Another week gone by...I wonder which week it is. Somewhere in the 30s has to be. That means I only have somewhere in the 70s of weeks left on the mission. WHOA! Don’t let me get trunky, but I only have 15 months left...I love joking with my companion and reminding him "I ONLY HAVE 15 MONTHS LEFT!!!" and I joke with all the members too. Some people think I am serious and say "Elder, you can’t be thinking like that. The time passes so fast; you gotta stay focused...blah blah blah." Most, however, take it for what it really is and that is the nerdy joking that always can be found when Andy Shepherd is around.
So this last week was nothing really new, at least not anything that would be interesting to write about. One recent development in my life is that I have realized that I think Elder Oliphant could be my favorite companion of the whole mission so far. He is the first companion I have stayed with for longer than 6 weeks. I am getting really used to him. At first he was really shy, but he is starting to come out of his shell a little bit. I feel somewhat guilty. He has started joking like me and saying the things I always say to the people. For example, with a lot of members I will joke about how much time I have left, or I will say "You may pretend to be sick of me right now and wish I would get transferred, but when this linda cara—pretty face—is gone you will wish that Elder Shepherd were back." I feel guilty because he is starting to act like me, which means he is starting to be a super geeky nerd-bomber. But at least we are having fun. Mostly, I appreciate his humble example. I think President sent me a companion to teach me a thing or two. He has a humble way about him. He just gets up at the alarm at 6:30 without moaning and he walks straight to the bathroom to take his shower and etc... He doesn’t say a word, just goes about his business. He is a good missionary. I am really glad to still be with him here in Tacuarembo.
So we are teaching some people, we are also looking for new people, we are also visiting old people... that is what we are doing. Any questions?
So yesterday we went by one of our investigators who happens to live in an almacen-house, which means he sells stuff from his house. Anyway, he had gone fishing and he always asks me when we are going to go fishing with him. This last week he went fishing and caught two decent 14 inchers. He put them in a plastic bag and gifted them to us. I was trying to figure out how I want to fry the things and his wife suggested we just put them in the microwave because that would be easier...I don’t know about that. My companion and I are going to cook them today. It was a funny gift.
We ran into a drunk yesterday, which reminds me of my new joke! Como se dice "borracho" en jápones?...Yositomo Wis-qui-sito! HAHAHA!!!! I think it is so funny. Do you want another? Here you go: Como se dice papel higenico en jápones?...Kita Kakita! HAHA! Oh, I kill myself. That "kita Kakita" one had me laughing for 20 minutes the first time I read it. I seriously was crying laughing the first time I read it. There is a little girl in the ward who I was always asking to teach me jokes who gave me a joke book. Do you get it? Kita Kakita? It is like Quitar Kaka... and it sounds like a fun Japanese name... Okay, so I have turned into one of those lame people who enjoys laffy taffy style jokes. But I gotta have something to keep me going. One more joke:
"Doctor, yo veo elefantes azules por todas partes."
"Ha visto ya a un sicólogo?"
"No, solo elefantes azules."
Ummm, I will stop with the Spanish jokes. I am sure Matt at least appreciates the Japanese ones. Hopefully you all can appreciate the last one, it isn’t too hard to translate, and you don’t need to know Spanish because it isn’t a play on words.
I am trying to decide what I want to study now. I think I just may decide to read that Old Testament again. On the mission now I have read the Book of Mormon twice in English, and once in Spanish, and the Doctrine and Covenants in English and the Pearl of Great Price in Spanish and English, the New Testament in both languages, All of the mission library books 2 times INCLUDING Jesus the Christ which is a massive book...Solo me falta el antiguo testamento. I am not sure if I am in the mood to read the Old Testament, but it may just be necessary. What I really wish was that the mission library were bigger. Us fast readers who use all their spare time to read end up reading everything too many times. I know why the mission library is so small. They want us to focus on the canonical scriptures...I understand. I just wish I had something new to read some days.
So now that I have bored you all with my reading résumé from the mission, I hope that you all can appreciate why it is so necessary that I tell lame laffy taffy jokes.
I am doing just peachy. I hope that you are all doing well! Remember that God loves us, every last one of us. Pray to Him and He will give you rest. I love you all!!
Andy
Monday, July 21, 2008
Friday, July 18, 2008
Amazing Grace How Sweet The Sound
No I am just kidding. I would never write an email that lame. There are actually plenty of good stories from this week if you all want to hear. Whadda ya say?
So I was feeling extra spiritual this week and I was really looking for the hand of God in my life. One thing I have recently been coming to realize is that my prayers, for quite some time, had been lacking. I had the sad logic in my head, and I am embarrassed to admit it, that God already knows everything. So he knows everything I can say thanks for and everything I want Him to help me with. So I would still say my "gracias por eso" and "bendiceme con eso", but it was very short and very...more or less, as the Spaniard puts it.
Well, I woke up last week. I finally came to. I began to realize that I had stopped noticing the hand of God in my missionary work and if you aren’t with God, or you aren’t giving Him the credit as a missionary, the work becomes very dull and even more difficult. I encourage everyone who doesn’t feel as close to God as they would like, and so that means everyone I am assuming, to pray out loud. I have taken to praying out loud at any opportunity I can. If my companion goes to the bathroom for 3 minutes, I begin talking out loud to Him. It has been helping me A TON! For a while I forgot that He is my best friend. I promise you that if you pray, as the scriptures say "with real intent", you feel the love of God pouring down on your shoulders. For me, I am ADD, so that means praying out loud to make sure I am paying real attention and am sincere. For you it may just mean a stronger effort. But say your prayers! Talk to Him as if He were right in front of you, as if He were your best friend and you were talking to Him about anything. Jesus Christ wasn’t kidding when he exhorted us to pray. Nor were any of the prophets. "But ask with faith, doubting nothing."(James 1:6) I felt peace from heaven this week. I testify that God is always listening. I testify that the pride cycle is deadly. When we forget to pray to God with real intent, He will humble us. If we ignore Him, we will get lost and feel alone. Pray!! It works. I teach it to people every day. It is so sad that this primary answer still has me on my heels sometimes.
So in my spiritual high, I have been feeling a lot more guided. This story is weird to me, but I will share it anyway. We were walking the other morning and all of our appointments fell through in no time flat. We were headed for a house that we had knocked that had said we could come back "cualquier otro momento" "any other time"...whatever. Side note, I have taken to telling the people, "Everybody tells us to come back any other time. Do you actually want us to come to back? Will you let us come in for a few minutes to share a message when we come back?" ... it isn’t yielding results because everybody still says "Sí, cualquier otro momento." UGH! Anyway, so we are heading for a house that had said we could come back. We pass an intersection and I look over to the right on the intersecting street and hundreds of yards away I see a lady walking with a baby. I immediately felt impressed to go talk to her. I told myself "no way, it is way out of the way." and we continued walking in our direction. I felt it again. To my mind came the story of young Bishop Thomas S. Monson and a story about him learning to follow the spirit better. He had made a promise NEVER to ignore a spiritual prompting. Recognizing that the Spirit was talking to me I said "Elder, lets go talk to that lady I saw back there." His response was "what lady?" We went back to the intersection and she still was walking. So we begin moseying along, pretending like we actually had intended to be on that street, and after a long walk, she was WAY far away, we approached her and said good morning, told her who we were, had some casual morning "nice day for July" talk, etc... She was SUPER nice...and she said she wasn’t interested.
I was SO frustrated in that moment. I said to myself "I know the spirit told me to talk to you. There is no way you are rejecting us!" But she did. And now we were on a completely different street way far from where we wanted to be. We just kind of stood there puzzled. I think my companion had expected that to work out better too. Wanting to feel like I was in control, I said without thinking "Let’s knock this house right here while we are here." So we knocked the house that we happened to be right in front of. We actually clapped our hands from her gate, that is how you knock here. So she opens her window in her door and begins to give us the same old "oh, it is all the same God. You boys are doing a good thing. I already know all about it..." but while she was talking my mind was drawn to Preach My Gospel. I had just recently read about saying quick, powerful truths to catch attention and invite the spirit. I would typically have just said "we want to share a message about Jesus Christ, or the family, or etc..." But this time I said very boldly, "So you know that we believe that right now, this very moment, there is a prophet of God on the Earth who receives revelation and guides us as did the original apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ?" It was a good sentence, if I do say so myself. To make a long story short, she was stunned. She stopped her little routine "get lost" and asked rather inquisitively "excuse me? What did you say you believe?" Moving towards her window, not wanting to talk from 10 feet away I said "let me show you." To make a long story short we taught her the first lesson and she was AMAZED to find that we had the same Bible. She was intrigued from the get go. It was a message she had never heard, although she had been telling us off "oh it is all the same God. I already know what you believe..." Preach My Gospel works. That whole getting to the point strategy works. I am gonna do that a lot more often. We have an invite to go back and she is super nice and maybe she will go somewhere if Satan doesn’t place more complacent "oh it is all good" feelings into her heart.
The miracle is that we never would have knocked just that house and we weren’t planning on knocking that street we were on any time soon. It is kind of an ugly street and we have a lot more streets that are still higher priority knocks even now.
Anyway, that is one story, but I think stories tend to be on the boring side when you are a missionary. It was really dragged out. I used to be a creative writer, but when you are writing a true story and you want to fit in a bunch of boring details it makes for a long drawn out story.
I have been thinking a lot about Grace this week. We are SO often criticized for not putting enough emphasis on grace. As Mormons, we are accused of trying to "work our way into heaven". The truth of the matter is that it "is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do." (2 Nephi 25:23) We were sharing the Plan of Salvation with someone and they told us we didn’t talk enough about grace. I found myself asking, "what greater grace can there be?" The message of the Restoration enhances our understanding of grace to ASTRONOMICAL levels!! What greater exhibition of grace could there be than that of a Father who offers to his completely unworthy children the oppurtunity to progress and become like Him? The issue is that progression requires action. Our opportunity to "act" is an act of grace from God. He is offering us the opportunity to find ourselves on a much higher plane and is willing to take us there after our best effort, even when we don’t necessarily deserve it. Anyone that says Mormons don’t understand grace are uninformed of the Mormon Doctrine.
So I have a billion things I could say, but this email is getting pretty long. I hope that everyone is doing just peachy! I am happy. I am trying to work hard. I will write more stories and insights from the mind of Andy Shepherd next week. Until then, be good! Love you all!
Andy
So I was feeling extra spiritual this week and I was really looking for the hand of God in my life. One thing I have recently been coming to realize is that my prayers, for quite some time, had been lacking. I had the sad logic in my head, and I am embarrassed to admit it, that God already knows everything. So he knows everything I can say thanks for and everything I want Him to help me with. So I would still say my "gracias por eso" and "bendiceme con eso", but it was very short and very...more or less, as the Spaniard puts it.
Well, I woke up last week. I finally came to. I began to realize that I had stopped noticing the hand of God in my missionary work and if you aren’t with God, or you aren’t giving Him the credit as a missionary, the work becomes very dull and even more difficult. I encourage everyone who doesn’t feel as close to God as they would like, and so that means everyone I am assuming, to pray out loud. I have taken to praying out loud at any opportunity I can. If my companion goes to the bathroom for 3 minutes, I begin talking out loud to Him. It has been helping me A TON! For a while I forgot that He is my best friend. I promise you that if you pray, as the scriptures say "with real intent", you feel the love of God pouring down on your shoulders. For me, I am ADD, so that means praying out loud to make sure I am paying real attention and am sincere. For you it may just mean a stronger effort. But say your prayers! Talk to Him as if He were right in front of you, as if He were your best friend and you were talking to Him about anything. Jesus Christ wasn’t kidding when he exhorted us to pray. Nor were any of the prophets. "But ask with faith, doubting nothing."(James 1:6) I felt peace from heaven this week. I testify that God is always listening. I testify that the pride cycle is deadly. When we forget to pray to God with real intent, He will humble us. If we ignore Him, we will get lost and feel alone. Pray!! It works. I teach it to people every day. It is so sad that this primary answer still has me on my heels sometimes.
So in my spiritual high, I have been feeling a lot more guided. This story is weird to me, but I will share it anyway. We were walking the other morning and all of our appointments fell through in no time flat. We were headed for a house that we had knocked that had said we could come back "cualquier otro momento" "any other time"...whatever. Side note, I have taken to telling the people, "Everybody tells us to come back any other time. Do you actually want us to come to back? Will you let us come in for a few minutes to share a message when we come back?" ... it isn’t yielding results because everybody still says "Sí, cualquier otro momento." UGH! Anyway, so we are heading for a house that had said we could come back. We pass an intersection and I look over to the right on the intersecting street and hundreds of yards away I see a lady walking with a baby. I immediately felt impressed to go talk to her. I told myself "no way, it is way out of the way." and we continued walking in our direction. I felt it again. To my mind came the story of young Bishop Thomas S. Monson and a story about him learning to follow the spirit better. He had made a promise NEVER to ignore a spiritual prompting. Recognizing that the Spirit was talking to me I said "Elder, lets go talk to that lady I saw back there." His response was "what lady?" We went back to the intersection and she still was walking. So we begin moseying along, pretending like we actually had intended to be on that street, and after a long walk, she was WAY far away, we approached her and said good morning, told her who we were, had some casual morning "nice day for July" talk, etc... She was SUPER nice...and she said she wasn’t interested.
I was SO frustrated in that moment. I said to myself "I know the spirit told me to talk to you. There is no way you are rejecting us!" But she did. And now we were on a completely different street way far from where we wanted to be. We just kind of stood there puzzled. I think my companion had expected that to work out better too. Wanting to feel like I was in control, I said without thinking "Let’s knock this house right here while we are here." So we knocked the house that we happened to be right in front of. We actually clapped our hands from her gate, that is how you knock here. So she opens her window in her door and begins to give us the same old "oh, it is all the same God. You boys are doing a good thing. I already know all about it..." but while she was talking my mind was drawn to Preach My Gospel. I had just recently read about saying quick, powerful truths to catch attention and invite the spirit. I would typically have just said "we want to share a message about Jesus Christ, or the family, or etc..." But this time I said very boldly, "So you know that we believe that right now, this very moment, there is a prophet of God on the Earth who receives revelation and guides us as did the original apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ?" It was a good sentence, if I do say so myself. To make a long story short, she was stunned. She stopped her little routine "get lost" and asked rather inquisitively "excuse me? What did you say you believe?" Moving towards her window, not wanting to talk from 10 feet away I said "let me show you." To make a long story short we taught her the first lesson and she was AMAZED to find that we had the same Bible. She was intrigued from the get go. It was a message she had never heard, although she had been telling us off "oh it is all the same God. I already know what you believe..." Preach My Gospel works. That whole getting to the point strategy works. I am gonna do that a lot more often. We have an invite to go back and she is super nice and maybe she will go somewhere if Satan doesn’t place more complacent "oh it is all good" feelings into her heart.
The miracle is that we never would have knocked just that house and we weren’t planning on knocking that street we were on any time soon. It is kind of an ugly street and we have a lot more streets that are still higher priority knocks even now.
Anyway, that is one story, but I think stories tend to be on the boring side when you are a missionary. It was really dragged out. I used to be a creative writer, but when you are writing a true story and you want to fit in a bunch of boring details it makes for a long drawn out story.
I have been thinking a lot about Grace this week. We are SO often criticized for not putting enough emphasis on grace. As Mormons, we are accused of trying to "work our way into heaven". The truth of the matter is that it "is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do." (2 Nephi 25:23) We were sharing the Plan of Salvation with someone and they told us we didn’t talk enough about grace. I found myself asking, "what greater grace can there be?" The message of the Restoration enhances our understanding of grace to ASTRONOMICAL levels!! What greater exhibition of grace could there be than that of a Father who offers to his completely unworthy children the oppurtunity to progress and become like Him? The issue is that progression requires action. Our opportunity to "act" is an act of grace from God. He is offering us the opportunity to find ourselves on a much higher plane and is willing to take us there after our best effort, even when we don’t necessarily deserve it. Anyone that says Mormons don’t understand grace are uninformed of the Mormon Doctrine.
So I have a billion things I could say, but this email is getting pretty long. I hope that everyone is doing just peachy! I am happy. I am trying to work hard. I will write more stories and insights from the mind of Andy Shepherd next week. Until then, be good! Love you all!
Andy
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
That Aint No Symmetry
email dated 7-8-08
Our hero has suffered much this week. The desired "symmetry" as he brilliantly put it was unrealized. The doctor took well over half of the toenail, cut so deep that it still bleeds a little bit, and it has stitches...but hey, at least it feels better!
The suffering never stops, however, for our hero in the land down under Brazil. After months of off and on stomach aches and nausea he reluctantly took advantage of the opportunity to see a doctor. It turns out young Elder Andrew Shepherd is suffering from the ever common GASTRITIS!!! UGGH!! OH I so had it coming!!! How do you spell Karma? I actually don't know. Anyway, I teased Matt like crazy for coming home from Peru with Gastritis. And now look at me. I am not even a full 9 months into the mission and I got the disease. My stomach lining is apparently in complete shambles. One word: SICK! And the Doctor tried saying, "well, avoid eating anything with too much oil, or any sweets. Avoid rices, milanesas, porotos, anything with noodles, etc..." which is EVERYTHING that they feed us down here. One of the best parts about it is that I was DYING on Monday and I couldn't figure out why. I had had my toe surgery and guess what the doctor had me take. Go ahead, guess! Aspirin and Ibuprofen!! There are no drugs worse for someone with gastritis than Aspirin and Ibuprofen. They rip your stomach to shreds. My stomach ache was unbearable on Monday. And the saddest part is that I blamed my stomach pains on emotional stress...nope. It was gastritis, only I didn't know it at the time. So there you have it Matt. Yuck it up and enjoy it while you can. Because I am going to beat you up when I come home. Way to jinx me!
In later news, Elder Shepherd has decided that Global Warming is a definite reality. I am supposed to be in the coldest month that Uruguay knows. But we hit a warm front and last week my companion and I went around in short sleeved shirts. It has been SO nice. Our roof is dripping like crazy on us from humidity, but I could care less because at least I am not cold. Pero, éste calamiento global me preocupa bastante! California won't exist by the time I finish my mission and I still want to go to Disneyland one more time at least. But, I am delighted to report that this warm week came as a result of your prayers. I am decided on that. I criticized you all last week for not praying hard enough, and I felt your prayers this week. Not only did we find some "in the bag" investigators this week, but it has been really warm. Thank you for your prayers! Uruguay owes you all a debt of gratitude. If they only knew that God gave us good weather just because Elder Shepherd's fans back home were praying...
It did rain yesterday, however. It wasn't cold at least. However, the rainy day provided that I was carrying my umbrella. As often happens, all of our morning appointments fell through and we were left out in a rainy empty street. My companion asked "now what do we do?" I stemmed my umbrella from the top of my head and began making radio noises. I turned the umbrella to try and catch the signal. To no avail. I said "I am not getting anything...hold on a second...no I am not getting anything." I continued making my radio noises and he still didn't laugh yet. I was most disappointed. I am so funny that they should put me in movies, and he didn't even crack a smile. He eventually admitted that it was funny.
Speaking of Elder Oliphant, he will be the first companion I stay with for longer than one transfer!! We're staying here in Tacuarembo. I am glad. I feel really good about it. I wasn't ready to leave. I haven't done everything I need to do here yet. We are getting along just swimmingly. Yesterday when I suggested we write a song-poem for companion study about the mission, he actually agreed. Sometimes you need a day like that. It was fun.
So here is my story for the week. We got a guy to reactivate and start going back to church...to the Catholic Church. But here is the best part. I feel GREAT about it. Half of his family are members of our church, but he isn't. He never went to Catholic mass, nor did he even own a bible. He doesn't want to change yet, but we have been inviting him to read the bible. He has been reading the bible and going to church for a month now. His mom yesterday thanked us with tears in her eyes. "I don't care if he is going to the true church yet" she tells us, "but at least he is back on the path of Jesus Christ." He is reading, and praying, and went and found a job for the first time in 5 years and he is 25, he is going to church, etc... That is missionary work. That is inviting someone to come unto Christ, which is our purpose as missionaries. I feel really good that he is going to church again.
Thank you for your prayers. Thank you for your love. I am feeling better than I remember ever feeling out here on the mission. I love you all so much! Take care!!
Andy
Our hero has suffered much this week. The desired "symmetry" as he brilliantly put it was unrealized. The doctor took well over half of the toenail, cut so deep that it still bleeds a little bit, and it has stitches...but hey, at least it feels better!
The suffering never stops, however, for our hero in the land down under Brazil. After months of off and on stomach aches and nausea he reluctantly took advantage of the opportunity to see a doctor. It turns out young Elder Andrew Shepherd is suffering from the ever common GASTRITIS!!! UGGH!! OH I so had it coming!!! How do you spell Karma? I actually don't know. Anyway, I teased Matt like crazy for coming home from Peru with Gastritis. And now look at me. I am not even a full 9 months into the mission and I got the disease. My stomach lining is apparently in complete shambles. One word: SICK! And the Doctor tried saying, "well, avoid eating anything with too much oil, or any sweets. Avoid rices, milanesas, porotos, anything with noodles, etc..." which is EVERYTHING that they feed us down here. One of the best parts about it is that I was DYING on Monday and I couldn't figure out why. I had had my toe surgery and guess what the doctor had me take. Go ahead, guess! Aspirin and Ibuprofen!! There are no drugs worse for someone with gastritis than Aspirin and Ibuprofen. They rip your stomach to shreds. My stomach ache was unbearable on Monday. And the saddest part is that I blamed my stomach pains on emotional stress...nope. It was gastritis, only I didn't know it at the time. So there you have it Matt. Yuck it up and enjoy it while you can. Because I am going to beat you up when I come home. Way to jinx me!
In later news, Elder Shepherd has decided that Global Warming is a definite reality. I am supposed to be in the coldest month that Uruguay knows. But we hit a warm front and last week my companion and I went around in short sleeved shirts. It has been SO nice. Our roof is dripping like crazy on us from humidity, but I could care less because at least I am not cold. Pero, éste calamiento global me preocupa bastante! California won't exist by the time I finish my mission and I still want to go to Disneyland one more time at least. But, I am delighted to report that this warm week came as a result of your prayers. I am decided on that. I criticized you all last week for not praying hard enough, and I felt your prayers this week. Not only did we find some "in the bag" investigators this week, but it has been really warm. Thank you for your prayers! Uruguay owes you all a debt of gratitude. If they only knew that God gave us good weather just because Elder Shepherd's fans back home were praying...
It did rain yesterday, however. It wasn't cold at least. However, the rainy day provided that I was carrying my umbrella. As often happens, all of our morning appointments fell through and we were left out in a rainy empty street. My companion asked "now what do we do?" I stemmed my umbrella from the top of my head and began making radio noises. I turned the umbrella to try and catch the signal. To no avail. I said "I am not getting anything...hold on a second...no I am not getting anything." I continued making my radio noises and he still didn't laugh yet. I was most disappointed. I am so funny that they should put me in movies, and he didn't even crack a smile. He eventually admitted that it was funny.
Speaking of Elder Oliphant, he will be the first companion I stay with for longer than one transfer!! We're staying here in Tacuarembo. I am glad. I feel really good about it. I wasn't ready to leave. I haven't done everything I need to do here yet. We are getting along just swimmingly. Yesterday when I suggested we write a song-poem for companion study about the mission, he actually agreed. Sometimes you need a day like that. It was fun.
So here is my story for the week. We got a guy to reactivate and start going back to church...to the Catholic Church. But here is the best part. I feel GREAT about it. Half of his family are members of our church, but he isn't. He never went to Catholic mass, nor did he even own a bible. He doesn't want to change yet, but we have been inviting him to read the bible. He has been reading the bible and going to church for a month now. His mom yesterday thanked us with tears in her eyes. "I don't care if he is going to the true church yet" she tells us, "but at least he is back on the path of Jesus Christ." He is reading, and praying, and went and found a job for the first time in 5 years and he is 25, he is going to church, etc... That is missionary work. That is inviting someone to come unto Christ, which is our purpose as missionaries. I feel really good that he is going to church again.
Thank you for your prayers. Thank you for your love. I am feeling better than I remember ever feeling out here on the mission. I love you all so much! Take care!!
Andy
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
The Time Has Come to Return Symmetry to my Feet
So I am here in Montevideo, writing my email at what is 6:30 in the morning here. You are all sleeping soundly and dreaming of whatever and wishing that you were me serving a mission in a foreign country learning the coolest language and spending your whole days in the service of the Lord.
I am a tad nervous for my surgery. I delayed having this done because I had once promised myself I would never let a Uruguayan doctor touch me, mostly because of what problems I had seen them cause for my trainer. Long story! I won’t tell it. Anyway, I swallowed my pride and my stubbornness and here I am...I hope they don’t mess up. They already messed this surgery up on another missionary I know. They didn’t fully kill the root of the toenail so it started growing back and got re-infected and he couldn’t walk for 2 weeks. So I expect that your prayers are sufficient to take care of me. Granted, you all won’t even say your morning prayers before I start the procedure, but our all-knowing God will recognize your efforts. He already knows if you are going to remember to pray for me or not. So pray for me. It will still count.
Speaking of prayers, somebody back home is not praying hard enough for me. We are having a really hard time finding new investigators and the ones we have aren’t home ever these days, at least this week. We had a REALLY long week walking in the rainy skies with few people outside and loads of fallen appointments. Don’t forget to pray with faith! Everyone ought to read Elder Bednar’s talk from last conference.
So I had McDonald’s this morning for the first time in a LONG time. It was really disappointing. The weird thing about McCy D´s here is that it is the food of the wealthy. A happy meal costs 100 something pesos, and for 100 pesos you can get a REALLY good meal anywhere else. But somehow McDonald’s has a lot of business down here in Montevideo. I don’t understand it. Anyway, it was terrible. The sausage mcmuffin was anything but sausage and it wasn’t in a mcmuffin. It was in a roll. I was most disappointed.
So this week I came to the realization that I speak Spanish. I answered the phone the other day and it was a wrong number. I went through the casual, "Oh sorry, you have the wrong number. Who were you trying to call? Oh no, that is at this number? Yeah... Yeah." etc... and I did it without even thinking twice or blinking. And I have had a billion little things like that that are stupid but they make me feel good. I love asking people for directions and understanding where they are talking about, and ...well I just love that I understand this language when they talk and that I speak it right back!! It is super fun.
There aren’t many good stories from this week, so I am trying to babble about something at least...The investigators from last week’s story weren’t home the 2 times we passed by, and, when they were home, the husband had gone to the hospital because his brother was in surgery for some problem with his legs. So I have no updates on them.
It is hard because the best people we find are always the people that have lives and work and aren’t in the home all the day long. But when you actually get them at home they are AMAZING. I gave a talk in church yesterday on the Book of Mormon and how we as members of the church need to know how to respond to our neighbors questions about the Book of Mormon and what is Mormon, etc... and the 13 year old on the front row said it was the best talk he had ever heard. I thought that was really nice of him to say.
I hope that everyone is doing well and that you are laughing and smiling at the simple things in life. I am making an extra special effort this week to do that as well! Take care!! I love you all!!!
Andy
I am a tad nervous for my surgery. I delayed having this done because I had once promised myself I would never let a Uruguayan doctor touch me, mostly because of what problems I had seen them cause for my trainer. Long story! I won’t tell it. Anyway, I swallowed my pride and my stubbornness and here I am...I hope they don’t mess up. They already messed this surgery up on another missionary I know. They didn’t fully kill the root of the toenail so it started growing back and got re-infected and he couldn’t walk for 2 weeks. So I expect that your prayers are sufficient to take care of me. Granted, you all won’t even say your morning prayers before I start the procedure, but our all-knowing God will recognize your efforts. He already knows if you are going to remember to pray for me or not. So pray for me. It will still count.
Speaking of prayers, somebody back home is not praying hard enough for me. We are having a really hard time finding new investigators and the ones we have aren’t home ever these days, at least this week. We had a REALLY long week walking in the rainy skies with few people outside and loads of fallen appointments. Don’t forget to pray with faith! Everyone ought to read Elder Bednar’s talk from last conference.
So I had McDonald’s this morning for the first time in a LONG time. It was really disappointing. The weird thing about McCy D´s here is that it is the food of the wealthy. A happy meal costs 100 something pesos, and for 100 pesos you can get a REALLY good meal anywhere else. But somehow McDonald’s has a lot of business down here in Montevideo. I don’t understand it. Anyway, it was terrible. The sausage mcmuffin was anything but sausage and it wasn’t in a mcmuffin. It was in a roll. I was most disappointed.
So this week I came to the realization that I speak Spanish. I answered the phone the other day and it was a wrong number. I went through the casual, "Oh sorry, you have the wrong number. Who were you trying to call? Oh no, that is at this number? Yeah... Yeah." etc... and I did it without even thinking twice or blinking. And I have had a billion little things like that that are stupid but they make me feel good. I love asking people for directions and understanding where they are talking about, and ...well I just love that I understand this language when they talk and that I speak it right back!! It is super fun.
There aren’t many good stories from this week, so I am trying to babble about something at least...The investigators from last week’s story weren’t home the 2 times we passed by, and, when they were home, the husband had gone to the hospital because his brother was in surgery for some problem with his legs. So I have no updates on them.
It is hard because the best people we find are always the people that have lives and work and aren’t in the home all the day long. But when you actually get them at home they are AMAZING. I gave a talk in church yesterday on the Book of Mormon and how we as members of the church need to know how to respond to our neighbors questions about the Book of Mormon and what is Mormon, etc... and the 13 year old on the front row said it was the best talk he had ever heard. I thought that was really nice of him to say.
I hope that everyone is doing well and that you are laughing and smiling at the simple things in life. I am making an extra special effort this week to do that as well! Take care!! I love you all!!!
Andy
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