Mongolito!

me and elder natera

Wow!! i actually have things to say this week! this week has been.....well, more than a poco loco!! so first off, Monday night was awful! we didn't get light until about 430 in the morning, and it was a HOT night, more than usual. so we didn't sleep at all.Tuesday, i woke up, Jones kinda did, but fell back asleep. i was gonna let him sleep a bit longer since we didn't get ANY sleep, so i started to make me some eggs for breakfast, and lo and behold i hear at about 7 o'clock "elder Jone's, wake up.....elder Jone's, wake up!!" and see the head of elder keys in the window, one of the assistants!!

super.

 

So, the assistants come and look though our stuff for contraband and such, and then talk to us a bit. later in the day, we get a call....special transfer! didn't know where or if both of us were leaving, so we both had to pack our stuff up. (in candle light, mind you. we didn't get light again until about 1 am.  we had to drive with the assistants Wednesday morning to Azua, about an hour drive, to a conference because that's where the president was. we both had special interviews with the pres. it was hard, he asked really weird questions that i didn't really understand. all about Jones, if he sleeps in alot, if he has a girlfriend, if he has an ipod, all sorts of stuff. i kinda confused him too, because there is a lady in our ward, our baptism last month, Esmeralda, and she is IN LOVE with Jones. has given him 3 love letters (they were very poetic! i will give her that ! haha) and the president confused her with a girl in Jones previous area, haina. SO, Jones goes in, clears it all up, but we still get special transferred. Jones told the pres about the love letter in our weekly email to the pres, but he doesn't read all of them. but he doesn't want anything bad to happen so Jones was transferred to Azua (which is compo...meaning, the boonies. Jones had spent the first 20 months of his mission in the capital!) and i get a native companion names Elder Natera and go back to San Cristobal. 

me, layi, her hubbie alexis, and my comp elder natera

 

SO. aye.. since Wednesday its been ONLY Spanish. i still have a headache...man, its SO hard. its hard to communicate, and to try and show him the area, and the members, and the investigators all in Spanish, and explain what we have and have not taught them and such. aye. mostly i just still cant really understand much. i can say alot more than i can understand. but anyway, REAL transfers are tomorrow, and I'm staying here still with elder natera, elder Jones is going back to the capital, haha. his ENTIRE mission except one week in azua will be in the capital! one kid in my zone, elder grant, is going to office elder. that's about it. 

layi, alexi, the kids

 

Anywho, we had a marriage on Friday!! Her name is Layi . it was super weird. it was basically 10 min in a room, signing papers, a kiss, and we left. strange! but then Saturday we had her baptism! we wanted her husband to do it, but he has been inactive for a long time, and also had not been ordained to a priest, so, he couldn't do it. so i did. afterwards, we had a party for her baptism and her wedding! a cake and all. it was really cool. she is awesome, she had been taking the lessons for over a year. but couldn't get married because of a problem with her papers. one of her kids said that her (the mom) name was Laibi, but its Laivi (know, that in Spanish, the V and B are almost entirely interchangeable, and are switched. usually, the b makes a v sound and vise versa) and we finally got it all finished! but that's all the news i have for now, ill send pics!

elder youknowwho!

It's not Christmas yet!

Not much new again this week! i had my first intercambio with a Dominican! with one of our zone leaders, in my area. it was crazy! super hard. trying to communicate with him and explain what we have taught to the people that we had lessons with. and talking in 100% Spanish the entire day made my head hurt....luckily elder suero is one of the Dominicans that i can understand the best. it was a long day though! i felt super inadequate. aye. but, it was good! really good experience and helped me gauge where my Spanish was. not good, not good at all. he had to teach most all the lessons. but, thats about all i have to say....haha.

dariel, a member. suuper funny kid

We have a marriage this week! on Friday, Layi and her espouse get married, and then she gets baptized on sat! her esposo is already a member. then in 2 weeks we have the baptism of a kid named foster, his sister is a member and has 2 bros on the mish. we have not gotten any more real investigators for awhile. its lame, but, were working on it! oh, and this is the last week of transfers! so next Monday will probably be my last week with my dear old dad!! crazy man. crazy. any who, i sent a few pics, i didn't realize how few i took....ill make sure to load up this week! love you all!!
'Elder Bubbby
 PS, EVERYONE is putting up Christmas decorations. everyone. an investigator has a singing Christmas tree outside his house. NOT COOL

oscar, nephew of dariel...cutest little kid in the world!

oscar again, looking guilty!

Hi!

OK, so this week we had a couple unusual things. first, we went to the temple on Tuesday!! it was awesome, but, it was all in Spanish. lets just say it was SUPER hard to do all in Spanish....aye. but, cool none the less. then, on Thursday we had a random meeting in la paz in the capital. all the trainers and kids. so, that was weird. it was pretty much the president talking about how alot of kids are trained bad and they don't know it, and about all sorts of things that we cant do and such. it was good, but it was pretty much a 2 hour long lecture to all the trainers and kids. so that was a little strange. other than that nothing special. we have been having a hard time the last 2 weeks to get alot of member present lessons, because all of the kids that usually come with us are all in school when we teach. so, its super hard to get people to leave with us.

we have 3 baptisms coming up, 2 of them need to get married. layi, she has all her papers ready (her ¨husband¨is already a member, so we are re activating him!) and should be baptized and married on the 23rd. victor, he is probably about 50, is working on getting all his papers, but he has been super sick, completely bed ridden for the last week. so we gave him a blessing and he is doing a little better. speaking of which, we have given a record of 5 blessings so far in these 2 transfers. most missionaries don't do that many in their entire missions. but the members here are kinda weird, they wont ask men in the ward to give them, only the missionaries. they thing we have more ¨power¨and such. i dunno. people depend on the missionaries WAY too much here. but, i guess that's why they are sending a bunch here!! haha.

This week has been pretty good other than that. its been really hot. aye. raining at night, getting hot in the day so its just SUPER humid, aye aye aye. i wish i could have fall time here, its my favorite time of year!! also, randomly a BUNCH of people have started to put up Christmas decorations! lame. its making me crabby, wont like. its the beginning of October! why Christmas!! lame. any who, that's all i have to say this week! and no pictures, this computer is WAY too lame to send pics...sorry! ill send a bunch next week!

Wild Penguins!

i kinda look good....

Tuesday, i was super sick. i had the flow downs like never before!! aye. so we just sat in the house all day, which was good and bad. good day for it to happen since it rained all day, but bad because we had like 18 lessons planned. ( not like we would actually teach 18, people are never home) but Wednesday we went to all those ppl and asked if we could pass by on Thursday when we had a member that could leave with us. but its been raining again alot of the week so we could not get members! i dunno if i told you, but in this mission we don't even tally non-member present lessons, we only count them if a member is present. SO, that sucked. we taught alot of lessons, but only 15 with a member. lame.

CODE RED MTN DEW and a Red Bull for my 4 month mark! mix those two together and its like heaven!!

We got mail on Thursday! which was lame, it was supposed to come the Thurs before, but the kept calling saying that "something happened" and that they would come tomorrow. they said that for a week. it was super frustrating!! so ya. that was cool. other than that nothing really exciting this week, besides conference!! so the stake center is like a 40ish min walk from us. i was hoping to watch it in English. no such luck. the thing is that we can only go Saturday if we have an investigator come, the president and area president want us to work if no investigator can come, and they had problems with all the Americans going and watching it in English and leaving investigators alone, it just didn't look good. so last conference the pres said NO English room. there was one set up, but Saturday we didn't want any problems so watched it in Spanish and i got nothing from it....we only went to the morning session. we had to work during the afternoon to try and get our numbers up.

elder  bagley is really stoked that we have to watch conference in spanish...

me and elder bagley having a good time on pday today...

We are not allowed to go to priesthood session because it is on from 8-10 here, and we have to be in the house no later than 930. so that doesn't work. Sunday, was psycho. Jones sat with the other missionaries and investigators and me, elder bagley, and elder Jacobs (in my group) went to the English room so we could understand for the first session. kinda. the tv was in English, but the speaker in the ceiling was on and in Spanish, so we could barely understand it even in English.  but, no more seats in the actual chapel so people started to come in our room. so they were struggling to hear the Spanish and we were struggling to hear the English. i would have changed it to Spanish, its better for the people here to understand then us, but i had no idea how. then between sessions we ate with a member who brought food ( everyone just waits there since its super far for some people). by then the other room was also in Spanish, so we had to tough out the last session in Spanish. no good. we also had little crazy Dominican kids attacking us the whole time, so not so easy to pay attention! so ya, that was super.
today, just had a chill day at the church with our zone, had a little bbq! good times.

-Elder MacArthur