Not much happened this week. Last week for P-Day the sisters cooked everyone breakfast for lunch and we had french toast, eggs, bacon, nutella, bananas, orange juice, it was all really good. I also found out I can eat spicier things than most Latinos here as I had a couple of competitions with them so that is awesome (thank you Leavenworth and WingDome)! Had divisions in Boulevard with Elder Lainez (Hond). He is awesome and we cooked a nice egg and toast dinner. I am starting to buy more normal food and cook more. Lastly I had to give a talk in sacrament this last sunday. It was 15 minutes long and on Missionary work and how the members can help. Other than that nothing new. It was just an average week and all of our stats grew and are hoping for 3 baptisms in March. Misc things... in Boulevard, Milagro the other part of our Zone lots has happened: -murders almost daily -gernade attack -shootings This area is about 15 minutes in bus from our house and borders our area. Nothing ever happens in our area and I always feel safe. Missionaries there are always at the other end of where the chaos is happening or in a house. They are always safe. kinda cool. Thats it for this week, not much new. #ChangingTheWorldWithASmile! -- Having the best day of his life, Elder Gruber Breakfast made by the Sisters Found a Germany jersey
0 Comments
Things are going better and better and I'm finally seeing some progress in the area. I do not know if I mentioned this early but for the first two weeks we had not been seeing any progress and it was really frustrating, but now we are finally seeing progress and hoping for two baptisms in March.
-This week I also had divisions with Elder Wright (DL) and also Elder Whitehead (ZL). I led the area both times and it all went well. Going to the ZLs house we had to take a little white van which they cram as many people into as possible, even with people hanging off the side and it is about 30 minutes to their house (it is a small little town out in nowhere). It was definitely a cool experience. -Went to the temple this last week as well and that was crazy. Woke up at 4:30 in the morning and was at the Stake Center in Milagro at 6 to leave as a zone. It took 4 buses and 3 hours to travel there. The buses were jammed packed (again with people hanging out of the doors). There were 4 missionaries that had their cameras stolen and 1 phone. The cameras from their bags and the phone from their pocket. Did not even notice as the bus was SO full. Luckily nothing was stolen from me. The session was good and in the end had another 3 hour ride back. Got home around 4, ate lunch, did some studies, and went to work at 6. It was a long day! - Played beisbol last P-Day in the gym, that was fun as it was a change from soccer. - You can buy drinks here in glass bottles, which are cheaper than the drinks in plastic bottles. You can only drink the drinks in front of the tienda. If you want to take it to go, they will pour it into a plastic bag and stick a straw in it for you. They even have Gatorade in glass bottles which is great because it is so much cheaper (half the price). - Taught a lesson in English on Divisions with Elder Wright with a return missionary who learned English on his mission. It felt so weird to speak in English and I had to constantly remind myself to speak in English. - Did P90X plyometrics and after not having done exercises like that for about 6 months my legs were SO sore it made it difficult to walk, sit, and get out of bed. It was a long day limping around from house to house and walking slow. - Another great thing about our house/area is that there is no constant supply of water which means every now and then we lose water. We lost water 3 times this week. 3 mornings this week we went to shower and found out we had no water. Luckily we got water halfway through our studies, so we could shower before leaving the house. However Sunday we had to go to church without a shower, luckily however after church there was water again so we could shower. It is a constant struggle with this house, but at least I am slowly getting used to the cold showers and they are not as bad anymore. That is about it for this week, and am doing great! -- Having the best day of his life, Elder Gruber This week was a lot better. I no longer have the cold and I feel like my old self again. I think last week more than anything was hard because I was sick. My comp: - he is more afraid of spiders than me, he can not even look at them. We have had two spiders in the house so far and I have had to kill them, as he runs into a different room. It is actually funny and I see why Luke tormented mom and I so much. - is a bit messy. Does not really clean up after himself, just puts wrappers on the floor, and NEVER flushes the toilet. I got on him for that today as he took a dump, wiped, and just left it. The bathroom smelt so bad! - he is really nice though and pretty laid back, never really have any arguments and things are going well. Just have to teach him to clean up a little more. The house: - it is colder than ever in the house. The windows do not fully shut and we are missing a lot of windows too, so there is cross breeze at times. I tried doing some repairs, but do not care all that much and do not want to spend money on the house. I took cardboard and boarded up some of the windows and threw the closet door (already was off the hinges) in front of our window in the bedroom. It has helped and it is a bit warmer in the house. However knowing that I have an ice shower to take makes it EXTREMELY difficult to get out of bed. I like my hot water showers. The cold water showers bother me so much I became an electrician this week. Hooked up the shower heater (attaches to where the water comes out), wired it all up, bought a new switch/flip-on for the breaker, and installed it all my self. Got to say I was quite proud of myself. Hopped in the shower and we had hot water... for two minutes until we lost all power in the house. Did some investigating, to find out, it was not my fault but the fault of the house. There was another switch downstairs that blew. We went without electricity for 32 hours. Called over an electrician and he confirmed that I did everything right and it is the fault of the house. The breaker box downstairs and the switch that was in it was very old and have even been discontinued. Again I was happy to find out it was not my fault and I did everything right. It will cost the Landlords about Q500 to upgrade it so we can have hot water and things will run smoother but they are crazy people and say it will cost Q8,000 (even though I already checked all the prices and it will be Q165 just for the supplies). They are so closed hearted and do not want to do anything, so we are back to no hot water. I just checked the prices today so I plan on talking to them again and showing them it is not as much as they think. Hoping they will do it because cold showers are awful! If not we are looking for a new house. Other things: -They have McDonald's delivery, so for breakfast one day we ordered in McDonald's! It was awesome! Do not know why we do not have that in the states. - Bishop invited us over for dinner yesterday and we showed up at 8 and nothing was prepped or ready. We helped them make and cook the dinner. I diced all the vegetables, and prepped the chicken (thanks mom :) ) but the dinner did not finish until 9:20. We are supposed to be in the house no later than 9:30 and we got home at 9:45. Our leaders were not very happy with us, but that is ok, I felt like we needed to stay and eat with them as they told us they normally eat no later than 5 but waited for us tonight and it was with the whole family... Oh well. -Bought a Buyern Munchen jersey (its a fake but only cost Q45 and something to wear while playing soccer.) I have got the hang of the area, know the members (only about 55 of them, do not understand how it is a ward), I am back to normal health, bought dishes for the house so we can cook at night and in the morning again, comp got his money so we are living the life again with food throughout the week, and the spanish is coming along. Also we are about to have a zone pizza party, Dominos. -- Having the best day of his life, Elder Gruber Potatoes from the Ralph's
It has been a long week. My new area is Carolingia in Zone Milagro. Zone Milagro is supposedly the most dangerous zone here in the mission, but I have not seen anything yet. My new companion is Elder Rojas from Chile and he is super awesome, easy going, and pretty chill. Within this last week there were a lot of things that are not as great as I would like, such as... -I reconfirmed that I hate packing and unpacking... it is the worst. -There is not hot water. Every morning I have to take a polar bear plunge shower which is awful! It makes it so hard to get up in a cold house knowing I have to take an ice cold shower. - There are not/hardly any dishes in the house so cooking stuff as of right now is a no go... can not cook or make anything. Also I have to unplug the fridge to use the microwave or stove, can only use one at a time. - Comp lost our phone so all week we went with out one and that just made things harder than it should have been. - Comps card was also robbed so he has no money and we had to pay rent this week too, so I paid his share until he can get his money in a week or two. I have enough though to pay for lunch, laundry, and some things on Monday but nothing to pay for snacks during the week, drinks, or dinner. - I also got a cold. Though I did need my sweater and I got a cold. It is COLD here. This morning we could see our breath walking outside. Never thought it would get this cold. Other misc. things.... - Every time I tell people my name they always say, "oh like the movie, Freddy Cougar." I do not understand why but that is what everyone here thinks of and one investigator called me Freddy. It is pretty funny though. - The church is the smallest church I have ever seen. One ward, 50-70 members. This Sunday there were only 50 people at church, kinda a shock. - 6 sister missionaries in my new zone, one from Seattle. That's about it for this week. -- Having the best day of his life, Elder Gruber New Companion Elder Rojas New Apartment
This week was a good week and I had a fantastic Saturday. But first things first...
-Last Monday went to McDonald's and had a kitkat mcflurry, good old McDonald's, but do to money ratio it is not as cheap, I miss really cheap McDonald's. - Ok now Saturday, because the week was just another normal week with not much new. This week we had a "white night" which is where the zone all plans baptisms for one day. We had a total of 8 baptisms and I was able to participate and baptize our investigator Anna. (already found another ugly tie for Bro. Brandt.) It was an AWESOME day! - Got the call last night and I will be leaving to a new area... I find out tonight what area and with whom. For now I will be going around saying goodbye to everyone and tonight packing... ugh how I am not looking forward to packing, that is the worst. Next week I will write all about my new area and comp. That is about it for the week, not much new, but pretty excited to see how changes go, I leave tomorrow morning for my new area. -- Having the best day of his life, Elder Gruber |