March 11, 2019 Eat, Drink and be Merry
Sencillo:
I've found out the cure to not wanting to walk anymore is walk faster. Here are some notes from my agenda:
On Monday, after writing, I broke my pencil, which was a bummer, but that night when visiting a less active member, she saw my pencil had broken, so she left, and came back with a really nice silver pen, and insisted that I take it. That night we helped a family have a family night, and since it was Elder Perez's last night in the area before cambios, we had ice cream. On Tuesday I was doing some laundry in the morning. Our washing machine's brand name is whirlpool, but Elder Velasquez and I decided it should be called Earthquake. We got a Quesadilla that night (it is nothing like the quesadillas you know). And that night we tried out a new pupuseria, and one pupusa only costs 25 cents there, so I had 8. On Wednesday we had our first district/zone council in this second cambio. We got to know the new missionaries that had been transferred into our district/zone and set some new goals. I also found out that pig is a really hard word my companion to say. I don't know if it's that way for all native Spanish speakers, but I spent about 5 minutes trying to get him to pronounce the 'g' at the end. Interesting stuff. On Thursday at lunch, the lady (Hermana Esperanza) who cooked for us was playing church videos on her TV, when all of the sudden this video came on of someone named Rebecca Olson singing "Tu Lugar". I got super excited and started pointing and shouting "That's my cousin!". That was a neat surprise. On Friday we visited a lady who had a pet parrot, and it was fun to watch it walk all over her during the lesson. That night, we went to visit a member, but he had to take off because someone had gotten shot for going into an area they weren't native to. I guess that's a pretty big deal here. On Saturday I started word for word translating the Book of Mormon from English to Spanish in between the lines. At lunch, the lady showed us the "Hello" parody about missionaries, and that's a lot more funny when you'r on a mission. I've definitely been the quiet smile guy many times. The other gringo missionary here, Elder Hales, showed me that he's trying a new method for rolling his 'r's, but I don't know why he changed, because it was good before, but it switched to sounding like rocks in a blender. On Sunday I found out that there are these beetles here that Hum super loud, where it always sounds like a bomb is about to go off. I also realized I really like the Hymn "Love at Home", but my companion has a low voice and I have a less low voice, so when we sing, either his voice cracks or my voice drops to just a low grumble. There's no medium really. And finally, I found a quarter on the ground, so I can finally pay tithing. Oh also we didn't have dinner set up on Sunday, which is rare, so my companion and I went back to the house to cook, and after we finished the other missionaries called us and said they got a dinner appointment. Some other things are my companion has slept in for like 3 or 4 hours the last 3 days cause he has been pretty sick, so I've had lots of long study time. Also we found out that we'll be able to go to the temple 2 times a year and we'll also be going to the Volcano here pretty soon.
Gracioso:
A couple things. When we were heading back to the house last P-Day, Elder Velasquez saw a lady he had been teaching a while ago, and she was glad to see him. He said a quick hi and shook her hand, but she just held onto it, and I remember, like it was slow motion, she forced her way in and kissed him. Elder Velasquez was backing up, but his resistance was highly outmatched by her determination. After that he just looked at me and said, "Thanks for your help."
When we went shopping after writing in our last P-Day, I got to the checkout line and realized I had lost my shopping bag somewhere in the store. We ran around and finally found it hanging up in the fruits section. After buying our food and leaving the store, I realized I no longer had my Book of Mormon, so I ran back in, looked around, and found it on the counter. At this point my companion started teasing me, "You sure you're not forgetting anything else?" But after making sure I wasn't missing anything, we left the parking lot, crossed the overhead walkway, to the other side of the highway, and were waiting for the bus when I realized I had in my hand a key to one of the lockers at the store. And I had to run all the way back. My companion had a hard time not giving me a hard time about that.
I'm 18. Elder Velasquez is 26. When we talk to new people for the first time and they ask our ages, we now tell them to guess. They usually put him at about 20, and then look at me and after a good couple seconds of consideration shoot for around 28 years. We always get a kick out of that, but sometimes it makes it a little harder for them to focus after they find out the truth.
A couple things about eyes. We were with the family of Brian, having a good chat after sharing a lesson, and they started to comment about my eyes. But my companion immediately said,'No he just paints them; they're not real.' They laughed for a second but got silent and said something like, "You're joking, right?" And I said "Well I need to take it out to wash it every day" so I reach my hand up to my left eye just to pretend that I was going to remove something, and they all started screaming. So I stopped. The other thing was we had a lesson with a woman who was positive and liked our message, but she had a pretty hard time paying attention in general, as was obvious in our earlier visits. She and her friend were present, and had made it clear that they were having some tough trials this week. Toward the end of our lesson, I started to bear my testimony of how we can always be supported in our trials and be happy even in trying times. I was excited, because she was really zoned in - despite her earlier lack of undivided attention, she was making perfect eye contact with me the whole time, and then immediately as I said the last words of my testimony, she said, "Whoa your eyes are more blue than they were earlier!" and then started talking about something else. I don't know if she heard a word of what I said, but at least we got the eye contact down.
Importante:
First thing: I love the Book Of Mormon. In the beginning of my mission I had been searching for other things to read and study, but now, I just can't get enough of it. There's something special that happens every time I read it. Apart from my study of the Bible, right now I'm studying the Book of Mormon on four levels. 1st is my companionship reading with Elder Velasquez where we mark the actions and words of God with one color and the actions of the people with another. 2nd is my personal reading in more detail, which is usually about one chapter that I mark with different colors depending on the theme and write notes in the side. 3rd is my word for word translation of the Spanish Book of Mormon. And 4th is one I started recently where I read at a faster pace and in greater volume, and I only mark with a highlighter every time it mentions joy, happiness, rejoicing, or anything else of that manner. I don't mark anything before or after, just the statement that someone was happy. And I use two colors - one for the joy of the righteous and one for the joy of everyone else. It's a really great exercise, to read it anxiously with one purpose in mind.
Just something I remembered about joy. I remember some time ago in primary, around the age of 11, I had been assigned to share my favorite scripture and a little explanation of what it means and why I like it. I classically forgot my assignment until I was reminded the following week. In a bit of a hurry, I flipped to the index and looked up joy, and found a perfect scripture, so I thought, highlighting happiness. Thus I stood in front of the class and read to them 2 Nephi 28:7, something like, "And they shall say: Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die, and it shall be well with us." I went on to explain how motivational that scripture was and also was a little confused why the adults were laughing. This vivid memory was brought back to me yesterday, and my mind was taken to the scripture in 3 Nephi 27 which says something along the lines of "And they will abide by the ways of men, and they will have joy for a season, but by and by the end cometh." I've found a lot of times as I ponder more my purpose that leaning on the things I used to is like sifting through a bowl of dust in search of something to hang on to, or like buying bananas hoping they'll stay ripe forever. There have been many times in the past that I have felt is if I was hanging on by a thread, but the more I look beneath the dust I see that this thread is quite strong and dependable, and I come to realize this thread I've caught a hold of is the Rod of Iron. If I stood in front of my primary today I might have modified the verse, which so perfectly highlighted happiness, to say something like, "And we will say, Eat of the bread of life, drink of the living waters, and be merry, for tomorrow we die, but we have something that not even death can take from us, so it is well with us."
A cool experience: I had had my fair share of neglected spiritual promptings, and I was tired of passing them by, so I decided I would do better about acting on those, even if I'm not sure from where it came. We were leaving an appointment together when we passed a door that just felt highlighted. I can't explain it other than in the time I understood it well enough that if I did nothing, I would be denying it, but I did nothing. We walked about 20 feet past the house, and I stopped my companion, pointed to the door, and said, "Aqui es nuevo," or something along the lines of "Here is someone new to teach." He said, "Alright, there's only one way to find out." So we knocked the door, and an 18 year old young man named Wilbur answered. He was really awesome, and in that space of time on his doorstep we got to know each other, he listened to a full lesson, and even accepted to read more, pray about it, and be baptized, if he feels he has received an answer. I can't say what will come of it or how exactly this all came about, but I do know what would have happened if I had done nothing: nothing.
Love you tons,
Sorry that my letters are mercilessly long,
Elder Olson
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