(In case you are wondering, that is not a formal greeting.)
Umm.... wow. Four weeks here in the CCM. Time really flies. Exactly four weeks ago, I was on the miserable plane ride from Atlanta to Buenos Aires. (I say miserable because it was impossible to sleep, my neck was rubbed raw from my new shirt collar, and all the non-missionaries on the plane had screens in front of their seats that they could watch any movie they wanted on. Oh yeah, and it was like 13 hours!) Anyways, I'm super pumped though, because that means Elder Jones is on his way here right now! I can´t wait to see him and finally be able to talk to someone I know!
By the way, my mission scripture is Alma 26:27 -- if that's the one about "our hearts were depressed... the Lord comforted us.... If ye endure your trials well, I will give unto you success."
I had a second to skim the emails from all y'all when I was copying them to print off and -- wow. Haley is going to Vanuatu?! Before I left, I joked with her about going to Philippines -- sorry, my spelling skills are slowly unraveling here in the South America (yes, I meant to say it like that) and she said "No way!" So... yeah, She´ll probably have even more interesting stories to tell than I will.
This week... Was Nuts. Last week, I had "the computer scare" where I almost got in trouble because of complicated computer things that took the internet browser history from my home computer (in America) and put it on a computer here. If that doesn't sound familiar, read last week's email. Entonces, this week, I had a new scare: "The meat scare." It's a pretty embarrassing story... But it was significant, so I have to share it. Well, I've talked before about how much meat we get here, right? Have I mentioned that it is VERY fatty? Well it is. So anyways, last week, either Friday or Saturday, I put a chunk of (fatty) meat in my mouth and, uncomfortable with the texture, endeavored to swallow it without sufficiently chewing... Yeah, bad idea. I didn't notice anything was wrong at first. Then, when I tried to swallow more food, it wouldn't go down. Thinking some juice would solve the problem, I took a large gulp. Nope. Now I had a piece of fat meat and some other food and a bunch of juice stuck in my "food tube" (I forget the anatomical name). I did what the emergency required: to run. So I ran to the staff bathroom and, long story short, my "food tube" was cleaned out. But not completely. The piece of meat was still stuck! So, long story short (again), Elder Fullmer and I ran to Hermana Willis (but she calls herself "Her Mama Willis" cause she's cool) for medical assistance and her advice -- no, demand -- was for Elder Fullmer and I to shut ourselves in our room until things sorted themselves out. We had to miss class and stuff, but it was actually really great because Elder Fullmer and I got to talk and get to know each other better. Personal moral of the story, though? Eat less meat and chew it more.
Another cool thing I've had the opportunity to do here is play piano. I´ve played for sacrament a few times, and Her Mama Willis has had me play at two firesides. (That was scary because it was a random song that I had to practice right beforehand and it was in front of all the districts -- Latino and American.) But yeah, I thought my mommy would like to know that I am putting my skills to good use and I actually have chances to practice piano down here!
Umm.... yeah. That's pretty much this week, but I'll go into the emergency reserves (because this email isn't long enough yet). All the old Americans left Tuesday morning at, like, four. Now we are the top dogs. Today, (about) 36 new Americans are coming! That's a ton. My flight group only had 15 originally. So the CCM is going to be filled to near-maximum occupancy (about ninety, for those of you who are wondering) for the final two weeks of my stay here. Yup.
We (our district) also had some pretty radical changes this past week. We were combined with the other American district that got here at the same time as we did. So now we're a huge monster district with either 11 or 13 people. (I'm too lazy to count.) That's great and all, but it's also tragic because our night teacher got reassigned to a new Latino district. (We have a morning teacher, Hna. Rios, and a night teacher). Our night teacher used to be Hno. Gomez, but now we have the other district's night teacher... Hermana... I forget her name. But she's more strict and that makes me sad.
One last thing: Jesus the Christ is very possibly the greatest book ever (excluding canonized scripture, of course). I've been reading it a ton during free time and personal study and -- wow. I feel like I'm really starting to understand who Jesus Christ really is. The author of the book (James E. Talmage) summarizes and expounds upon all the Biblical stories in such a way that they make so much more sense than they ever have before! It is Awesome. I highly recommend it.
Oh yeah -- and proselitismo was great this week! Elder Fullmer and I changed our approach from contacting everyone to just trying to have conversations with people. We had WAAAY less contacts and references, but we had some great conversations and even got invited into a house. So that was cool.
I love you all! If you have any questions or can think of anything you need me to do to improve the quality of my emails, let me know!
Love,
Elder Fairbanks
A few photos that fellow American missionary (Elder Bowen) took a few weeks ago:
 |
| This is where Dallin has been living for the past four weeks. He has less than two to go! |
 |
| A view of the CCM yard from the missionaries' 3rd story living quarters. |
No comments:
Post a Comment