4-11-11

Monday: Today was a super-fabulous-awesome day! And as such, I thought
it deserved noting. We got up and went to the office to get Elder
Hickmans and Elder Gomez s packages with them...because we had nothing
else to do. But when we got there, lo and behold! There was a package
for ME as well! (and it was the biggest) Inside was a ton of stuff. I
got some polos, fruit snacks (with juice inside), pringles, beef
jerky, hotamales, pop-tarts, popcorn cereals, shorts, and the Holy
Grail itself: Velveeta Shells and Cheese...with a captial "C." That s
about as good as life gets for a missionary, next to baptizing.
Included was an audio tape from Cassie (sister). It was so nice to
hear her voice ramble on. She told me of her life and her hopes and
dreams. I was delighted to find that the other side contained Devin
talking. At least, they SAID it was him. I really couldn t believe it
at first. Not only was his voice deeper, but all of his pronunciation
nuances (say that 10x fast) were gone. He anunciated very clearly. It
was disorienting. It was a long tape. It made me happy. The mission is
like a very slow time machine. I dig it. We did contacts in the
evening, and found two potential news. One even started reading our
"Restoration" pamphlet as he went in the house. We had the FHE with
the soliz family again. When we get there, they had already started
and the Bio Bio missionaries weren t there! The worst part was that
the Grandpa was scolding everyone for not fulfilling their goals. But
after he got done, I added my own counsel, so we weren t just visiting
furniture-warmers. After that, things were normal again. They`re
really great. We had rice pudding.

Tuesday: So yesterday, Elder Hickman got Disneyworld pamphkets from
when his family went. Elder Bernal said, "Who needs Disney World, we
ve got Chile World!" Then we proceeded on our halting journey in the
exciting buses with the extreme swerves and g-force acceleration.
Crazy stuff, that. At the District Meeting (not a Distrizona) Elder
Arjona gave (sold) me a brand-new triple for $22. Expensive! But now I
have HALF of my scriptures again. I realized that we finished our 4th
week today. I thought we were STARTING it. This transfer s flown by!
It rained a lot today. A TON! There was so much water that I couldn t
see more than 20 feet. And it blew a lot and it was dang cold. I would
have been in trouble without my gear. Elder Argueta left me a neck
tube and leather gloves. It made all the difference. The tube blocked
all of my face except my eyes--and they weren t bothered because they
don t have nerve endings in the cornea. Something interesting is how
the wind was always in our face--no matter the way we faced. We
visited a less-active member. She didn t want to come back because she
d had a hard life and a member had been a part of it. She wouldn t
listen to the scriptures. She said she couldn t return. I asked why.
She said she didn t want to. I asked a lot of unique questions I d
never asked before. They just popped into my mouth when they needed
to. She doesn t want to change now, But she doesn t want us to give
up. She said if our parents were here, she d tell them to be proud of
us.

Wendesday: Today was a good day, and not just because I learned a
Spanish tongue twister about a painting hobo. I think I m used to this
sector, finally. The down side of this, of course, is that I haven t
taught an investigator in forever. All we have are the practices in
our comp. studies. We carried our laundry to the Sister that helps us
with that. We did contacts in the morning and then went to lunch. It
was rice and a lot of sauteed veggies and chicken. It reminded me of
chinese food, except it didn t have any seasoning! While we ate, Toy
Story 3 was playing. I hadn t seen it before because it came out after
I left. I really liked it. All of our appts. fell through again. We
walked around, talking to whoever would listen. While we were out, it
started raining again like yesterday. But today I didn t have my rain
gear. I had a thready sweater. Needless to day, I got a free way to
break the ice on my contacts: "Do you have any shampp?" Haha.
Actually, I was happier today than yesterday. I took it as a sign that
SAtan was trying to stop us from getting to someone. So we worked
harder and appier. Alberto wasn t home again. wE really need to talk
to him. In the night, we stopped by the church and the youth asked for
a ping pong challenger. They got PWN d! P.S. I saw a lady trying to
smoke in the rain. I thought it was so ridiculous that I walked by and
said, "You shouldn t smoke." She didn t even look at me.

Thursday: Elder Bernal woke up sick today. He started groaning about
his tummy anbd went to bed again. When he got up again, he went to
throw up. It was really funny, actually. He was really vocal. He would
make loud gagging, shouting noises and nothing came out. But he got it
out, eventually, he said he felt a lot better, and that something
white had come out. We spent the morning time cleaning up the house.
It really needed it. We had divisions with Cerro Verde because Elder
Bernal had to interview their investigator. I got to spend the day
with Aaron Cotrell. He is from Layton, Utah and pronounces his "t"s.
He is living proof that I m a bad judge of character. I was a little
nervous for the divisions, but we got along so well! Turns out that he
studied/majored in English and wrote 8, 900-page books before the
mission! I mean GOOD FRIGGIN GRIEF! He is such a good guy. He has an
honesty about him that lets me know that he is sincere just to be that
way. He gave me some pointers on writing, and I asked him a lot of
questions. He reminded me of Elder Oversby, but with more inhibitions.
All of our appts. fell through and he handled it well. We just kept
talking. We tried to testify to people, but they just wouldn t listen.
I just love meeeting good people on the mission! Elder Cotrell said if
we had been comps, it would have been his favorite transfer ever.
REally he talked and I just listened. It is just as well. It makes
sense to have bad comps. I have learned from my difficult transfers.
Cotrell knows Lisonbee, too!

Friday: So today was wholly unproductive. We left to Cerro Verde to
meet up with our comps. again. They have a dart board, and I played
with it while Bernal packed up his clothes from last night. My skills
were between "horrid" and "slightly above a 10 year-old s high score."
We had enough time to drop Bernal s stuff off at the hosue before
heading off to lunch with Hna. Marìa. She made egg drop soup and
lasagna. This was GOOD lasagna. I was stuffed after the first piece,
but she forced another one on me, threatening to take offense. So we
both shoveled down another piece each. As we left, Elder Bernal told
me that, although he had been feeling better for a while, that the
second piece of lasagna had been fatal for him and his belly started
hurting him again. He also started running a fever and he had
convulsions in his bed. I started doing things to help stabalize and
he eventually nodded off. I remember having confulsions when I got a
really bad sunburn. The day passed us as we stayed in the house. We
were "invited" (forced again) to come to a BBQ with the Soliz family
in Bio Bio (at risk of offending). While there, I practiced my
pronunciation with Bernal. I couldn t do it. I couldn t make the
difference between "y" and "ll." I was so frustrated I asked a member
for input. They tried and couldn t do the colombian accent either.
When I said it, she said I sounded chilean. For some reaason, I was
sent to Chile. I can learn to speak it, because I was called here. I
have the gift of tongues for Chile, specifically. It is a real
testimony-builder for me.

Saturday: Today was an interesting day. It started when we went out to
visit less-active members. We could not find a few of them, so we went
to Hna. Violeta on a random visit to ask for directions. There, I
learned something that had been one o fmy fears in the MTC: "How can I
follow the Holy Ghost?" Hna. Violeta, her daughter, and her neighbor
cecilia (Our investigator who has been avoiding us) all needed
blessings. I was chosen to bless all 3. After I blessed Hna. Violeta,
she stood up crying. She said I had given her what she needed. I had
told her that Heavenly FAther was pleased with how she is raising her
kids and blessed her with strangth to continue. She said that was what
had been worrying her. She said I was inspired. I felt very reverent
after that. I got frustrated later, when Elder Bernal kept saying
something to me, and I couldn t understand. I apologized for being
frustrated and he said, "Hakuna matata." He doesn t speak English, so
that was funny. We jaywalked on a freeway, today. We had to walk to
the other side of the sector at about 6:30. On the way, we decided/
felt like we should go by our 8:00 appt. early. We did, and she said
we had caught her right before her nap. On our way to the gangster
neighborhood a punk kissed his girlfriend. They both puckered up and
closed their eyes, but before the kiss, he opened one eye to see if we
were watching. We were. It wasn t anything romantic. We had missed our
8:00 appt. But we randomly found him in a side street and taught him
anyway. We didn t meet with Alberto this whole week.

Sunday: So today was a bit depressing. It all started when I tried
coughing up one of my lungs. I gave up after a while and settled for
merely wanting to die. Then my cough died down, and fate left me
fatigued for the rest of the day. On the plus side, I walked around,
sounding like Darth Vader. (Luke. I. am. your. ELDER!!!) In Church, I
was challenged with a leadership "obstacle." A sister came up to me
and told me of another sister that ahd done something bad. This put me
in a delicate situation. I didn t know her intention--if she wanted to
help, gossip, or to meaningfully hurt this other sister--and therefore
didn t know how to act. I couldn t ask what she expected me to do--she
expected me to act. I think my response was appropriate and was
something that I wouldn t have thought of a year ago. I asked, "What
are WE going to do to help her?" I hleped her feel recognized and
emphasized the fact that we were going to help the sister. This sister
eventually reasoned out that she should go to the person authorized to
hlep: the Bishop. I ve been practicing my pronunciation of my "ll" and
"y" sounds. I finally figured how to do it! I asked Bernal what else I
could work on. He said there wasn t anything. MAXIMUM PWNAGE!!! We
didn t have any investigators in the church, and all of our appts.
fell through. We found some boys playing soccer by the church. One of
the boys went to get a ball from the bush. He was crawling frantically
as we passed. I recognized him as Pablo, our old investigator (that we
never taught). I said, "hi" and he hid even more. I was so sad because
he WANTED to hide from Christ.