The Office - Week 11

Me and Elder Thomson

We´re weird - Elder Gustafson, Me and Elder Thomson

Diego and Araceli

Howdy howdy. How was the week. Mine... a little bit of a disaster. But. Tranquilo. It wasn't really all that bad. Just a little annoying.
I guess since I haven't gotten a letter yet, I'll just give the run down on the week...
Last Pday was kind of a disaster to start it all off. After I wrote my letter we went to  go get our hair cut. The place we normally go was packed. So we wandered around and only could find one place with semi-reasonable prices. Then I got my haircut by somebody that doesn't really know how to cut guys hair. It was kinda scary. And it took FOREVER. We didn't get to buy food or anything because of it. Lame. But oh well. That just kinda started a week of problems though.
Sunday went good. Our super fancy dinner visit fell apart on us. That was kinda disappointing, but in the end it turned out well. We got to do another visit instead that went super good. Due to Book of Mormon shortages, we didn't actually have a copy to give the lady at the time, but the lesson went so well that Elder Thomson actually lent his leather bound triple to the lady until we could get her a give away copy. Intense. Usually you'd be scared to death to do that, not knowing if you'd get it back, but it was cool to see the desires she had to read, and how Elder Thomson was willing to sacrifice so that she could have a chance to read it.
Monday. We got up early and ran to the church to play soccer for our exercise time now that we got a soccer ball again. But that started day 1 of getting up early...Had another pretty good day though. Got to teach some interesting lessons. Found a pretty cool lady to teach. Met a less active member who has desires to go back to church and a part member family. Good stuff.
Tuesday was went things went south. I wasn't anticipating the effects that zone conference would have on an office elder. And I was unfortunately surprised. All the people came in from all of the outlying cities, and of course, they needed money. Ugh. All of a sudden there were lots of things to do here in the office. We didn't even have a chance to go out and work that night. Not fun. Oh well. Thats how it goes.
Wednesday. "Get" to get up early. Again. This time to take a sick Hermana to the airport. At 5 in the morning. And I didn't know where I was going so of course we got lost. But wait. It gets worse. I didn't know where I was going, and after taking some bad advice from my comp, and then deciding to follow a motorbike... we got into a sticky situation. There was this really ugly piece of street that we had to cross, where it was kind of just a V shaped piece of road, with rubble filled train tracks in the bottom. Anyways, long story short..... we got the van stuck. Or, I guess I shouldn´t try and blame my comp on that one - I got the van stuck. Que Vergüenza!!! Panic-y kind of moment right there. So after spinning our tires for a while, Elder Thomson was straight inspired to get out and put some rocks under the back tires so that we could get it out from being stuck between the railroad tracks. After a couple tries, we were able to get it unstuck. But it definitely wasn't because of us that we got it out. We had help on that one for sure. And we made it to the airport on time. Nice.  After that, another crasy zone conference day. But at least we got to leave on time and even give a blessing and teach a lesson or two. There were also 2 new missionaries that showed up that day because of a prior visa problem. So they had to stay over at our house the first night. That was fun. We got to do a visit with one of them. We took him to a super typical and super nice and awesome member family. It was fun. He was super confused about everything. Hes from Mexico, so he got the Spanish, but with all of the little Guarani words and stuff we got to have a little fun with him. haha. We're mean. I also got him to share a scripture with them without warning him ahead of time. But he handled it really well and I was impressed. I'd feel bad, but it was probably good for him. lol.

Thursday. Got up early. By this point all of the lack of sleep was getting to me a little. And I was a little sick. Oh well. Took some people to immigrations. I've now become the office chauffeur for these things because my companion still doesn't have his license. Good stuff. So I've been having fun getting to know my way around better. Its making me a crazy-ish driver though. lol. You have to be able to drive fast, and make well educated swerves/lane changes at any time if you want to survive out here in these streets. haha. There are some laws here, but nobody really knows them or cares to follow them (or enforce them for that matter). Makes for exciting driving. This not at all being related at all to my earlier incidence of car problems, which was based on poor sign-age, direction-age, and road quality, as opposed to crasy driving. Fun stuff. Got back (almost) in time for zone conference. Which happened to be really good. We got to go just the one day, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Learned lots and hopefully will be able to apply everything into the way we work. Hopefully help this are to start seeing some real success. We also were lucky enough to be able to go out and work that evening. We got to do a reference receiving activity that worked really well. So now we have a good list of names to go visit, and hopefully we'll be able to meet some cool people.
Friday. Last day of conferences. Thank goodness. The only good thing about conference being that we got to eat the conference food for free everyday. And Elder Pattersons covert KNOWS how to cook. Sick. However, we got lucky again.... and got up early. To go to immigrations. Again. Oh well. The sad thing being that every morning we missed our study time. Which was sad because its somehing that you really come to love and appreciate here in the mission. But that makes us love it more now that we'll have time again. Hard to think that before I would sometimes go days or weeks without reading the scriptures. Now you just see that there is something missing if you can't be bothered to make a little time to read.
Also had a funny moment with President. He said that he got a letter from dad about future plans. The Hermana Madariaga then asked when I was going home. I let her know that I wouldn't be leaving till August. President said that it looks like he must be REALLY excited for me to be coming home. lol. But then the Hermana stopped and made an observation - Latin culture typically waits until the week before to realize that there are a million things that need to be done and then are living in a panic trying to plan for whatever it is, while north american culture does a good job of typically planning things WELL in advance. haha. It was just kind of funny because on one hand, we are kind of thinking WAY in advance, but at the same time, it makes sense and is probably a really good idea. I guess the funny part just being how blown away the hermana and president were about how far away it was, even though it totally makes sense.
Anyways. That was a general run down on the week. Sorry if it just looks like a big list of complaints. haha. It wasn't really all that bad. Just thought I'd say it how it was so that looking back in the future, I can remember all of the good times in the office. lol. But really, things are doing well here. We are doing our best. Working hard. Doing what we can to serve the people in our area, and also all of the rest of the missionaries with their many problems. Hopefully this week we can get more sleep and back on a normal schedule again. Shouldn't be AS hectic as this last week. Though we will have to go to the airport at least one more time. Ugh. lol. Oh well. Things are great. I love being a missionary! Hope your week has been great and that things continue to go well. Love you all tons! Keep up the good work, and thanks for all of the love and support! Have a good one!

Elder Humphreys

PS - Happy Birthday to Levi this week!! Speaking of which, the letters from the Edmonton gang showed up this week. They were sweet!! I thoroughly enjoyed all of them, and they put a smile on my face when I was trying not to fall asleep at my desk. haha. I'll be trying to write back to them as soon as I can. Maybe not this week since I'm tempted to just go take a nap in a second here, but I'll see what I can do. lol. If only there was a Hardy-quality couch here in the building, then I could get a real nap in just like the good old days. Say hi for me, thanks, and love ya all too. The only side comment in relation to the letters being that I hope you aren't all expecting me to find a wife here on the mission - because thats TOTALLY not what we're here to do... Lots of better things, like helping people come to know of the gospel. LOTS of time to look for women when I get home. hahaha. But yeah. I especially loved the picture, which happens to now be hanging up in my bedroom (I didn't think it was office appropriate. I hope ya understand). haha. Anyways, THANKS!!! Chau.