Monday, October 31, 2011

Still in the Bronx!

Hey Family!!
Well one thing I forgot to add last week was that transfers were today, and I'm gonna be staying with elder Hulme here in Kingsbridge.  The only difference is that I am no longer district leader.  President Smith released me to let someone else have a chance to take that role.  So that’s cool.  Aside from that this week has been pretty uneventful.   I don’t really have any stories for you, but we did have a really cool activity at the church.  It was a Night of Nations, which is simply a night where they have all the members from different countries do a cultural presentation.  Most often it was a dance from their home country and then they also supplied some food for everyone.  That way everyone gets the opportunity to try what others eat and learn a bit about where everyone comes from.  Of course they asked that the missionaries do something as well to represent the United States, so we put together a dance and that was a lot of fun.  We danced to "Eye of the Tiger" and made up a line dance (we had someone make a CD for us so we could do the song).  Maybe next week I'll be able to send home the video.  It was quite the hit.  So yeah, that was the fun thing we did last Friday.  Also you'll be happy to hear, Mom in particular, that I have to speak this coming Sunday.  Needless to say, I'm not excited.  It will be my first talk so far in the mission and we'll be talking about missionary work and how the members can help out and stuff.  I've no idea what I’m gonna speak about in particular, but it should be fun.
Anyways, this morning I ate Golden Puffs.  They’re just puffed wheat that has been sweetened, so it wasn’t anything all that special, just cereal.  Normally that’s what I eat for breakfast.  Occasionally I'll make fried eggs and ham and put them on top of an arepa, and then put some queso fresco on top (it's a Mexican cheese) and it is a really good breakfast, but it costs more.  I also learned from Elder Anderson that a peanut butter sandwich with scrambled egg and syrup makes another pretty good meal.
The most interesting person I've seen so far is the Bird Man.  He’s just this guy who walks around making bird noises.  He wears a hat with a bunch or bright feathers stuck in it which is really funny.  I don’t see him that often, but you know when he's around.  The amazing part is that the sounds he makes are SO realistic.  I'm amazed that a human can make sounds like that.  It’s way cool.
I think the coolest thing I've seen this week is once again with Alejandro.  We went over on Sunday and were teaching him about the Ten Commandments, specifically about the Sabbath day and right now he has a commitment that takes up his time every Sunday with some type of organization that he belongs to.  So we were talking to him and he just strait up said “Alright, I'll go talk the president and ask if I can switch with someone else so that I can have those Sundays’ off.”  It was just way awesome.  He's gonna speak to the guy on November 1st.   His eyes have been getting better too.  He still can’t read, but he can read some larger print things if there’s a sufficient amount of light.  The other person that we're working with right now is Fernando.  He's another Dominican who we've been teaching and who seems truly interested in what we have to say, which is always really nice.  So far we've taught them the plan of salvation and the restoration which were both great lessons.  He's been doing the reading and stuff and wants to meet with us, so that’s always awesome.   I definitely appreciate it when people are willing to listen to us and take time out of their schedules so that they can listen to what we have to share with them.
As for the vocabulary idea of learning two or three words a day, I definitely think I'll make a more conscious effort to do that, but that’s about all I got for today.
 I hope your week is going well, and that Dad and Daniel get the chance to go hunting and also find something.  I definitely agree that it's more fun when you find something.  But yeah, I love you all and I look forward to hearing how everything is next week.
Love, Carson