Monday, October 27, 2008

Broken Bikes

Everything is going great. This week went by really fast. One day we painted a lady´s house. that was fun. Our bikes broke. Well, my gears have never worked and everytime that pedal the chain skips. Then my comps pedal fell off. So, since i have longer legs i got on his and pushed it like a scooter, and he finally realized how bad my bike really is. before he was telling me that it wasn´t that bad. So we went to get them fixed, but he couldn´t. and then randomly that day, we saw some american guy that lives here. he said that he saw them and that he could fix them. i didn´t want to trust him, but my comp did. it was going to cost us 500 pesos for everything. well, we went to pick up the bikes, and they weren´t there. hopefully they´re there, were going to check again today. Well, this past week i´ve always eaten something for breakfast other than empenadas. eggs, pancakes, oatmeal, cereal....Anyway, we went to a few birthdays this week. At one they picked the girl up, Yafraisi, and carried her around everything just yelling her name. it was funny. At another we played some really fun games. I can´t describe them on here, but they were fun. one was like signs. This week we didn´t have light at all, so all the food that hansen bought went bad, or was really close. that sucked. And the reason why i didn´t hve empenadas was that he wasn´t there all week. he had the flu. The kids are getting pretty mean here lately. they´re always cussing at us and one hit me in the head with something, i don´t know what it was, but after that, they quit. Anyway, we have some pretty good investigators. Alot of them are asking us when they can get baptized. Morena told us that she felt really good when we come, when she reads, or when she goes to church with us, and says that because of that she knows it´s true. it´s awesome. she and gerald just need to get married. Guillermo and niña have been coming to church too and are saving up to get married and pay for birth certificates. We found out that an older missionary left a huge fund for that kind of stuff (his personal money) and that we can use it to help them as long as they make a sacrifice and pay for what they can. It´s awesome. But i don´t think either family will get baptized this transfer....we´re running out of time, which is crazy. time flies. hopefully i´ll be here next transfer to see them get baptized. We also have a lady, Albertina, who feels the same was as morena, which is cool, but she hasn´t had the opportunity to come to church. She´s really interested, but i think her husband is holding her back. we met with him for the first time a few days ago. he´s really nice, and i bet if we keep teaching him they´ll do what they need to to be baptized. Franklin is one of the ones begging to be baptized. he´s about 15, and is friends with rene and velins family and has been going to
church with them for along time, but we just started teaching him. he´s really good, but his parents are interested. They don´t mind if he gets baptized, but it´s always better to baptize the family. but hopefully he will help raifi to get excited to be baptized too. We´ve still been getting references, which is really good, and they seem like they´ll be good. Albertina was one. And because of that, i still have not done a single contact yet. Oh, and i forgot the time that my comp had to go do interviews. Well, elder holyoak came out to my area, and he came out with me. at first i was really scared about the spanish and getting lost in the area (it´s huge) but everything went great....except alot of people not being home, which kind of messed up our plans. but it was fun, and was a great growing experience. well, until next time, unless i think of more to say later.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Wheelies

(Mostly in response to Mom's questions . . .)

That´s good that everyone had fun...did Spencer go? And why didn´t Natalie want to shoot? Yeah, I´m sorry that I forgot to say hey back to Cindy last week. Now that I know she reads these I´ll have to be more careful about what I write. No, but really everything really is going great. This transfer is kind of hard because we´ve had General Conference and this week is stake conference, which means that we have to travel a ways. Sometimes the church provides a bus, sometimes they don´t. And sometimes they still make people pay. And it cost around 50 pesos and person, so big families like Guillermo and Niña have (9 kids), are a huge sacrifice. Most people don´t even have the money to pay for themselves. well, they do, but they have to buy food with it. We had a few go to General Conference, but I don´t think that many will come to stake conference. And it´s really hard on our baptisms too, becuase we can´t baptize them becuase they want us to confirm them in sacrament meeting. I hope they come though. I am sure that Guillermo and Niña will get baptized next transfer, i´ll probably still be here, but my comp won´t because he´s been there for 6 months. i hope i learn the area well enough, i´m sure i will. but maybe it´ll end up different, who knows, i could leave. When we were looking at a house (i told val about it), we saw a kid riding a bike. but not just any bike. The front tire was a rim with a bar run through it and bent on the ends so it wouldn´t fall off. the seat. well the seat was a coconut smashed onto the bar that sticks up and then a bucket was stuck on it laying down sideways. It was so weird. They remind me alot of the pioneers...kind of. they make something out of nothing. They roll tires around with sticks, make tops out of water bottle caps and a nail stuck through the top, they tie sticks to random pieces of sticks and make kites, it´s so crazy. Marbles is big here too. The other day we saw a guy giving people tatooes ?. He got a motor and put a belt on it so it would spin some gears and move a piece of metal inside a hollow pen body. it was soo crazy. People do the weirdest things around here, but i´m pretty used to it now. you see kids all the time riding wheelies all the time, just for forever. I tried it once, I had the feeling that i shouldn´t, but i ignored it. well, i popped up, held it for a second, and then i just fell straight back. luckily i didn´t get hurt, but i learned a little lesson. Well, i better go.

Elder Sherwood.

Chicken Feet

(Mostly in response to my questions . . . )

I don´t have time to send pictures...the internet is slow, it cost money, and I can only send two pictures at a time on here. I might send you my card, but I´m scared it´ll get destroyed or something. I´ll need another one by Christmas though....if you can send one then, but I´ll let you know for sure later. And yes, the new fridge is Heavenly, but we didn´t get food last week because our money didn´t end up coming in. But we are going to the capital today and buying stuff. We´re going to get some ¨father and son¨ pants made soon. I think we are buying the material today. But yeah, the fridge will freeze stuff, so we had to put the setting a little lower. I haven´t tried anything crazy yet, just all sorts of fruits and juices (one tasted like oatmeal...it was weird. but then my comp told me it was oat juice, so it made sense). I´ve seen everyone sucking on chicken feet, and one of our recent converts wanted to give me one, but my comp was just like no, he doesn´t like it. She gave me some sugar cane though. It´s so weird. you bite into this stick, chew it up, and it´s the sweetest thing ever...i couldn´t very much it was so sweet. but i see kids running all around with it all the time. but yeah, i actually haven´t eaten very much beans and rice. I made pancakes yesterday and today. but we usually just eat empenadas, which are really good. We are still trying to move. we checked out a really nice house. it was amazing. it had a yard and everything. it had two power sources, which ensured power all the time, which would have been amazing. it was even in the price range (3,ooo-8,000 pesos a month). but we couldn´t get it because it was too nice and they couldn´t trust future missionaries to live there. It would´ve been sooooo nice though. Well, it´s hard for me to tell you guys about the investigators becuase i can´t remember what i´ve told you about them. But this past week has been disappointing for all our old investigators, well, most. but our new ones are doing great, going to church, and everything. but we didn´t get to go out much becuase my comp was sick for most of the week. And yeah, his dad was in the air force and they moved all around the u.s. but he likes colorado the best. he lived there the longest and all of highschool, except his senior year. that´s when they moved to utah (again). well, i´ve got to go, but i´ll get on later. bye

Monday, October 13, 2008

More from Boca Chica

Why does Blake want to graduate early? I never would have guessed that he would´ve wanted to do that. That´s crazy. I would tell him whatever he wants to do. But let him know that at first being a little 16 year old in college might feel weird at first, but it´ll be good. That would be crazy if he did. Where does he and casey want to go to school? UCA, BYU, ASU, where? Well, whatever he does, he´ll like it.

And I can´t believe that I forgot AGAIN to tell you about our investigators. We had four baptisms Saturday. Yafrasi (sounds like Ja)and Achi (Ashley). They are cousins, and their parents were baptized last transfer (Ashley lives with them). We are still working with Raifi, the oldest girl. She says that she wants too, but doesn´t feel ready, but she committed to be baptized this week, we´ll see how it goes. Also Piter (peter) and Maycol (Micheal). Father and son. They are great. They did everything just like that, always willing to help us do whatever we need. It´s awesome. I baptized the two girls...it was way weird. We have a another with a fecha (date), but we´re going to have to move it because they didn´t come to church. Her name is Jana. We are teaching a couple of families. One, Guillermo and Niña, are doing really good. They dropped smoking instantly and they feel really good about it. Now all they have to do is get married and get papers for all their kids. I think I told you about them earlier now that I think about it. They are way willing to it, and said that they´re going to start saving up as soon as he gets work again, which is really hard with all the rain (he´s a construction worker). We just found another family, and they seem very interested. They came to church and really enjoyed it. They are Morena and Gerald, and they have two little kids. We´ve talked to them alot about families. We´re also teaching Velin´s parents (the mom of yafriasi and raifi) She´s way cool and so are her parents. She helps us out alot. And like I wrote Emily, nothing is better than when members help out with the work (like they are supposed to). Well, I have to go. Bye.

Boca Chica

Hey,
As far as I know, the power company (probably the government) switches which part of the country has power at what time. Everyone has a different light schedule...it just so happens that ours is terrible. But I heard they do it like that becuase so many people steal power by attaching their own lines into the power lines, so yeah, they pretty much cut off the power to get even with everyone stealing electricity...which is basically everyone. The food the food. Well, When we eat at members....it´s beans and rice, which I like. When we do it ourselves...it means going to the empenada stand and buying 10 peso empenadas. Once I´ve had rice and another time, yesterday, my comp cooked eggs. Today we are going to go buy alot of food. One reason is that we got money today, and the other is that we got a new fridge. The other was pretty much solid mold on the inside, so we never used it. The new one is soooo nice. But since the power doesn´t work very much, you have to be careful what you put in there and for how long. really careful. But yeah, everything is going great. Well, we didn´t really clean the house...he cleaned the kitchen a little yesterday. I cleaned off this table with a mound of what missionaries have left there for the past 6 months. It was gross. Anyway, I don´t know how I got better...that´s usually how it goes for me...I get really sick, and the next day I´m fine. But yeah, I really really didn´t want to go to the mission home, so I tried not make it look like I felt as bad as I did, which I probably shouldn´t have done. Anyway, you haven´t gotten anything yet becuase at the meeting that we were supposed to take pictures, the president and his wife both had pink eye. So they wore sunglasses all day, and they didn´t want to take pictures, but we did it a couple of days ago....so you should get something soon. maybe. That´s funny about the hay. My old district, in the CCM, talked about that alot. Elder Garner, the one from Canada, told me about the people that harvested their corn on Sunday lost everything. It all went bad, plus the stuff that they didn´t harvest got wiped out by a storm. But the people that waited got everything. so yeah. Well, I better go. Later.

Monday, October 6, 2008

Out in the Real World

Hey,
I´m in area called Boca Chica. We cover the city part of it, but we don´t actually go and teach there because it´s a big tourist place. We drove by it and i caught a glimpse of the beach and it looked like one of those perfect pictures out of a magazine..nice clean beach, nice sand, pretty clear blue water...awww, it was soo nice. Anyway, the area that we actually cover I heard is actually pretty campo....country. There´s quite a few people, but the houses are made out of tin, or crumbling concrete....most aren´t finished. some have dirt floors..but some houses are pretty nice, well, to their standards. The people are all really nice. We are some of the people around here with bikes, and when we pass by they all say Hansen....and the nuevo. It´s pretty funny. Everyone knows my companion (except you guys), and they all want to know what happened to Robison. Well, my companion is Elder Hansen, he´s from all over, his dad was in the airforce, but he claims Colorado. He´s really cool, nice, helpful...etc. It´s good. The first day he and a few other trainers were outside, and they tried to trick us by switching their name tags and then seeing how we´d react when we met our ¨companion¨ and then tell us who they really were, but it didn´t really work. One reason was because everyone told us at transfers alot about our companions, and also because a sister was telling us that they were lying. But anyway, it was cool at transfers because everyone was asking who had Elder Hansen, so that made me feel good that he was that well liked. He´s the District Leader here in Boca Chica A and is also known as spiderman. He´s been out for 16 months exactly today. In our house there´s also Elder Chamberlain and Vasquez, we only see each other in the morning and night, but they´re pretty cool too. Our apartment is on the second floor. I was a little overwhelmed when I walked in...it was (and is) filthy (I heard our apartment is one of the worst in the mission). Elder Chamberlain (he´s new to the house) plans on cleaning alot today...which will be great. Most of the time the power is off, which means no water and it being extremely hot. So showers are either when you´re lucky, and it´s a water house sticking out of the wall and it´s freezing cold, or you´re not and you use a bucket...the luck is mainly just because the power is on and you can actually see. We use candles Alot. There are mosquitos everywhere too. The Friday I woke up with a huge bite, and Saturday I was extremely sick. I had all the signs of denghue? (I don´t know how you spell it). Anyway, pretty much anyone that has it gets sent to the office until they get over it, then they work in the office for forever....that´s what happened to my companion. But today I feel good. really good. Anyway, we supposed to moving pretty soon, mainly because across the road there´s a bar that blares music all night and...yeah...music isn´t really problem... Anyway, we don´t really have a mission home...they´re building one. So when we left from the CCM, we were taken to a chapel, had a meeting, then left to meet our trainers and teach. It was pretty crazy. Our president seems pretty cool, he told me that I look like his nephew. We had a trainer/new people meeting, and the president and his wife both had pink eye, so they wore sunglasses the whole meeting...it was pretty funny. His spanish is waaay fast. I actually understand alot of the spanish, but not when they talk to each other. Some people speak very clear, and others cut everything. And slang is hard becuase I´ve never heard it before. But I´ll get it. So mail is sent through pouch still, just without the ccm part...(santo domingo east mission). or you can send it to the office. And packages are sent to a miami address, but I don´t know it, plus it cost me money. Well, some experiences (not all mine), but not in detail.....packing into buses, watching a tire fly off a bus and smack kid (Elder Holyoak-he´s in my group...i mean he came out at the same time as me) riding on the motor(cyle) taxi´s, teaching by light of cell phone(everyone has one) and candle, eating alot of random fresh fruit, no storms yet, uhhhh, crossing the pista alot(the freeway...it´s not hard, but it kind or scared me when a litte girl, maybe 5/6 with a little boy 3/4) and there´s no median. only a gap of concrete like 2 feet long, so everyong runs to it, and plus people on bikes, and motors (motorcycles). That´s the hard part, not really crossing the traffic, but trying to beat other people to the hole/fitting together in there. Other than that, there aren´t really any paved roads. Well, I think I should go, there´s so much to write, but no time to do it. and by the way, if I didn´t tell you or you didn´t figure it out, p-days are on monday.