A Week in the Life
What a week it has been…I think I’ll do my email a little bit different this week:
Monday:
Good Ole’ P-day. As always went by too fast and I only had a few minutes to do email. We spent time shopping and some time at the mission office (we live pretty close, so we can go over there and eat some candy and talk with the people over there). But the highlight of this day came in the evening. Our evening was scheduled as following: at 6, we were going to help a member who needed a translator..very few details were given. At 8, we had a family home evening scheduled with one of our investigators, Esther, who is our closest to being baptized. Well, the evening started as we had planned. Wilbur came over and picked us up, and this is where I realized that I had forgotten my translator gadget thing (just in case there was words I didn’t know, because since Elder Monforte doesn’t know english, I was going to be doing the translating), so right off the bat, I was at a disadvantage. Well, I had no clue what I was going to translate, but I wasn’t too worried. So, we drove over to Wilbur’s apartment and there we pick up his parents…and I found that they were going to check out a house and they were serious about renting it for a year. We arrived at the house and at first I really didn’t know what to do (I have never done this translating thing before). At first, they were just asking me questions when they didn’t understand something and basically we walked about the house and yard and it was pretty cool, I was able to translate what the guy wanted them to know. But, then we started getting down to the negociating side of things. Now, most of my profeciantly in spanish comes in the Gospel side of things, so I wasn’t at my best. I was unsure, but right in a lot of things. The renter dude was getting a little frustrated and wasn’t sure if they knew all of the details (because of the language barriar). So, he made me and all of the family sit down and go over the entire contract. And while I was doing that, we were finding out bit by bit, that the family was really pushing the contract terms. Something about the septic tank could only support 3 adults and 1 kid in the house and the family had 4 adults and a kid. So, everyone was getting mad and I was right in the middle of it. We got through the whole contract when the major problems started to arise and they decided they didn’t want to rent, but then they talked some more and finally decided to rent it. Wow, it was quite an experience. We also didn’t have enough time to do the Family Home Evening.
Tuesday:
Not much happened this day…at least to my rememberence.
Wednesday:
Well, well, well…We had Zone Conference today!! But, it wasn’t any old Zone Conference…it was Fun Zone Conference!! Let me explain a little bit…once a year (I know, not very often) instead of sitting for 6 hours listening to instruction, we only had to sit 2 hours and then we got to play for 3 hours! Instead of being in Raleigh, we got to go up to Chapel Hill. There were all sorts of activities, Volleyball, ultimate frisby, but I chose to play Soccer (of course with all of the other hispanics). It was pretty sweet, I even put on sunscreen so I wouldn’t get sunburnt!
Thursday:
On this day, we always have our weekly planning session…which could last up to 2-3 hours to complete. Now…we were planning for Elder Monforte’s last week…so that’s about all I can say. We are not accomplishing as much as I would like to, but I guess it goes with the territory of being companions with a missionary that is about to leave. Only one more week left in the transfer!
Friday:
Not much
Saturday:
We got invited to lunch with the other English Elders to a Chinese Buffet (we also went to one the night before, because Hispanic people love going to chinese buffet). It was just like any other chinese buffett, the ice cream was good. Later on in the day, we went to our recent convert house because the baby was having a birthday party, she was turning 1 years old. I have never seen such a party in my life for a 1 year old. They cooked tons of food and invited everyone. The music was loud, the pinatas were being smashed and it was a “real” fiesta. They spent tons of money…which is a bad thing, because they are not a well-off family. In fact, they have already been a little offended from some of the members at the church and even didn’t go to church this last sunday. It was either they had too much to clean up after the party or they just wanted to skip church. Some punk kid from are branch made their 8-year old cry, and suposidly they told someone that they didn’t want to come back to church. Well, they never tell us anything, no doubts or concern but we’ll continue working with them and make sure they don’t just become another lost inactive family.
Sunday:
Just a normal Sunday, Easter Sunday in fact. Not much different actually from a normal Sunday for missionaries, no Easter Bunny, no chocalate. But it was a good day, a really good talk in sacrament meeting. Later, we had some really GOOD food.
Monday:
Well, I am here right now, was already in here earlier today, but the internet stopped working. So, after going out shopping, and playing soccer, getting drenched in the rain, I am back and ready to go for another week! I hope this week goes by fast…I am looking forward to a new transfer.
Well…hope you enjoyed and hope it wasn’t too weird
Elder Hardy