B is not the only one with digestive problems

8/24/09

howdy. i think i told you this last week, but i had 2 baptisms sunday. i did adrianas, which goes against my whole credo, but she asked elder halls if i could and he told her i would do it so she called me and said "elder halls said you could baptize me, will you?" i thought i trained him better than that. he performed the other one. oh well. it was cool. we have 2 more people with a baptismal date, one for the 30th and one for the 6th of sep. i dont think the 30th will go down, her mom refused to sign the permission form, (she, bianca, is only 15 so we need her parents approval). she told us she did her homework (read and pray) and when she prayed, she got her answer, so now we have to work around the mother... fun. as well, we have 3 more people we will be setting a date with for september, really good ones as well. all is going well.

i think i broke my foot. no joke.

a fellow missionary in my district got hit with some pretty dangerous liquid poo, couldnt make it home in time, so they pulled off the side of the road and he let it out against a tree. got it all over, didnt have anything to wipe with and a car was coming, so he hitched up the trou and rode home to clean up. i saw his stains today at laundry. funny!

this morning i put my zone leader in the banana splits and got him to say "im a codfish" it was his going away present.

spanish wards have the worst hymns ive ever heard. i think i mentioned to you before how they have the most horrible singing voices and are dangerously off-key, but today i sunday i saw the all-time low. im not quite sure how it happened, but we were singing a hymn and at the end of the first verse everyone was as confused as crap, but what they didnt realize is when they were ending the verse, the music was halfway through the second verse, so everyone was warbling a half a song off time. but, they didnt correct themselves. you know how there are those people who think they know how everything is going on, well, all the old people, the worst singers of the bunch, start belting out the second verse at the top of their lungs so everyone else would just on the wagon and follow them, thereby keeping the mob from correcting itself. suffered thru four whole verses of that. the music was not even playing the tune they were singing, but it didnt stop them. (since no one knows how to play the piano, we listen to the music on CD. at least its better than the a capella wards) tons o fun.

B is called a rocket scientist, which he secretly loves

8/10/09

hi. im glad to hear everyone is normal and there is still plenty of drama about stupid things. this week has been normal here. plenty of sweating. we had a baptism on sunday for our investigator eusebio munoz. it went exceptionally well, which surprised me. we are in a latin ward, so the bishopric wasnt there, nor did some of the participants show up, but we got it smoothed out and started only 10 minutes late. it was a record time. i found ants under our toilet and found the tiny little hole they live in, but took compassion on them. 2 nights ago i fed them honey and cholula (my hot sauce) and salt. it turns out ants dont like spicy or salty, just sweet. then next day was a bit of sugar water. theyre doing well. yes, my companion is still quite soft. im trying to toughen him up a bit, but these things take time. hes doing well though. he asked me a dumb question the other day but before i could reply he realized what he asked then said "oh great, here comes the sarcasm."im trying to get my distric leader literate. he spells baptism babtisum. those arent even the embarrasing ones. hes from idaho. he lovingly refers to me as the rocket scientist. "have elder anderson pop the popcorn, hes the recket scientist." it might sound like we dont get along, but we do, very well actually. some 17 year old emo punks tried to make fun of us the other day after we walked by, but they got really quite when i turned around and walked back over to them and asked "you ladies have something to say?" they didnt say anything so i said "i didn't think so" and we walked away. not my most christlike moment but i made the exception this time because they were dumb emo kids. that will be my last one. probably. i was wondering how much corey weighed because when you mentioned he was wakeboarding i remembered the other times we have gone and his hunched up chicken stance and awkward attempts at tricks. then i imagined his man boobs flapping in the wind. i must say, the image in my head is quite entertaining. and disturbing. i caught myself pouring cholula onto my finger to eat. i didnt think i would ever eat hot sauce like that. gina, send me a picture of lauren. ive adopted the habit of only showering once every 3 days as well. i get itchy too, but i think mine is from wearing my garments that long as well. now that i have to pay for laundry again im trying to cut back on expenses.ok by

B is a ninja

7/20/09

hola, all is well.

hmmm. went on splits this week. we set a goal to eat 5 dinners, fell short with only 3. i ate a bunch of chiles that day to win the trust of the members. whole habanero, plain. burned a little. whole chile verder, plain. didnt even feel it. many tamales verdes (tamales with habanero salsa) warm. all that chile burns twice, btw.

we had a party at our apartment building on saturday, it was the baptism of these 2 catholic "life partners" dudes. music at the max, mariachi band yodeling it out, all sorts of awesome mayhem. didnt stop all night.

i laughed to myself when in priesthood they had all the young men stand up and talked to them about going to do baptisms for the dead next week. wait, let me correct myself. it was all the young men without kids. that made me giggle.

its really hot here

ive been playing the prelude music for the last 2 sundays for the baptisms. dont ask me why. i made up these 2 songs a few transfers ago that apparently are well liked, and since im the only one who knows how to play anything, im in charge of prelude. luckily no one but the elders realize that the music repeats itself every 5 minutes.

im still hunting, but know its cucarrachas. im getting quite skilled at judo kicking them before they can scurry out of view. im trying to learn to hover about 6 inches off the ground so i can kick furiously with both feet as i float in my "left-handed dragon" pose. one foot just doesnt pack enough ammo to take down the hordes.

bye

B sure likes his kool-aid

7/13/09
howdy folks. its me. elder anderson. so im now settled in to my new apartment, mostly, and its not too bad. other than its at a constant 95ish degrees. whats more sad, however, is that its usually cooler to walk into that than be outside. this area seems pretty cool, i dont know which one i will like more, here or Jefferson park. my companion is elder tuttle, from someplace missouri. he fenced in high school. this is his second transfer, so he is really new, more so than my previous companions, even elder halls. :) we live across the street from the church which is really handy, and i remembered to buy sugar so i can make my kool-aid now. we dont do anything with the english ward, the bell ward, but its in the downey stake so if there is a stake deal i will see my peeps from downey again. ill send more in a minute. nothing too exciting has happened since ive been here, or at least nothing that stands out enough that i remember it. we are teaching some cool people that ill tell you about later, but no one is ready to be baptized. not sure what the elder before was doing, everyone was stagnant but i dont know why, they all are progressing now. anyway. its going to be fun breaking elder tuttle. more updates later.