Friday, September 14, 2012

Sept. 11

Hello dad and world,

The week was indeed great. My comp is way cool. Elder Francis is from Palm Desert california. He's a white boy. Just a little guy, too. He's struggling with the language a bit, but no worries. 

I suppose I'm kind of a spanish spaz. There are only 13 english speakers in this whole joint, so I get a lot of practice speaking to native speakers. They enjoy slapstick humor, it's totally great. And it turns out that saying 'sensual' in spanish is a big hit. Basically the same thing, except everyone is latino, so they laugh harder. It's good on the old self esteem. I exercise my spanish muscles all the time. I live in a room with three latinos, and they help me out a lot. I feel really confident talking about the gospel in spanish, and also describing why las chicas love other elders. Everything else, I kinda stumble around and say como se dice a lot. It works. Overall, i'm impressed with my progress. That sounds a little conceited, but I know the Lord's helping me out a lot. I actually have set a goal to be fluent by october 30, which sounds totally crazy when i say it. But i guess good goals require a lot of faith. We're teaching one or two lessons every day in spanish, so i'm learning super fast.

I was staying pretty healthy, until the great dulce de leche binge of September 10. I think i ate about two pounds in 24 hours, and my stomach just barely stopped feeling like a brick haha. The food is pretty good, but i'm a little disappointed, i expected more spice. 

P-day is all about speaking english. Gotta play basketball all day or something that the latinos won't go near haha. EspaƱol dishes out some pretty gnarly headaches. Also, i need some addresses so i can write some letters. Tell rachel to get on my facebook and send out a call for addresses. I'm trying to get a haircut today, and this dude who comes to the ccm is just so strange. He just cuts hair and looks like his name should be fabio.

So a day looks like this. Wake up at six thirty, shower, eat at about seven fifteen, then personal scripture study at eight. Then nine o clock we have either companion study or teaching a fake investigator. Ten o clock is language study, eleven is gospel doctrine type stuff, noon is lunch, one is computer lab for spanish instruction, then a spanish class with a teacher from like three to six, then dinner, then at seven more gospel stuff and more spanish until nine o clock, when you plan your next days studies. Days are packed. I am nearly always exhausted. It's a good time though. I'm trying to get Elder Francis caught up with spanish, i'm basically teaching lessons by myself. When we practice in english, his testimony is like a spiritual sledgehammer though. I need that in spanish. Can't do it on my own. We'll get there though.

Tell Ellie I said happy birthday! I got all your letters today, along with emails from Halmoni and the curtises. They're all good people. Congrats to rachel on the victory.

All right, it¿s time. Love you all!
Elder Andy

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