Monday, May 25, 2015

Short and Sick

Nick wrote late tonight and I don't think he had any time at all.  I don't think he's feeling well still.  


Hey so this week... A whole lot of nothing. I got sick on Thursday. But like with everything, I woke up after sleeping like 3 hours and my eye was all red. My lungs and throat hurt, and I had a fever. (not to mention all the mouth sores I had from eating jellybeans... It's been awhile)(I guess it means he got his packages) I think it's the worst I have been in all my mission. But after talking with two doctors and having eye drops, an inhaler, throat spray, and ibuprofen, I'm getting better. I figured I had to get sick at least one more time before I go home. But while I was walking to buy medicine, with my eyes closed for the sun, we passed like four old ladies sitting on the side of the road, with their cups begging for money, and I felt, well lucky. Blessed. Because they have to get sick, being outside all day, but they'll never be able to afford medicine or anything like that.

Other than that we're going to have a baptism this week of a guy that has been going to church for almost a year. He was just waiting for a an interview with our Presidente. 

Sorry my letters way short. I'll write a better one next time. 

Love you guys see you soon. 

Nick

Monday, May 18, 2015

Theory of Broken Windows

Okay, 

Not much to write about this week. We didn't have a lot of work, but we managed to find more people to teach. (We started with 1, now we have 5) 

Not going to lie, I'm gettin' pretty tired of writing these letters every single week. It starts to become monotonous.. 

What else, 

This week we started to change completely the way we teach people. Instead of solving people's questions, and talking with them using examples and everything, we started using more questions. 

To explain this simpler.. before, people would come to us with questions and doubts and we would  just answer everything. But now, when that happens, we just ask them deeper more personal questions, that require answers from inward thinking and meditation.

The only problem is that... no one thinks... 

Nah, I'm just kidding. They always start talking right after though, and then the lesson gets lost. We're working on it.

I stepped in mud. No fun. (He just got new shoes too.  Boo.)

It rained some. 

We talked about the theory of the broken windows with our President. Basically,it's a study that they did with two cars (1 in the Bronx, the other in Palo Alto, California) 

Needless to say the one in the Bronx was destroyed and robbed in hours, while nothing happened to the one in California. 

HOWEVER, when the psychologists broke 1 window of the car in California, in a matter of hours, it was robbed and destroyed. 

The point was that when someone sees a broken window, it makes the object look abandoned, not taken care of, useless- 

He invited us to take a look at our own lives, and own houses. To ask ourselves if we have broken windows. 

We cleaned our apartment that day. I was clean and organized before, at least in the mission eh, but I decided to be better and make a change.

No pictures, I'll get it fixed soon enough. 

Bye love you guys!'

Arvanitas

Monday, May 4, 2015

Busy Day

No pictures again from Nick.  He's still having trouble with his camera.  Hopefully, he can send some this next week.  In the area he is in, the Mission President plays soccer with them every p-day.  Today was his first p-day with the President.  I think he's going to feel the effects of playing soccer tomorrow.  


Long story short, I've been soo busy today... .We tried to do too many things at once. 

Every Sunday night we stay at the assistants house and just sit and watch them take numbers and talk to people from 9-10:50. Then we go to bed at like 11:30. Get up at 6:30 the next morning to go play football (soccer) with President at 8 am. 

We played until, 2... I'm pretty burned... and everything hurts. 

Then we went to Antea again (the largest mall in South America).. found some dope ties, bought another shirt, ate subway... typical mall stuff. Then we took a taxi and we barely got back to write a little. 

Oh, about the phone call, I'm gonna call you guys next Monday, at like 6:30 pm

About the shoes, I decided to buy new ones. The assistants are going to Leon today so I'm sending them with money to buy nice leather ones for cheap, cheap, cheap. 

As far as my area goes... It's so hard, but it's gettin' there. We have 2 parts. 

1.Centro (downtown)... all it is is stuck up rich people that really don't want anything at all. But we talk to them anyway in hopes that someone will accept, when after a 20 min talk they're like "nahh, I just wanted to ask things"
Also it's kinda hard to pay attention when there are group protests/advertisements for the election of the new Governor of Queretaro. Also the fact there are break dancers all over, and (once again) transvestites. Nothing like having a 30 year old man dressed up in a short mini skirt whisper "hey little white boy" to you... 

Nothing like america. 

2. Hercules. The ghetto. It has sweet graffiti all over though. But for the most part, it's a ghost town.. no one really wants anything. But we're gonna keep trying.

Umm in other news. Our ward has like 180 people that attend it. I haven't seen one so big in my entire mission. I got to share my testimony this week though.. Only the fact that everyone went over and when it was my turn it was 20 mins past the hour.

But in the 30 sec I had I shared my simple testimony about how the gospel has given me everything. And how I know I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for my mom and my dad who taught me good things as a little kid. 

It's true. Thanks for everything really, I'm excited to see you guys next Monday. See you soon.,

Arvanitas

PS  Oh... also happy birthday dad, what are you 50 now? See you Monday!