This will be a long one. Ya, last week was pretty dang short. I didn't have much time or energy.
I
used vosotros because I never get to use it and it´s what sets this
country apart. We can only speak in the informal to children. Everyone
speaks informally but we just get to be special. I am excited to speak
informally when I get back. I need a companion to teach me slang. We
don't get much from members. Odds are that I'll get one sometime.
Spiritual experiences. I´m not too good with writing
those, am I? That's partially because I have a bad memory and partially
because some experiences feel very sacred or personal. That's why I
don't share them too much. I guess I can share some. We watched The
Testaments with an investigator and a member family and the spirit
slammed into everyone hardcore at the end. The investigator wants to be
baptized but her dad is very against it. She's in her twenties but her desire to be baptized doesn't exceed her stuff with her father. We have a
lot of nice little reminder miracles and some golden investigators. I'll
think about writing more in other emails. It's complicated. Can you
guys just come sit in my mind and understand? Thanks.
We have the possibility of like a dozen baptisms in
the next month or two. We just have to do what we can and wait for
people's parents to stop being painful and who knows what else. Sorry, I
can´t remember much.
We passed by the American store in Alcalá! There's
not much there besides some candy bars, soda, syrup, mixes, and a whole
ton of gardening and kitchen supplies. I got a root beer! It was
wonderful.
We had a recent convert go to the temple! His wife
is taking a bit longer, but she'll be there soon. We're with them a lot
in lessons or meals. I feel like in each area there´s a "mom" and "dad"
for the missionaries and they are definitely this area.
The African section of our church is growing! The
sisters and us each baptized an African and that actually got another
guy to come back to church and a less active member to come. One of the
recent guys brought his sister-in-law to church and now we're teaching
another man from Nigeria who brought his son. We might be able to
organize a Gospel Principles class in English in the near future.
Africans are really good at giving us contacts of their friends. The guy
the sisters baptized was really cool because he was a reference from me
and Elder Shumway in Vallecas from a member and I got to see him at the
end of the process when I arrived here.
I just remembered. A nice member just gave me a
spare Spanish-English dictionary that is huge and I realized how scary
the word "Got" is. There were something like 108 definitions and phrases
and about 5 suggestions for translations in Spanish for each one.
We tried to set up a booth in front of the church
but Satan is a butthead so it was ridiculously rainy and windy that day.
It was going to be golden. Another day, then.
Alright,
the prank we did on the hermanas. Or rather, what Roberto did. We just
told him to have something prepared for the two new hermanas. We got to
Roberto´s house and he was sitting in the living room slumped to the
side on the couch. His mom made the lunch. For about an hour and a half
he pretended to be mentally handicapped. So of course he did odd things
like drink orange juice with a spoon or he called one of the new
hermanas his girlfriend and leaned on her and did a bunch of funny stuff
and talked like a 3 year old basically. The best part was that we could
laugh. We were laughing because we knew what was going down but they
thought we were laughing at Roberto.
Props to Roberto for keeping up the act for so long without breaking
once. We planned to read some scripture that was violent and have
Roberto go crazy. My really tall companion read the story of David and
Goliath standing up. When he said "sword" Roberto grabbed a plastic
sword from somewhere else and kept calling my companion "malo" which is "bad guy." Later when they started to fight in the scriptures Roberto
charged at my companion with the sword and pushed him into the cabinet
behind him and shattered the whole glass window on it. The window was
unexpected but added to the effect. After all that we laughed and
Roberto shook my companion´s hand and said to the still confused sister
missionaries "Hola. Soy Roberto Naranjo. Bienvenidos a mi casa," in
fluent and rapid Spanish. Then they realized what had happened and still
were weirded out for a while that he was normal. He had done a great
job.
I honestly have much more to write but I feel tired.
I need to just fall into a coma for like a week. Then I'd have enough
rest to keep me going. If I don't write next week, I'm in a coma. Or
maybe I'll just start today and wake up for next week's email. Although I
wouldn't have much to talk about this week because it would be pretty
blank. Anyways...
I miss the cold. Elder Shumway described the winters
here as if they were Hoth or like climbing Mount Everest. It has gone
below freezing like 3 times here. I was expecting the worst. I forgot
that he was from Arizona. So far my companions are from very warm states
and like the warm a lot. Elder Fisher shuts the study room door and
puts his little heater on full blast every morning. I do the opposite in
the bathroom by leaving the window open so it's chilly and when it
rains I can listen to it and let the rainy air into the piso. I have yet
to use all my winter clothing at once. It's a good thing but a bad
thing.
Spanish lesson: Alright, not so much of a lesson.
But the word "quedar" is deathly. It means like 12 different things. It
can mean to hang out, to remain, to meet, to set an appointment with,
and much more. I can't remember. I think soon I have to delve into the
horror of the subjunctive tense soon. Scary.
I miss you all a lot. I'll see some of you in fourth
months by camera. Hopefully this time I won´t be upside down. And I´ll
probably be in another area. Maybe more north or south? Love you all so
much!
Sorry that this was short. ;)
Os quiero,
Elder Morgan the Younger
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