Sunday, April 6, 2014

Oily noodles, smelly mattress, and rats :)

I have really enjoyed the change to my new area! Even though my situation with investigators didn`t improve I really like just having change. In the mission it is really the only thing that there is to look forward to. Especially here because we have so many rules and can`t really do hardly anything on pdays. But we did find something really cool! We have bowling lanes here in Resistencia and we are going to go there Monday! (As far as why I haven`t written until now that is because this last Monday was a holiday so our pday was postponed until today)
 The people here in this area are in general richer. We are more in the center of the city here and people own their own houses instead of government paid for viviendas. Fontana was basically a city of those viviendas. We eat with members about half the week. We can`t ask members to give us lunch we have to hope that they sign up for the calendar, they only sign up some because they have only a little money and will sign up when they can give food. We do usually have tacos every Saturday with hna Lugo!! It is super awesome!! I ate tacos with her for only like the fifth time in my whole mission and I think they were the best I have had here and she makes a ton! The Lugo family reminds me a lot of the Puladas family (Barbara). Here we mostly receive aceite (oil) with a little noodles. It is pretty gross and I would rather just buy my own food because you can buy noodles for like 10 pesos and I could make better noodles just by not putting so much aceite. I feel bad sometimes because I don`t like the oil noodle concoction but It is just sickening (It has been making me sick). I never am mean but I always pray to not have oily noodles for my next lunch. We have a joke that the people hear just take their bottle of aceite and pour it in giant circles and say here is more aceite! And the sad thing is they sometimes do that, haha
I have definitely learned a lot of patience. I can see situations that happen where previously I would have gotten angry or something but now I just take it for what it is and try to make the best of it. Also I have learned a lot about the value of having time to do stuff and to be able to live where we live. I have seen the other side now and I will always be much more grateful for what I have. It is something that you really can`t fully appreciate until you have experienced the opposite. But we really live good lives and I really miss it at times. Also my favorite thing of all that I have learned (but kind of already knew) is that I really truly have the best family ever! I know that that just sounds like a cliché statement but it is so very true. I think about and hear about other missionaries and their relationships with their family and it makes me sad because they don`t have near as good of a relationship as we do. They talk about how they maybe hear from their families once in a month and it is just superficial stuff like how is the weather. They never really spent time with their family and a lot don`t even miss their families. I can see a huge difference between them and us. I find that being away from you guys is the hardest part of the whole mission. You are all my best friends and no one could take the place of any one of you! I think of my relationship between each one of us and I am very grateful for each one and I can`t wait to see each one of you!

YES Nathan, plain yes, haha I miss all the awesomeness of America and I have to fight with every single Latino because they can`t accept the fact that yes it is America and we are Americans. Today when we went to the Hyper (big mall like store where the bowling is) we passed through a part of town that looked a lot nicer with all cement roads and sidewalks that were level and stuff that made it look like America and it made me want to be there! I miss you guys, the variety of food or just in general, the higher standard of living, the cleanliness. 
Right now we don`t have many investigators but we have picked a couple up. We have Milagros who was a reference from Elder Perez. She is cool. I think that she still has lots of potential though. The biggest problem with her is that her parents are really weird and I hope that they give her permission to get baptized we talked with her mom for the first time yesterday about letting her go to church and it was this big ordeal about how she already has a religion and that she is catholic but when we asked if it was ok if she went to church she would say yes but that she doesn`t want her going to every church and not making up her mind. The thing is she never wanted to go to the Catholic Church so I laid it out strait and said so you just want her to pick which church she wants to go to and not go to a lot of churches? And she said yes then I asked Milagros which church she wants to go to and the mom started saying, well obviously she is going to pick your church, haha I was laughing and the craziness she was saying. 

We also have an old lady that we met by clapping houses. Her name is Juana. Her son is a member but he died from a heart attack or something like that a while ago. She wants to go to the church and get to know it but says that she wants time so we will see how everything goes with her. She did give us a whole bunch of books from her son. I think he collected every single book that the church owns. We now have a huge library in our pensh. We also have every single liahona from 2004-20013. 

We have one other investigator whose name is Juan. He is cool and he always salutes us when we pass by. He has a phobia of going to church though... He also says that he needs time before he will go there, that he just wants to read and have the charlas. We will see how it goes with him.

We now have moved the other elders out of our pensh and back into theirs next door. It is a ton cleaner and it is easier to move around, cook, sleep, relax, everything, haha. Plus it smells a ton better. One of the other elders has a mattress that stinks like no other. It is covered in dust and just plain nasty. I don`t know why he doesn`t call the office to replace it but I am just happy it has left my pensh. It was one of the biggest causes of smell. Plus that elder liked to put his stuff all over (especially my desk) and sleep on my bed and it would leave wet marks and it was disgusting. So I am happy they are in their own apartment but we still get to hang out. Now they just aren`t invading our space and making a mess, haha

There were also two rats that were living among the filth of our pensh. They were in the oven and when I went to get a pan out I found them. We had a crazy fight to kill them similar to the last two I killed, I have it on video and will send it when I get the chance, and it is really funny!



I love you all very much and can`t wait to hear from you next week! Bueno Monday!!!

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