´´Alright, Where´s the Lunch??´´

Carta Semanal:

My new nickname for our district (at least us 4 Elders) is ´´Distrito de Preguiça´´. The only one that wanted to leave the house to do something was me. Elder Santana and Elder Cerna just wanted to sit at home in their pajamas and watch films. I had initially wanted to go to the mall and walk around a little bit (which I know isn´t exactly something awesomely entertaining, but it beats sitting at home doing nothing) but we ended up staying at home after lunch at home when I turned to Elder Ramirez and said, ´´Alright, ready to go?´´. Out of nowhere, Elder Santana and Elder Cerna started snickedring a little,  giving back pats for Elder Ramirez, saying ´´Sorry, Elder Ramirez´´ and stuff like that. I asked them what was going on, and apparently Elder Ramirez just wanted to sit at home as well and had already told the others that´s what he wanted to do. Anyway, that kind of rubbed me wrong a little that Elder Ramirez didn´t want to just tell me and the fact that Pday is our one day to go out and about and do the things we want to do and they just wanted to do nothing and rest but hey, what can I do? Anyway, while everyone was sitting in the room lying down, I had grabbed a homemade bread recipe that day and made some rolls that turned out pretty simple, but good. Then I asked Elder Ramirez ´´so, do you really just want to stay home and rest? We can do what you want because I know we normally do what I want to do.´´ then he said we could go to the mall, but it really just appeared like he said that to appease me. We tried, but the bus took too long and there wouldn´t have been enough time. Anyway, that´s what we did last week. I also managed to order everything I need for Chimirrão, but it´s going to be another 2 weeks or so for it to arrive. I was happy though :)

Last week, we had lunch with a member named ´´Nilda´´. She´s a really awesome lady that´s married to a guy named ´´Rogerio´´ that´s already done some visits with us. Anyway, they love the missionaries and I love them too. That day we had lunch, Elder Cerna put on a video message for us to watch, we all testified, and closed with a prayer. Then Nilda wanted to add us on Facebook and also send a message to our mothers. PS, Mom, everybody say your profile picture and now nobody will let me live it down! hahaha.It was pretty funny. Apparently Elder Cerna likes a lot of goofy music to mess around with people (because he speaks English fluently), so him and I put on Rick Astley´s ´´Never gonna give you up´´ and started singing a long. Nilda, her boys (the ones that call me ´´vampiro´´) and her girls got a kick out of us singing a long and me dancing. Anyway, we had a little time to play around and she even gave a referral for us to teach her mom, even though she never really accepted the missionaries. I don´t think it will go over well, but who knows. Maybe we can plan a visit to teach her. 

I can´t think of much else that happened this week. The other day, the Elders once again wanted some pizza. They were all in except for me because I wanted to use some of my money to buy groceries that would last longer than just one dinner. Elder Santana and Elder Cerna started to joke around, use scriptures, and reasoning to have me contribute my mesada money to make our pizza cheaper but I stuck to my guns. It wasn´t until we had our leaving-home-to-our-lunch-appointment prayer that out of nowhere, Elder Santana said in the prayer really quickly ´´..e também que hoje a noite possa ter pizza (and also that tonight there can be pizza!)´´ that I muffled my laughter in the prayer, and bust a gut after he said amen and decided to contribute. I decided that anyone desperate enough to pray for pizza earns my share. They ended up just paying for it and I didn´t have to give any money actually but anyway that was a pretty funny story.

Elder Cerna and I have been joking one with another in English here and there. What I like to do, is when we´re waiting in a lunch appointment for the members to bring everything, I like to just randomly yell out jokingly really fast in the silence when everyone is quiet ´´Alright, where´s the lunch??´´ much to the laughter of Elder Cerna. Then after we eat, talk some more with the members and thank them and leave a scripture thought, I like to say in a slightly-annoyed but joking tone, ´´Alright, no more messing around. Where´s the dessert??´´ I don´t actually say it seriously and it doesn´t cause any problems with the members or anybody, but it is pretty funny.

Yesterday, we ended up cutting Edson for some time. He hasn´t really been fulfilling his part in us helping him, so we decided it would be best to try and find others. When we showed up yesterday to take him to church (keep in mind, that would´ve been the 3rd time him going, already familiar with the church schedule), we had woken up early to take him to the bus stop, showing up at 7:50 (the bus leaves at 8:40sh). we show up, there´s a radio playing somewhat loudly but not loudly enough to block out everything. We knock, knock, bang, and we´re yelling his name, but nothing. His gate was actually open, so we walked in, but we didn´t see anyone. His excuse later that day was that he didn´t hear us, but there was no way he couldn´t have heard us. So yeah, it´s been a bit of a disappointing week with respect to our goals and numbers, but I´ve improved to not let that kind of stuff beat me up because this week, I know what I need to do to improve and I feel like I worked my best last week. I´ve learned a ton this week, and I feel myself becoming a better and more responsable person each week. But of course I have a lot to learn.

Love you guys a LOT and as always, I thank everyone for the support!