October 13th, 2014
So... Another week!
One of the ¨perks¨of being the District Leader´s companion, is the opportunity to go on intercambios with our other missionaries in the district. These splits are usually inconvenient, uncomfortable, and just not fun.
This last week Elder Bodily went with Elder Coc in his area, and Elder Valdez came with me in our area. He´s 100% Dominican! Thus, it was a fun-filled time of 24 hours trying to understand the guy. Hes a good person, and of course we got along just fine, but some of his excentricities made me glad we were only companions for the day. He has 6 months in the mission, and is still in training! The president kept him there because he simply wont do anything. Unfortunatly there are a lot of ¨dead¨missionaries like that. And plenty of them in our Zone. At night Elder Valdez set up some speakers he brought, and plugged in his Hymns, which of course were in Spanish. And like every other Dominican, the music was incredibly loud! That was super fun to study to in the morning! All that really istnt anything to complain about, but there were some hygienical differences that raised some red flags! The guy was allways spitting, in the streets, everywhere, which isnt too uncommon here. But he was also always farmer blowing, and snott-rocketting... IN THE HOUSE! I dont have the social tact to confront a person about a situation like this in English let alone in Spanish... Im just glad he was sleeping in Bodily´s bed, and not mine! So I thought I´d judt share with you that interesting experience. Looking forward to many more intercambios.
Our Zone, Los Restauradores, is kind of full of ¨Tigs¨and disobedient missionaries. We dont have any Sister missionaries to keep us in line! I wish we did. As an example of the ¨tigaraje¨in our Zone, our last meeting, we talked alot about some of the fairly recent rules regarding what we can and cant do on P-days. Things are much more restrictive now than they once were, and many missionaries are having a hard time adjusting. At the close of the meeting, Elder Ponce, from our district, got up to the pulpit, and admonished every one to fast and pray for the President to change his mind about the rule, saying something like, Ï believe in God, but I dont believe President is making the right choices¨... HA! Talk about apostisy! Our Zone leader had to get up and say that we´re not dong that. So yeah, thats our Zone right now. The ZLs even have a sign in their house that says ¨Los Restauradores, El Mejor Zona¨ to which one of them added to the word ¨mejor¨the suffix ändo¨which then reads, ¨Los Resauradores, The Bettering Zone¨ acknowledging our need for improvement. The President will actually be coming up to give us all interviews this week. Which will be awesome, cause this Zone needs a good kick in the rear end. And trust me, Im not a crazy ¨flecha¨missionary, who is super, annoyingly obedient. Im just a normal missionary, who loves the work. But trust me, this Zone needs improvment.
So, Elder Bodily makes these really cool agenda covers, and has taught me how to make them using contact paper, thread and photos of our choice. I just made mine today using Caravaggio´s Ïnspiration of Saint Matthew¨for the front, and for the back, the Chi-Rho, symbolizing Christ, from the Book of Kells. That was for all you Art History geeks (Shalise)
Anywho, Thanks a bunch for everything! I love you all!
