WEEK 4 in Leon

Aloha, can I just say that they love Whitney Houston here, this week I heard at least every song that she has ever produced twice. In the Mercadona (Supermarket), in random, and spuratic concerts they have in the park we walk by everyday, in all of the members home's, just everywhere. I just wanted you to have some background just in case I accidentally type the lyrics for "I wanna dance with somebody". It's been in my head for like three days..

MONDAY:

Alright Alright Alright, (Matthew).. Well this week has been really awesome! Okay so on Monday, after I emailed, we went out and proselyted for a little while and visited our friend Maria Dolores, which is like the cutest name ever. She is our older friend, 79 years old. Any who, she came to church with us a few weeks back, but on the same day she lost her keys. So we went to talk to her, and she said that someone stole her keys, and then opened her door with them, but didn't take anything, and left the door open. So, she was pretty freaked out. After that we went to teach a lesson with our progressing amiga Paula. She is way cool, and is 18. In our lesson, she told us that she wants o get baptized, but she has to come to church first a few times.

TUESDAY:

So, on Tuesdays we teach an English class at like 7p.m. and then after that, at 8p.m. we have a Noche De Jas, which is like a youth night. So sometimes we have like 2 or 3 youth come, and other times we have none. So last night, we had like 8 youth come, so it was hopping. It was way fun, we played ping pong, and loco uno, which is just the regular card game "uno", but renamed loco uno. Oh also it rained so bad today, like I'm talking hurricane bad. Well we walked out of our piso, and it was  soooooooooo cold. So then we walked back up, and got coats, and sweaters, and tights on, and then went out again. So we were walking for like 20 minutes, and then it was a downpour. My companion brought a umbrella, but it was broken, so we ran to a chino (a store kind of like walmart, but all from china) and bought some umbrellas. The brand is Jani merkel, which according to our elders is the best umbrella that money can buy, so we scored on that one. It rained all day, and we were freezing but we got some numbers from people that we contacted, and it was really good. Also we bought a giant jug of Colacoa, which is the equivalent of swiss miss, but not sweet, and with no marshmallows.

WEDNESDAY:

SO on Wednesdays we have district meeting with our elder's. Elder O'boyle is our district leader, his companion is Elder corbridge, and then elder's preist, and gearig are our zoneleaders. SO we had our meeting, and then normally we got eat somewhere, but instead we went to the supermarket and bought some food, and just stayed in the capilla for medio-dia. We played uno, it got a little crazy. Oh, so we met this guy named tony in the street like a week ago, and were finally able to teach him. He is this English teacher from Nigeria, and he speaks not only English but Spanish, and Italian. So we were able to meet with him, and since it was raining, we just went to Burger king and had our lesson with him, in English because apparently they speak English in Nigeria. Who knew.. SO then we went buy our friend Sandra who owns like three stores here in Leon, and chatted with her for awhile. She told me that I have a Mexican accent, I was very flattered. Then out of nowhere she invited us to come and eat with her when she move's into her new piso. SO that was a crazy miracle because we (the missionaries) have been trying to meet with her for months, and then out of nowhere she wants us to come to her house, and then she is going to feed us.

THURSDAY:

Okay, so not much happened today, we went to visit our friend Hortensia, who is a gypsy, which I'm not sure is a race, or nationality, but she is the mom to the family who feeds us every Sunday night. She is the coolest. Oh and we contacted a few people from Bulgaria, and got their numbers also, which is way cool. There are some many diffrent kinds of people here, from all over.. Oh so When I get back from my mission, we are doing to "Camino de Santiago", which is this cool trail from France to somewhere in spain. We see a ton of people from america doing it, its way cool. SO we taught PAULA again, honestly we teach her all the time, and she will probably get baptized before the end of the year, but were trying to do it before my companion get's transferred, but she has already gone through 4 set's of missionaries so we ar hoping that 5th is the charm. It was raining all day today. 

FRIDAY:

So in our branch and in Leon, there are a ton of people who are from the Dominican Republic,  and Ecuador, and Bolivia, and from like very other south american country. We also have this family who feeds us like once a week who are from Peru, and the make the best food that i have ever had in my life. We dont get fed a lot here, but when we do it sure is delicious! So we met with our friend Fanny today who is a hoot. She is just super funny, and is also from the DR. So we were sitting in her kitchen, and then she left for a second, and when she came back she had her pet rat with her. She put it on the table in front of us, and I was loving it, if you called it, it came just like a dog! It was really soft too. Man oh man, my companion was so freaked out though, it was hilarious, she was on the verge of vomiting. Bless her heart. So after that we were ou contacting in the street, and we were walking through this park, and we saw this pandilla ( a group of friends) doing Parkour, and I died.. For those of you who dont know, Parkour is when you jump of random things and say parkour. So it was a fad like in 2007, and I just thought it was funny because it as just this group of adults who were like my same age doing parkour. Spain is like america but 15 years ago. Rollerblading, fanny packs, parkour, and Whitney houston. I seriously love it her more everyday. SO about 5 minutes after the parkour episode, we were walking, and I dont know if its like a law, but every person over the age of like 40 has a cane here, like a walking cane. So we saw this old man with his cane walking, and then he was hitting this pigeon with his cane. It was the craziest thing, and then he pinned it down, and i thought for sure that it would fly away, but then he picked it up!! and then put it in a tree. I am just inspired now, i am going to catch one, with my bare hands, because if he can, i can.

SATURDAY:

Well we met with tony again, and had an amazing lesson with him. He was asking us about getting baptized, it was crazy. And that was pretty awesome, because we teach him in English, and so i feel like i can just participate more. I mean when we teach in Spanish, i pretty much understand everything that they say, but i have a very limited vocabulary, and cannot always say what i want, so it is really a blessing to me to teach like one lesson a week in English with him, because then i just feel better, but my Spanish is definitely getting better every day, and i can thank my companion for that. She is seriously the most patience person that i have ever met. Then we went to Lesdy's house and she made us some Peruvian food, and it was the best thing i have eaten since i was born i think.

SUNDAY:

SO we went to church, and normally we go home right after church for medio-dia, and have the traditional Sunday pizza, but the cachuguays, which is our mission leaders family offered to drive us to his piso, and feed us lunch. It was awesome. And i found out that their last name was cachuguays, beaus here they just call you brother or sister, and then your first name, so we just call our mission leader pedro, or brother pedro. It's kind of cool. Oh and we visited Maria dolores again. I know your all worried, but she changed her lock, so no worries there.

Scripture study:

Mosiah 24: 14-16 (Patience)
John 17: 3 (Our purpose)
Romans 8: 16-18 (Our divine worth)
2 Nephi 31: 18-20 (The doctrine of christ)

THese are some scriptures that we shared in lessons this week, so take a look at them, they are pretty great.