 |
| The newly arrived missionaries on Oct. 13, 2015 |
I LOOOOOOOOVE the pictures you send! I know you guys so well, I feel like I can picture how stuff is going based on the pictures!
Dad: The work is going great. The lessons are difficult to teach, but also my favorite part because that vocabulary is the stuff I know best. It's hard to get our investigators to keep commitments, but they're always excited to see the missionaries. The ward is super supportive. I love going to church here. Everyone has difficulty pronouncing my name, but they try. The ward mission leader is awesome, easy to work with, super involved. The members don't have a ton of references because it's a small community, but they try. They love to feed us, I haven't bought dinner yet! What's awesome about this area is even the people not interested in the church really respect us for going on missions. Some of them even offer to feed us dinner.
My rain jacket is incredible! It works perfectly! I could probably swim in that thing and stay dry. I don't use it every day because I keep it at the house. So days when it's raining when we leave or it's obviously going to rain, I use it. The last week it rained like crazy, this week not so much. I really prefer the rain because it keep the temperature down.
This last week my stomach has hurt like crazy, along with diarrhea. Everyone tells me it's my gringo stomach adjusting, so I don't worry about it. Still stinks though.
I love you a ton Dad. Probably every day I think about you and your mission. I think it's awesome how different ours are on the surface, but the core purpose of our mission is exactly the same. I love the fact that I had an example to look up to while preparing for my mission, and I have a huge smile every time I think about us swapping mission stories together.
We have a good amount of investigators I think, but we always need more. We have two with baptism dates, Ena and Gabriela. Then we have a bunch of others: Angel, Ligia, Eric, Keny, Eduardo, Stephanie, Marvin. I don't know anyone's last names. It's rare to use last names here. Most of them are progressing but not all. We usually spend an hour contacting a day, but it's hard to find people to teach. Most people are out of the house all day, and others are pretty devoted to their Catholic church. But everyone we meet is friendly and nice to talk to.
Pday was awesome! We went down to the beach, couldn't swim, but that's ok. We met up with some other elders in the zone and played futbol with them. Then we all went downtown--super cool place. I would say in between downtown Nampa and downtown Boise. I didn't see a single other white person. We bought a bunch of food from the store, and a couple other things. Then we went home, ordered a pizza, and came here. :)
We are in an internet cafe I guess. It's tiny and there's no WiFi, just computers. It's also hot and I've killed two mosquitoes in here. So I think it's a step down from the average internet cafe, but at least I have a computer. I don't think I'll be able to send pictures this week. I'm trying to figure something out but it doesn't look good. These computers are pretty old and not functioning great.
A spiritual experience I had this week, our priority has been to get investigators to church. The people here are pretty content to sit in a hammock and do nothing, so its not easy. I've been bearing my testimony about the importance of the sacrament. The sacrament represents the atonement, an act of Jesucristo so difficult we cannot comprehend it. So I believe that part of the sacrament, part of understanding the atonement, is sacrificing a little. It's tough to go to church, but the more effort we put into going, the more the sacrament, and the atonement mean to us. So I've been telling investigators that, and we got a lot of commitments. Then a couple of of days before Sunday, the city announced the power would be shut off from 8:00 am till 4:00 pm on Sunday. Bad news for us, because without the fans going in the church building, it gets super hot. Some of our investigators called us and said they weren't going to church. So when Sunday came, we walked an old lady investigator to church and sat down. Five minutes after the meeting started, the electricity came on. It stayed on for 4 hours and then shut off. It was a miracle, especially when you realize how hot it gets in the chapel. I honestly think our investigators were blessed for their faith. And it was an incredibly spiritual meeting.
The Spanish here isn't too fast, but a lot of people swallow (don't pronounce) the S. That makes things difficult, but I'm getting used to it. My companion's English isn't bad, but we sometimes work quite a bit to connect his English and my Spanish. However, it's rare for us to be unable to communicate something.
The bag I bought was made by a dude in the ward. I got the sweet blue and green Seahawks themed one. It's really cool. I think I might buy another with the mission name and flag on it.
I use the bug spray a lot. But I also sweat gallons, so I'm worried it's diluted or washed off.
To Sam: YOU WON DISTRICTS!! That's the coolest thing in the world! I can't believe I missed it. I'm picturing it right now! The guy getting up and announcing YOU the champion! I can hear the family and the team going nuts. It sounds awesome, I want to hear everything about it! It sounds like you improved a ton this year. Keep running, and I'll be back to see you run senior year. A 60 second PR this late in the season--that's impressive! I bet no one else on the team did that. It's like you've grown up a year in the last month. Driver's license (better scores than me by the way) and now winning Districts--I can't believe it. You must feel on top of the world, and you totally should!
Questions from Cat:
How is your mission?? How is your Spanish and how is the food? Ok, we got that out of the way, now the deep stuff, ready....ok. 1. How often do you do laundry 2. What people have you taught? 3. What are the conditions there compared to the US 4. Is it hot? 5. And finally do they have bacon there? Sorry for all the questions, but you know the quote, "Give me details or give me death!!" No, that can't be right...mmmm, oh well. PS What is the traffic like?
Ben: The laundry is all done by a lady in the ward. She charges $6 every week and it is totally worth it. She's also the funniest person I've met down here, and that's saying something. We bring it every Monday and get it back on Tuesday. This place is so different from the US, it's insane. All the water everyone drinks is purified, and they buy it in big blue jugs. So every house has a water dispenser thing like the ones in offices. Every house has at least one hammock, it's as important as a front door. And there are buses everywhere. These little tiny ant things cover every surface of every house. You barely notice them they're so small, but if you look, they're on my clothes, in my closet, on the sink, the walls, the table. One day I guess I didn't wash my toothbrush good enough because they were crawling all over it. Oh well, you just wash them off. I've seen a couple of cockroaches, not a ton, but I have seen a billion geckos. They sit on the ceiling of most houses. Usually about 5 geckos per house. I've only seen one in our house. There's also these foot long lizards, but I don't see those often. I haven't had a bit of bacon this whole time! If only the people knew what they were missing out on! :) The traffic is strange, way more taxis than regular cars. A ton of motorcycles and mopeds, and then quite a few buses. The buses tend to weave in and out of the motorcycles, kind of the opposite of in the US. I loved getting your email. I hope that answers your questions! Love you!
Elder Nunez is a convert. He was baptized a year and a half ago. His parents are both Catholic, and I think his siblings are too. He's super dedicated to the church, and since he's newly converted, he's learning tons as we teach. It's awesome. I think his family supports his mission but I'm not sure.
Really quick I want to tell you some things I like here that they don't have in the US. Like the tiny stores (pulperias) everywhere. Literally, there is always at least one in sight. They sell food and drinks, and it's so cheap. It's about 1 Lempira for 5 cents. The pulperias sell water in little bags, like ziploc bags, but all sealed up, so you bite off a corner and drink the water. Those are 10 cents. You can buy a 3 liter of soda (they never have 2 liters) for about 90 cents to $1.15. There's also old school buses that drive up and down the streets. They never stop, just slow down and you get on. When you stand up the bus driver slows down, you pay 40 cents, and you jump off. It's like a cheap community taxi. Super great. :) We mostly walk because we are out of town into the mountains a little ways. The buses don't come down here often. I hike up and down hills all day.
I miss you guys so much. It's funny, the first weeks out here, I missed you and felt sad. But now it's different. I think of you guys, and immediately think of us as an eternal family in the celestial kingdom. It's a HUGE blessing to know the plan of salvation.
Adios!
P.S. Adios can be broken down to "a dios" which means "to God" in English. Something I think is pretty cool.
 |
| Ben and Elder Ouzounian |
No comments:
Post a Comment