't even know.

So those were the idioms. I also ate hot wings today - I almost died because I got the spiciest kind - Atomic. Sad thing is, there's no level between Cajun and Atomic - Cajun isn't spicy enough, but I need to consume about two cans of Sprite before I can breathe again after a bite of the Atomic. I lost my appetite afterwards.

I also had my second experience with a drunk this week - he wanted to fight us, but then we ran, and then I was scared, but then we never saw him again and then we lost an investigator as a result. Le sigh...

That's it for all y'all this week - like I said, everyone was on Vacation, and I've been spending more or less all my money on Water and Transportation. But mostly water.

Probably around 100 pesos worth of water was bought last week. And Water's typically only around 5-7 pesos here.

...thinking about it, that's probably an underestimate.

I also think I had diarrhea, but it's all good now (DON'T YOU DARE WORRY, MOM. DON'T. YOU. DARE.). I don't think I drank the water... and Elder H, before you ask, "But did you though?", YOU WASN'T WIT' ME SHOOTIN' IN THE GYM!

Also, J, if you could delete my Tumblr,  that'd be great. Also clear my Skype contacts, leaving only you, Boo, J, Mom, Dad, and... I think that's about it. ...Yup. Thanks!

Adios!