El Ejido 8

Querido familia,                                                                  16 Nov 2011
how in the heck are you!

SOOOO,

  This week has been pretty standard, doing the regular missionary thing, haha. The lady next to me in the centro de internet (internet café) is hilarious.  She is Haitian and she doesn’t know how to type.  So she is pounding on the keyboard so hard with her pointer finger, I’m just waiting to see which breaks first – her finger or the keyboard! Haha, okay anyway.

   On Monday we got a call from the Mission Office and were told not to leave the house because there was a good chance that there was going to be a riot in the streets.... at first I was a little creped out and scared.   I guess the whole country decided to have a welga, which is pretty much a strike against the government.  Apparently people just go crazy!  They throw molotov cocktails (bottles with gas or alcohol lit on fire) into the streets and at buildings, and there’s a lot of shooting go on.  So, we stayed inside the whole day waiting to hear the craziness.  I kept looking out of the window to try and see some of the action ya know!! But, alas, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING HAPPENED.... kind of a nervous time and kind of funny at the same time.  I’m glad that nothing happened.

  That same night at about 6:00 we were got the call that things were cool and we could leave the house and hit the pavement.  We taught one lesson to Iseal and Esel and somewhat surprisingly they invited their friend to come and listen to use too.  They always want to have others hear what we have to say. It’s sweet because we are exactly the same age as they are, so we can relate in a lot of ways.  They think the Book of Mormon is awesome and read it all of the time. The only thing they are missing is coming to church, but these guys will be baptized and do great in the church. 

  Okay, I had probably THE most awkward Sunday of my life this past Sunday.  It was stake conference right, and like always as missionaries we try to bring and get people to church so they can cumplir (fulfill) their commitments.  So we tried to contact as many people as we could on Saturday night so they would be ready for Sunday.  So the next morning we planned on picking up two 15 year old boys and another man named William.  Then we were going to pass by and pick up a couple of girls that we have been teaching, with members.  So, Sunday morning comes around and we passed by to pick up the guys and all of them wimped out on us. ugh...  So then we walk down to the girls homes and of course they want to come... So there it was… two missionaries walking to a place that is about 30 minutes away with two kind of same aged girls.  Not the best situation! Haha.  So, we were walking as far apart from these girls as we could without being unfriendly and still trying to walk with them.  Then we really didn’t talk or say anything because they didn’t want to talk – way awkward.   But then we get to the stake conference and all of the missionaries in our area are there along with our mission president and the see us walk in with 2 girls! haha it was terrible and so so awkward for us and I can’t even imagine what it was like for the two girls.  AHHH hah stuff like that, ya laugh at I guess.

   But wow , the other evening/night after we got in from our missionary work,  we went up on the roof of our apt building and were able to look out over the city toward the monument and see the lights of the city.  We got a soda and a bag of treats and just chilled.  It was the most relaxed that I’ve been in awhile and I had fun too.

Ok to answer some of your questions.

We didn’t get a new DL and our area is huge it covers the all of the main city of Santiago.

Exercise:   every morning I do 80 pushups, 3 sets of abs and we have some 25 lb dumbbells that I do shoulders and curls with before I get in the shower!

Shopping trip:  haha there is a place called Price Mart that is about the same as Costco and we can go there once a transfer.

I doubt that we will be able to go to the BYU baseball fireside if they have them on this side of the island, because our President is kind of a stiffler, but, he needs to be. ha

um Christmas decorations: I won’t let my comp buy a Christmas tree because it’s too much money and I won’t be in this area next year.  But we do have lights.  So that’s enough for me!! haha

Blake is getting a car in his area. What?  Man, I wish we could have a bike or car here, but NOPE.  We just have to walk because everything would be stolen or wrecked!!! hahah

 I got the underside of my forearm burned while I was welding!! haha  I just got done welding the railing for the house and I stupidly picked up the poles before they had cooled down and I was left with 2 parallel burns about ¼ inch wide and 6 in. long!! haha looks pretty cool I think!

I need to go i love yall !!
ADIOS

ELDER GRINER