Hey Everyone:
I'm not sure how I managed to do this, but I forgot to send out David's email received on Monday. I know . . . I thought the same thing: SENILITY. I was asked today about David's letter and realized at that moment that I had completely forgotten to forward it. (Perhaps it's because I worried all week about whether BYU wide receiver Austin Collie would declare for the NFL draft, then learned today that . . . yes he is. Doh!) So, here it is, below all the mail information. (If for some reason I actually did send this earlier, and my friend was just playing with my mind . . . there will be trouble!)
Mike
______________
January 5, 2009
Yeh (that's "Hey" backwards, by the way) Yehhh family!
So so it's 2009 already eh? That's so cool. That means I turn 20 in five months. Cool! Two whole decades of life! Who does that make feel old now, huh? (haha).
So it's probably a good thing that December is finally over, because now I think the missionaries will get back on track. Last month was kinda slow, slightly less focused, and the people were generally a lot more drunk (uh, as in, people we try to teach, not the missionaries, of course). New Year's was definitely interesting. They do things a bit differently here. They party pretty much all day on the 31st, which means teaching was...not happening too much. So we got together as a zone around 8:00 pm for dinner and watched some movies. At midnight everyone starts lighting bombs off and setting fire to ... almost everything in sight. They have these things called...munllecas (probably not how its spelled in Spanish, but in English it sounds like...moon yeckas). It's like a scarecrow type thing that people stuff with whatever, including fireworks. (haha.) So you have this life size person-doll thing that you light on fire at midnight and the fireworks inside just start going nuts. (haha.) It's funny. So you look down the road and see like 50 balls of fire from these things. You actually can't see it all far for very long - as the area is quickly surrounded by a pretty good amount of smoke. (haha.) So that's New Year's in San Pedro, Peru. The following day was Thursday (of course), and President had us do our weekly planning that day instead of the Friday (our usual day), because of all the hangovers and what not. So the people generally slept all day after being up all night, and then in the afternoon, they woke up, turned the music back on, and began drinking again. I dunno how it happened but when New Year's hit it suddenly got a lot hotter. (Lame.) Still not terrible...but it's January . . . so I'm like: "Why the heck and I sweating right now?"
This week was fun, though. We did a couple service projects. We painted a lady's house one day, and then another day we had a bunch of the missionaries and actually build part of a house. (haha.) Very, very stable - let me tell ya. As long as you dig the whole deep enough for the wooden pole holding the roof up, you'll be just fine. (Building code? What is that?) But it's funny 'cause we would be working and get thirsty and they'd say...hey you want a drink? And my comp would say: "Yea, a Coke please." Then I'd say: "Water for me." And they would laugh at me like it was a joke and say... "Okay, I'll get you a Coke" and I'm just sitting there...like... "No, I was serious, actually . . . ." But, whatever. Nothing like a good Coke to human dehydration, eh?
As far as investigators go, we have a few good ones right now. The kinda weird girl that came to church last week, came again yesterday, and was actually a lot better. She actually...dressed up a little bit this time, which was good. She is strangely shy, or at least it seems that way 'cause she doesn't say much...and she always seems angry - always scowling at us or something. So during the lessons I just wanna stop and say: "Dang girl. Will you please just smile for like two seconds?" But seriously, there is a dim light within her that seems to be getting brighter. So if we keep working with her...she may be ready in the next few weeks for baptism. It is really fun to see the gospel changing a life in action. We are teaching two teenage boys that are really cool - Michael and Miguel. They both really like the lessons and wanna come to church. Of our present investigators, they act the most interested, but their father absolutely refuses to let them come to church. I would like to keep working with them, but my companion wants to move on - which is a bit frustrating, because I truly believe that one day these two young men will be able to make the decision on their own and we could be a part of that now.
I love my companion, but he does things differently. He's a good guy most of time, and is a very good teacher. He does a good job with lessons, is casual and fun, but sometimes he goes a bit overboard, is too casual, or is sometimes a bit too blunt with people, to the point that some people get offended at things he says and won't let us return. Still, I realize that I still need him a lot. It's always a good humbling experience when I'm talking to someone, didn't understand, or don't know how to respond, and I can tap him to have him help me out. So I do rely on him, and know that I still have much to learn from him, even if i don't agree with everything he does. And sometimes we have fun together, when he is more chill. But we really are very different. He is like the hardcore party kinda guy (in a good missionary way), and I dunno am . . . not so much. Lots of personality differences, and...yeah, nonetheless, I know I need him to help me. So, three more weeks until the next transfer, and we'll see what happens.
Well, I reckon that's about it. Oh yeah, yesterday when we were walking around these two big guys stopped next to us on a motorcycle and got off and started walking toward us. At first, I thought they wanted to fight, 'cause they looked at us and pointed to me and said to my comp: "Not you, just him." So I thought they wanted to fight, and was a little nervous about that. Actually, it was just some guy that has studied English for a few years and lived in the states for a couple years, and...he wanted to speak English with me. It was kinda weird at first but he was actually kinda cool, and has a lot of LDS friends. He lives really far from our area so I told him that he should listen to the missionaries, and we left it at that. It was just kinda funny, especially 'cause my comp later told me that when he saw them approaching he thought they were gay and wanted to kiss me. (Wow. haha.) On that note . . . .
Missionary work is cool. It's not very easy. In fact, it rarely is. But it's still very cool. I love being in Peru and learning Spanish. I know the Church is true and that the power of the priesthood is real. There is nothing I want more right now than for other people to have the same knowledge and blessings and experiences that I have. Yes, the Church is true.
elder. royal.
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