B aspires to be a director.

ok... laughables of the week.

1. there is an elder that is in our ward named elder bustamante, the most humble person ive ever met. hes from chile and has been on a mission for 26 months, and he goes home dec.10 hes been in this ward for 7 months, so you think people would know hes from chile... elder barfuss and i tease him a bit about being mexican, because everyone knows that spanish speakers are mexican right? well, of course, just like all the other people not from mexico, he doesnt think its very funny. one night we were eating dinner with a family in the ward and he was brought up as the subject of discussion and one of the parents gives us a weird look and asks "hes from mexico, right?" without hesitation, we say, in unison, "yup" and the person says, "ok, thats what i thought"

2. elder barfuss had surgery on his toe last week, he had a nasty ingrown toenail. i asked the doctor if i could film it, which he declined, but he let me watch anyway. it was cool.

3. one night as we were walking to our car, we turned around to go talk to this group of people on the other side of the street. we walked up and we said "hey we want to talk to you about jesus" either they had prepared already what they were going to so, or they were some of the fastest thinking liars ever, because without missing a beat, one girl says "im a druid" and the other "im a buddist gay." i still find no reason to not believe them, those things dont come to your head in an instant and its really hard to keep a straight face after that. we couldnt. we told them that those were bad excuses to not learn about jesus, but they didnt believe us.

thats about it. thanksgiving was good. ate a lot. our zone won the turkey bowl for p-day. hope all is well.

B is coming home! (someday)

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Salt Lake International Airport

Arrival time: 1:05 pm

Flight number: DL1176

B eats a lot of spaghetti.

?que honda wuey? alls well here. last week was a complainer email, hopefully this one will be better... weve been doing pretty well on our dinners, 6 of 8 have been spaghetti. i guess its a white people thing. we have knocked doors for countless hours, no success yet, but were having fun while were at it. i think members here think of missionaries as an annoyance, which is the complete opposite of where we were at. we would show up to someone who hates the church and all the members but they get so happy when we stop by and want to feed us and everything, here, not quite. active members shoo us away, which hurt the first few times because we werent ready for it. i do have a couple of stories to tell, however.

1. we are eating dinner (which in itself is a foreign experience, having to use forks and table manners and be super polite and uptight instead of being normal and laughing and having a good time with the members) with an old couple in the ward (spaghetti), and the guy was telling us how he served his mission in sweden. me, trying to mosturize the incredibly dry atmosphere, asked "so you learned swedenish then?" the couple looked at me weird (they dont get humor) and elder barfuss looks over and says in complete sincerity, "uh, that would be dutch."

2. eating dinner with an older lady and her daughter and son in law. they were pretty cool actually, so it was a fun dinner (spaghetti). they lady was making pineapple upside down cake and was finished with everything except the part where she needed cake mix. when she looked in the pantry, all she could find was carrot cake mix, so she made it and was warning us that it might taste funny, we dont have to eat it, etc. elder b nods his head and assures her, "its ok, i like potatoes".

both of the above experiences were sources of great enjoyment, both then and now. kids say the darndest things.

B is pooped.

we dont belong. rich white areas are too weird for us, we just dont belong. and of course, once the area i was in started to get people baptized, i leave to where there is nothing going on. every time, works like a charm. so here we are. white people are not cool. oh well. so, im now in the westchester first ward, no spanish ward, and we dont cover the tongan ward, although the boundaries are in our area. boo! i wanted to come home 260. anywho, not much to report. weve just been tracting and visiting members, neither of which are receptive. we have a car now. its a huge boat that guzzles gas and cant turn the tight corners on the streets. im really tired right now, so i dont feel like writing much. next week