Hola hola hello!!
If you would like an
accurate description of how my week has been, might I direct you to the Book of
Exodus:
And the locusts went up
over all the land of Egypt, and rested in all the coasts of Egypt: very
grievous were they; before them there were no such locusts as they, neither
after them shall be such. For they covered the face of the whole earth, so that
the land was darkened; and they did eat every herb of the land, and all the
fruit of the trees which the hail had left: and there remained not any green
thing in the trees, or in the herbs of the field, through all the land of
Egypt. (Exodus 10:14-15)
Just replace
"locusts" with "crickets" and its pretty much spot-on. We
are breathing crickets here. You can't walk outside without automatically
having at least five giant crickets crawling on you. Olmos has been hit with a
plague, and I am killing a jillion crickets a day in our room. Yeeeuk. But, it
was the worst on Tuesday, and has been very slowly been getting better every
day. But still, there are way too many crickets in Olmos. And I discovered for
the second time a big ol' cricket inside my pants. INSIDE. Anywayz, it’s kinda
gross.
But let's just get on to
the good stuff, like the great news that I've been waiting three years to
hear!: Bryn is switching to Classic South!! WoOOOoOOoOOoOOoOo000000!!!! This is
the happiest days of my life!11!!1! Classic South pwned IHS so hard the
difference was ridiculous. Gonna be way more fun. And Classic South Senior
Project > IHS Senior Paper. Just remember, because I switched to regular
South for my Senior Project I got to spend multiple days with Mike Allred
watching him make his comics and then our entire family got to go to Comic-con
for free. And I got school credit for it!! Also because Mike is the coolest guy
ever. Haha. Speaking of Mike Allred, I'm low on reading material and just this
past week I was thinking about how rad it would be if you could send me some of
his Golden Plates comic books. I don't know that that's technically approved
reading, but I've read everything that's approved already and I need something
else!! Or any other sweet church book or just something. But priority
are the comics. K thanks.
Hmm... Well... This week
went pretty well. Out of nowhere my companion suddenly got a little bit more
stoked about being a missionary and his newfound enthusiasm really helped us a
lot actually. I felt like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders, and that I
was no longer just one missionary dragging around a bunch of dead weight that
was slowing me down. Saw an improvement in our numbers this week. Nice rice. I
mean... Rice is not nice.
Today we had lunch at a
restaurant in the main plaza of Olmos because Hermana Rosa is poisoning her
house to kill all of the crickets. Haha. It was the first time I've eaten at a
restaurant in a super long time, and it kind of reminded me of being at home.
Specifically, it reminded me of eating at Tom's Tea House. Haha. The food was
way different, but the restaurant itself reminded me a lot of that place. It
only lacked the awesome comics that brought us unreasonable amounts of
entertainment when we used to go there for lunch during high school. I wanna go
to Tom's Tea House!!
Yesterday at church the
branch chorister did not show up on time, and so for sacrament meeting I got to
be the chorister for the first time in my life, which was kind of sick. Except
really hard because here the people don't really know how to sing so like half
the congregation is singing in a different key and at a different pace and
really it's just hopeless being the chorister because nobody pays attention and
even if they did, they don't understand what a chorister is, or how to follow
one. But still, I was the chorister, and it was cool. The end.
These week we had some
interesting contacts. Usually it’s boring same ol' same ol' nobody wants to
talk to us and half the people saying that nobody else is home when
we can clearly see and hear other people in the house. Well, this week was more
of the same, but with a few stand out special examples that made things a
little more interesting and also a little more frustrating. Like how the other
day I knocked a door and this lady just says to me "No, sorry, I can't
listen to you. We can't listen to you because you have
different beliefs and you're just trying to convince us." "No
Hermana, that's not what we're here to do" I told her. "Yes, that's
what you're here to do" she told me... are you serious? I told her a
little about how we have a message to share that centers in Christ and His
gospel to which she said "No, I know that you guys speak a little bit about
Jesus Christ, but mostly you talk about other Lords." What? "No
Hermana, that's not true at all. Everything we share is centered in Jesus
Christ, and we only worship Jesus Christ and God the Father." It ended
with her telling us "Well no, we can't listen to you because you believe
differently than us. Maybe we're wrong, maybe you're wrong, but we can't listen
to you." I wanted to stay and tell her that everything
she thought about us was wrong but I decided to just let it go because she was
making me mad and there's no way you can have the Spirit with you when you're
feeling like that. She was definitely the rudest person I've ever contacted.
Another silly one was the
classic we knock a door and someone comes out to tell us that nobody's home.
Well, I got kinda sick of just accepting everyone's lies, so sometimes I start
questioning people. We went to this house that we had an appointment at and
after like three attempts knocking the door this girl comes out and tells us
that nobody is home. "But, you're home..." I told her. "Yeah,
but... nobody else is home" she replied. "Are you sure? Because I can
hear someone else back there." I totally heard multiple other people in
her house. She just got this embarrassed smile and said "yeah, well...
I'm... alone..." I didn't push it any further, but I just do not
appreciate how kids are trained to tell lies for their parents.
This week was also
Habibi's and Mommy's birthday!! I think Hermana Rosa put some photos up on
Facebook or something. That was kinda fun. Birthdays are way different here,
and I'm kinda happy we do not celebrate them the same way back home. They're
kinda chaotic here. I like just chillin' at home with the family, eating the
most unreasonably delicious chocolate mousse cake and opening presents later
that night. Except my past two birthdays have not been like that. But still,
that's how a birthday should be. Fun to see the cultural differences though.
The other pictures you saw were from Eliana's 15th birthday, Hermana Rosa's
oldest daughter. Yes, it was a quincenera, or whatever those are called. Big
ol' great ol' 15th birthday party.
Anyway it’s super no fair
that you guys are on summer break now. This is the first summer break I haven't
had in my life! Last summer break was just way too good. Sick concerts, fam
reunion in Utah, trip to Cali, sickest Disneyland trip ever where when I was at
Disneyland Reyn texted me and said "oh hey I'm coming to Disneyland today
and I'll be there in like an hour" ajsdasidufhjadsdfkjsad are you serious
so awesome!! Star Tours 2. In a recent letter I read from Bryn, she told me
that this time last year I was at home playing guitar and taking her to Carl's
Jr. Oh great! Way to say the exact thing that could make me most homesick!!
Haha, jk. But seriously, I need a Double Western Bacon Cheeseburger
right now. Immediately. I got Dad's and Sam's and Jacq's letters from Seattle
and ever since reading those for some reason I haven't been able to get Seattle
out of my mind and I just want to be there so badly right now. I don't even
know why. I think it's because here it's far too hot and there it's a little more
pleasant.
Oh yeah, we had one
interesting lesson this week too. By pure coincidence, all of our best
investigators are out of town right now and so we haven't been able to visit
with all of the most promising people. So we're just having random weird
lessons with other people. One day we were knocking doors and nobody was
answering their door even though everyone was at home, and I remembered this
one house that Elder Lobato told me the missionaries used to visit a long time
ago. So we went to the house and there was this lady sitting outside who
greeted us and was way super nice and invited us to sit down and talk with her.
She told us that the missionaries used to visit her and that she was even about
to get baptized but then her husband joined another church and because of
that she joined that church with him instead. But she was totally willing
to visit with us and was way awesome 'n stuff. A few minutes into the visit,
her husband shows up, and we start talking with him as well. He seems pretty
rad too. And he knows a lot about the gospel, which is not a common thing here.
It was kind of a breath of fresh air to be talking with someone who actually
knew something about the gospel. So we were talking with him and he was giving
us all the right answers to all of our questions. Like my comp asked him what
happened to Christ after he died, and the guy replied "he went to the
Spirit World to preach to the spirits who were in prison" which is totally
right and is found in 1 Peter. But then all of the sudden he pulled a 180 and
starting saying all this crazy and contradictory stuff and arguing against
everything we said. Saying that the Spirit World and Spirit Prison don't
actually exist, even though he was the one who brought up the fact that Christ
went there. And then he said stuff like how it wasn't really Christ who
preached to the spirits in prison, but it was Noah. Wait, but I thought spirit
prison didn't exist? And how do you come to that conclusion anyway?? And then
it just got worse and worse and at one point he said "Oh brothers, there
is just so much you don't know". The lesson was going nowhere and at one point I just said
"look, one difference between our faiths is that we believe that God still
reveals his gospel to us through his prophets and apostles." And of course
that led to this whole thing about false prophets, but how by their fruits you
can know them, and then I, in this super epic move, reached into my bag and
said "Hermano, this is the fruit of the prophet Joseph Smith"
and pulled out the Book of Mormon. Well, it should have been awesome, but he
just blew it off, and... I'm just kind of rambling and I have to go but
basically the visit just went nowhere and left me feeling kind of sad because I
gave two years of my life to share the most amazing blessings I have with the
people of Peru, and when they don't want to have anything to do with it, it
just kind of makes me sad...
Well, I had more stuff to
tell you guys but I'm way outta time and I gotta get going. I'll write again someday.
I liked Dad's story he sent me about Joe and his headaches. Haha.
Well, I leave you with
some great words of wisdom from the Book of James:
"have respect to him
that weareth the gay clothing..."
hehehehehehehehejajajajajajajajajalololol
Alright I'm outta here.
See you within the next
ten years!
-Elder Hemsley
Victor sent a bunch of new pictures--you can see all of them in the slideshow at the top of this blog. But here are some of our favorites :
"Habibi's Birthday!"
"Crickets part 1."
 |
| "Crickets part 2." |
"Crickets part 3."
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