I just though about this but I need a plaque scripture and Im
thinking 1 Corinthian 13-11, look it up haha. The quote of the week is
from Elder Hammond in my district and he said "Missionaries are like
Jedi because youre not allowed to love but you can use the force (the
Spirit).
Something we do every day is teach practice
investigators. It is really awesome because we practice teaching lessons
two or three times a day. It is a lot of awesome practice and the
entire lesson has to be in Spanish. We have some that are progressing
investigators and we teach 5 or 6 times and then at nights we have a one
time lesson. We are getting new progressing investigators this week so
that is going to be awesome.
So last week for p day(its more
like p couple of hours) we have two hours to walk around the city and
explore. We got completos but they didn´t even have hotdogs in them. It
was like this brisket stuff so we are going to continue our search for a
real completo this week. We walked around the city and honestly it
didn't feel too much different from any American city. The drivers
didn't really care if they hit you and the pedestrians don't really care
if they get hit. After that we got to go to the temple. While we were
waiting for the session to start I was able to clutch a 20 minute nap in
the waiting room. It was awesome, it is about the same size as the
Columbia temple. It was a really good break and we go every two weeks so
I'll get to go again next week. The goal for today's p day is to find a
soccer jersey so I can channel my soccer skills into beating the
Latinos.
So we got a new mission president (which is weird
because they serve for 3 years so they don't change very often). The way
I met him was pretty funny. Me and my companion go into the cafeteria
to eat and everyone is wearing suits(and we are just in our short sleeve
white shirts) getting ready to sing to the mission president when he
walks in. So we both sprint back to our room(A good 10 minutes away on
foot) and change into our suits real quick and start sprinting back.
When we get to the door the President and his wife were walking in so we
said hi and shook their hands. After that we had to turn the corner and
sprint the rest of the way to the cafeteria to sing to the President.
By this time we were both sweating buckets, but we were the first
missionaries to meet the President so it was worth it.
So
something about Spanish is that their "b's" and "v's" are
interchangeable so they use either sound when they feel like it or
something. Anyone learning Spanish I have a couple phrases you're going
to want to learn:
Comó se dice .... en español? (How do you say.... in spanish?)
Comó? (What?)
No sé (I don't know)
Me olvido (I forgot)
Uno vez más, pero más lentos (One more time, slower)
These are all pretty crucial to learning Spanish and being successful in speaking like a native.
Something
we do every morning is go play either basketball or soccer. Usually the
gringos play basketball and the Latinos play soccer, but somehow in a
longer story the basketball got stolen. So now the gringos play soccer. I
just want to say I scored a goal (it hit me and went the right
direction) and as a result I am an honorary Latino. Usually the Latinos
are laughing too hard at the gringos to play but sometimes we can get
good games in.
Every morning they wake us up promptly at 6:45
by very loudly playing Christian soul music. It is pretty interesting
because I'm not sure where they got the music but it has to be from a
deep south Baptist Church.
Another adventure I had was when we
were going to personal study but the building was locked. This was no
problem however because one of the windows was not locked. I slipped the
window open and popped in. I pretty much became a hero by opening the
doors, so no big deal.
Another thing is that a group is
leaving the MTC and in the group is Elder Cachari and Elder Mendoza. I'm
going to be sad to see them go and I want to go with them haha, but I
have another month.
One thing we do as missionaries a lot is
pray. We must pray at least 20 times a day. This is not something I'm
used to. I prayed before I came but not this much. Another thing with
prayer is we focus a lot more on having a conversation with our Heavenly
Father instead of rattling off a list of things we want like a
Christmas list. I think everyone should read Enos and follow his example
of desire to talk with God everytime they prayer. He "wrestled" wtih
god. It really changes the prayer and how you feel after. Also something
that is important is to listen after you pray. Instead of getting up as
soon as you're done and forgetting everything, stay on your knees for a
minute and just listen. It really changes your prayers.
Love you all!!
Elder Cheney
