Hey fam!
So this last week sounds like it was pretty awesome for you guys, and
im stoked for you! haha Pretty jealous that you got to go to Lake
Powell again, but i sure hope you enjoyed it. As for next year, is it
now a tradition to go there every year with the Bastians and
Andersons?! if so, im super pumped for next year! haha but make sure
we all go AFTER i get home from the mission, so i can get good and
sunburnt too :)
This last week for us was absolutely awesome for us as well, but at
first it looked to me like it was going to suck terribly. At first,
we went and played volleyball last week right after cyber time, and i
totally was DISCRIMINATED. I totally got to know a little bit of what
racism is haha They were all making fun of the white kid for sucking
so bad, cuz i was just playing horribly last week, and then no one
wanted to take to me or help me out with my form. I sat alone on the
sidelines in between games, and even though i spoke to them in perfect
spanish, they all acted like i didnt speak spanish and just completely
ignored me. Super embarassing kinda....i left feeling pretty down
and just like that was a waste of time. And then on top of all that,
after our first lesson that night, a flippin dog bit me out of nowhere
in the street and left me bleeding pretty bad without ripping my pants
somehow.....so the rest of the night was spent trying to take out
money for medication and finding the medication in the pharmacy.
Sucked. And then on Tuesday, we only had one lesson all day long, and
it was just ridiculous. Every one was fodging us, we had a lot of
appointments, but no one was there, so we were feeling pretty
depressed.
Then tuesday night, the zone leaders called us, and told us they were
going to do divisions with another area, and that the mini
missionaries who were with them were going to come to our area with us
all day long on Wednesday. Totally saved us. So we did divisiones
with them all day long, and me and my mini ended up finding a family
thats absolutely awesome. The moms name is Juana, and shes kind of a
drunk and has been it for a long time, but she wants to change, and
her kids absolutely love the gospel. We got them to come to 2
activities at the church last week, one for the youth and the other
one a family night, and they just loved it. The whole family is
reading like crazy, and they want to get baptized. All the kids came
to church on Sunday, and the mom always prays in her prayers while
were there that we keep coming by to teach them. So that was a really
cool part of our week.
Also, not really sure why, but friday in the morning one of the zone
leaders and a mini missionary came to our area and worked with us in
divisiones all morning long. My comp and the zl ended up finding a
less active family that live like right around the corner with a kid
whos not baptized named Marcos. They were really excited when my comp
passed by and they want to come back to church. So this week, we are
going to baptize their kid Marcos! Super sweet haha Theyre a pretty
cool family, but they didnt come to church on Sunday. I think theyre
relatives of the Branch Presidents wife.
We were also talking with Sergio, that golden investigator, and it
turns out that all those problems have supposedly been solved, and
their family is good now! We went there on Saturday in the morning,
and he introduced us to his mom, and we had a lesson with all of them.
Sergio, his mom, and his little sister all accepted a baptismal date.
But they didnt come to church on sunday :( But i have faith, and they
will get baptized! haha
We havent been able to find our one investigator luis for all of last
week, but he came to church on sunday, and skipped work to do it again
:) We ended up having a lesson with him last night, and hes ready to
be baptized this week!!!! He wanted to be baptized with his friend
Sergio, but Sergio still hasnt come to church, and we told him it
would be better if he gets baptized right now so that he can get the
priesthood the week after his baptism and then be able to baptized
Sergio himself! He got super excited and immediately agreed to it. So
hopefully we have two baptisms this week!
Sunday was one of the best sundays i have had in my whole mission cuz
we had a total of......wait for it......10 investigators show up for
church!!!! We were super excited. Its been almost a year here in the
colonia that more than 2 have showed up to church, and it was the all
time high for both my comp and me in investigators in church for one
sunday. So were super excited for everybody who came, and we have a
TON of prospective baptisms. So ill keep you all updated on
everything!
Also before i go, i dont remember if i told you guys about that one
less active lady Marina that we´ve been talking to. Well anyways,
shes still super embarassed cuz she smokes a lot, and my comp has
heard of this one trick where you dip the cigarettes in milk and then
let them dry. Then you have to person smoke them, and apparently the
taste is just horrid. So we did it and tried it with marina, and she
just about threw up on the second puff. Me and my comp were laughing
our heads off and she was screaming at us in between retches about how
mean we were and how much she hated us haha SOOOOO funny.
But yeah, thats about it for this week, its been awesome, and
hopefully this week will be the same!!!! We have zone conference
tomorrow, and it should be pretty good. But thanks for everything you
guys do for me, hope to hear from you soon, and love you all!!!! Put
pictures of the lake up!
Con amor,
Elder Sirrine
P.S. We went to a members house today and totally made mud brick oven
pizza......delicious!
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Tearin' up the Colonia
Hey fam,
So this last week was way good! I actually like it a lot here in the
Colonia, its super chill and the people are really nice and willing to
listen. Last week, we actually had a baptism of a less actives
daughter. it was really cool, especially cuz we had to do it in an
erectable baptismal font made out of pipes and a tarp haha our church
is so ghetto!!!! we´re in an old bread factory, and they built like
little shacks of wood inside for the individual classrooms and such.
i took pictures, but this computer sucks and is old and wont read my
usb thing. so youre all gonna have to wait! haha But yeah the little
girl that got baptized was named Cristina Soledad Vaca. Really cool.
And we´re going to baptize the Branch President´s little brother this
week!
Also, i have a new comp here and his name is Elder Lessing. He´s
originally from Utah, but his dad is military so they are currently
living in Pennsylvania. Really cool guy, and he actually reminds me a
lot of elder inman, so we get along great. its just the two of us
that live together in the apartment, and thats super different. the
apartment is really small too. But one good thing about it is that it
has air conditioning!!!! We live in a sub tropical zone, so even
though we´re in "winter" its still freakin hot here. We experienced
that today haha There is actually a sports complex close to where we
live, and its totally free, so me and my comp went and played
basketball this morning. hes pretty good, so he was teaching me how
to shoot and whatnot. but we went back in the afternoon and there
were games going on, and just anyone can play, so we joined in and
played for a while! latins suck so bad at basketball, and because they
suck so bad they play super dirty.....on top of that they have a latin
temper, so if you stuff them youre likely to hear a lot of bad words
and maybe a hard shove in the back next time you go up for a lay up.
one older guy like raped me from behind when someone passed me the
ball under the hoop and i was gonna turn around for a bank shot. he
basically hugged me from behind, and he had a giant wad of nasty
tabacco coke stuff in his mouth and smelled horrible. but us white
kids dominated all them latins haha i had 7 points!
Also this last week, i finished the Book of Mormon in Spanish for the
first time, and it was sick!!!! I guess according to that one promise
by a prophet im fluent in spanish now cuz i read the book of mormon
completely? pretty cool huh?
Ummm......what else. i wrote a little paper with all the stuff, but i
forgot it in the pension, so youll probably have a lot more info next
week. oh yeah, one thing! the people here are super poor, but this is
the first place in my whole mission where i have seen wooden houses!
they are like halfway nice too! haha but there is also the super poor
part of the area too where the houses are a bunch of sticks and
plastic tarps tied together, and its super sad. even more so because
the streets there just suck, cuz there are just ruts everywhere and
more often than not those ruts are filled with sewage.....nasty. but
there are a ton of members there, and we found a super good
investigator there last saturday night as well. His name is Carlos,
and we found him because we needed a guy to come with us to an
appointment because it was a woman and we cant enter with her there
alone. so we knocked his door, asked if he could come with us, and he
actually did! apparently he liked it cuz he told us to come by the
next day and he introduced us to his wife and family and theyre super
solid. we taught him saturday night and he came to church the next
day! also said he was going to come back the next week cuz he liked it
so much.
Speaking of church, like 50 people came to church on Sunday, so that
was cool. Apparently thats a pretty good number. But there are like
300 somethin members here in la colonia, so that kinda sucks
comparatively. So we´re going to be working a freaking ton with the
less actives i think. Also here, we are clear out in the freaking
middle of nowhere and have to travel so much!!!! our district meetings
on tuesdays are like almost an hour away from us and its like 30 pesos
to get out there and 30 to get back. we spend a freakin ton
travelling, and the guy who reimbolses everything in the office is
super slow at doing them, so my comp and his old comp told me they
went without eating a lot, cuz they spent all their money travelling
and had to wait for the reimbursals to get back. The reason why it
costs so much is cuz we also have to travel almost every weekend to do
baptismal interviews cuz my comp is district leader, and we baptize a
lot here in the zone......except for our area. the one last week was
the first one in 3 months. but we´re going to change that!!!!
and mom as for your question if i got to say goodbye to anyone.....the
answer is no haha luckily my convert juan was there at the church with
us and i could hug him and tell him goodbye. but they called at like
9 o clock sunday night and told us and we actually had to evacuate
perico that night at like 12 because a bunch of pissed off tobacco
farmers were going to cut off all travel routes in and out of perico
the next morning.....talk about sketchy. that was fun travelling to
the zone leaders house in juuy centro. and it sucks not saying
goodbye!!!! but i left a journal back there for all my converts to
sign and for a few members, so hopefully ill at least have that.
i feel like i had so much more to tell you guys, but i dont
remember.....i think i wrote a lot already though, right? i promise i
wont forget next week, and ill tell you even more! haha but thanks for
writing me every week and all the support, have fun at the 4th of july
without me!!!! dominate some little kids in volleyball at the park for
me! love you all, and hope to hear from you next week!
Con amor,
Elder Sirrine
So this last week was way good! I actually like it a lot here in the
Colonia, its super chill and the people are really nice and willing to
listen. Last week, we actually had a baptism of a less actives
daughter. it was really cool, especially cuz we had to do it in an
erectable baptismal font made out of pipes and a tarp haha our church
is so ghetto!!!! we´re in an old bread factory, and they built like
little shacks of wood inside for the individual classrooms and such.
i took pictures, but this computer sucks and is old and wont read my
usb thing. so youre all gonna have to wait! haha But yeah the little
girl that got baptized was named Cristina Soledad Vaca. Really cool.
And we´re going to baptize the Branch President´s little brother this
week!
Also, i have a new comp here and his name is Elder Lessing. He´s
originally from Utah, but his dad is military so they are currently
living in Pennsylvania. Really cool guy, and he actually reminds me a
lot of elder inman, so we get along great. its just the two of us
that live together in the apartment, and thats super different. the
apartment is really small too. But one good thing about it is that it
has air conditioning!!!! We live in a sub tropical zone, so even
though we´re in "winter" its still freakin hot here. We experienced
that today haha There is actually a sports complex close to where we
live, and its totally free, so me and my comp went and played
basketball this morning. hes pretty good, so he was teaching me how
to shoot and whatnot. but we went back in the afternoon and there
were games going on, and just anyone can play, so we joined in and
played for a while! latins suck so bad at basketball, and because they
suck so bad they play super dirty.....on top of that they have a latin
temper, so if you stuff them youre likely to hear a lot of bad words
and maybe a hard shove in the back next time you go up for a lay up.
one older guy like raped me from behind when someone passed me the
ball under the hoop and i was gonna turn around for a bank shot. he
basically hugged me from behind, and he had a giant wad of nasty
tabacco coke stuff in his mouth and smelled horrible. but us white
kids dominated all them latins haha i had 7 points!
Also this last week, i finished the Book of Mormon in Spanish for the
first time, and it was sick!!!! I guess according to that one promise
by a prophet im fluent in spanish now cuz i read the book of mormon
completely? pretty cool huh?
Ummm......what else. i wrote a little paper with all the stuff, but i
forgot it in the pension, so youll probably have a lot more info next
week. oh yeah, one thing! the people here are super poor, but this is
the first place in my whole mission where i have seen wooden houses!
they are like halfway nice too! haha but there is also the super poor
part of the area too where the houses are a bunch of sticks and
plastic tarps tied together, and its super sad. even more so because
the streets there just suck, cuz there are just ruts everywhere and
more often than not those ruts are filled with sewage.....nasty. but
there are a ton of members there, and we found a super good
investigator there last saturday night as well. His name is Carlos,
and we found him because we needed a guy to come with us to an
appointment because it was a woman and we cant enter with her there
alone. so we knocked his door, asked if he could come with us, and he
actually did! apparently he liked it cuz he told us to come by the
next day and he introduced us to his wife and family and theyre super
solid. we taught him saturday night and he came to church the next
day! also said he was going to come back the next week cuz he liked it
so much.
Speaking of church, like 50 people came to church on Sunday, so that
was cool. Apparently thats a pretty good number. But there are like
300 somethin members here in la colonia, so that kinda sucks
comparatively. So we´re going to be working a freaking ton with the
less actives i think. Also here, we are clear out in the freaking
middle of nowhere and have to travel so much!!!! our district meetings
on tuesdays are like almost an hour away from us and its like 30 pesos
to get out there and 30 to get back. we spend a freakin ton
travelling, and the guy who reimbolses everything in the office is
super slow at doing them, so my comp and his old comp told me they
went without eating a lot, cuz they spent all their money travelling
and had to wait for the reimbursals to get back. The reason why it
costs so much is cuz we also have to travel almost every weekend to do
baptismal interviews cuz my comp is district leader, and we baptize a
lot here in the zone......except for our area. the one last week was
the first one in 3 months. but we´re going to change that!!!!
and mom as for your question if i got to say goodbye to anyone.....the
answer is no haha luckily my convert juan was there at the church with
us and i could hug him and tell him goodbye. but they called at like
9 o clock sunday night and told us and we actually had to evacuate
perico that night at like 12 because a bunch of pissed off tobacco
farmers were going to cut off all travel routes in and out of perico
the next morning.....talk about sketchy. that was fun travelling to
the zone leaders house in juuy centro. and it sucks not saying
goodbye!!!! but i left a journal back there for all my converts to
sign and for a few members, so hopefully ill at least have that.
i feel like i had so much more to tell you guys, but i dont
remember.....i think i wrote a lot already though, right? i promise i
wont forget next week, and ill tell you even more! haha but thanks for
writing me every week and all the support, have fun at the 4th of july
without me!!!! dominate some little kids in volleyball at the park for
me! love you all, and hope to hear from you next week!
Con amor,
Elder Sirrine
Transfers
Hey fam,
So this last week was pretty crazy, and it all ended with a huge
surprise. I got freakin transferred clear out in the boondocks and it
doesnt even exist on google maps!!!! haha its so freaking tiny out
here, and its only me and my comp in the pension. its called la
colonia santa rosa, and its in northern salta, almost in bolivia.
super cool and out in the middle of nowhere, or otherwise known as
BFE. also, we are serving in a branch, and the average is like 33
members a week......balls. This area is going to be a little tough i
think. But yeah, the zone leaders told me president sent me out here
because this area needs some fixing up like my last area did, and
apparently i did a good enough job on the last one that the president
trusts me. So that makes me feel super good. But ive got a lot of
work ahead of me, and no more time in the cyber, so it looks like im
going to have to talk to you all next week! I really appreciated all
the letters from you guys, mom and dad, you both made me freakin cry
and all the bolivians here were looking at me weird haha sounds like
girls camp was a huge success, and im glad everything went well!!!!
youll have to let me know when the video gets put online so i can show
it to everyone and brag about my awesome mom haha but yeah, thanks for
all the support, i love you all, and ill talk to you next week with
some more details about my new area!!!! Wish me luck!!!
Con amor,
Elder Sirrine
So this last week was pretty crazy, and it all ended with a huge
surprise. I got freakin transferred clear out in the boondocks and it
doesnt even exist on google maps!!!! haha its so freaking tiny out
here, and its only me and my comp in the pension. its called la
colonia santa rosa, and its in northern salta, almost in bolivia.
super cool and out in the middle of nowhere, or otherwise known as
BFE. also, we are serving in a branch, and the average is like 33
members a week......balls. This area is going to be a little tough i
think. But yeah, the zone leaders told me president sent me out here
because this area needs some fixing up like my last area did, and
apparently i did a good enough job on the last one that the president
trusts me. So that makes me feel super good. But ive got a lot of
work ahead of me, and no more time in the cyber, so it looks like im
going to have to talk to you all next week! I really appreciated all
the letters from you guys, mom and dad, you both made me freakin cry
and all the bolivians here were looking at me weird haha sounds like
girls camp was a huge success, and im glad everything went well!!!!
youll have to let me know when the video gets put online so i can show
it to everyone and brag about my awesome mom haha but yeah, thanks for
all the support, i love you all, and ill talk to you next week with
some more details about my new area!!!! Wish me luck!!!
Con amor,
Elder Sirrine
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)