Hola!
Time for the weekly update I suppose! They call this week 3 here so I feel like I am halfway even though it has been only 2..
I always have a hard time organizing my thoughts so I´ll do my best here.
Some funny stories from the week.
The fourth of July was awesome! Everybody dressed up in all red, white and blue and some people taped american flags underneath their nametags. They treated us well with bacon burgers, pie and ice cream. (God bless America). The funniest part was at lunch though. A group of elders put up a mini american flag on top of the drink machine and started singing the star spangled banner. After a minute more people joined and by the end all the white kids in the CCM were standing, singing and saluting :´) so funny!
The elders in my casa took it one step further and upgraded to Fort of July. They all took their mattresses and built a fort in a room and slept in it. Way funny. I took the liberty of sleeping across the hall because I regard sleep as sacred here.
Spanish Flops
The best spanish flop was from another elder. He explained he was trying to tell his investigator during the lesson that when people die they go to the spirit world, and don´t immediately end up with God or the Virgin Mary or things like that. What he ended up saying though was that the investigator's mother and the Virgin Mary were both in Hell...pretty hilarious.
Another funny spanish flop was from the same elder (he struggles). He said he was explaining principles of prayer and started with primero, segundo, tricero. He meant tercero (third). He ended up saying first, second, butt. Too funny.
CCM is slightly more stressful than I expected. We have to teach Spanish lessons almost everyday and they´re pretty tough still. Most of the language I have learned by myself, in class we focus more on gospel aspects, which is great, but I have to learn the grammar on my own as of right now. The language is still really hard because I want to express myself but I can´t! Oh well, everyday I learn something new and get better. I just have to be patient. All in the Lord's time. I am super pumped to go to the field.
My saving grace is gym time in the mornings. I have never been so constantly sore in my life, but it is good because we eat like elephants here. I am not super competitive, or great at soccer, but it is fun to play soccer with some of the Elders and randomly pull a move and juke them out of their pants. Good times, but the no shin guards have led to some bloody legs and painful aches.
The hermanas in my district are going to Veracruz and Tiahuana on their missions. Elder Conley and I have met one other sister going to Missouri with us and Elder Bagley as well. He is a really nice guy as well, but so far that is all I know of. My maestro was telling us that he taught a group of missionaries in the last go round that had some going to spanish speaking U.S. missions. He said they had latino companions and were in all spanish branches. So I guess I will just have to wait and see!
Speaking of our maestros, I love them! Oh my goodness they are great! The one in the morning is always overly enthusiastic and very clumsy. She is way funny. Then we have 2 in the afternoon. The girl is very chill and fun to talk to. We try to teach each other slang in spanish and english. We taught her to say noobs and her little accent makes it sound like newbs. Then the guy teacher is just wack. He always does weird stuff. For example he will only shake your hand if you make a lego hand and then touch just the fingers. SPEAKING of which! We had a pronounciation class and he taught me how to say my name properly. So it is Elder (no change just in accent), and then Regis. roll the r, and then say "a." Then say the "g" like a french man. So the shz kind of sound. Followed by "e" and then s. Rrayszhees. Sorry if that was impossible to follow but it was like a new revelation to me. They know english surprisingly well but we still have to help them out at times.
Thank you for the travel money too. I have exchanged it all to pesos and have been hitting up La Tienda mucho. I bought some really cool scripture cases for my Spanish set and a notebook for lesson prep. I will send pictures next week. The Mexican candy is a little odd, but Bueno Bars are really good I hear. They also have delicious dairy products. There are these liquid yogurt drinks, and I have developed a secret combination (much like the Gadianton robbers) in how to mix the mango, banana and strawberry.
The mosquitos have been under control (thanks to yours truly) so bites have not been bad at all. The thing that is even more annoying is LOS PAJAROS. The birds! They are really beautiful here, lots of vibrant red, green, and black colors, but they are so loud!! I swear they just like to sit in the giant palm trees and scream.They sound like screams or mad laughter. The funniest thing about it though, is there is this one bird. I am not sure which one, but every morning makes 3 distinct noises. Do you remember the song She´s Got Me Dancing from Just Dance? Go listen to it. The bird makes the exact first 3 notes of that song and it has been stuck in my head every single day so far. Driving me nuts, but at least it isn´t a bad song.
There is also a train conductor that loves to lay on the horn at 4 am. EVERY DAY. I can understand a little toot toot but it´s like this guy passes out on the horn and blasts it for a minute straight.
Oh that reminds me.
There is a myth that has been circling around here. It is called The Corn Man.
This guy has a megaphone and yells into at random parts of the day (it is true I have heard it). Apparently this guy sells corn. Rumor has it if you go to the barbed wire walls you can purchase corn from him for a few pesos and do a little exchange through the fence. I will update you if anything new occurs.
Spiritual thought
Dia de Reposo. Sabath day. I love it. It truly means day of rest here. I love taking the sacrament here and listening to all the devotionals and speakers. I was able to bless the bread in Spanish on Sunday which was really cool. & I hooked up everyone up with fat pieces because it was fast Sunday. Honestly though, I just want to encourage everybody that remember that it is a sacred day to worship the lord and be with our families. Don´t let it loose its value. It is a special day!
Mucho Amor,
Elder Regis...Rrayszhees...caulquier
Time for the weekly update I suppose! They call this week 3 here so I feel like I am halfway even though it has been only 2..
I always have a hard time organizing my thoughts so I´ll do my best here.
Some funny stories from the week.
The fourth of July was awesome! Everybody dressed up in all red, white and blue and some people taped american flags underneath their nametags. They treated us well with bacon burgers, pie and ice cream. (God bless America). The funniest part was at lunch though. A group of elders put up a mini american flag on top of the drink machine and started singing the star spangled banner. After a minute more people joined and by the end all the white kids in the CCM were standing, singing and saluting :´) so funny!
The elders in my casa took it one step further and upgraded to Fort of July. They all took their mattresses and built a fort in a room and slept in it. Way funny. I took the liberty of sleeping across the hall because I regard sleep as sacred here.
Spanish Flops
The best spanish flop was from another elder. He explained he was trying to tell his investigator during the lesson that when people die they go to the spirit world, and don´t immediately end up with God or the Virgin Mary or things like that. What he ended up saying though was that the investigator's mother and the Virgin Mary were both in Hell...pretty hilarious.
Another funny spanish flop was from the same elder (he struggles). He said he was explaining principles of prayer and started with primero, segundo, tricero. He meant tercero (third). He ended up saying first, second, butt. Too funny.
CCM is slightly more stressful than I expected. We have to teach Spanish lessons almost everyday and they´re pretty tough still. Most of the language I have learned by myself, in class we focus more on gospel aspects, which is great, but I have to learn the grammar on my own as of right now. The language is still really hard because I want to express myself but I can´t! Oh well, everyday I learn something new and get better. I just have to be patient. All in the Lord's time. I am super pumped to go to the field.
My saving grace is gym time in the mornings. I have never been so constantly sore in my life, but it is good because we eat like elephants here. I am not super competitive, or great at soccer, but it is fun to play soccer with some of the Elders and randomly pull a move and juke them out of their pants. Good times, but the no shin guards have led to some bloody legs and painful aches.
The hermanas in my district are going to Veracruz and Tiahuana on their missions. Elder Conley and I have met one other sister going to Missouri with us and Elder Bagley as well. He is a really nice guy as well, but so far that is all I know of. My maestro was telling us that he taught a group of missionaries in the last go round that had some going to spanish speaking U.S. missions. He said they had latino companions and were in all spanish branches. So I guess I will just have to wait and see!
Speaking of our maestros, I love them! Oh my goodness they are great! The one in the morning is always overly enthusiastic and very clumsy. She is way funny. Then we have 2 in the afternoon. The girl is very chill and fun to talk to. We try to teach each other slang in spanish and english. We taught her to say noobs and her little accent makes it sound like newbs. Then the guy teacher is just wack. He always does weird stuff. For example he will only shake your hand if you make a lego hand and then touch just the fingers. SPEAKING of which! We had a pronounciation class and he taught me how to say my name properly. So it is Elder (no change just in accent), and then Regis. roll the r, and then say "a." Then say the "g" like a french man. So the shz kind of sound. Followed by "e" and then s. Rrayszhees. Sorry if that was impossible to follow but it was like a new revelation to me. They know english surprisingly well but we still have to help them out at times.
Thank you for the travel money too. I have exchanged it all to pesos and have been hitting up La Tienda mucho. I bought some really cool scripture cases for my Spanish set and a notebook for lesson prep. I will send pictures next week. The Mexican candy is a little odd, but Bueno Bars are really good I hear. They also have delicious dairy products. There are these liquid yogurt drinks, and I have developed a secret combination (much like the Gadianton robbers) in how to mix the mango, banana and strawberry.
The mosquitos have been under control (thanks to yours truly) so bites have not been bad at all. The thing that is even more annoying is LOS PAJAROS. The birds! They are really beautiful here, lots of vibrant red, green, and black colors, but they are so loud!! I swear they just like to sit in the giant palm trees and scream.They sound like screams or mad laughter. The funniest thing about it though, is there is this one bird. I am not sure which one, but every morning makes 3 distinct noises. Do you remember the song She´s Got Me Dancing from Just Dance? Go listen to it. The bird makes the exact first 3 notes of that song and it has been stuck in my head every single day so far. Driving me nuts, but at least it isn´t a bad song.
There is also a train conductor that loves to lay on the horn at 4 am. EVERY DAY. I can understand a little toot toot but it´s like this guy passes out on the horn and blasts it for a minute straight.
Oh that reminds me.
There is a myth that has been circling around here. It is called The Corn Man.
This guy has a megaphone and yells into at random parts of the day (it is true I have heard it). Apparently this guy sells corn. Rumor has it if you go to the barbed wire walls you can purchase corn from him for a few pesos and do a little exchange through the fence. I will update you if anything new occurs.
Spiritual thought
Dia de Reposo. Sabath day. I love it. It truly means day of rest here. I love taking the sacrament here and listening to all the devotionals and speakers. I was able to bless the bread in Spanish on Sunday which was really cool. & I hooked up everyone up with fat pieces because it was fast Sunday. Honestly though, I just want to encourage everybody that remember that it is a sacred day to worship the lord and be with our families. Don´t let it loose its value. It is a special day!
Mucho Amor,
Elder Regis...Rrayszhees...caulquier