December 29, 2014

well, its me again,

i would like to start by saying one thing, salmonella is great, you should all try it. sure it makes you want to die while you have it, and also after when you cant eat anything, but after that... you get superpowers. 

superpower 1: i can eat all the food in the world. Before i was sick elder velazco would always tell me that i needed to eat more. well, as soon as i got better, i can eat like twice as much as he can, and like 10 minutes later im ready for round 2.

superpower 2: picante no longer exists. before i was sick, i liked spicy things, but there was still a point where it was too much. now i can eat all the spicy things i want. people will tell me to be carefull because things are really hot, elder velazco even said that he cant eat valentina because its too hot... i eat it straight on bread and its nothing.

superpower 3: ...ok there is no more, but hey, its not like i was bitten by a radioactive spider or anything, you cant expect too much.

but yeah, other than that this week was actually pretty crazy. we spent a lot of time monday and tuesday preparing for a branch activity we had in a random street. we watched el es la dadiva and another christmas mormon message, had a few messages, and sang some christmas hymns that we prepared (ok in all honesty the hymns were musical apostasy, but i dont think anyone here knows the difference, so we´re good) all in all it was a good activity. though i will say that my favorite part was setting up. you know how in the states nobody lets you ride in the back of their truck because its dangerous and its a church activity and they´re responsible for you and all that junk? yeah thats not a thing here. its more like, "hey, lets load some chairs and tables and a white board in the back of a truck, then throw like 5 people in there and drive around!" ... i like traffic laws here better.

After the activity, riding in the back of a truck

then wednesday and thursday we were celebrating christmas. the 24th is the big day here, but during both we mostly just ate a lot, which made me (and my stomach) happy. we did a lot of eating this week. monday i discovered panaderias (bakeries) where they sell freshly made food of the gods (bread) for like 3 pesos... thats like 20 cents. mom, you told me not to celebrate christmas with just a sandwich, dont worry, i celebrated with a bowl of trix (im still mad at those stupid kids in the trix commercials "silly rabbit, trix are for kids." let me ask you a question, when is the last time you have seen a kid eating trix? thats right never. kids, trix are for adults and rabbits, go home) haha but i had more as well, we got to go watch frozen (in spanish =( ) as a zone at the church and we all brought snacks, so i was well fed. ( i forgot that watching frozen is a dangerous thing to do, i still have the music stuck inside my head)

Our Christmas Tree-We got it when a donkey dropped it.

but yeah, the 24th was definitely the more interesting of the two days (besides the whole talking to family stuff) it started out really interesting really early. i woke up in the morning with a light in my face (the flashlight on elder v phone) and him asking, "elder, esta bien? como se siente?" "...bien" i thought that i had overslept or something, but i looked at the clock and it was 1 in the morning. then without another word he just went back to sleep, but he left the light on, lying on his bed, shining right in my face. i waited like 3 minutes, but it didnt turn off, so i went and shoved it under his pillow. needless to say i was very confused. i found out the next morning that i had been talking in my sleep in english, and he was tired and confused, so that was what happened.

other than that, we just did the normal stuff, teach people, contact people, kill goats. yup, we killed a goat this week on christmas eve. went to visit a member and there was a goat tied to a post, he went over to it and brought it over to us. i though, "oh, he’s showing us his goat." than we started tying up its legs and i though, "oh, i guess we are murdering his goat." so we killed it, skinned it and chopped it into cuts that he would sell to people. in all honesty i wasn't sure that my stomach would feel great with it, but it was fine, it was actually kinda cool (and i mean that in an interesting kinda way, not in an im a sociopath that enjoys killing things kinda way) it was almost disturbingly casual. there was a half skinned goat hanging from a tree, its stomach hanging from another, and we were just sitting around eating cookies and drinking soda.

then this saturday president came down for interviews. they went fine, mine was pretty short, and afterwards he said he wanted to have a zone meeting on sunday. we were all scared because we though he would iron us out, but he was in a pretty good mood, didnt say anything negative, and told us that he wanted to go up to a hill and dedicate this land. i didnt even know that was a thing. but this morning, we all went and had an awesome breakfast with him and then we all went up to a mountain, and he dedicated the land that the people would be able to receive the spirit and the gospel. it was a really unique experience.

where we dedicated matehuala 

yeah, thats my week, this one should be normal though (until the new year) family, you may have already heard some of that, but i dont remember what and i want a written record of it anyways. but anyways, im doing well, take care, do good stuff.

elder gandola