Monday, September 16, 2013

Twelve Creepy Men



This week was another crazy one.  And my internet time is already coming to a close, so I will have to update y'all a little bit better next week, but here is a quick resumen:

We found amazing lemon pie and almost-as-good-as-American chocolate.

September 11, as it turns out, is the anniversary here of some kind of a government coup.  It is "observed" with people doing stuff like tearing down bus stops and starting fires, so we were required to be in the house two hours early that night.  After we got done doing all the productive things we were supposed to do, Hermana Lyons made sopaipillas and calzones rotos.  It was great.

We had a zone conference and I learned a lot of awesome stuff.  One thing that Hermana Arrington said that stuck out to me is that God expects us to strive to live the gospel.  He does not, however, expect us to do it perfectly or without any help.

Also an hermana who is going home this transfer shared her testimony and she said something that I absolutely loved.  She said, "las cosas que valen la pena tienen que costar."  In English, the literal translation is like, "the things that are worth it have to cost something," but in Spanish it has greater meaning than that.  The verb "costar" is used to indicate not only how much something costs, but that it is difficult for someone to do.  For example, "me cuesta hablar español" means that it is difficult for me to speak Spanish.  So basically, she was saying that the things that are worth anything require hard work and sacrifice.  I loved it.

Many times a day we find ourselves in strange situations with strange people.  One day this week we found ourselves particularly inundated with such strange people and decided to keep a "creepy men" count for the day.  Turns out there were at least twelve.  One of them was a drunk old man with a missing finger who kept trying to flirt with us on the bus (blowing kisses and such, it was so great).  Two others we contacted in the street and we weren't sure that they didn't want to try to put us in the back of their empty Pepsi truck and kidnap up, so we gave them pass-along cards and got away as fast as we could.  One of our favorites was a man who we later christened, "Mr. Torso." (If you have seen Alfred Hitchcock's "Rear Window" you will get this reference.  If you have not, repent now and watch it!)  He was dancing in front of his living room window and kept tapping on the window to try to get our attention as we walked down the street.

Also, Hermana Frandsen and I celebrated our ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY and a couple days later, ten months in Chile.  It was so great to be with her for it!  Our companions decorated the house while we were sleeping the night before and got us little presents.  We took pictures in our "first-day-in-the-MTC" outfits and blew out a candle in our lemon pie.  Can't believe a whole year has already gone by.  It seems really long and yet extremelyshort at the same time.  Only six months left.  Crazy!

Well, that is all for now.  EXCEPT:  Your commitment!  We are going to keep going with the reading-the-Book-of-Mormon every day thing, since I finished your READING SCHEDULE!!!!!  It only goes until January 28, but I am not sure yet if I come home then or in the middle of March.  But when I know for sure, you will know too and we can always extend the schedule easier than we can shorten it!

Read, read, read, and tell me how it's going!  I am reading in Spanish and it'll be the first time I make it all the way through in my second language, so pray for me!

Lovelovelove you all.  Have just the greatest week!

Herman

P.S.  There are pictures and video of our one-year celebrations that I will pass along as soon as I can get them from Hermana F.  :)

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