November 18, 2013

Family,

I don't want to refrain from communicating to allll of my family, but I'll change it up a little bit. om - this should be a little more what you're looking for, but you should still sent it to all.

Lamentably, I don't have a profound message this week. I'll defer to copy/paste some BoM scrips I found yesterday that perfectly sum up how I feel;

 1 O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the ^atrump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people!

 2 Yea, I would declare unto every soul, as with the voice of thunder, repentance and the plan of redemption, that they should repent and ^acome unto our God, that there might not be more sorrow upon all the face of the earth.

 3 But behold, I am a man, and do sin in my wish; for I ought to be content with the things which the Lord hath allotted unto me.

 6 Now, seeing that I know these things, why should I desire more than to ^aperform the work to which I have been called?

Asi es. I still struggle with stray thoughts, but we're having success and when we work, I just wanna drive the Sequoia down 95 bumping with my boys. However, for now why should I do anything more than "perform that work to which I have been called?"

Asado

Now on a day like today with a ton of great letters, thats dang freakin tough. Thoughts:

Happy b-day Tim!!!!! Loved the description of your team obstacle course. Sounds dope.

Brian - doesnt surprise me at all that the Panthers are "suddenly good." 2 words - number 59. Brig can agree with me (and of course Pich), Luke Keuchly is a BEAST. And Shark, you know I'd kill to be watching the Pats and Bs tonight in the Cave. 

Go freakin Raiders. You're killing me Mom - you left the recap to come from Dad's second hand account!!! Still, I LOVE to hear about the personal and team triumphs. I'm super happy for John Fadule and Dziama, the two stars that you mentioned. Oh how I wish I could be home to watch the Rockets shot down at the Swamp. 

PLEASE SEND PICS of some game action!!

As for me, today is the first day of transfer #2. As Shark put it, I'm one lap down in my 2 mile tryout for life. I can hear Magpiong screaming in my ear something about it being hard, and I can also see Matty being a hardo already on lap 5, steal sprinting. I think I even saw him rip his shirt off and flex his six pack. 

Pertaining to other trunky references from that past few weeks' letters: I can't wait to go to Barca with you Matt, I'm certainly planning to organize a trip to the Big House in 2015 when BYU comes to town, obviously I need to go to a game at Lambeau, and Dad & Noah - camping is weirdly one of the things I miss. Lucky. Loved the candid excerpt from Keir.

Anyways, transfer 2. The other missionaries tell me the 1st two in the field are super slow, but that the rest FLY. For now, let's hope so. This transfer has felt like literally 6 years. They tell me the mission is their home and they want nothing to do with their real home. I look at them and tell them they're crazy, in English-to be super clear. If there¡s one personal thing being this disconnected from home has taught me, its just how much I really LOVE all of you. Love gets tossed around too lightly. I've taken a lot of you for granted. Boy, I can't wait to see you all again.

Shoot, this is exactly the kind of stuff that I referred to last week as my weapons. I'm gonna bury them and focus on these next 21 months.

Right now, my biggest personal struggle exists in my relationships with other missionaries. My whole life I've feared that anything even a little direct or bold would offend someone else. Its hard to describe, but I've often sacrificed personal comfort for fear of speaking up and quizas offending. Well, this is still a problem. And guess what, its 5 times as hard to be direct and chose the right words in Spanish... 

Never fear. I've made it a goal to work on and I'm improving. Basically, I've had some small issues with Elder Ramirez doing too much of the teaching in lessons. I'm fully confident in my ability to communicate to the investigators, but his speed and lack of pauses make it tough to involve myself while not making it seem like I'm snatching every second of silence to get my words in. 

Everything's all good in Limache (note the spelling Mom lol). We baptized 3/6 weeks this transfer (Victoria finally got dunked!). I made fresh squeezed OJ, which is a killer game changer. That reminds me Dad - 

Breakfast: scrambled eggs, sauteed spinach, onions, green peppers, and grilled chicken. Chef Sack serving up a mean helping of protein every dang day. 

Lunch: Giant meal with a member. Some assortment of chicken, rice, pasta, milanesa. Had my first Auth Argentine Asado to round out the tranfer. The old Bishop, B. Flores (bosshog) cooked it up

Dinner: doesn't exist. You know those pics of people after they take a diet pill on TV? That's me with my suit pants. I'll wait until they're clown pants to snap a pic. I'm just getting started.

Had no clue there was inflation. Good on money (i think). No clue on my visa. I'm under the impression that its a non issue.

EVERYONE - I'd love any quantity of appropriate pics sent my way! I can download them on my camera.

Signing off

Love y'all

Go Raiders

Go Pats

Go Bs

Gang Love

Elder Blake

Lion King on in an investigators house (for Matt of course)

Me reinacting the best scene with our boy from Blok 3 - shawty