math, yes trig at work
Friday, November 11, 2011
El Ejido 7
hola hola Familia y amigos 09 Nov 2011
toda esta bien por aqui ahora.
This week has been really up and down. Dad you had some questions about Iseal and Esel and also Delvi.
Iseal and his brother are doing great. They haven’t come to church yet, but other than that they are golden investigators. They read everything and always have way better answers then I could explain. They are about the same age as my comp and I and so it is fun to teach and talk to them.
Delvi is still on our list, he scared us the other day. We were at an activity that we put together for the young men and while we were there he called us to say that he didn’t want to hear from us anymore and that he felt like he was wasting our time. Elder Jensen was on the phone and somehow reasoned with him and answered some questions. But he was able to schedule another cita (appointment) with him. We are having a hard time thinking of what else to do with/for him because he has received a blessing and has fasted as well...ugh.
Okay so we had the worst day ever on Saturday. WE had so many charlas (discussions) set up and we were pumped to go out and work. We got to the first and they weren’t there, then the same with the next and then the next and then the next. So we were a little down. But we kept at it - doing some street contacting, etc. While we were out we decided to go find one of our investigators that we haven’t seen in a while. We got to his house and he wasn’t there either – we had a great streak going –haha, but we saw him a little ways down the street, So I waved at him and motioned for him to come over by us, but he acted like he didn’t see us and booked it around the corner, que sin verquenza,(jerk) Since nothing else was going on we decided to have a little fun and follow him. When we turned the corner he honestly was nowhere to be found! Joke was on us, I guess. When that happened I seriously wanted to punch something! Haha, but as a rep of Jesus Christ, that’s apparently not allowed..... So that day was pretty subpar until our appointment at Iseal’s house. They are amazing and made my day better because they do everything Christ asks. One of those trial of your faith days!
Something really cool happened yesterday. Oh, first of all I finished my first transfer!!!!! Woot woot..
We got a phone call, and it showed President Lee’s (the mission President) number on the screen! We don’t usually get a call from him so everything is going thru our minds wondering what was going on. I was kinda freaking out because it’s my week with the phone. So I was getting all pumped to talk to him and then when I answered it, it was the english speaking AP (assistant to the President – there’s one english speaking and 1 native Spanish speaking AP) from Lindon, (the one that Shelly Bonnett knows) anyway, but he invited my companion and me to come into the office so we could meet the new incoming Elders and take them on intercambios (trade offs, splits, exchanges … ). I said sure, ‘cause you always say sure when asked to help out! haha
Okay so the freakout continues! I’ve only been out 6 weeks and now I was supposed to take some greeny (brand new elder) that knows basically nothing with me, especially when I don’t know that much either!. Haha, Anyway I was excited to give it a try. So we got to the mission home and to my surprise guess who is there with the new Elders?
None other than AUSTIN ROSE! It was way cool to see and talk to him for a bit, also cool to see the star struck look on the faces of the other greenies, That’s must be what I looked like just one transfer ago! haha. It’s just been a short time but I feel like I know so much more now than when I first came into the mission home! That thought boosted my confidence a little bit more, so I wasn’t quite so nervous about taking out a greeny on his 1st day!
I was paired with an Elder from Peru. He is 24. I’m glad I got a native speaker to help with my still growing Spanish skills - he and I were awesome together. We were assigned to go back into my area, so being in a familiar area helped also. We were able to teach a couple of lessons did some door knockin and street contacting and placed a Book of Mormon. ... ya, it was fun! Kind of made up for the other day!
I love yall ! I hope all is well THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE LETTER!!! It made my week.
ELDER GRINER
P.S. I’ll send you a picture of our progress on the house, it’s pretty sweet. I’m finally putting my math skills that I learned in school into play. ...finally – yes kid’s math is important! Look at the compound angles we had to calculate and cut and weld!
Mom you asked if I had to do my own wash. Of course mother! We have this little thing called a lavadora (washing machine) and we fill up buckets of water and dump them into it and put our clothes in with some soap and the lavadora just spins our clothes with the water. Then next to the spinner there is another thing that spins to dry. So you do that for one cycle and then drain the dirty water out and then pour in new water and then wash again with more soap - spin dry again and hang them out on a wire for about 3 hours to dry and hope it doesn’t rain! It’s great fun. lol
Did I ever tell you that in the CCM there was a washer and dryer like yours at home? It reminded me so so so much of you and home!!?
The weather – ya – It’s HOT, HOT, HOT and then for a change it’s HOT haha! The power went out today, so we couldn’t use our fans! I/we just about died. Elder Jensen even after being here for a year isn’t quite used to it. It isn’t quite as hot as Arizona but this is a humid heat so it is stifling! In the picture I sent I went into the kitchen and lay on the tile to try to get cool and my comp snapped a picture of me!! hahah
Later
EMG
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
El Ejido P6.2
One of the members that always goes with us because
he doesn't have friends and loves teaching me spanish.
Also one of the cutest most devilish kids there ever was.
El Ejido 6
Hey all!
SOOOOO...
This week went well and we had a lot of success finding and teaching.
But I would say that the funest thing that we did this week is - now that we have torn down the old wood shack house - we started to build up Romy’s house! It’s awesome. He went and bought a little buzz box arc welder and metal cutting chop saw so that we could start build the frame of his house today. I sent some pictures so that you can have a better idea of what we are doing. The frame we are building is made out of 2.0 X 2.0 steel tubes that have to be welded and then somehow we will attach the cinder blocks after the frames are all done. I got to weld some of the tube! It was great. I told him about Grandpa Griner being a welder and Dad welding to help put himself through BYU haha it must run in the blood.
We take 2 of our mornings, after study, and go and help him. Today we spent the whole morning measuring, sawing, welding and getting baked to death in the heat, but its pouring buckets now so it’s cooling off. haha.
We also helped Alifda, our recent convert, move and that was crazy as well. She lived on the third floor so we would have to take things down to the second floor and ten toss her things out of the window, because the stair wells were too small. It feels like we are always doing a service project.
“When you are in the service of your fellow man…! Haha
I had my last meeting as a new missionary this week and it went well. The Mission President implemented a program to help the new missionaries prepare and progress during their first transfer. So we go over the discussions and how to approach people and question and answers, etc. all in Spanish. So all of the Elders that came out when I did get together weekly to learn and practice in a big group. My companion and I had the assignment to demonstrate, in front of everyone, how to present the Book of Mormon, and we killed it!
Our mission President is a very cool guy. He’s pretty strict. I guess that he needs to be because apparently there have been some unmotivated (ya that’s a good way to put it) missionaries here in the past and he is trying to curb that before it starts. If you have no motivation it would be easy to get lazy, but like Elder Scott taught us in the MTC “if you knew what I know about this gospel, you would run to teach it!” My companion and I are trying our best to learn and understand those feelings as we work hard.
Iseal and Esel are two of our new investigators and they are awesome. They are 19 and 20 years old respectively. They read, they pray and they invite people to hear what we have to say! We were sitting on the side walk teaching a lesson to some dude the other day. They saw us teaching and came over and talked with us for a minute then invited the guy we were teaching to church! After listening to them, he was way more receptive, because he now knows that Dominicans believe in the stuff that these two whiteys are teachings as well haha.
Not a lot has changed here! My patience is still getting tried every day I just have to understand that things are, well different here, and I hope that is something that I will be able to get used to.
I LOVE YOU ALL!
ELDER GRINER
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