Speed (6/22/20)

This transfer has gone by faster than a toddler ramped up on Red Bull. 

Last Monday, pday, was good. We went to a state park. It was cool. About half the district was there. It was called Alfred B. McKay garden state park? I think I already talked about this.

 

On Tuesday, my comp ran to the bathroom right after we woke up. I didn't hear our alarms and so I was like oh no it's probably 8 or 9 am. No, it was 5:50. He said he was just putting off going to the bathroom and seeing if he could wait until 6:30 when we usually wake up. Nice. Guess he didn't make it. We went to Target and got tortillas and Post-It notes. I have a bad habit of eating way too much hot sauce, and I don't know why I do it haha. I went on a trade off with the elders next door, and we played a card game--Warriors of the Promised Land. It's kinda weird but kinda cool. It's like all card games. If it's a weird shuffle then you're out of luck. A member brought us a rotisserie chicken for dinner. Nice. I put a picture on my little pocket notebook. It was fun, and it turned out sorta mediocre so I can't complain. 

On Wednesday we had our district council, and President Wood was there. I seriously over prepared for my assignment. I had to talk about President's letter and I took notes, had scriptures, the whole 9 yards. After I go up and talked about it, I sat down and he was like you did a wonderful job preparing, over preparing haha. On the way there I got in the car and then I hear Mario cart. Rainbow road. Never thought I'd hear that again. Haha. We had interviews after district council. Good stuff. We went out for lunch, and it started raining when I went inside to wash my hands. Nice. We got pizza and it was 98% grease. Yuck. We went home and had a lesson and it was so good. The spirit was so strong and I was trying not to be giddy because it's kinda weird to other people haha. But we were so happy and so excited after. 

On Thursday we learned a valuable lesson about doing the dishes... well I did. Wash the dishes even if you didn't touch or use them. Because water, mixed with flour, sitting in the sink for a few days, does not produce a nice smell. It produces a gagging diarrhea smell, in the which your comp goes next door and leaves you with the task of cleaning them. Nice. So kids, help out your nostrils and when you dirty a dish, put it in the dishwasher. Or hand wash it. But moral of the story: Just wash the bowl, plate, spoon, pan, whatever. Ok? I went through some of the music on my phone and deleted the songs that had more than 1 version of. I don't need 8 copies of Always. I don't, you don't, he don't. It don't matter. Anyway. 

On Friday I wrote an extremely little amount in my journal. Like 4 lines. This is what they were: "I made bacon with Elder Jones, we were on trade offs, the sisters came over to get the key to the institute building, I burnt the bacon, Elder Jones played the ukulele all day and played with his cards. We dropped off a Bible at somebody's house." But other than that I have no idea what happened that day. 

So Saturday, last Saturday, we got in contact with this referral we got. They are so cool. It's a couple, and with some scripture magic they will be all good. I thought about some people I helped move in Brazil and wondered how they are doing. What they are doing. I wrote all about them in my journal on March 7 but wrote everything except their names. oops. That'll kill me until I get to the next life. haha. We missed a teaching appointment we had today, and we felt pretty stupid. We went and filmed a Father's Day video that you can check out on the Facebook page Church of Jesus Christ in Tallahassee. It's called Happy Father's Day or something basic like that. My comp and I published it so we should know, but I forgot. Then there was a live event too which was way cool. My comp was in it. We also fixed a bicycle today. The guy was from India and super kind, super respectful, and super cool. He gave us water and peanut date granola bars. 

So we are now in Sunday, finally. I changed the background on my phone to a picture I screenshotted off another missionary's Facebook story. I don't know if that's weird or what, dunno if they get a notification, or what. I dunno. I don't think it matters. For some reason my stomach was absolutely dying, but I didn't eat any hot sauce. Withdrawals? Dunno. But the resurrection will be wonderful. I'll be able to see without my glasses, my stomach won't randomly attack the rest of my body, I might not have hairy feet? They aren't too bad, but sometimes in sandals they grab a hair or two. heh. Kinda painful. ANYWAY, remember how my stomach was killing the rest of my body? The elders next door made like 2 packs of bacon or something and I was like yeah, ok, might as well try it, my stomach is already dying, what's the worst that could happen? WELL, I'LL TELL YOU WHAT, I felt better for some reason. So, in conclusion, bacon is great for upset stomachs. Thank you for coming to my TED talk. These evaluations have not been evaluated by the FDA yet. So don't sue me if you don't get the same results. 

ON TO MONDAY. So we are into this week now. We went to a park called Tom Brown Park, played some killer frisbee golf, or disk golf. It was so fun. I have realized how bad I am at throwing a frisbee. But it's ok because there were others there who didn't really know how to either, so I fit in. We went to Jimmy John's after, and it was pretty cool. By the time I had filled up a water cup, they had my sandwich ready. That was freaky fast. We also learned today that we can wear blue shirts with or without a tie as well as white shirts with or without a tie. Interesting. We filmed a water balloon losing water, and it was kinda cool but our little $100 Samsung J7's and J3's and J5's just don't really do too good of a job haha. Oh well. 

On Tuesday we had a great district council. I was thinking about more people from Brazil and wondering how they are doing. We blew up balloons and drew faces on them and put them in the elders' washer and dryer. When they found them, they popped them and didn't think it was funny. It's literally a balloon, 1 balloon. We didn't turn the washer on, or the dryer on, we didn't break anything, and they thought it was stupid. Ok whatever. We had a wonderful lesson with that couple we met last week. We had a member there, and they bonded over literally everything and it was 100,000% inspired by God for them and us to talk to all at that time and they were so cool. 

Wednesday was fun. I went on another trade off with another reassigned missionary from Honduras. He told me a ton of stories, and it was so much fun. We made bacon, and the hood vent fan thing above the stove broke and was blowing the air and not sucking it. We turned it on the other setting and tried everything our 19-year-old minds could think of, but no, we ended up smoking out the whole apartment, haha. We had the door open and the windows open and were fanning the door. Nothing seemed to work. We made potatoes after because we had them. Mine was still hard after we pulled it out, so I just ate the cheese and bacon in it, heh. 

We are making progress: we're up to Thursday. We made hot dogs for lunch, and they were just not good at all. I tried shining my shoes, and I don't know if I just forgot how or what, but I did a really trash job and re-did it like 5 times. They are so brown they are basically black. We went to Target and bought pineapple juice and a Monster. I drank the pineapple juice, and my comp drank the Monster. I kinda feel like a lump of coal sometimes. The district or the elders that are over here talk about movies, video games, places they have been, experiences they had, and I'm like. Whut? You huh? What country is this in? It's in Salt Lake? What movie? When did it come out? Is this for the wii? No, I don't know how to play the ukulele, or the piano, or the trumpet, or the guitar, or the harmonica, or sing or do anything. No, I don't play soccer, rock climb, tennis, golf, literally anything. But do you play baseball? No? Ok. That's about how some conversations go haha. Then we burned a tie because it's a tradition for missionaries who hit 6 months. Strange. Brazil did no such thing. We made mashed potatoes. 

Ok now onto Friday. We were driving to Walmart, as you casually do, and we have heard about the Corona cases spiking, so we are driving, and then the next light, I stop, and the entire right lane is parked cars. The Corona testing building is about 1 mile down the road, and the cars snaked around into the other intersection. It was so bad. There had to be at least 75 cars there. If you think you have it, get tested. If you don't think you have it, probably stay home like you are supposed to do. It's hard. It sucks it's long, but probably stay home. Our grass hasn't been cut in 5 weeks, and there is a riding mower out back. I got it started and drove it around a bit, but the other elders told me to wait until Monday to mow the lawn. 

But as all good things must come to an end, we come into Saturday and Saturday brings people who mow the lawn. Bummer. That's ok. It was a literal forest. We kicked a soccer ball in the lawn last week and lost it. Then an elder ran it over with his car. Then later that day, the same elder told me that the back brakes in his truck back home didn't work and never did, so that's why he had to replace his tires so often. I tried arguing with him but got so confused I gave up, went inside, and then won the argument in my head. Kinda really useless. But I was very confused. Also today is transfer calls, so the mission president calls every missionary and tells them to stay or leave. We are staying, but about half our district and zone are leaving. I think I'm a little bummed about it because in Brazil I was like yeah ok whatever, see ya bye, but here I'm like dang he's leaving, that's kinda sad. I think it's because I can actually understand what people are saying, and I don't need to say I don't understand every 2 seconds. I sometimes do that though. heh. We bought stamps today and some milk. We saw a car that kinda describes the South: a Cadillac Escalade with tires the width of rubber bands, and the rims were gold and came up to my hips, so these things were HUGE, and get this, he had spinners so if you were stopped you could go up and spin his rims, but when he's driving, it looks like they don't spin. He had some rap playing loud, but nowhere near Brazil loud. It kinda sucks understanding all the trash music now. hahaha.  I went from "this song is so cool" in Brazil to "wow this song is trash" here. Now I know how my companions felt when they said I couldn't like that music because it was trash. We cleaned a member's shed out and they were like "oh it's so gross, I won't even go in there, and it's disgusting" and just making us feel really bad about it. Then we get there, and it was literally a shed you get from Home Depot that's like 4 feet wide and 6 feet deep. Cleaned it out in like 8 minutes. 

Which leads us into Sunday. We got some treats--Oreo balls and scotcharoos--and they were so good. I sent a letter in the mail today. It was also Father's Day, so happy Father's Day to all the people who are basically a father to me or I look at you like you are my dad. You probably don't know who you are, but that's ok. We will give the love to everyone! We walked around campus for the first time because the sister in YSA who actually has seen campus missionary work got transferred out, so we have no idea what we are doing. She told us where to set up booths and where not to because they just yell at you if you don't support abortion. College is wild, and I've never been. We went to a low country boil. This family had a 52-liter pot and cooked all sorts of stuff in it, then dumped it on a table after it was done. We prayed and ate what we wanted, had desert, and killed a few flies. I learned how to peel a shrimp. They taste different on the east coast. 

And now Monday. I am all caught up. Today has been long and weird. We drove to Barnes and Noble because my comp wanted to buy a deck of cards. They are kinda cool. Then we went to the Toyota dealership with the other elders and got an oil change. It takes 20 minutes, right? No. It takes an hour and a half when you go at lunch haha. So we got some other elders to pick us up, little squishy, but then we went to Guitar Center. My comp bought a harmonica, kinda cool. I don't even want to know how much the other elders spent, but I spent an extremely outrageous $0. Kinda crazy. We then went back to the dealership and got to the church at 1 when everyone else was there at like 11. We talked with the district, said bye to the missionaries leaving. We were messing around, came home, and now I'm here. I'll see if I can find some pictures for the last 2 weeks. 

Hope y'all have a blessed week and enjoy time with your family. Corona is an excuse to hang out with your cool family! (My comp also accidentally dented a car door.)