Hey, hey, hey. Hows everything going? Things are doing great here. Nothing too terribly exciting happened this week but we´ll see how this goes...
First of all though, sounds like home life is going swell. Sounds like Marissas getting a little bit spoiled here though. I dunno.... iPhones. Whats up with that?! I´m just getting a little bit jealous here....lol. But I´m glad to hear that the party went well. Sounds like a blast. Cool little concert thing and everything. Dad, I liked the email. I´m all down for being the 3rd member in your allstar go-carting team if that every gets ¨rolling¨ (haha. funny?). And I liked the Clash-ness. That was whitty. haha.
But whaaaaaaat? Diana??? That doesn´t wierd me out or anything...... at all. Woah. haha. Its like, I´m not shocked that she´d get married (thats what people do after all...), but uh. Now I feel old. And like... thats gunna be wierd to come home and have a new cousin. That I´ve never met. Thats like, older and not just still a baby or anything (because every baby is the same basically right? lol) But huh. Mind boggleing. But CONGRATULATIONS. Hope everything goes well. Send me a picture? lol. Thats like, going to be the first person that I knew pretty well thats going to be married. Wierd. wierd. Now just nobody else get married and I think I´ll be able to handle it. Especially sisters. Don´t get married. Yet. Huh.
ANYWAYS. Good week. Only ate a couple of gross things. Yesterday I grabbed a big chunk of meat to find out it was just a huge steak sized chunk of fat that they threw on the BBQ. But I assumed that if they had put it on the grill, they must have expected it to be eaten, so I was forced to cut it up into bite sized pieces, prettend chew for a bit, and then just swallow all these chunks of fat whole..... Mmmmmm.... And then I had a pizza today with Tuna and ¨Palmitos¨ on it. Still not sure what the palmitos were, but i think it was just some kind of plant or something. Nothing too crasy.
This week was kind of noisy. This week the country turned 200 years old, and so there was a parade on Saturday. Basically everyone was there. Not to mention every school in the town has to walk in the parade. And the only thing that they do is twirl batons really sissily, and the guys play their drums really loud. And they all spent all week practicing in the streets at night. So it was pretty loud. But cool. The parade was the boringest thing I´ve ever seen, but it made me think of the Stampede parade and then just stampede in general. Wierd to think I´d miss that all that much.
The week was strang ish because we had some really good days and got a lot done, but then we had some rough days. Spent a lot of time walking around and finding nobody home. Having the backup plans to our backup plans fall through. But it did kind of lead to a cool experience. At one point we were all out of ideas, and too a quick sit on the parkbench. Realized that there were a lot of names in the phone of old investigators that we didn´t know, so we started contacting by just phoning random people, inviting them to church, and then asking them where they lived and if we could go visit them. It was kinda awkward, wierd, and a little fun. But after talking to a couple people and using up all of our phone money we had to give up. Anyways, walking through the streets the other day and some lady stopped her motorbike and said ¨Hey. You called me¨. Turns out I had talked to her on the phone. Anyways, now we have better directions to her house, and she said that she liked the church, but just didn´t get baptized because she had to work a lot before, but now she doens´t work sundays. So that might have some promise. We´ll have to see. But it just was an example of something cool that I´ve noticed a couple times this week and a more times on the mission in general. After all of our plans fall and we´ve done everything, we´ve stopped to change our plans again and somebody we now or wanted to visit or that is interested in the church comes out of nowhere and we happen to be in just the right place at the right time. Its really cool. Theres a scripture somewhere... that says something about how in the end we´ll be saved by grace after all we can do. Or something like that. I think it refers more to the final judgement or something, but I think about it in times like this. We get the blessings after we´ve run around, failed, and continued to run until we´re out of ideas. And then because of the diligence we put in, the Lord puts someone in our path that needs our help. Good stuff.
Anyways, basically out of time here already. Dang it. Yesterday kinda fell apart - it was mothers day and so all the members travelled to visit their parents moms and family. That meant that hardly anybody came to church. Just try and imagine holding a meeting with only 11 people. lol. But at least a couple of the people giving talks showed up. Some old lady wanted one of those hello´s where you give them the kiss on both cheeks. The Sister missionaries have to give like 100 of those each day, but usually the missionaries get off easy. Well, I didn´t know what to do so I just leaned back and shook her hand. haha. She looked kinda offended but I hope she gets over it. She was kinda crasy anyways. She stood up in the middle of my class, told the member that she came with that she was going home (we hadn´t met her before), and then asked the whole class to give her a round of applause before she left. haha. Funny stuff.
But thats all. We´re teaching this really smart guy right now, and its wierd to actually have to answer good questions. Most people here aren´t that on top of things, but this guy really knows his stuff. We´re working on his testimony of the Book of Mormon so that he doesn´t have so many doubts. Hopefully that works. His names Roque. Cool guy, and we´re praying lots for him.
Besides that. How are all my other mission buds doing? Haven´t heard much from them. And did the Hockey playoffs already come and go? Who won that if it did? lol. Just interested in the winning team and maybe where we placed. Don´t want to get distracted, but it seems like I´m missing something in my life without that information. Anyways, love you lots, and have a good week!
See yah!
Love, Elder Humphreys
Monday, May 16, 2011
Monday, May 9, 2011
The Day after Letter....
Hi! Long time no speak! Sorry if its a lame letter this week. Its always a little weird writing the email the day after a phone call, because you feel like you just told everybody everything. But thats all right. I didn´t really talk much about the week or anything like that. To start off though, it was a pleasure talking to you all. Sounds like you´re all doing great. Sorry that I probably sounded like a goof and that I couldn´t really hear everything you said, but oh well. Thats how it goes right? No worries on not calling back. That kinda was my fault after all, blabing about something unimportant instead of saying a proper goodbye like I should have. Oh well. Hope you all got the part where I either did, or meant to say ¨Love ya! Have a good next 8 months! Thanks for callin! Its been great! Be good kids, but not so good that the nanny is getting payed for nothing! And take it easy on my spelling okay? I´m busy writing as fast as I can and sometimes little things slip through! haha. I´ll try and send you all your birthday presents in a week or two, but knowing the mail system it might take a while! Have a happy mothers day evening and don´t eat too much cake - you´ll get fat, just like I am....lol. LOVE YOU!¨ ... or something like that.
But anyways. Just to clarify things up - my current comp (Elder Chatelain) is from the fantastic, Salt Lake City Utah. He´s like the 3rd Salt Lake comp I´ve had already, but oh well. They aren´t as bad as you´d think...lol. Just kidding. He´s really good, and we get along and are working hard.
What else. Monday was crasy. Running around, paying all sorts of bills and paying off debts, and the usual groceries and stuff too. Then we had to get on a bus at 10:30 at night to travel to Asuncion. Double Decker. Pretty legit. The seats are basically like big beds. Showed up in town at 5 in the morning or something like that. Ridiculous. At least I got to sleep a little bit. Then we had interviews with President, and after I got to go to the temple AGAIN. Legit. Got a package while I was in the office, but it basically all got thrown out because it was soaked and just destroyed :( Oh well, its the thought that counts right. Had a super legit zone conference. Learned lots. The coolest part was a talk by Elder Holland that they showed. He gave it at the MTC a couple months ago. It was super good. I don´t know if you can look it up on the internet or what, but I think he gave it in January or February. Not sure. Talked about how this generation of missionaries have to be better than ever before, and how you really have to be converted yourself before you can share the gospel. Not like before when there were set lessons and you could just go in and ramble the whole thing off without feeling anything. Stuff like that. It´d be a good one for those guys that will be heading out in a bit here maybe. I dunno.
Spent a lot of time this week just meeting new people, doing contacts, trying to build up the investigator pool. That was fun.... lol. Contacting is probably the least enjoyed part of working, but I´m actually starting to kind of enjoy it. So thats good. Talking to lots of people, and trying to get to know those people that are ready to recieve the gospel. Had one of our most successful days of this change on Thursday because of it. Its really cool because we´re starting to see the work pick up a lot. After contacting late and in the dark we were able to teach a lesson to one lady who was really down because her husband past away and said that she had really lost faith in God for a while. We were able to share about the plan of Salvation and I shared some personal experience, and I think it went really well. We haven´t been able to talk to her again yet, but I´m hopeing that she´ll be able to progress and start coming to church. Her names Margarita, and she´s already got a friend or two in the ward. I think she´s got a drinking problem though, so we´ll see what happens.
Friday was a mess. The old landlady is crasy and we´ve been having a hard time getting rid of her. We´re trying to be nice and accomodating and make up for where the last set of Elders made a mess, but she´s kinda trying to take advantage of us. Thats no fun. Wasting a lot of time with that. All I can say is that I think I´m going to want to spen the least amount of time possible renting houses when I grow up, and a lot more owning my own.... hopefully I win the lottery or something like that....
Didn´t eat anything too weird this week... had a little frog jump in my oatmeal right after Elder Chatelain warned me not to poke it... I ate it anyways. haha. Today I rolled the dice and ordered something that we didn´t know what it was at the restaurant. It was just a platter of really small chunks of food. So I ate my olives, ham and cheese pieces, fries and little meat things with a toothpick. Fortunately no one was there or I think I would have been kinda embarassed.
Met some people that told us they couldn´t talk to us because the Catholic church was giving their kids food on the condition that they didn´t talk with anyone from any other church. I almost tried to clarify that with her by asking if they were really just getting payed by the church to not talk about the gospel with us, but I decided to let them be, considering that they looked pretty hungry and I didn´t think it´d be very Christlike to sass them like that. lol.
Anyways. Thats all I got time for. It was a blast chattin on the phone. Hope this e-mail had something in it worth reading. I´ll try and think of something deeper to write about next week. Love you lots, and have a great week! Things are going great here and I´m lovin being a missionary!
Chau! Jajotopata! (sp?- Nobody knows how to spell in Guarani... lol)
Elder Humphreys
PS. I´m trying not to think tooooo much about it because it gets me all thinking into the future and not enough in the present and such, but I´m super stoked to be picked up at the end. I just keep thinking of all the fun things we´ll get to do and saying goodbye for reals to all the people I already miss. Stuff like that. We´ll have to plan more in the future. I´ll think about what day would be best to call it quits. Love ya, bye.
But anyways. Just to clarify things up - my current comp (Elder Chatelain) is from the fantastic, Salt Lake City Utah. He´s like the 3rd Salt Lake comp I´ve had already, but oh well. They aren´t as bad as you´d think...lol. Just kidding. He´s really good, and we get along and are working hard.
What else. Monday was crasy. Running around, paying all sorts of bills and paying off debts, and the usual groceries and stuff too. Then we had to get on a bus at 10:30 at night to travel to Asuncion. Double Decker. Pretty legit. The seats are basically like big beds. Showed up in town at 5 in the morning or something like that. Ridiculous. At least I got to sleep a little bit. Then we had interviews with President, and after I got to go to the temple AGAIN. Legit. Got a package while I was in the office, but it basically all got thrown out because it was soaked and just destroyed :( Oh well, its the thought that counts right. Had a super legit zone conference. Learned lots. The coolest part was a talk by Elder Holland that they showed. He gave it at the MTC a couple months ago. It was super good. I don´t know if you can look it up on the internet or what, but I think he gave it in January or February. Not sure. Talked about how this generation of missionaries have to be better than ever before, and how you really have to be converted yourself before you can share the gospel. Not like before when there were set lessons and you could just go in and ramble the whole thing off without feeling anything. Stuff like that. It´d be a good one for those guys that will be heading out in a bit here maybe. I dunno.
Spent a lot of time this week just meeting new people, doing contacts, trying to build up the investigator pool. That was fun.... lol. Contacting is probably the least enjoyed part of working, but I´m actually starting to kind of enjoy it. So thats good. Talking to lots of people, and trying to get to know those people that are ready to recieve the gospel. Had one of our most successful days of this change on Thursday because of it. Its really cool because we´re starting to see the work pick up a lot. After contacting late and in the dark we were able to teach a lesson to one lady who was really down because her husband past away and said that she had really lost faith in God for a while. We were able to share about the plan of Salvation and I shared some personal experience, and I think it went really well. We haven´t been able to talk to her again yet, but I´m hopeing that she´ll be able to progress and start coming to church. Her names Margarita, and she´s already got a friend or two in the ward. I think she´s got a drinking problem though, so we´ll see what happens.
Friday was a mess. The old landlady is crasy and we´ve been having a hard time getting rid of her. We´re trying to be nice and accomodating and make up for where the last set of Elders made a mess, but she´s kinda trying to take advantage of us. Thats no fun. Wasting a lot of time with that. All I can say is that I think I´m going to want to spen the least amount of time possible renting houses when I grow up, and a lot more owning my own.... hopefully I win the lottery or something like that....
Didn´t eat anything too weird this week... had a little frog jump in my oatmeal right after Elder Chatelain warned me not to poke it... I ate it anyways. haha. Today I rolled the dice and ordered something that we didn´t know what it was at the restaurant. It was just a platter of really small chunks of food. So I ate my olives, ham and cheese pieces, fries and little meat things with a toothpick. Fortunately no one was there or I think I would have been kinda embarassed.
Met some people that told us they couldn´t talk to us because the Catholic church was giving their kids food on the condition that they didn´t talk with anyone from any other church. I almost tried to clarify that with her by asking if they were really just getting payed by the church to not talk about the gospel with us, but I decided to let them be, considering that they looked pretty hungry and I didn´t think it´d be very Christlike to sass them like that. lol.
Anyways. Thats all I got time for. It was a blast chattin on the phone. Hope this e-mail had something in it worth reading. I´ll try and think of something deeper to write about next week. Love you lots, and have a great week! Things are going great here and I´m lovin being a missionary!
Chau! Jajotopata! (sp?- Nobody knows how to spell in Guarani... lol)
Elder Humphreys
PS. I´m trying not to think tooooo much about it because it gets me all thinking into the future and not enough in the present and such, but I´m super stoked to be picked up at the end. I just keep thinking of all the fun things we´ll get to do and saying goodbye for reals to all the people I already miss. Stuff like that. We´ll have to plan more in the future. I´ll think about what day would be best to call it quits. Love ya, bye.
Monday, May 2, 2011
Oh, and btw, is propane bad to breath?
Hey fam and friends! Hows it all going. Things are just fabulous here. Had kindof a crasy week, but it was pretty awesome too. Monday. Became an old guy. Already mentioned that. Tuesday we got up early and had to take a 4 hour bus ride to the nearest set of missionaries to have a meeting with them. Pretty cool. I´m pretty sure that we are the most issolated set of missionaries in the whole mission. Not the furthest from the office or anything, but the furthest from anybody else. Makes you feel kinda legit. The only problem with that is that it costs a lot to travel. Not like tonnes, but it adds up quick when you only have a little bit of money, and you´ve been waiting for weeks for a months worth of money in re-embersals (don´t even know if thats an english word...) to come back from the office. So basically we were living off of what little personal money I had for a whole week. I´ve never felt so poor in my life. It was a fun experience. lol. I almost regretted buying everyone a little birthday present before I left my last area. I´ll have to try and send those in a week or two.
Didn´t eat anything exciting this week... sorry to dissapoint. But Wednesday I did try something new. It failed. Theres a kind of soda flavour here called Guaraná. Its really good. But it would cost a lot to send it. So I bought the juice powder and thought maybe you could make your own by putting it in Carbonated water. So I decided to try it out first. Well they didn´t happen to have any carbonated water, so I bought tonic water. Gross stuff. Then when I put the powder in, the whole thing nearly exploded. What a mess. Not to mention that I tried to catch it from spilling on the floor with my mouth and it went all up my nose and stuff like that. Not fun. haha.
Thursday, the shower broke. Everything in our house started to breakdown the minute we decided to move. First I showered cold. Then the shower head melted a bit. Then Elder C tried to bend it back and it snapped in like 3 places. Then he broke the bathroom door off its hing too. A disaster. Oh well. We just payed some guy to fix it on Saturday when we moved.
But before that. Saturday. BAPTISM! Super cool. It seems like forever since I last had one. It was a lady named Clotilde and her son Adrian. After tonnes of problems trying to line up a taxi and everything we payed some guy to give us all a ride in the back of his truck. He drove us like a half hour to our ¨font¨. AKA the river. Super cool. Got changed into white in an abandoned house and then took turns wading into the river for the baptism. Really cool. Thankfully I didn´t get eaten by any paranas. Apparently there are some that live in the river....lol
Also this week was the planned temple trip for the ward. That was a disaster too. The people from the ward that we are a part of, 4 hours away, didn´t plan basically anything. After 2 weeks of getting the members all ready they almost didn´t get to go. Then at the last minute they sent some guy in this ghetto van to pick them up. We had to stay up till 1 in the morning to get them all out. Then we got woken up sat morning to find out that an hour out of town the van broke down and they were stuck on the highway for 4or5 hours in the dark trying to get home. Nobody went. :( But fortunately they will all be going again this Saturday supposedly. Hopefully its planned a little better. It was almost the happiest day of the mission until they couldn´t make it...
Saturday was a mess. We spent the entire day moving houses. The old house was a mess. I got stuck cleaning up a pile of half burned garbage. It was disgusting. Fortunately one of the members helped us move. Oh, and btw, is propane bad to breath? There was a little mishap with the stove when we went to move it....lol. But now we´re all good and settled in our new house. Its awesome. I haven´t had a shower that nice for years.
Besides that.... its actually pretty cool now. less than 15 degrees last night for sure. And its different here because the houses aren´t sealed or anything and there aren´t furnaces. I´m loving it right now. Elder Chatelains a little cold. lol. I´m excited to see what winter really gets like. I hear its pretty chilly. Tonght we have to leave for Asuncion at 10:30. Should get there ridiculously early in the morning. But it should be worth it. I get to go to the temple. AGAIN. Awesome. I got lucky. Then we get to go to zone conf, and then I get the interview with the president that I missed. Should be a blast.
By the way. Heard that Bin Laden died. Whats up with that? Sounds like you guys are eating well. Don´t get fat! lol. I´m eating alrightish but I think somehow even with all this walking and such I might be getting chubby. I still have to weigh myself, but we´ll see. Congrats to Tanner. Thats legit. A TOTALLY different mission than this one for sure.
But yup. OUta time! Love you lots. Have a great week! Talk to the fam this Sunday! Should be SICK! lol
Love you,
Elder Humphreys
PS. Happy Birthday Uncle Kevin........And Marissa too I guess!!!!!! lol
Didn´t eat anything exciting this week... sorry to dissapoint. But Wednesday I did try something new. It failed. Theres a kind of soda flavour here called Guaraná. Its really good. But it would cost a lot to send it. So I bought the juice powder and thought maybe you could make your own by putting it in Carbonated water. So I decided to try it out first. Well they didn´t happen to have any carbonated water, so I bought tonic water. Gross stuff. Then when I put the powder in, the whole thing nearly exploded. What a mess. Not to mention that I tried to catch it from spilling on the floor with my mouth and it went all up my nose and stuff like that. Not fun. haha.
Thursday, the shower broke. Everything in our house started to breakdown the minute we decided to move. First I showered cold. Then the shower head melted a bit. Then Elder C tried to bend it back and it snapped in like 3 places. Then he broke the bathroom door off its hing too. A disaster. Oh well. We just payed some guy to fix it on Saturday when we moved.
But before that. Saturday. BAPTISM! Super cool. It seems like forever since I last had one. It was a lady named Clotilde and her son Adrian. After tonnes of problems trying to line up a taxi and everything we payed some guy to give us all a ride in the back of his truck. He drove us like a half hour to our ¨font¨. AKA the river. Super cool. Got changed into white in an abandoned house and then took turns wading into the river for the baptism. Really cool. Thankfully I didn´t get eaten by any paranas. Apparently there are some that live in the river....lol
Also this week was the planned temple trip for the ward. That was a disaster too. The people from the ward that we are a part of, 4 hours away, didn´t plan basically anything. After 2 weeks of getting the members all ready they almost didn´t get to go. Then at the last minute they sent some guy in this ghetto van to pick them up. We had to stay up till 1 in the morning to get them all out. Then we got woken up sat morning to find out that an hour out of town the van broke down and they were stuck on the highway for 4or5 hours in the dark trying to get home. Nobody went. :( But fortunately they will all be going again this Saturday supposedly. Hopefully its planned a little better. It was almost the happiest day of the mission until they couldn´t make it...
Saturday was a mess. We spent the entire day moving houses. The old house was a mess. I got stuck cleaning up a pile of half burned garbage. It was disgusting. Fortunately one of the members helped us move. Oh, and btw, is propane bad to breath? There was a little mishap with the stove when we went to move it....lol. But now we´re all good and settled in our new house. Its awesome. I haven´t had a shower that nice for years.
Besides that.... its actually pretty cool now. less than 15 degrees last night for sure. And its different here because the houses aren´t sealed or anything and there aren´t furnaces. I´m loving it right now. Elder Chatelains a little cold. lol. I´m excited to see what winter really gets like. I hear its pretty chilly. Tonght we have to leave for Asuncion at 10:30. Should get there ridiculously early in the morning. But it should be worth it. I get to go to the temple. AGAIN. Awesome. I got lucky. Then we get to go to zone conf, and then I get the interview with the president that I missed. Should be a blast.
By the way. Heard that Bin Laden died. Whats up with that? Sounds like you guys are eating well. Don´t get fat! lol. I´m eating alrightish but I think somehow even with all this walking and such I might be getting chubby. I still have to weigh myself, but we´ll see. Congrats to Tanner. Thats legit. A TOTALLY different mission than this one for sure.
But yup. OUta time! Love you lots. Have a great week! Talk to the fam this Sunday! Should be SICK! lol
Love you,
Elder Humphreys
Me and Elder Chatelain
Monday, April 25, 2011
Elder Humphreys is getting OLD
I accidently checked the other day... I can't believe I'm the only one that noticed. But today marks Elder Humphreys' 1/3rd mark on the mission. Wierd. But we're not going to dwell on that. Because its just a number. And it just hurts my brain to think about.,.. I feel like I just checked into the MTC yesterday....
You can tell my sisters that I'll always reply if I get anything. Something seems to be broken somewhere. I thought it was just that nobody liked writting me...lol. As for grandma and grandpa... I haven't gotten anything for a while now. But its been 3 weeks since the mail got delivered so I'll have to tell you next week. And I think there area a couple that I got a little while back but am still writting back to. I have lots of bus riding time now so its great. Every week I have time with nothing to do so I just study, read, write a letter or two, and maybe get a short nap or two.
As for the security in the house we're just peachy. Its a good strong gate. But we're glad to be moving. It turns out that the owner of the house is kinda crasy and I'm glad that I won't have to deal with her anymore. Oh. And as far as sending pictures goes. Lots of people just buy SD cards. They aren't too expensive. Then just carry or mail them. I dunno. With the new picture taking rule I don't have tonnes myself. :( Gotta do something about that.
But as for this week. Its depressing to say but it turns out I've been living a lie....lol. Apparently the horse wasn't really horse. It was about as much of a horse as is horse radish. Some silly spanish play on words. Bife a Caballo, not Bife DE Caballo. LAME. I'm so embarrassed....haha. I did drink real cow milk this week though. It was pretty gross. Had like curds or whatever they're called floating in it. The milk situation in this country is a mess. I'm excited for a glass of "real" milk one day in the future back at home.
We talked with this really interesting guy this week. He's the friend of a member and he came to church this week and last week. Don't know if I mentioned him last week or not. Basically he used to be a preacher for some baptist church or something for a really long time. Also went to jail for a bit (not exactly sure why), but now he really wants to turn his life around. Claims to already know that the Book of Mormon is true, and has been preaching from it for the past 15 years now. Appears to know everything really well and is really excited to be baptized. So thats kinda interesting. Seems too good to be true. But we're teaching him anyways and we'll see what happens. Fortunately he has to have an interview with president for having gone to jail before. So hopefully president can figure him out. He seems just a LITTLE bit sketchy. Maybe he's just an answer to our prayers though. We'll see.
As far as Easter went, it was interesting here. People in this town are really catholic. Even more than the rest of the country. And so they take this "Holy week" pretty seriously. It made work wierd for us because there were a lot of people around, but they were all visiting family, or just wanted to enjoy their week off rather than talk. It seemed like basically all of our investigators were out of town visiting their parents or something like that. Oh well. Hopefully next weeks more successful... Had some "ham" for easter dinner, but it was just really fatty pig leg that they BBQ'd. But beggers can't be choosers! We have a lot more people feeding us now which is nice, but the stomach doesn't handle food from poor members as well as the food we used to make at home. But the lunch visits are nice because you don't have to make it, and you get to spend more time with the members. So hopefully there are a lot more in the future!
Saturday the second councillor from the nearest ward (4 hours aways) came out and did interviews with all the members. That was super good. Its tricky because we run the ward, but we don't really do interviews like that. So its good to help people realize where they can improve. Stuff like that. Also the members are going to the temple this week. So we've had to teach like crasy to get them ready. Nobody in town has been before so they have no idea how it is. We've managed to help them with their doubts and problems, and get them all stoked to go and do baptisms. There are even one or two of them that might be going through to do an endowment session and so crasily enough I'VE been teaching temple prep. And to think that less than a year ago I was in the same spot as them. But its been awesome. I love talking about the temple (just the parts your allowed to talk about of course :). I think they love it too. There have been some missionaries in the past here that like to just go and hang out with people. Thats all fun and stuff, but its really nice to actually do something for the people and watch them progress in the gospel. Yah missionary work!
Heard there were some big earthquakes in the states this week or something? Is it just me or is the world falling apart? lol. I can't remember there ever having been so many problems in just one year. Ironically enough I just taught the Gospel Principles class on the signs of the second comming. Fun stuff.
As for success, I think we're finally going to see another baptism this week! Yay. Clotilde and her son Adrian look pretty set to go. I wasn't here when they found them, but they're great people and I think they'll be good and ready. So hopefully all the prayers go through and nothing gets in the way at the last second.
Just a small request. Sometimes there is a little bit of time at the church or at the house with nothing to do. I was thinking that trying to learn a little song on the piano might be good, and something besides just a regular hymn. Theres a classical piece that I got in my music and I think mom always used to play it and so I really like it. Doesn't sound toooo hard. So maybe you could just scan it in and I could print it out? Its called "Sonata #8 in C Minor, Op. 13 "Pathétique"" by Beethoven. I think its in that really old book of Beethoven thats falling apart. If you could that'd be great.
But that was the week. Went fairly descently. This coming week should be pretty good. Planning on teaching a lot of temple prep, driving 4 ours out and then 4 hours back for two hours worth of meetings with the district and zone leaders, having a baptism, moving houses, being able to see some of the members leave for the temple, then Marissas going to get old, I might get to go to the temple AGAIN (lucky me!), and we have interviews and zone conference too. Should be a blast. Not to mention that mothers day is coming up. Not too long and we'll be chatting by phone. Wierd! But thats how it goes. Starting out part 2 of 3. Hope it goes swell!
Anyways. Love you lots! Have a good week!
Elder Humphreys
You can tell my sisters that I'll always reply if I get anything. Something seems to be broken somewhere. I thought it was just that nobody liked writting me...lol. As for grandma and grandpa... I haven't gotten anything for a while now. But its been 3 weeks since the mail got delivered so I'll have to tell you next week. And I think there area a couple that I got a little while back but am still writting back to. I have lots of bus riding time now so its great. Every week I have time with nothing to do so I just study, read, write a letter or two, and maybe get a short nap or two.
As for the security in the house we're just peachy. Its a good strong gate. But we're glad to be moving. It turns out that the owner of the house is kinda crasy and I'm glad that I won't have to deal with her anymore. Oh. And as far as sending pictures goes. Lots of people just buy SD cards. They aren't too expensive. Then just carry or mail them. I dunno. With the new picture taking rule I don't have tonnes myself. :( Gotta do something about that.
But as for this week. Its depressing to say but it turns out I've been living a lie....lol. Apparently the horse wasn't really horse. It was about as much of a horse as is horse radish. Some silly spanish play on words. Bife a Caballo, not Bife DE Caballo. LAME. I'm so embarrassed....haha. I did drink real cow milk this week though. It was pretty gross. Had like curds or whatever they're called floating in it. The milk situation in this country is a mess. I'm excited for a glass of "real" milk one day in the future back at home.
We talked with this really interesting guy this week. He's the friend of a member and he came to church this week and last week. Don't know if I mentioned him last week or not. Basically he used to be a preacher for some baptist church or something for a really long time. Also went to jail for a bit (not exactly sure why), but now he really wants to turn his life around. Claims to already know that the Book of Mormon is true, and has been preaching from it for the past 15 years now. Appears to know everything really well and is really excited to be baptized. So thats kinda interesting. Seems too good to be true. But we're teaching him anyways and we'll see what happens. Fortunately he has to have an interview with president for having gone to jail before. So hopefully president can figure him out. He seems just a LITTLE bit sketchy. Maybe he's just an answer to our prayers though. We'll see.
As far as Easter went, it was interesting here. People in this town are really catholic. Even more than the rest of the country. And so they take this "Holy week" pretty seriously. It made work wierd for us because there were a lot of people around, but they were all visiting family, or just wanted to enjoy their week off rather than talk. It seemed like basically all of our investigators were out of town visiting their parents or something like that. Oh well. Hopefully next weeks more successful... Had some "ham" for easter dinner, but it was just really fatty pig leg that they BBQ'd. But beggers can't be choosers! We have a lot more people feeding us now which is nice, but the stomach doesn't handle food from poor members as well as the food we used to make at home. But the lunch visits are nice because you don't have to make it, and you get to spend more time with the members. So hopefully there are a lot more in the future!
Saturday the second councillor from the nearest ward (4 hours aways) came out and did interviews with all the members. That was super good. Its tricky because we run the ward, but we don't really do interviews like that. So its good to help people realize where they can improve. Stuff like that. Also the members are going to the temple this week. So we've had to teach like crasy to get them ready. Nobody in town has been before so they have no idea how it is. We've managed to help them with their doubts and problems, and get them all stoked to go and do baptisms. There are even one or two of them that might be going through to do an endowment session and so crasily enough I'VE been teaching temple prep. And to think that less than a year ago I was in the same spot as them. But its been awesome. I love talking about the temple (just the parts your allowed to talk about of course :). I think they love it too. There have been some missionaries in the past here that like to just go and hang out with people. Thats all fun and stuff, but its really nice to actually do something for the people and watch them progress in the gospel. Yah missionary work!
Heard there were some big earthquakes in the states this week or something? Is it just me or is the world falling apart? lol. I can't remember there ever having been so many problems in just one year. Ironically enough I just taught the Gospel Principles class on the signs of the second comming. Fun stuff.
As for success, I think we're finally going to see another baptism this week! Yay. Clotilde and her son Adrian look pretty set to go. I wasn't here when they found them, but they're great people and I think they'll be good and ready. So hopefully all the prayers go through and nothing gets in the way at the last second.
Just a small request. Sometimes there is a little bit of time at the church or at the house with nothing to do. I was thinking that trying to learn a little song on the piano might be good, and something besides just a regular hymn. Theres a classical piece that I got in my music and I think mom always used to play it and so I really like it. Doesn't sound toooo hard. So maybe you could just scan it in and I could print it out? Its called "Sonata #8 in C Minor, Op. 13 "Pathétique"" by Beethoven. I think its in that really old book of Beethoven thats falling apart. If you could that'd be great.
But that was the week. Went fairly descently. This coming week should be pretty good. Planning on teaching a lot of temple prep, driving 4 ours out and then 4 hours back for two hours worth of meetings with the district and zone leaders, having a baptism, moving houses, being able to see some of the members leave for the temple, then Marissas going to get old, I might get to go to the temple AGAIN (lucky me!), and we have interviews and zone conference too. Should be a blast. Not to mention that mothers day is coming up. Not too long and we'll be chatting by phone. Wierd! But thats how it goes. Starting out part 2 of 3. Hope it goes swell!
Anyways. Love you lots! Have a good week!
Elder Humphreys
Monday, April 18, 2011
Week 1 in San Pedro de Ycuamandyyú
Whew! Crasy week. Lots of change. Where to start....
Hope all is just swell back there at home. Heard about a bunch of tornadoes hittin down somewhere but not sure what the deal was with that. Hopefully everyones homes are still in one piece. I´m also glad to be alive here to talk to you as well. Had some river fish last monday. I think it was called Millanesa (basically means ¨breaded¨) de Surubí. Pretty good stuff at this place right by the river. Also, we got a couple of lunch visits here in San Pedro, but I haven´t gotten too sick yet. Besides that... went out for lunch today and I ordered.... Horse. Gross right? It actually didn´t taste all that bad. Came with an egg and a bunch of onions on top. That was the worst part. lol.
So Peter´s going to Chile then? How legit is that!? Sounds like Chile´s a pretty hoppin place. I´ll have to get some more details next time I talk with Elder Villalon. From what I´ve heard, I think they talk pretty fast there, but at least they speak spanish and not the half spanish half guarani they speak here. lol. But thanks for filling me in. I´ll have to make sure I hurry and write him back. Tell them that if they have any questions to just ask! Send an email or something. About anything too. I´m now an expert on shoes, hot climate, you name it. haha. Hope you´re all havin fun with the b-day plans. You wont be getting off as easy as you used to with mine.
But yeah. As for how the week went. Tuesday was pretty crasy. Ran around like crasy saying goodbyes and taking pictures with people. Didnt get to say goodbye to everyone that I wanted to, but oh well. I think I hit the most important people, and even got a couple of souvenirs. Turns out I´m still a painfully slow packer. lol. But yeah. It was sad to have to say goodbye to everyone. I had been thinking I would have been there a little bit longer, but turned out to be my time to leave. It appeared as though there were at least a couple of people that were genuinely sad to see me go though, so that made me happy.
Met up at the office wednesday. Turns out to get to our area and back is about 6.5 hours and there are only about 3 buses that leave a day. So the day was basically wasted sitting and waiting, and then traveling. The bus was pretty rough too. Didn´t have AC or anything. At least there were seats. And the view in someparts even reminded me of Alberta. But yeah. Turns out our area is pretty much the 2nd most isolated of any in the mission. We´re about 4 hours from the nearest set of misisonaries. So thats pretty legit. The area is really new and I´´m only the 7th missionary to ever come out here. So the are doesn´t have many people that have been members for more than a year now. We don´t even have a ward yet. Each week we have about 25 people that meet in a rented building. My comp runs the meeting and presides. So its pretty legit like that. But the members are awesome!They´ve had to sacrifice a lot, and they have really strong testimonies.
Our house is a dump. But we´re going to move at the beginning of next month :) We live in front of the highway, hav a gate for a front door, the bathroom is outside, the floor is made of dirt and bricks etc. But i´m not complaining. It did make me really homesick for my last area at first though.
But yeah. We áre in the poorest department ´(its like a province) in the country, but its not too bad here in town. Its just because the place is really spaced out and everyone that doesn´t live in town are farmers. Read a talk by Elder Christofferson in the Ensign this month about ´Always remembering Him´. It was really good. It talked about 3 things we need to do to keep our covenants to always remember christ. I cant remember them perfectly right now. But they were about always remembering that we´re going to be accountable for whatever we¨ve done and acting accordingly, having faith and turning to the lord in all our times of need.... and I cant remember the first point. But its one to look up for sure. I used it in the talk I had to give on sunday. Went pretty well. Crasily enough, it was the first time ive given a talk since beeing here. Thats what you get for being in big wards for so long. I played the piano and thats the first time theyve done that before I think. It was a disaster. Maybe we´ll go back to just listening to the hymns on CD but people want me to teach them piano too so that will be interesting. Donçt think I´m qualified for that.
Oh. Just for the record. I forgot to mention that me and Elder Villalon hitch-hiked to the church the other week. First time I´ve done that before so thankfully now its in the history books. Fortunately the driver was legit and not a serial killer or something.
Anyways. Thats how it is. Sounds like the last bunch of misisonaries here have been a bunch of goofs and slackers, and so we got a lot of work ahead of us. But thats cool with us. Elder Chatelain is a good guy and I´m happy to be able to work with him. Hes willing to work, and hopefully well be able to have some good success in this change.
But thats it. Out of time. Love you lots. Theres going to be lots of partying going down this week for the semana santa aka Easter week activities. So I´ll let you know how that goes. Hope you all have a fabulous easter get together without me. I cleaned out the freezer this week and all the ice and snow reminded me of home. Is it warming up yet? Its stillpretty hot here. But yeah. Love you lots! Have a happy easter´! Bye!
Love, Elder Humphreys
PS If you´re ever sending a package any time soon, do you think you could throw in a skipping rope. Like a nice one, not just a plastic kids one. I´ve been having a hard time gettin my hands on a new one and the one I got from Elder Lee broke. Thanks. Let me know what ya do.
Hope all is just swell back there at home. Heard about a bunch of tornadoes hittin down somewhere but not sure what the deal was with that. Hopefully everyones homes are still in one piece. I´m also glad to be alive here to talk to you as well. Had some river fish last monday. I think it was called Millanesa (basically means ¨breaded¨) de Surubí. Pretty good stuff at this place right by the river. Also, we got a couple of lunch visits here in San Pedro, but I haven´t gotten too sick yet. Besides that... went out for lunch today and I ordered.... Horse. Gross right? It actually didn´t taste all that bad. Came with an egg and a bunch of onions on top. That was the worst part. lol.
So Peter´s going to Chile then? How legit is that!? Sounds like Chile´s a pretty hoppin place. I´ll have to get some more details next time I talk with Elder Villalon. From what I´ve heard, I think they talk pretty fast there, but at least they speak spanish and not the half spanish half guarani they speak here. lol. But thanks for filling me in. I´ll have to make sure I hurry and write him back. Tell them that if they have any questions to just ask! Send an email or something. About anything too. I´m now an expert on shoes, hot climate, you name it. haha. Hope you´re all havin fun with the b-day plans. You wont be getting off as easy as you used to with mine.
But yeah. As for how the week went. Tuesday was pretty crasy. Ran around like crasy saying goodbyes and taking pictures with people. Didnt get to say goodbye to everyone that I wanted to, but oh well. I think I hit the most important people, and even got a couple of souvenirs. Turns out I´m still a painfully slow packer. lol. But yeah. It was sad to have to say goodbye to everyone. I had been thinking I would have been there a little bit longer, but turned out to be my time to leave. It appeared as though there were at least a couple of people that were genuinely sad to see me go though, so that made me happy.
Met up at the office wednesday. Turns out to get to our area and back is about 6.5 hours and there are only about 3 buses that leave a day. So the day was basically wasted sitting and waiting, and then traveling. The bus was pretty rough too. Didn´t have AC or anything. At least there were seats. And the view in someparts even reminded me of Alberta. But yeah. Turns out our area is pretty much the 2nd most isolated of any in the mission. We´re about 4 hours from the nearest set of misisonaries. So thats pretty legit. The area is really new and I´´m only the 7th missionary to ever come out here. So the are doesn´t have many people that have been members for more than a year now. We don´t even have a ward yet. Each week we have about 25 people that meet in a rented building. My comp runs the meeting and presides. So its pretty legit like that. But the members are awesome!They´ve had to sacrifice a lot, and they have really strong testimonies.
Our house is a dump. But we´re going to move at the beginning of next month :) We live in front of the highway, hav a gate for a front door, the bathroom is outside, the floor is made of dirt and bricks etc. But i´m not complaining. It did make me really homesick for my last area at first though.
But yeah. We áre in the poorest department ´(its like a province) in the country, but its not too bad here in town. Its just because the place is really spaced out and everyone that doesn´t live in town are farmers. Read a talk by Elder Christofferson in the Ensign this month about ´Always remembering Him´. It was really good. It talked about 3 things we need to do to keep our covenants to always remember christ. I cant remember them perfectly right now. But they were about always remembering that we´re going to be accountable for whatever we¨ve done and acting accordingly, having faith and turning to the lord in all our times of need.... and I cant remember the first point. But its one to look up for sure. I used it in the talk I had to give on sunday. Went pretty well. Crasily enough, it was the first time ive given a talk since beeing here. Thats what you get for being in big wards for so long. I played the piano and thats the first time theyve done that before I think. It was a disaster. Maybe we´ll go back to just listening to the hymns on CD but people want me to teach them piano too so that will be interesting. Donçt think I´m qualified for that.
Oh. Just for the record. I forgot to mention that me and Elder Villalon hitch-hiked to the church the other week. First time I´ve done that before so thankfully now its in the history books. Fortunately the driver was legit and not a serial killer or something.
Anyways. Thats how it is. Sounds like the last bunch of misisonaries here have been a bunch of goofs and slackers, and so we got a lot of work ahead of us. But thats cool with us. Elder Chatelain is a good guy and I´m happy to be able to work with him. Hes willing to work, and hopefully well be able to have some good success in this change.
But thats it. Out of time. Love you lots. Theres going to be lots of partying going down this week for the semana santa aka Easter week activities. So I´ll let you know how that goes. Hope you all have a fabulous easter get together without me. I cleaned out the freezer this week and all the ice and snow reminded me of home. Is it warming up yet? Its stillpretty hot here. But yeah. Love you lots! Have a happy easter´! Bye!
Love, Elder Humphreys
PS If you´re ever sending a package any time soon, do you think you could throw in a skipping rope. Like a nice one, not just a plastic kids one. I´ve been having a hard time gettin my hands on a new one and the one I got from Elder Lee broke. Thanks. Let me know what ya do.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Elder Humphreys is going LEJOS!
Mba´e la porte chera´a! (just practicing up on my Guarani. lol)
Phew. Had quite the week. Its funny because even as I write this I´m having a hard time not getting spanish mixed in here with my English. lol. Not even joking. Its funny what one week with a Latin comp can do to you. Fortunately Elder Villalón is really patient with me and my spanish. But it actually hasn{t been all that bad. At times I{ve had a hard time communicating what I want to say, but for the most part we havent had any problems getting along with the spanish. I think my spanish is probably 12X better after just this week. Its funny because Ive actually had a hard time just speaking in English with other missionaries though. Its cool too because E. Villalon knows a little english too so its helpful if I can{t find a word.
But as for the week. Went super well. Elder Villalon is(was) a great comp. He really knows how to work. Before I thought we were doing everything possible. Now I can see all the places where I have to improve. But its been super cool. We taught tonnes of lessons, found lots of new people to teach. Being latin, he{s got no shame at all and he talks to people all the time. In buses, in the streets, inturrupts them from whatever they were doing, and gets them interested in hearing about the gospel. And on top of that, hes a hard worker, and not a goof like most of the other latins. Super cool. So needless to say, I learned a bunch, and am excited to keep up all the stuff I learned.
Not to say that the week was without struggles. Its hard to be better! lol. But its good. I like it. It was also hard to introduce the area to him when he has such a different way of working. I felt kinda useless in that regard at times. But we made it. I think he{s got a good idea of the area now and know the important places and people. Hes not the cook that Elder Call was either. Ive tried doing things like Elder Call did them and they didnt turn out as good. But I{ve been able to practice the cooking and so I{ll be a master chef in no time. lol. I think we ate something wierd in the streets too, but I can{t remember what it is.
But besides this I{m not really sure what to say. Its wierd becuase there weren{t really any fun stories. Maybe that shows how much we worked. Not that we weren{t working before!! I don{t want you all to think I was slacking before or anything. But he just really knows what he{s doing and Im just really happy becuase I just feel like I know so much better what I should and can do. All new missionaries get trained by really good missionaries like him now. I feel kinda ripped off. lol. Not that Elder Lee was bad, but every missionary has different levels of commitment and ability. Elder Villalón is like the ¨dad¨ I never ha. lol.
Had the time change this week. That threw me off. I keep waking up at 5:30. Lame. Its wierd too because its not dark when we get up which is nice, but its going to take some getting used to. The sun goes down at.. 7?... and then you get to work in the dark for 2 and a half more hours in the dark. Wierd.
Got a letter from Craig and the family. Say ¨THANKS!¨ for me. I really enjoyed it.
Read Alma 26 this week. Super legit. I enjoyed it a lot. lol. Kinda applies to the whole missionary work in Paraguay thing.
Today we´re going out to eat fish down by the river. Should be an adventure. Elder V loves fish (apparently there{s a lot in Chile). Its kinda scary if you think too much about it because I{ll probably get mercury poisioning or something because the fish are coming out of the Rio Paraguayo. Its pretty dirty. But its another experience I gotta try. lol. Wish me luck!
When{s Natalie{s baby comming? If you{re still looking for names, I think I{ll suggest Juan Carlos, Liz, Maria, Pedro, Romina, Diego, Amado/a, Ruth, Gustavo. Something like that. Not that those names have any special significance or anything... Its just wierd because it feels like I don{t get to hear those names anymore....lol. They seem really original.
But now for the part that you{ve all been waiting for.... CHANGES! I{m sure you{re about as excited to hear about them as we always are. lol. Turns out that its finally time for me to pack my bags and take some pictures because I{m off! Elder Villalon is staying to be zone leader with a newbie, and I{m headed lejos. If you haven{t gotten around to looking that word up yet it means... far. lol. My new area is called San Pedro. Not sure if thats what its called if you look it up on a map. But its about half way between Asuncion and Concepcion. Right out in the middle of nowhere! Agh! Scary, but fun stuff. Sounds like I{ll finally be in a ward where there isnt the leadership to run itself and I{ll be half in charge with Elder Chatalain (not sure how you spell that). As far as I know hes a good guy. From what I{ve heard. I{ve heard San Pedro is a really pretty place so I{m pretty excited. Should be an adventure. I{m sad to leave because I really love the people here, and I was kinda hoping to stay one more. But I know its all in Gods plan. He knows best! So next week I{ll be writing you from way out there. Thats supossing that there{s internet and that my bus doesn{t break down on the way. I{ll let you know. But thats a wrap. Love you all! Hope all is well! Have a great week!!!
Love Elder Humphreys
Phew. Had quite the week. Its funny because even as I write this I´m having a hard time not getting spanish mixed in here with my English. lol. Not even joking. Its funny what one week with a Latin comp can do to you. Fortunately Elder Villalón is really patient with me and my spanish. But it actually hasn{t been all that bad. At times I{ve had a hard time communicating what I want to say, but for the most part we havent had any problems getting along with the spanish. I think my spanish is probably 12X better after just this week. Its funny because Ive actually had a hard time just speaking in English with other missionaries though. Its cool too because E. Villalon knows a little english too so its helpful if I can{t find a word.
But as for the week. Went super well. Elder Villalon is(was) a great comp. He really knows how to work. Before I thought we were doing everything possible. Now I can see all the places where I have to improve. But its been super cool. We taught tonnes of lessons, found lots of new people to teach. Being latin, he{s got no shame at all and he talks to people all the time. In buses, in the streets, inturrupts them from whatever they were doing, and gets them interested in hearing about the gospel. And on top of that, hes a hard worker, and not a goof like most of the other latins. Super cool. So needless to say, I learned a bunch, and am excited to keep up all the stuff I learned.
Not to say that the week was without struggles. Its hard to be better! lol. But its good. I like it. It was also hard to introduce the area to him when he has such a different way of working. I felt kinda useless in that regard at times. But we made it. I think he{s got a good idea of the area now and know the important places and people. Hes not the cook that Elder Call was either. Ive tried doing things like Elder Call did them and they didnt turn out as good. But I{ve been able to practice the cooking and so I{ll be a master chef in no time. lol. I think we ate something wierd in the streets too, but I can{t remember what it is.
But besides this I{m not really sure what to say. Its wierd becuase there weren{t really any fun stories. Maybe that shows how much we worked. Not that we weren{t working before!! I don{t want you all to think I was slacking before or anything. But he just really knows what he{s doing and Im just really happy becuase I just feel like I know so much better what I should and can do. All new missionaries get trained by really good missionaries like him now. I feel kinda ripped off. lol. Not that Elder Lee was bad, but every missionary has different levels of commitment and ability. Elder Villalón is like the ¨dad¨ I never ha. lol.
Had the time change this week. That threw me off. I keep waking up at 5:30. Lame. Its wierd too because its not dark when we get up which is nice, but its going to take some getting used to. The sun goes down at.. 7?... and then you get to work in the dark for 2 and a half more hours in the dark. Wierd.
Got a letter from Craig and the family. Say ¨THANKS!¨ for me. I really enjoyed it.
Read Alma 26 this week. Super legit. I enjoyed it a lot. lol. Kinda applies to the whole missionary work in Paraguay thing.
Today we´re going out to eat fish down by the river. Should be an adventure. Elder V loves fish (apparently there{s a lot in Chile). Its kinda scary if you think too much about it because I{ll probably get mercury poisioning or something because the fish are coming out of the Rio Paraguayo. Its pretty dirty. But its another experience I gotta try. lol. Wish me luck!
When{s Natalie{s baby comming? If you{re still looking for names, I think I{ll suggest Juan Carlos, Liz, Maria, Pedro, Romina, Diego, Amado/a, Ruth, Gustavo. Something like that. Not that those names have any special significance or anything... Its just wierd because it feels like I don{t get to hear those names anymore....lol. They seem really original.
But now for the part that you{ve all been waiting for.... CHANGES! I{m sure you{re about as excited to hear about them as we always are. lol. Turns out that its finally time for me to pack my bags and take some pictures because I{m off! Elder Villalon is staying to be zone leader with a newbie, and I{m headed lejos. If you haven{t gotten around to looking that word up yet it means... far. lol. My new area is called San Pedro. Not sure if thats what its called if you look it up on a map. But its about half way between Asuncion and Concepcion. Right out in the middle of nowhere! Agh! Scary, but fun stuff. Sounds like I{ll finally be in a ward where there isnt the leadership to run itself and I{ll be half in charge with Elder Chatalain (not sure how you spell that). As far as I know hes a good guy. From what I{ve heard. I{ve heard San Pedro is a really pretty place so I{m pretty excited. Should be an adventure. I{m sad to leave because I really love the people here, and I was kinda hoping to stay one more. But I know its all in Gods plan. He knows best! So next week I{ll be writing you from way out there. Thats supossing that there{s internet and that my bus doesn{t break down on the way. I{ll let you know. But thats a wrap. Love you all! Hope all is well! Have a great week!!!
Love Elder Humphreys
Monday, April 4, 2011
Special Changes!!!
Howdy. Glad to hear that you all had what sounded like fabulous weeks. Mine was a little crasy...
The week started pretty normal. Got a package from the Lloyds. That was super nice and awesome. Elder Call loved it almost as much as I did. haha. Took a nap on Monday during p-day time. Turns out that I don{t really like naps anymore. Wierd eh? When you don{t get to sleep for at least 3 hours its just not worth it. lol.
Random question if anybody happens to know: I was looking for a scripture that I thought I remembered learning about in Seminary but I can{t seem to find it anywhere. It talks about how we are a ¨strange and unusual people¨. That people look at the things we do and may think that we{re a little wierd. But we should be happy with that because its right. We are a little unusual. But in a good way. Something like that. I think the problem might just be that the words aren{t strange or unusual. Just something like that. Oh well.
What else. Oh. I was super excited for this week to come. We got to go to the temple and also got to listen to GenCon. Sweet! We had a little bit of a let down when we found out that this time when we went to the temple, we{d only be allowed to do a normal session, and not baptisms, confermations, sealings etc. But oh well. The only thing you could do was accept the fact that that was the rule. But we were just happy to get to go in the first place and the session is the most important part, so it wasn{t too big of a deal. No missionaries rioting or anything like that.
Before the temple though was Thursday. We were just minding our business, trying to prepare people to go to church to see the conference and whatnot. Talked to this one bible fanatic guy. It was another one of those kinda sad situations because he knew lots and was almost entirely 100% right in what he said. But he refused to let us read from the Book of Mormon or read it himself. Didn{t want to talk about it. He just wanted to do all the talking. We got stuck talking for waaaay too long. Dang it. I almost lost my patience because he wouldn{t let us leave. And then to top it all off, we gave him an invitation to conference. On it, along with other pics, it had a picture of the Christ on it. He started going off about how that wasn{t really Jesus Christ, and that we were worshipping images. We explained that it was just a picture but he told us it was like saying ¨its just one smoke. I won{t get addicted¨. And so he ripped that part of the invitation off and gave it back. lol. He was just a little crasy. But oh well. It was more sad than anything. He wants to follow Christ really bad, but he just couldn{t reccognize how to do it when it was right in front of him.
But ANYWAYS. That afternoon we{re just minding our own business. Got a phone call. What!? Yup. Special Changes. Changes aren{t supposed to be for a week and a half, but apparently President has something planned. Fortunately its me who gets to stay. So Elder Call and me ran around like crazies to say goodbye to everyone he wanted to remember. I was terribly scared of to get a new comp after so long. But word on the street was that the new guy was a good guy. And someone from Chile. Ahhhh! lol
Went to the temple. Guess who I saw? Elder Patterson!! First time since I{ve been here. Super cool. Sounds like he{s doing great. Hes had what appears as some bad ¨luck¨ with his comps (of course its not luck, but you know what I mean), but he{s doing great and is in great spirits. We got to talk for a while after the session and it was really nice. Just got to talk about home, other people we know, how the works doing etc. Fun stuff. The temple was great. LOVE IT there. Its too bad we can{t go more often with it so close, but I guess we{re here to do work for the living and not for the dead. Shucks.
Looks like the dollar is dropping eh? Thats no good. They put the money on our cards before the dollar dropped too far, so it looks like we{ll have to live off a little less this month. Hope I can make it. lol
I got double ¨had¨ for April Fools day. But I don{t want to talk about it....lol
Anyways. After that I got my new comp Sat morning. His name is Elder Villalón. He{s from Chile. Hes actually super legit. Its actually sad because it looks like I might be leaving in a week and a half here, and he{ll be zone leader, but I hope we get to stay together. Im really enjoying being together already. Being latin, hes able to communicate with the people a lot better and I think that really helps. The problem with latins is that they{re more often slackers, but not in his case. He works harder than any other missionary I know, so thats awesome. Theres so much Im going to learn in just this week. Im excited. And its nice cuz even though we speak Spanish all day I know it well enough now that we can communicate, and he{s helping me get better where I{m lacking. I think I{ve spoken more in this last weekend that in all of the last week. Its awesome. He{s also really good at sharing the teaching, being obedient and going the extra mile. Theres a lot of things he does that my other comps and I never did and so its cool because it shows me all the ways in which I can improve. I just wish we could have been comps sooner. lol. So yah, I{m pretty happy about that. Theres already been a lot of progression in the people we{re working with. He{s already dropped me and Elder Calls number one investigator though...lol. Oh well. I think it was the right choice for her right now too, it was just hard to do. Oh, thats the other thing. He{s not worried at all about just talking to anybody anywhere. In the street, busses whatever. My other comps were a little scared of that. I{m excited to improve and follow his good example.
Anyways, I was going to mention all the AWESOME things I learned at conf but no time! Shucks. One thing I liked though was how true Pres Hollands talk was. I saw in each and every talk how it could either apply to me, my investigators and/or my family and their situation. The Church is true! I love hearing the words of the prophets. Sorry gotta run. Re-listen to the talks if you haven{t. They}re the best. Love You all!
Love,
Elder Humphreys
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