Week 7

Where to start? It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to write. First off, our Mission President doesn’t speak very much English, but my Spanish is improving very fast. Being out in the field beats the ccm [mtc].

My area is Allen, and my new companion/trainer is Elder Cardenas. He speaks probably 20 words in English, so it is very hard to communicate. He is from Ecuador and is pretty cool. I like him a lot, even though it’s hard to talk sometimes. I am learning a lot of Spanish, pero I don’t know what I’m doing half the time since I can’t speak it or understand it. I’m his last companion, then he is going home, so that’s cool.

First day in the field we went and had leccions with investigators and inactive members. I did the first vision to Dañel and then asked if he would prepare to be baptized on the 28 de Noviembre... he said si!  He lived in a very poor town named Ferri. It was so sad to see what these people are living with. The poorest people in America have more stuff than these guys have.

There are dogs literally everywhere. It’s crazy. I haven’t gotten bitten yet, but I’ve had a few dogs jump on me. My new shoes are great except for the blisters they mass produce. It’s a good thing I have duck tape. My little Toyota would fit in great here. It could probably pull more than a lot of the trucks here too. One weird thing here is that my allergies are gone, and it’s like twice as dirty and dusty as at home.

The food is great, a lot of new things. The only thing that could make it better is if there was pepper. They have plenty of salt though. I had some rice the other day that seemed like they boiled it in the ocean. The people here are really hard to understand. It’s like in English, but a redneck, but they are some of the nicest people. The drivers here are crazy. I still haven’t seen a wreck yet.

This week in Sacrament meeting I had to give a talk....in Spanish. I’m pretty sure I slaughtered it, my comp. was laughing. The Bishop’s kids were running all around and making all kinds of noise, and he was doing nothing about it. It was hard to feel the spirit in that meeting.

I traded American dollars for pesos with a member named Pedro something, but he likes to go by peter. So I prayed for him, and in the prayer he laughed. It was funny.

Also I can’t believe already I’ve had two threats. They are a lot more scary when you can’t completely understand them. One guy said something like I want to kill Joseph Smith. Another guy said something I couldn’t understand; but he didn’t look happy, and he put his hands in the shape of a gun and acted like he was shooting us. We just said “qué tal” and smiled and waved.

It’s hard for a gringo that doesn’t speak Spanish to live here. It’s hard to buy stuff and get simple things said and asked for. They say I should have the language down in a month.

It is Elder Cardenas´s birthday today so the hermanas in our area suprised him with a cake. It was a good surprise.

Love,
Elder Newman