Monday, August 25, 2014

New Companion



Okay, 

Mi compañero! 

Elder Vazquez. from Cancún! 

Imagine how our first conversation went.

"Hey how's it going!"
"fine fine "
"Where are you from?"
"Cancun "
"what....  you mean the place with the pyramids and the really clear water?"
"Yep."
"... So can you like hook me up with a cheap vacation. "
"no for the gueros (white people) everything's like twice as much. Unless you have a license that says your from Cancun. "
":´("

But hey, free housing :p 

He's a good kid though. He works hard. We teach well together. It's a change, but it's not a bad change 

So what else happened this week. 

Our numbers are the lowest they've ever been in all my mission, for lessons.
But, we're finding people, and actually we have a baptism of a little girl this next week. 

As far as scary mexico stuff. 

This hermana told us this guy offered 3k pesos to her maid for the key to her house. 

Her maid replied "no"
The guy replied "You're going to pay for this"

The other night we were writing in our journals all tranquillo when we hear a sound outside. 

My comp says "you know what that is?" 
"nope."
"gunshots." 
"oh." 

Don't worry I'll be safe and not go where all the cholos are at night. 

In other news we got a call from our dueña the other day and she was like hey, " It turns out it's a secret that I'm renting the house to you guys so you need to make it look like no one lives there by Tuesday when the judge comes to inspect it, and then Tuesday night you can move all your stuff back in."

Que bueno. Love you guys. I'll talk to you soon. bye! 

Elder Arvanitas


Monday, August 18, 2014

Worst Activity and more changes

I think I took up a lot of time by sending loads of pictures of his cousins wedding.  I think he's also been really busy today and didn't have a lot of time to write.  




I'm probably just gonna send pictures but this is what happened this week. 

The worst activity ever 

We thought it would be fun to have an activity... (there was the first mistake..) 

So we planned everything to start at 5, turns out the other ward had a baptism at 5 with an 80 year old lady that lasted more than an hour and a half!... (Gracias Vergel)

We ended up starting at 6 in a different room with 13 people in hopes that more would show up later on.. Nope, must of forgotten we're in Celaya. Those were the only people that came out of our ward of 135 people.. 

But that's okay. 

That was the highlight of my week. 

As far as changes go, Elder Florez, Percino (my comp), Santiago, and Hermana Green are leaving. 

Elder Galdamez comes (love this kid, he was with me in San Juan, his house is like the "promised land" with waterfalls and toucans and stuff) 

And I'm going to go train tomorrow (have to wake up at like 5:50 :(  ) and as District Leader. (Nick's nonchalant way of telling us that he's being made District Leader and I think he's training.  It's not very clear. )

So well see how that goes, 

Love you guys 

Arvanitas

Elder Florez playing some pool

Elder Florez in the zone

I'm guessing this is the activity that didn't really work out. ha ha   Nick looks thrilled. 


This is a mold for a "Lion King" mask.  I think it's Thimon. 

Monday, August 11, 2014

Drugs and Laundry

Okay so this week, 

Yeah things are getting better, I think. Besides the fact that we reported 1 person in teaching. There are some days where we plan and I literally have no idea what to do. But were gonna work on that this week. 

So just a few random things......

People on Drugs: 

I'm pretty sure its illegal to be drunk or on drugs in public here but the police, in general, don't do anything. (and if they do, you just bribe them 200 pesos (like 16$) and they don't do anything) 

Anyway, so we see like the same 5 everyday. There's the guy in his window that lives on Cerro Prieto that always yells broken English at me asking me for a bible. 

There's the bike guy that once went to the states until he got picked up and shipped back down here for being illegal. 

And like the same three that follow us around every time we walk through Ejidal. They walk past us, turn around and stare at us for about a minute, then start following us. But we just walk fast (who said the turtle always beats the hare?) 

How I washed my clothes today 

So first you have to separate all of the whites and the darks, that's pretty normal. 

Then you fill this washer that's upright with water from the hose and soap and throw all the clothes in. 

It spins around for like 20 mins. 

In that time you fill up 2 really large tubs full of water. 

When the clothes are done, you take them out one by one and squeeze them to drain the soap water.  Then, throw them in the regular tub of water. Then one by one you have to take them out of the regular water, squeeze them again, and throw them into a spiny thing to get rid of excess water. 

(I'm not sure the real name, just that it spins really fast for 3 mins) 

Then you take your clothes out of that (it takes like 4 loads) and hang them up on a clothes line. It takes about an hour and a half, but it's fun 


And as far as other experiences. 

Randomly showed up at this lady's house that was contemplating suicide, so we're working with her :) 

Gave a talk in church (I give one once a month) about how God always sees us for our potential and not who we are in this moment.

This lady took us out for tacos de Sirloin steak. 

F........, 22 year old that had a bunch of doubts is a lot better and we're working with him again. 

Bought some more sock ties. 

Went to a Comic restaurant for the birthday of my companion. 

And that's it! 

Elder Arvanitas

Monday, August 4, 2014

Almost my year mark

Well another week of walking all over just to have all our appointments fall through.   :p (not to be a downer or anything...)

This area's just been hard lately. (It wouldn't be fun if it was easy though)

This week I was thinking about all the missionaries in the United States with their cars and ipads and everything. Every time they go to a place and no one is there, it must be like "Dang, now we have to get back into our air conditioned cars and drive another 5 minutes..." 

Meanwhile for us, it means walking for another 20 mins in the sun, kicking rocks, bottle caps, used limes,and trash along the dirt streets whenever you're bored.. 

But I guess every where you go has its own difficulties. 

Lets see, this week, here are our 5 investigators, 

F........, he's about 21. About 6 years ago, he was diagnosed with kidney failure, and also some rare blood disease where he has huge bulges coming out of his arm. Last week he called us after he got back from the hospital and told us that he's going to die soon and wants to be baptized. We had it planned for this week but he's not ready, so we're working with him. Only that is hard cause every time we go, he's sleeping because he doesn't feel well. 

A....... and her daughter. Shes this really old grandma that lives in this really ghetto part of our area, and doesn't have enough money for a door for her house. It's just a big wooden plank in front. I guess it works though. We're teaching her, it's just the fact she's never home when we go. And she lives in the middle of nowhere... 

G........, she's just this lady that sells ice cream on the side of the street that we talk to. We'll probably have to drop her this week cause she only views us as friends and prospects for her daughter. (One of the most awkward conversations I've had here in my mission..)

But a miracle happened this week. We've had this one guy that's gone to church for about 6 months now, but refuses to get baptized because he was once a pastor  for the Cristiano church and he's just really prideful about all of his knowledge. But, out of nowhere he called us and was like "I've decided it's time."  It was special. 

Really what I've learned out here in Celaya is, if we just do what we're supposed to do, and be patient and believe that something will happen... 1 of 2 things will happen. 

1. Nothing, but you just have to take it as a learning experience and learn to be more patient. You'll know you've done your part because you'll feel content with yourself. 

or 

2. Something and it just motivates you to be even better. 

I don't know. I feel like with having been out a year and everything, this has definitely been the most important year of my life. I feel like I've changed so much. 

I don't regret anything. I love it here. Everything about it. (except for when you hear about people being assaulted with knifes, and there's the fact that every day the newspaper comes out with more dead people being found somewhere near me ;p that's not always awesome) 

But I've come to realize that I know that there is no place better that I could be in all the world, that to be here in Celaya, in this moment,  in Querétaro and Guanajuato for these 2 years....... 

it's just special.

Con mucho Amor, 

Elder Arvanitas