July 28, 2014 Weekly Letter

Hey guys,

 

I just read your letters and I'll do my best to answer and tell you all that happened, etc.

It's hard to compete with your guy's week, but I would say that ours was pretty fun and successful for the most part.

 

I received your package mom and, yes, those marzipan bars are amazing, quite frankly everything you send is amazing, I love all that you make and it's a real downer that I can't have your food for two years. I appreciate the deodorant, can I just say that it is the best stuff on the planet, I really works especially in the heat, which is getting hotter and hotter, but I've got over the fact of coming home wet with sweat. I didn't think it was possible to get hotter, but it does. 

Speaking of weather there was supposed to be a tornado here yesterday and extreme winds, not going to lie I wanted to see a tornado, and....nothing, nothing but blue skies, yup blue skies and sun, totally lame.

 

So you guys went to Pineview, sounds fun and like you guys had a fun time, sorry the boat didn't work the whole time, but hopefully you had a good time none the less. I kind of reminds me of yesterday, so yesterday we were in a trio for the night and so we were riding bikes down a steep hill and you know me, I want a adrenaline rush and so was doing some cutting on the bike going back and forth and so I'm ahead of everyone else and all of a sudden I hear this tire skid and so I thought it was me and then to my surprise I hear this thugnnnnng and I was like that wasn't me and I looked back to see Elder Perrin jumped a curd and rammed into a sign, luckily he was alright, but it was really hard not to laugh just off of the sound and the image. Apparently he was talking on the phone and trying to switch gears and lost control, so that was quite amusing, we all had a good laugh off of it. 

 

Jackson and his parade, dang, I missed it, sounds super cool, especially the part about being on the news. I'm sure they did awesome, they always do, and just want to say "good job Jackson, your the bomb." (By the way I didn't get any movie of Jackson, well not true I did get something but it was more like a blank page with something about taco time written on it).

On a side note, tell Shawn congrats when he gets home, I've seen his posts, not watched them, but saw them none the less and looks like he enjoyed himself. Also tell Heidi and Sandra I wish them well and I'll keep them in my prayers, and also apologize to Sandra and Joyce I did get their emails and I thought I responded to them, but maybe I didn't with the collage of things that go on, so tell them I got there message, I appreciate them and sorry I forgot to respond.

 

Super cool, I can't believe the church has made a new temple movie and the Ogden temple is almost completed, that sounds so weird, I remember in the MTC thinking about its completion seemed so long away, but it's basically done and almost open, it's nuts.

As for an update for this week, I had an exchange with the zone leaders this week, and he came here to the city, I hope I didn't fail to mention the English zone leaders and I was left alone to speak Spanish in our appointment, fortunately one knew English and the other could speak a fair amount to English as well, I don't know what I would have done otherwise. It was a fun experience and it gave me a  fairly good amount to anxiety, but luckily it went alright.

 

We also had a lemonade stand finding activity and that was fun, I grew a little bit more in confidence as I talked with the people by myself. It was funny because we positioned ourselves right in front of the JW's or the Jehovah's Witnesses. We found a lot of people through that activity so it was a success.

 

Today we played some soccer and some more parkor, lots of exercise and I need it because I am out of shape, and really unhealthy, so back to get on track with fitness, just wish I was a little more awake at six in the morning to work out. 

 

Investigators are all good, sadly we have to push Delmira back two weeks because she's not ready, but on the bright side we taught nineteen people this week, that is incredible in comparison to the average seven to nine lessons that we teach a week.

My companion just told me this quote I thought it was awesome so thought I would share--"When Satan reminds you of your past, remind him of his future"

 

Everything is cool here, still rocking DC, it's crazy transfers are coming up next week and I'll have hit my fourth transfer out, pretty crazy.

Anyway, enjoy your week, love you guys.

Ethan

July 21st weekly letter

Hey, how are things going back home?

Not really an exciting week, last P-day we played some soccer and did
some parkour (par core), so that was fun.

We then went on a unexpected combined exchange, so in other words we
spent the whole day with the other two elders because they needed help
with the three male rule so they could go to their investigators and a
new member that moved to DC. Apparently she is from the Silver Spring
Ward and she is super awesome. Come to find out she is a recent
convert of about a year, I would have guessed she was a member her
whole life the way she acted. It kind of makes me want to go to the
Silver a Spring Ward, I hear it is a big ward and that the members are
super nice; from my experience thus far the members I've met from
there really are amazing. She fed us tres leche cake and really good
sandwiches with fried chicken and spaghetti . . .  don't knock it until
you've tried it.  I love her food! So we then went to some more
investigators homes and come to find out we left our phone at her
house and she lives probably a good 45 minutes away, so the day after
we had to go to her work at a cafe and the bonus from that was we got
two free giant cookies (yum).

We are teaching a kid named Brian he is the son of a recent
convert/member of three years, both are a little crazy if you ask me.
I was surprised by how well the lesson went because if you know Brian
he is seven year old fighting machine, a heart of fire and the energy
of a little kid...wait...ya. But we taught him about Joseph Smith and
Jesus and he picked up a lot more than I thought.  I really thought
that he wasn't paying attention then we decided to describe the
pictures that he scrolled through super fast, again. Then he's like
no, I got it all. Really? Then off he went and described all fifteen
pictures perfectly, we were surprised to say the least. It was a good
lesson.

We had some interesting food this week, for example I had crab and
lobster for the first time in a soup, I have some pictures of that.
Hispanics don't like to separate meat especially chicken for soups, so
we had a whole crab in our soup, quite a sight to have that swimming
in your soup.

We also had a why I believe meeting last night at the VC. The speaker
last night was an LDS member here and DC, and he was funny and a nice
guy, but I don't know if you would like him though, he coincidentally
enough is...Obama's doctor. The Hispanic respond positively to this,
especially since they all love him, don't know why...ohhhh, never
mind. But anyway he was a good guy, he told his conversion story and
we also heard from his wife and how they met at Ricks college, etc.

Don't know if I told you this, but Delmira is on date for baptism for
August 3, so we'll see how this turns out. The rest of the members and
investigators are same old same old, but we hope to get more people to
baptism.

Well that's my week in a nut shell, love you guys, take care and enjoy the week.

Love,

Ethan

PS  Goat milk huh, what do you need got milk for? I'm curious.

Elder Hatch what is in your soup?

July 14, 2014 Weekly Letter

Hey everyone, how are things back home?

Things are good here, it's getting warmer, that's for sure, but I think I'm getting used to the new climate here. A lot has been happening here, don't know if you would consider it exciting, but I thought it was fun.

So to start off we did a chalk talk of the plan of salvation. You would not believe how many people tried to avoid us, who needs traffic signs and cones just put six missionaries on the street corner and everyone finds a alternate route, but we did find some cool people during the activity and we picked up a few new potentials, so far only one really stuck. We got a referral, a family from Texas who just barely moved here and apparently they received all the lessons from the missionaries and have been trying to find the church and want to be baptized, however we got the apartment building, but we don't have an apartment number, so we will see if we can still find them, but if they lied (heaven forbid) I would say they are the smartest Hispanics yet in getting away from us. But I think we'll find them even if we have to knock every door in the apartment.

We have had huge rain storms lately this week and one of them cause a huge rainbow actually two huge complete rainbows, it was super cool, don't worry I got pictures and video feed of the whole thing from our apartment balcony, quite the picture though.

Then on July 11th we went to 7 eleven and because it was 7/11 they gave away free slurpies from 11-7, just as a future reference if you didn't know. Anyway we went and got some and we tried to be nice and get some from another 7 eleven for the other elders, but by the time we got back the slurpies were pretty much half ice and half sugary carbonated soup, which we tried (not that good, I won't lie). But that was the highlight for that day.

Then on Saturday my companion had a family that he baptized a little over a year ago and they got sealed, and so for the first time I was able to attend my first live sealing session and I understood very little because it was all in Spanish, but a great experience nonetheless. Such a great family, man I wish I could be in that ward because the members that attended the sealing were super cool, maybe one day.

Then yesterday nothing super amazing with church and all and the regular confusion, but I can pick off some words and I don't fall asleep anymore, well almost fall asleep anymore, maybe my mind is catching a hold of Spanish without me noticing and I don't get as bored or day dream as much. This is all hypothetical I may or may not have done any of this LOL. I think the best part about yesterday was the night of music, which was also all in Spanish, it was a good spiritual experience, but really made the night was that me and Elder Little translated the Spanish into English for all the English people in the audience/congregation, ya Elder Little did it all, he's been out for a year now and is one of my best friends on the mission with Elder Jamius and of course Elder Stubbs my mission father. Anyway so translating is super hard because even if you understand what is being said Spanish is phrased differently (backwards), then some phrases in Spanish don't exist in English and via versa, and the words in Spanish don't exactly translate into English and if you don't know the exact meaning and translate word for word you have a funny sentence for example when you say "me encanta" in Spanish it means "I love" (something like food or a place,etc, but not used with people) anyway but the direct translation actually means it enchants me or me enchants if we want to be correct. And that makes no sense at all, so there are those little things and a lot if different rule you get confused with going back from Spanish to English and having to translate fast doesn't make it very easy either, so you basically give a general summary of what was said in actuality. But anyway me an Elder Little had a lot of fun together in the little Translating booth together making jokes that we should give a weather update or give a recap of Germany's win over Argentina if we didn't understand what was going on, ahh good times.

Then as far as investigators go we are still working with them as usual, not a ton of progress, but we finally got Delmira on date for August 3rd, she has been a investigator for over a year now and it has been super hard to get her to baptism, she comes to church, feeds us, and we always teach her and it's a wonder why she isn't baptized, but we consider this a step I the right direction. Also we have her daughter and granddaughter as investigators so we will see what will happen there, hopefully only good things to see, but who knows.

Well that's a week, time is starting to get fast, these weeks don't come in weeks, but in blurs as I look back on my time I am almost five months in and I remember leaving like it was yesterday, a year an a half sounds like a long time and it is, but if time keeps going at this pace I'll be home in no time.

Well I'll catch you guys later, love you all, enjoy your week.

Love,

Ethan

Street Corner Preaching - No better way to divert traffic!

July 7, 2014 Weekly Letter

Sent from my iPad

Hey, long time no...email,

So I'll give a quick recap over the last few days, also sorry it took so long to get my email out to you guys on Friday, we were booked all day with activities, probably one of best days thus far, so much fun and very busy. Down here the fourth is bigger than Christmas, but anyway. So starting off Friday I helped the other elders out with a lesson, but after we had a huge barbecue with hot dogs, hamburgers, condiments, watermelon, pineapple, grilled pineapple, noodle salad, potato salad, cookies, brownies, ice cream, and Apple pie with enough to spare to feed another thirty people easily, we played soccer and football on the roof of our apartment and all so had the amazing experience watching a soccer ball drop from eight stories or more onto the streets, good thing it wasn't New York. We came back only to find twenty five to thirty elders in our apartment and a huge mess.

From four on we went down to the mall or the monuments in other words.

We watched street performers and went to some booths. I was great for once you could walk down the street and catch people giving you mean looks or ignoring you completely, surprisingly people still who knew who we were and were a lot nicer to us today, felt really nice.

Afterwards we went to union Station and ate and headed over to the Washington Monument to go and watch fireworks, we were right next to the monument, and just across about a hundred feet from us was a concert preformed by the US military, really cool, love the song "I'm proud to be an American", everyone burst into singing and it was really cool, they also introduced all parts of the military such as army, air force, marines, navy, etc as they played their theme song to finish. They then started shooting off fireworks as music such as star wars and other modern favorites. After the fireworks it was a mess a total mess, the metro was backed up for a ways and trying to get back by eight thirty was near impossible, luckily we made it back in time because we soon found out that those who didn't don't get to get to go to the Nats game this August. We also hosted a sleepover of about four elders so that was interesting. And that was our Fourth of July.

Saturday was work as usual, but found out that Guillermina came back to DC and she came to church Sunday, and we teach her tonight, so we are going to hammer her hard with baptism, we will see how it turns out. We also taught Zefferina, she tells us she loves the church, she comes every we, but there is something stopping her, I don't know what it is, but we need to figure it out.

Not much happened Sunday, but we got fed really good food, the Lacayo family made hamburgers, that was a tender mercy, all the elder love Hispanic food, but. Yes it tastes good most of the time, but it get really old after a while and it sits in you, so hamburgers were a miracle. We visited a less active family from Mexico and they gave us corn on the cob. And that's not all, it had a light coat of mayo, parmesan cheese, and pico de gallo powder on top, and I know what your thinking eww nasty and a heart attack on top with that, and the same thing went through my head for a moment, but as a missionary you stop worrying, and you know what it actually tasted amazing, unhealthy yes, but amazing.

Today was super fun, we had our zone activity and we had a World Cup tournament, our team was undefeated I thought I would let you know.

People were surprised by how well I played soccer, nobody knew, and only three people play soccer in our zone, so to say the least I was considered the best, which made me feel good, it boosted my ego, I love it when people notice your hard work, talents, and practice in action. Reminds me of the glory days in coed LOL, it felt good.

We have a lot lessons this week and hopefully we can teach all of them or a lot of them. I'll let you know how things go, by the way the language was good this week, learning a lot. This week was really good. If there is anything more you would like to know just email me, but that was a recap of three days.

Love you guys as usual, enjoy the week.

Love,

Ethan

We determine our own happiness.

President Uchtdorf

4th of July activities

Awesome pic!

Quite the missionary apartment, don't ya think?

This is what happens when 25 missionaries are over for a barbeque.

July 4, 2014 Weekly Letter

Happy fourth of July,

     Today should be a fun one, we have had a barbecue planned for the last week and it should be fun activity this afternoon. However, the weather here is questionable, the previous days have said to rain up to today and none of them rained until last night and it looks like our fourth will be a wet one. And then tonight the plan is to watch the fireworks off the rooftop of our apartment, I hear this is a huge holiday here, and it should be exciting to see.

     Yesterday we got permission to go to Costco from our zone leaders and I bought the magic bullet, super excited. One of the elders here has one and I used it and now I'm hooked, it makes really good protein shakes.

This week as far as investigators go is still fine, sadly we are losing more than we are gaining, but we have a lot of potentials that we found and hopefully we can get appointments with them and pick them up as investigators. Juan has a baptismal date, but so far it has been difficult to find him and teach him, so we'll see where he goes from here. We picked up our investigator's daughter, here name is Maria she is probably in here late twenties she is the daughter of Delmira. Then on a highlight we finally contacted Guillermina or rather she contacted us, come to find out she lives in Detroit Michigan at the moment, but she says she wants to come back, see elder Stubbs, and what blew me out of the water is she also said she wants to be baptized, which is a real shock since we have been pushing this for so long and she never has excepted it, I don't know if she is playing the emotions, but we will see; she says she is coming next week and we have a appointment to take her to the VC next Wednesday. Zefferina I believe is the same old same old, we have a appointment with her tomorrow so, we will see how she is doing and I'll let you know Monday.

My companion Elder Hatch is super nice and yes he still works hard, to an extent, he is a great guy and everybody loves him, I think so as well, however there a few things about him that really bug me, but I'm not going into detail on that, but that is the general for Elder Hatch.

(Mom) so it don't think the tomb of the unknown soldier is part of my mission, I've never heard of it before. I do believe if I remember correctly it is on the other side of the Potomac which is part of Gary's mission.

Also I did get your guys care package, thank you so much, I especially loved the cookies, not admitting to anything, but I may have almost ate them all already, you were right when you said they were my favorite. Also thank you for the green drink and the probiotics they have really helped.

I'm glad you had fun at Lake Powell this week, I'm not going to lie, I kind of wanted to be there and it had it's moments that affected me this week, but nothing I could really do, but I kind of miss doing fun stuff like that. For some reason i feel like I am the only missionary who is affected by this kind of stuff, like everyone else is on a higher plane of living the me, not sure how they do it. 

The language dad, is well.........enough said, still working on it to say the least, I'm just a very slow learner that is all. 

I've seen some of the pictures from trek, sadly none with Jackson, but sounds like they had fun, where did they go? Plus Jackson with his parades and all sounds super cool, should be a good experience for you Jackson, hopefully it's not to hot.

Life is good, just having a little trouble making progress, and it kind of hold me back, but I'm doing my best.

I'll send my spiritual thought in a another email.

Love,

Ethan