Hello again to all my friends, I´m glad you came to play. Our fun and learning never ends, here's what we did today! ( 10 mental pesos to whoever knows where that magical quote is from).
Anyway, back when I was just a wee little baby being trained on the mission, I developed the saying that would eventually one day become the title of today's blog. It all started when I must have had a rough day followed directly by another. It got so I would just look at Hermana Brown, pull a dramatic face and intone, "it's going to be one of THOSE days..."
And when you have a day here, you have a day. And Hermana Lund and I have made it up to a week. For many of the appointments we made while contacting door to door, we saw no results because, well, the people weren't in their houses, and I think Newton had some physics law about the improbability of teaching to a personless house. People might think we are crazy than we actually are. But I think I realized the reason too late: this is Friday the 13th week, and not even realizing it, I made the fateful error of buying an umbrella that day. What's more, the lady who rung it up for me opened it (indoors!) to make sure it worked and was to my liking. Well, that very day, the button to open it got stuck, and I couldn't close it. Fastf forward to Sunday, and I lost it somewhere on the Boulevard of Broken Dreams, a.k.a. SantoMe. I really hope I see someone from around town using it and enjoying it. Somebody should be. And yes, to all of you who want to mock the idea of using an umbrella to block the sun, I'll ask you to revisit your opinion after you've been in Azua for a couple days and the sun is beating down on you like the cop in the middle of a drug bust.
Another wonderful experience I had in this (evil) weak week actually started at the beginning of it, last Monday. Hermana Lund and I were at the house of the Young Women's president learning how to make arepa (a tasty Dominican cake of sorts), when we get a call from the notorious Hermana Silverio, our Dominican roommate. It turns out her mini missionary was going to live up to her name better than expected, and was only staying for 3 weeks. She´s starting school, or something like that. Which meant instead of enjoying the rest of my pday stuffing my face with fatty cakes, I got to lug this Hermanas luggage 2 miles up the busiest street in this part of Azua to where the bus station is. And then we got to wait for close to an hour hailing down buses headed to Barhona, where she´s from because due to the holiday (Dia de los Reyes), a lot of places were closed. Which meant we either had to wait until 7:00 p.m. (I think not, P day ends at 6:30), or wait on the off chance that a smaller, guagua bus would pass by. It was... an experience. But finally we caught one, the mini got on, and Hma. Lund and I became a trio for the second time. And we remained that way until the next day when the Browns (the elderly missionaries in charge of this part of the West mission), brought a new mini at around 10:00 at night. Ai, mi madre. But the new girl is cool- she wants to be a doctor, and she knows how to cook and she can hold her own with Hermana Silverio. I just hope we don't have anymore surprises before the end of the transfer in a couple weeks.
But yeah, in spite of all the crap you have to wade through on the mission, it turns out to be worth it when, even if you don´t come out smelling like a rose, at least you find one. Cecilio is said rose. He is a 16 year old kid who actually has an earnest desire to know what church is true and how he can find it. He always has a lot of probbing questions, like why Joseph Smith isn't anywhere to be found in the bible. And we're happy to answer them for him. The other day, yesterday in fact, (same day as the tragic loss of the umbrella), I was sorely tempted to get frustrated with him when he brings out to us his Bible full of homework from the 7th day Adventist church. Apparently, one of his friends has been trying to get him to go to that church, his church, and has been filling dear Cecilio's head with all sorts of fun ideas about our church, like that we don't believe in the Bible. Cecilio still seemed a little uncertain even when we pulled out the Bible to answer some of his question. His friend also told him my companion and I are married and though that's obviously non accurate, it bugged me that this friend of our investigator is talking about that which he doesn't understand. I explained it thus to Cecilio: If you want answers to a question about psychology, you're not going to enter the nearest colmado
Anyway, I would like to end on a cheerful note, like how I have free access to the Discovery Channel in my apartment. We have these clear-bodied flies that love to hang out on our ceiling, usually no fewer than 12 at a time. Once in awhile, one of the two huge spiders that have also taken up residence on the ceiling will be fortunate enough to catch on of these hideous creatures. Then, when the spiders have had their share, they proceed to drop the flies from their nets, where they usually land on my desk or on the floor. Then, as if planned into the schedule, the army of ants appears to devour what's left. I love my life. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to make sure it's all real.
But I have to get real and say that I must head off to the rest of whatever today has in store. Which will probably end up in next week's blog. The endless cycle. Till then...
Amor and similar sentiments,
Hermana (The) Sweeney
Anyway, back when I was just a wee little baby being trained on the mission, I developed the saying that would eventually one day become the title of today's blog. It all started when I must have had a rough day followed directly by another. It got so I would just look at Hermana Brown, pull a dramatic face and intone, "it's going to be one of THOSE days..."
And when you have a day here, you have a day. And Hermana Lund and I have made it up to a week. For many of the appointments we made while contacting door to door, we saw no results because, well, the people weren't in their houses, and I think Newton had some physics law about the improbability of teaching to a personless house. People might think we are crazy than we actually are. But I think I realized the reason too late: this is Friday the 13th week, and not even realizing it, I made the fateful error of buying an umbrella that day. What's more, the lady who rung it up for me opened it (indoors!) to make sure it worked and was to my liking. Well, that very day, the button to open it got stuck, and I couldn't close it. Fastf forward to Sunday, and I lost it somewhere on the Boulevard of Broken Dreams, a.k.a. SantoMe. I really hope I see someone from around town using it and enjoying it. Somebody should be. And yes, to all of you who want to mock the idea of using an umbrella to block the sun, I'll ask you to revisit your opinion after you've been in Azua for a couple days and the sun is beating down on you like the cop in the middle of a drug bust.
Another wonderful experience I had in this (evil) weak week actually started at the beginning of it, last Monday. Hermana Lund and I were at the house of the Young Women's president learning how to make arepa (a tasty Dominican cake of sorts), when we get a call from the notorious Hermana Silverio, our Dominican roommate. It turns out her mini missionary was going to live up to her name better than expected, and was only staying for 3 weeks. She´s starting school, or something like that. Which meant instead of enjoying the rest of my pday stuffing my face with fatty cakes, I got to lug this Hermanas luggage 2 miles up the busiest street in this part of Azua to where the bus station is. And then we got to wait for close to an hour hailing down buses headed to Barhona, where she´s from because due to the holiday (Dia de los Reyes), a lot of places were closed. Which meant we either had to wait until 7:00 p.m. (I think not, P day ends at 6:30), or wait on the off chance that a smaller, guagua bus would pass by. It was... an experience. But finally we caught one, the mini got on, and Hma. Lund and I became a trio for the second time. And we remained that way until the next day when the Browns (the elderly missionaries in charge of this part of the West mission), brought a new mini at around 10:00 at night. Ai, mi madre. But the new girl is cool- she wants to be a doctor, and she knows how to cook and she can hold her own with Hermana Silverio. I just hope we don't have anymore surprises before the end of the transfer in a couple weeks.
But yeah, in spite of all the crap you have to wade through on the mission, it turns out to be worth it when, even if you don´t come out smelling like a rose, at least you find one. Cecilio is said rose. He is a 16 year old kid who actually has an earnest desire to know what church is true and how he can find it. He always has a lot of probbing questions, like why Joseph Smith isn't anywhere to be found in the bible. And we're happy to answer them for him. The other day, yesterday in fact, (same day as the tragic loss of the umbrella), I was sorely tempted to get frustrated with him when he brings out to us his Bible full of homework from the 7th day Adventist church. Apparently, one of his friends has been trying to get him to go to that church, his church, and has been filling dear Cecilio's head with all sorts of fun ideas about our church, like that we don't believe in the Bible. Cecilio still seemed a little uncertain even when we pulled out the Bible to answer some of his question. His friend also told him my companion and I are married and though that's obviously non accurate, it bugged me that this friend of our investigator is talking about that which he doesn't understand. I explained it thus to Cecilio: If you want answers to a question about psychology, you're not going to enter the nearest colmado
Anyway, I would like to end on a cheerful note, like how I have free access to the Discovery Channel in my apartment. We have these clear-bodied flies that love to hang out on our ceiling, usually no fewer than 12 at a time. Once in awhile, one of the two huge spiders that have also taken up residence on the ceiling will be fortunate enough to catch on of these hideous creatures. Then, when the spiders have had their share, they proceed to drop the flies from their nets, where they usually land on my desk or on the floor. Then, as if planned into the schedule, the army of ants appears to devour what's left. I love my life. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to make sure it's all real.
But I have to get real and say that I must head off to the rest of whatever today has in store. Which will probably end up in next week's blog. The endless cycle. Till then...
Amor and similar sentiments,
Hermana (The) Sweeney
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