Hola!
I just got back from going to temple and shopping a little bit in Lima. Great stuff. The temple in Spanish is interesting but, hey, it´s still the same ol' thing.
SO!! What the sam diddly do da happened this week in the grand ol' CCM? I believe that they only send those missionaries who need to be humbled and a kick in the rear to foreign missions. SO every service day in Provo I got stuck cleaning the bathrooms. Every week. Then I get here and we do service again and what does Elder Jackson get?? Toilets. GAH! So I have to go through all the bathrooms scrubbing these toilets and it was fine. Until the one. This toilet looked like the poor soul climbed on top of it and had a grenade shoved up his butt. There was stuff on the walls, the floor, and all over the toilet. Like a crater. My word, the food here had explosive effect on that poor Elder´s gut. But I guess when your bowels are filled with joy there isn´t any room for the rest of the crap.
That event has been called the Attack on Peru.
Anyway!! So yeah, we got to go visit less active members this last Saturday as part of our proselyting. Whew we were in a rough part of Lima. I can´t believe I would freak out just in San Francisco. Lots of stray dogs and nasty stuff in the street. And lot of people staring at the tall white man walking by with the neon white shirt. But it was good!!
I like proselyting much more. So yeah back to the being slapped with humility, I didn´t understand most of what the members said. And it didn´t help I was in cultural shock. But I would throw my two cents in of broken Spanish and testify that church blesses us. I don´t even know if that´s what Elder Vindas was talking about but I did it!! So most of them weren´t home. And the last ones we visited decided they were Catholic. I guess the missionaries only baptized the two daughters without the mother´s permission. I thought something was wrong when they were wearing big crosses. And they gave us some warm...honey...or camel urine.... drink. I liked it but the other two weren´t too fond. Felt good!
So from there we got in these little... well they´re like buses but they´re pretty much a gutted out van filled with 16 people. They told me they could fit 32. I didn´t want to find out. But yeah I was sitting in there trying not to fall into this lady´s lap, trying to be friendly. But they were all gargoyles so that´s no fun.
SO we had an hour and a half left. So we took it to the streets!! With pamphlets!! So we looked ways to help people with service. I might not be able to talk to them but I can lift something! So we carried propane tanks. And then we talked to an older gentleman and gave him the pamphlet about the restoration. We were using my ability to stick out as a way to talk to people. I would just say "Hola!" across the street or to people near us and if they were friendly back we would try to talk to them. Turns out only two people were friendly. So they got pamphlets.
One old guy was walking down the sidewalk and suddenly raised his fist up in the air. GO HOME!! He yelled. But I didn´t understand what the heck he said with a bad Spanish accent so I just smiled. But Elder Vindas understood. Eh, forget you too pal!! You go home and rethink your life!
Oh, so I guess Dallin H. Oaks is coming to the CCM. Next Wednesday. He was the one at Stake Conference right? I want to thank him for that. But we´ll see if I even talk to him. We haven´t had a MTC president my whole time here because it turned out he had cancer and had to fly out to the US for surgery. But he´s doing fine. But I don´t think he´ll come back. He was going to be done in 5 months anyway I believe.
So, yes, I do get Dear Elder letters here! They just take a week. I got your letter on the 12 mom. You sent it on the 5th.
So my mission has already taught me a lot. I realized how mediocre I really am. When you take away English and my normal surroundings you find out just how naked and vulnerable I really am. Then I looked back on my life so far and realized just how I´ve been average with everything. Always average, never great. Okay grades, okay at sports, okay at church, okay and doing stuff at home. And for once in my life I want to be actually great at something. I want to be a great missionary. And I hit a wall.
I found out, it´s not gonna be easy. Mediocre doesn´t cut it. I´m gonna have to work harder than I ever have, than I have ever wanted to, so I can become what I want to become. This mission has broken me down, caused me to be frustrated and hopeless, only to begin building me up again. I know I can do it, I know that I will do it. I have the materials and means of doing it. One thing I have finally realized is faith. This mission isn´t so hard when you look at the trials Paul must have been facing when teaching the gospel, when Moses stood at the red sea with armies hunting him, when Samuel stood on a wall with arrows, when Christ was going into the Garden. Heaven forbid me, claiming to be one of Christ´s disciples, face some opposition, to have to push myself. It´s about dang time I realized it and became a man!! TIME TO ROCK AND ROLL!!!
Adios, I love you all. I love your support. I love chicken pot pie and that´s just not gonna change.
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