A Storm is A'Comin'

We got the Liahona and I loved it. There are some good stories in there for everyone. Apparently it´s a mixture of the New Era, the Ensign, and the Friend all in one. I finally know the story behind the quote, "A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!" Heard it a billion times but never knew what it was. I got a bunch of letters from the primary! Most were very amusing to read. My favorite was Gunnar which had my name written at the top by some teacher and a big scribble all over the paper in purple crayon. 

So John Anthony, the smoker guy, didn´t come to the church for meetings 7 times in a row so we got his address to visit him. We called right outside his house and he said, "I´m sorry my friend. I cannot come to the church right now. I´m at home." Trying to fail us. But it was perfect. Hung up. We rang the doorbell immediately afterwards.  Now he comes to the church again to meet with us. A little mean, but necessary. He´s back on the right track again. He should quit smoking in no time. We´ve brought members to some lessons and they´re always boss. Especially when they have super strong testimonies. We get to meet with some too and they are always so nice. Not much big news, just a lot of people progressing along at their own pace. The frustrating part is getting them to come to church. Although part of the problem was that it has been at 3:30 for the past few weeks. We got contact with a couple that we lost for a few weeks! I´m excited for them. The guys from Mali still aren´t back.

I´m very excited for the next month because I feel like we´re going to have a lot of good happening. Personally I´ve been feeling better and better. Much better this week. I think the mission mainly just goes uphill from the first day. It already is going pretty fast. I know there will be harder weeks, but I´m excited for the future. It´ll be easier too when I can actually carry on conversation and whatnot. But I like the path the mission is going. We planted a lot of seeds, and we´re seeing them grow. I wish I had more to tell about them, but I can´t remember or other things. I think everyone gets the gist of things. Also, I love seeing answers to prayers and fasting. It feels really good.

So, basically all the cliché WW2 political parties still exist here but they´re mostly just a bunch of angry citizens. The Communists are still somewhat big from before, but they just have more graffiti than others. And some crappy stuff at that, Maybe someone would actually listen to their cause if they got a decent stencil of the symbol. It´s just some unproportioned T and a vague sickle. I was a bit worried because they wrote plans to rally and whatnot all over the walls for the 22-24th. Guess what happened? Nothing, Speaking of Communists, I can´t remember if I mentioned our milk. Irradiated milk. Sketchiest sounding thing ever. Irradiated just makes me think of the Cold War and hazmat suits. And if the milk stays on the shelf too long (sealed) they send it back and irradiate it again. It tastes a bit funky but I´ve adjusted. No, we will never have a dryer. The only ones are in the MTC or the mission home and the mission home one apparently takes hours and hours. 

We shop for groceries in pretty big supermarkets every week on P-Day. We´re not allowed other days except for snacks at Chinos (Chinese stores) which sell bars of bread too. The main ones for missionaries here are Mercadona (what we use), Dia, Carrefour, and Al Campo. Cereal is usually cheap as long as it´s from here. It´s between 1 or 2€ when we get it. American ones can be worse. In an American store things like Lucky Charms go for 12 or 15 €. Wow. I hope I find an American store soon. I miss some of that stuff. But I make eggs usually for breakfast. Sometimes the rice cereal and sometimes just normal lunch meals.

Both me and my comp have no money left on our cards because I couldn´t turn in my reimbursement on time and he has to do a weird reimbursement because he goes next month. It´s complicated, but the Lord has helped us. We´ve been fed by a lot more people and some people give us food when they never had before. I got a package with correct shoes and candy from home so now I have some of that too to end meals. I also notice little things like buses coming immediately when we´re in a hurry or stuff like that. It´s nice to have little miracles throughout the day.  We´re surviving too. Our meals are sometimes just a sandwich, but it´s better than nothing. Hey, apparently our "grilled cheese maker" is a sandwich maker. I´ve misnamed it all along. It makes normal sandwiches much more exciting since it´s warm and toasted.

The weather has been wonderful. It´s been cloudy and rainy all week practically. Most people aren´t too happy but I love it. It started pouring down too so I got to try my raincoat. I love the rain but I´m not going to chill in a downpour for 3 hours outside. It´s really waterproof. And the umbrella is perfect for contacting on the street. It fits me, my companion, and like 2 people. It´s now in the 60´s all the time. Love it. My companion hates it and won´t even comment anymore on the weather. I´m excited to get to the cold where I put on all layers. Although we don´t have anything for pants. Oh well. And I´m so excited for hot foods like chestnuts for the cold days. I walk by it all the time and think, "Soon!" 

Man, we should compile these into one big word document or something. I could print off a book. Who knows, maybe my posterity would read it someday. Could you actually start putting these into a single word document with a date above each one so it doesn´t just squish together? Seriously, by the end of my mission I´ll have 102 entries of a pretty decent length. That would be so cool to print off and put together.

Future author,

Elder Morgan the Younger