6/23/08
i dont have much to write about today, just a couple of things i remember. i dont have my planner with me so i dont remember the notes i took to write about. ok, so first, sitting here in a library waiting for my comp is so tempting, i want to read all the stuff in here, especially the book that has a huge picture of Tom cruise and is titled Tom Cruise. thats the hardest one to resist so far. ok well cant really think of much else than that, ill write more next week, bye
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Friday, June 13, 2008
Crying about transfers...again
i have pictures of eileens and jennas baptism, ill send when i think about it. i have no clue who any of those people are you mentioned, so ill just nod along like i know who youre talking about. dont know cindy canon or adel woodard so...the reason im most likely staying in the same area for 6 months is this: when elder fennell and i got here, we replaced 2 sisters. our area hadnt had elders for like 3 years, so they got 2 new ones, and elders at the same time. elder fennell leaves this transfer, so they wouldnt put 2 missionaries here who had never been here before after only 2 transfers of new ones. i will stay because i know the area and they will send me some fresh meat. well be together for 2 transfers, so it will be 6 months total for me here, which really stinks, cuz i dont want to stay in the same place more than one, possibly 2 transfers, and i dont want to stay with the same companion every time, it gets old. o well, gotta deal with it. ok, well be having another baptism on the 22, so ill get pictures from that one too. this week was temple p-day, thats why im writing on wednesday and not monday. gina told me she would send me a package before she left, if she hasnt left yet then tell her i want some double stuffed oreos and cheetos. thanks :)
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
What to say if...
6/2/08
so, here in california, which is where i am, is where i am. yesterday we knocked a few doors in the rich corner of our area. we knocked for about 3ish hours and taught 2 lessons. there are so many rich people in the rich hoods, and they all claim to be a certain religion, but only one of the ones we talked to actually practiced it. the other ones just said that so we would leave them alone. people are dumb sometimes, as in when we say what church were from and were going to teach them, they reply with, sorry, im jewish or im presbyterian or whatever, as if it exludes them from our message. duh people, if you were already part of our cult we wouldnt teach you. im been thinking of some rebuttles for those, and i have come up with a few:
1)"im sorry, im lutheran"
a) really? ive never baptized a lutheran before
2)"im jewish"
a)jesus will still forgive you
3)"im catholic"
a)me too, lets go pray to joseph smith
to a less active:
4)"i used to be part of your church, i didnt like it"
a)thats why we have the telestial kingdom
5)"theres no proselyting here"
a)thats good or super!
there was one time after we had been told that from like 5 people in 2 minutes i told elder fennel to just ignore them the next time (we take turns messing with them) so when this guy walked out of his house to tell us this we just kept walking. we followed us still telling it to our backs until he was like hey! you guys! we stopped and turned around and he was mad that we ignored him so i said "were sorry, we didnt hear you, we were just minding our own business." hah! it was so funny, he just got mad and stormed back to his house to call the manager or something. times like these make tracting fun.
a lot of people will see us coming and try to shoo us from a distance, but it got annoying so i started waving back as if i didnt know what they were doing. there are a lot of people who just shout, "im not interested" and these people are fun to mess with. just ask them what theyre not interested in and theyll reply with "you" or "whatever you have" and keep playing dumb until they get mad and slam the door. there are a lot of white people who are really nosy (surprise!) when they see you walking theyll stop and say theres no soliciting or things that they try to imply were soliciting. since were not soliciting, were proselyting(?) i always give them dumb answers, as if i dont understand theyre trying to tell us to leave until they finally just come out and say it "get out of here, we dont like you".
weve been offered jobs a few times while were walking around. one guy drove up and after finding out we knock doors for 2 years while paying for it he said we could do it and make 5g a month selling house repair contracts. another guy from nigeria said that he would send us to africa to sell clothes that he sends there and would pay everything and then give us more for wages. that one was tempting. he buys overstocked clothes and shoes and purses and stuff and sends them to his shop in africa and sells them for a little cheaper than here, apparantly he gets some decent money. he said its about 2k for someone to fly there and live for a year, and he would pay us to do it. i hope the offer is still open in 2 years, that would be cool. most people are really grouchy and lame, but the few people you talk to are pretty cool most of the time. lots of different stories here, somewhat unlike K-Town (kamas).
eileen and jenna lizarraga are being baptized on the 8th :) we had a couple more baptism dates but had to drop them. one lady turned out to be an alcoholic and when she tried to stop, she made it one whole day without a drink before she started again. we found out she drank after we had set the date, but we found out and canceled it. weve been trying to help here for like 2 weeks now but she doesnt want to try very hard to stop drinking. another guy (enos) moved, and we dont know where to. he was such a golden investigator. he was the guy from honduras that did everything we challenged him to, then he moved but hasnt called us from his new apartment. we dont have many set appointments to teach people, like 3-4 a week, so its really lame, we have to fill up a lot of time tracting becuase we have visited everyone in our area book, all the less actives, everybody. we dont get any member referrals, so its difficult to find people that are willing to listen. ok, out of stuff to say, bye
Elder Anderson
so, here in california, which is where i am, is where i am. yesterday we knocked a few doors in the rich corner of our area. we knocked for about 3ish hours and taught 2 lessons. there are so many rich people in the rich hoods, and they all claim to be a certain religion, but only one of the ones we talked to actually practiced it. the other ones just said that so we would leave them alone. people are dumb sometimes, as in when we say what church were from and were going to teach them, they reply with, sorry, im jewish or im presbyterian or whatever, as if it exludes them from our message. duh people, if you were already part of our cult we wouldnt teach you. im been thinking of some rebuttles for those, and i have come up with a few:
1)"im sorry, im lutheran"
a) really? ive never baptized a lutheran before
2)"im jewish"
a)jesus will still forgive you
3)"im catholic"
a)me too, lets go pray to joseph smith
to a less active:
4)"i used to be part of your church, i didnt like it"
a)thats why we have the telestial kingdom
5)"theres no proselyting here"
a)thats good or super!
there was one time after we had been told that from like 5 people in 2 minutes i told elder fennel to just ignore them the next time (we take turns messing with them) so when this guy walked out of his house to tell us this we just kept walking. we followed us still telling it to our backs until he was like hey! you guys! we stopped and turned around and he was mad that we ignored him so i said "were sorry, we didnt hear you, we were just minding our own business." hah! it was so funny, he just got mad and stormed back to his house to call the manager or something. times like these make tracting fun.
a lot of people will see us coming and try to shoo us from a distance, but it got annoying so i started waving back as if i didnt know what they were doing. there are a lot of people who just shout, "im not interested" and these people are fun to mess with. just ask them what theyre not interested in and theyll reply with "you" or "whatever you have" and keep playing dumb until they get mad and slam the door. there are a lot of white people who are really nosy (surprise!) when they see you walking theyll stop and say theres no soliciting or things that they try to imply were soliciting. since were not soliciting, were proselyting(?) i always give them dumb answers, as if i dont understand theyre trying to tell us to leave until they finally just come out and say it "get out of here, we dont like you".
weve been offered jobs a few times while were walking around. one guy drove up and after finding out we knock doors for 2 years while paying for it he said we could do it and make 5g a month selling house repair contracts. another guy from nigeria said that he would send us to africa to sell clothes that he sends there and would pay everything and then give us more for wages. that one was tempting. he buys overstocked clothes and shoes and purses and stuff and sends them to his shop in africa and sells them for a little cheaper than here, apparantly he gets some decent money. he said its about 2k for someone to fly there and live for a year, and he would pay us to do it. i hope the offer is still open in 2 years, that would be cool. most people are really grouchy and lame, but the few people you talk to are pretty cool most of the time. lots of different stories here, somewhat unlike K-Town (kamas).
eileen and jenna lizarraga are being baptized on the 8th :) we had a couple more baptism dates but had to drop them. one lady turned out to be an alcoholic and when she tried to stop, she made it one whole day without a drink before she started again. we found out she drank after we had set the date, but we found out and canceled it. weve been trying to help here for like 2 weeks now but she doesnt want to try very hard to stop drinking. another guy (enos) moved, and we dont know where to. he was such a golden investigator. he was the guy from honduras that did everything we challenged him to, then he moved but hasnt called us from his new apartment. we dont have many set appointments to teach people, like 3-4 a week, so its really lame, we have to fill up a lot of time tracting becuase we have visited everyone in our area book, all the less actives, everybody. we dont get any member referrals, so its difficult to find people that are willing to listen. ok, out of stuff to say, bye
Elder Anderson
Monday, June 2, 2008
Things I've realized
5/27/08
hehe tunneling smurf, classy. no i havent been getting any emails from granny welch, so thats prolly why im not writing back... this transfer i have realized a lot of things, here goes:
1. 12 weeks is way too long to spend glued to another person. it is also way too long to spend in the same area, especially a small one like this. we have knocked every door already, so were making the rounds again. the bad thing is, i have another 2 transfers here most likely, oh yay. if i dont die from that, ill make it through anything pres blackburn can throw at me.
2. mexicans can party. every saturday and sunday there are at least 10 different parties going on. quincenyeras, mariachis, everything. they like to let people know they are partying, music blasting and you can hear from miles away. not only is it really loud, but all of the 12-18 band members (in matching sombreros and sequined outfits) play whatever they want, all at the same time. the music has no defineable beat, tempo, rythm, or pattern. i like it.
3. brother shipp has a toupee. normally their are a little harder to spot, but brother shipp, a 60ish year old guy in our english ward, has one recognizable from a mile away. he has grey hair, salt and pepper style, which is normal. however, his toupee isnt. it is brown. it sits on the top of his head like a baseball hat, and you can trace the ring where it ends and his real hair begins because it is a solid line where it stops.
4. things we say in english, we dont think about. for instance: another member of our english ward has a fake arm ending in a hook. we were at an activity and he was between me and my companion in a food line. he was struggling to separate two paper plates, so my companion, being so nice, offered help. not, "may i help you" or "do you need help" but "hey, need a hand?"
5. there is a difference between rain in utah and in la. in utah, it washes things, makes them shiny. in la, its the opposite. when it rains, it leaves your car covered in stuff. ours went from silver to brown after one day. it gathers all the junk in the air and leaves it on the car. im no exaggerating here, from a distance, it looked brown.
6. god provides when we work hard. some days we may have dinners cancel on us, or they dont show up. if we work hard, we get fed anyway. almost every time someone has ditched out on us, within the next few houses or visits, someone offers food to us. if someone lives in an apartment with a locked door in front, and we cant get ahold of them, someone always comes in or out the door and can let us in to make our appointment. its really cool how everything just falls into place.
in other news... elder umphress went home. said his knee hurt so he decided to go home, only made it one transfer. maybe hell come back out. an elder in our zone last transfer got sent home also. he didnt do anything, but that was the problem. apparently, the transfer before i came, his companion brought a girl into their apartment and so on and so forth. elder fitsimons, the one i knew, didnt call prez and report him or anything, just let it go. they didnt get along well so he kinda thought that it wasnt his problem. big mistake. its weird how that happens on a mission. apparently, the elder who got in trouble, elder andrews, was pretty shy and anti social, but here he is on a mission with a girl in his apartment. how that stuff happens is beyond me, but it all starts with something little. listening to the radio, staying up 10 minutes or sleeping in a bit, things like that.
gas has reached 4.35 here
the last few days the weather has been bearable. it rained 2x, and then was overcast and windy the rest. nice change. its amazing how circumstances affect outlook, ie. in wyoming, the wind is ridiculously annoying. it makes me want to destroy wyoming from the face of the earth. here, it keeps you from melting, i like the wind here.
ok i think thats all, adios
elder anderson
hehe tunneling smurf, classy. no i havent been getting any emails from granny welch, so thats prolly why im not writing back... this transfer i have realized a lot of things, here goes:
1. 12 weeks is way too long to spend glued to another person. it is also way too long to spend in the same area, especially a small one like this. we have knocked every door already, so were making the rounds again. the bad thing is, i have another 2 transfers here most likely, oh yay. if i dont die from that, ill make it through anything pres blackburn can throw at me.
2. mexicans can party. every saturday and sunday there are at least 10 different parties going on. quincenyeras, mariachis, everything. they like to let people know they are partying, music blasting and you can hear from miles away. not only is it really loud, but all of the 12-18 band members (in matching sombreros and sequined outfits) play whatever they want, all at the same time. the music has no defineable beat, tempo, rythm, or pattern. i like it.
3. brother shipp has a toupee. normally their are a little harder to spot, but brother shipp, a 60ish year old guy in our english ward, has one recognizable from a mile away. he has grey hair, salt and pepper style, which is normal. however, his toupee isnt. it is brown. it sits on the top of his head like a baseball hat, and you can trace the ring where it ends and his real hair begins because it is a solid line where it stops.
4. things we say in english, we dont think about. for instance: another member of our english ward has a fake arm ending in a hook. we were at an activity and he was between me and my companion in a food line. he was struggling to separate two paper plates, so my companion, being so nice, offered help. not, "may i help you" or "do you need help" but "hey, need a hand?"
5. there is a difference between rain in utah and in la. in utah, it washes things, makes them shiny. in la, its the opposite. when it rains, it leaves your car covered in stuff. ours went from silver to brown after one day. it gathers all the junk in the air and leaves it on the car. im no exaggerating here, from a distance, it looked brown.
6. god provides when we work hard. some days we may have dinners cancel on us, or they dont show up. if we work hard, we get fed anyway. almost every time someone has ditched out on us, within the next few houses or visits, someone offers food to us. if someone lives in an apartment with a locked door in front, and we cant get ahold of them, someone always comes in or out the door and can let us in to make our appointment. its really cool how everything just falls into place.
in other news... elder umphress went home. said his knee hurt so he decided to go home, only made it one transfer. maybe hell come back out. an elder in our zone last transfer got sent home also. he didnt do anything, but that was the problem. apparently, the transfer before i came, his companion brought a girl into their apartment and so on and so forth. elder fitsimons, the one i knew, didnt call prez and report him or anything, just let it go. they didnt get along well so he kinda thought that it wasnt his problem. big mistake. its weird how that happens on a mission. apparently, the elder who got in trouble, elder andrews, was pretty shy and anti social, but here he is on a mission with a girl in his apartment. how that stuff happens is beyond me, but it all starts with something little. listening to the radio, staying up 10 minutes or sleeping in a bit, things like that.
gas has reached 4.35 here
the last few days the weather has been bearable. it rained 2x, and then was overcast and windy the rest. nice change. its amazing how circumstances affect outlook, ie. in wyoming, the wind is ridiculously annoying. it makes me want to destroy wyoming from the face of the earth. here, it keeps you from melting, i like the wind here.
ok i think thats all, adios
elder anderson
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