NEWS
(INVESTIGATOR'S NAMES HAVE BEEN CHANGED TO MAINTAIN ANONYMITY)
SEPTEMBER 2, 2013 - 3 Swiss Techniques of running away from us.
Well.. This week doesn't have a ton of things to report actually..
First off, thanks fam for all your emails this week, and always. They really are always awesome.
Seems like the big news that everyone is curious about is my companion.... Yes I had a conversation with the president about my companion. In fact it was more of him apologizing to me. He told me that he knew who he was putting me with, but that he did that because he knew he could trust me. The truth is my companion is just weird. That's about it. He really does have OCD. Like I'm pretty sure if he went to the doctor, he'd be officially diagnosed. He's also just had a rough life before his mission that kind of made him socially awkward. The president basically said, just find what you can learn from him, know that I love you, and keep pulling him by the ear to work. The president even apologized to me that he hasn't given me a super great companion yet. But yeah, to be totally honest, I do feel like my companion has been holding me back a little. I want to be out on the streets ALL day talking to people, but he finds every excuse possible to stay in the apartment Plus, meal times are frustrating to me. We have 1 hour to eat every meal. But with the cooking and eating that normally takes about 1/2 hour maybe 40 min. if we cook fast. But he has to MAKE SURE that we stay the whole hour, so he'll RE-iron his shirt, or RE-fold his blankets that are on his bed. or RE-wipe off the table. It drives me nuts.. But. whatever.. I'm learning patience. I just look at the window and watch all those people walk by that didn't get a chance to accept the restored gospel because Elder Leau had to RE-iron his shirt. ha. I hope you understand my frustration. Bottom line, president really is awesome, and he is super complimentary to me when I talk to him. He always has a way of making me feel all bubbly inside like I did something amazing. ha. But he has been pretty insistent on the fact that he needs me to speak french perfectly quick. I'm excited to see what lies ahead. But for now.. 2 more weeks with Elder Leau. (and then we find out if it's 6 more weeks). I can make it until then. And If I have to. I can make it 6 more.
I do have to say though, papi, I LOVED your last comment in your email. (the phrase in Spanish I about peed my pants laughing when I read it. Because sometimes I really do feel that way. haha.
Next item of business, Baby Arthur!
His surgery went SUPER well! He recieved a pace-maker that works AMAZINGLY WELL! He's got a steady heartbeat of 120 now. (instead of his 50 he could manage before). he just looks so much happier. Plus Evaline is so much happier and less stressed. Doctors said that they could leave in about a week if all stays positive.. Miracles happen people. I'll attach some pictures of Baby arthur. :)
Gustavo!
Well. He came to church! WAHOO! He really is awesome, and super serious about reactivating himself. I just love that man. He's bringing SO much happiness into his Family's life. We're going to see him tonight and then again Wednesday, Then he goes to Spain to visit his family for a month.. :( meh. oh well.. his family is super awesome. and super active in the church. that will be good for him. :)
Last bit of news.. well.. I got pickpocketted.. someone took our cell-phone. too bad for them it wasn't an iphone like im sure they were expecting two guys in suits to be carrying around. But.. that's a problem.. It had SO many numbers in it. and (as I explained earlier this transfer) we had spent a ton of time organizing the sector. Getting all the numbers out of the phone and onto paper into our area book was the next step for us. UH. Oh... oh well.. God's got a plan. I know he does. Luckily I had already written down all the numbers of the people we are working with now. We just can't call them. So we're having other missionaries in Geneva do our calls for us at night. It's kind of nice actually. it's like having secretaries. Ha. "hey elders, can you schedule us an appointment with family silva for thursday? thanks." hahaha! well.. we'll see how long the office takes to get us a new phone..
I love reading Bri's Emails because they perfectly describe how POLAR OPPOSITE our missions are. haha. "oh yeah, we had a guy walk in to the visitor center and say he wanted to be baptized got a phone call, turns out he DID get baptized a couple weeks later". haha. yeah. Around here, no one just WALKS UP TO US and asks for that stuff. Actually, more than anything people LITERALLY run away from us. haha. I can't even tell you how many times I've cracked up laughing at people because of the RIDICULOUS things they do to avoid us on the streets. I really should start making a list.
Heres a few:
1. Faking a phone call as we walk by. so many people will pull out their phones, say bonjour JUST as we're walking by, and when we pass them they put their phones back in their pockets. haha. i'd say i see that at least 15 times a day. Pretty funny if you think about it. People just pulling their phone out of their pocket to say hi to it. Like it was lonely in their pocket or something. haha.
2. The, I'm going to casually j-walk to the other side of the street, then re-cross the street after you walk by manunver. That one is hilarous. People try to pull it off like they forgot where they were going or something. If as many people as do that to us ACTUALLY forgot where they were going, we have a real epidemic of stupidity in this society.
3. Couples that are casually walking down the street that decide to start kissing JUST as we walk by. It's pretty much 50% of couples. I can almost pin-point the distance we must be from a couple in order for them to start kissing. Either this one is just a coincidence or we as missionaries have a ring of romance that we carry around us about 4 meters in radius. That'd be pretty awesome though if it was true.. nope.. people just don't like missionaries.
I'll list more later. But for now.. I blame the JW's. They made people scared of people in white shirts and ties. Either that, or they made everyone have a VERY personal relationship with their cell phone, gave them short-term memory loss that comes and goes, and made PDA even more popular when there are missionaries near by. ha.
As you can see. We find joy in what we do here. No matter the trials. I know we're doing a great work here. So far in my mission I've given about 2,500 people the opportunity to listen to the restored gospel. I'd say that's pretty great. I've had to opportunity to tell people that Jesus loves them countless times already. Plus I've given about 20-30 people the opportunity to read and pray about the book of mormon, to find out if God REALLY exists. And as long as I'm taking this message to every person I can, I'm doing my job.
I love you all so much!
Thanks for your prayers!
Love,
Elder Lago
First off, thanks fam for all your emails this week, and always. They really are always awesome.
Seems like the big news that everyone is curious about is my companion.... Yes I had a conversation with the president about my companion. In fact it was more of him apologizing to me. He told me that he knew who he was putting me with, but that he did that because he knew he could trust me. The truth is my companion is just weird. That's about it. He really does have OCD. Like I'm pretty sure if he went to the doctor, he'd be officially diagnosed. He's also just had a rough life before his mission that kind of made him socially awkward. The president basically said, just find what you can learn from him, know that I love you, and keep pulling him by the ear to work. The president even apologized to me that he hasn't given me a super great companion yet. But yeah, to be totally honest, I do feel like my companion has been holding me back a little. I want to be out on the streets ALL day talking to people, but he finds every excuse possible to stay in the apartment Plus, meal times are frustrating to me. We have 1 hour to eat every meal. But with the cooking and eating that normally takes about 1/2 hour maybe 40 min. if we cook fast. But he has to MAKE SURE that we stay the whole hour, so he'll RE-iron his shirt, or RE-fold his blankets that are on his bed. or RE-wipe off the table. It drives me nuts.. But. whatever.. I'm learning patience. I just look at the window and watch all those people walk by that didn't get a chance to accept the restored gospel because Elder Leau had to RE-iron his shirt. ha. I hope you understand my frustration. Bottom line, president really is awesome, and he is super complimentary to me when I talk to him. He always has a way of making me feel all bubbly inside like I did something amazing. ha. But he has been pretty insistent on the fact that he needs me to speak french perfectly quick. I'm excited to see what lies ahead. But for now.. 2 more weeks with Elder Leau. (and then we find out if it's 6 more weeks). I can make it until then. And If I have to. I can make it 6 more.
I do have to say though, papi, I LOVED your last comment in your email. (the phrase in Spanish I about peed my pants laughing when I read it. Because sometimes I really do feel that way. haha.
Next item of business, Baby Arthur!
His surgery went SUPER well! He recieved a pace-maker that works AMAZINGLY WELL! He's got a steady heartbeat of 120 now. (instead of his 50 he could manage before). he just looks so much happier. Plus Evaline is so much happier and less stressed. Doctors said that they could leave in about a week if all stays positive.. Miracles happen people. I'll attach some pictures of Baby arthur. :)
Gustavo!
Well. He came to church! WAHOO! He really is awesome, and super serious about reactivating himself. I just love that man. He's bringing SO much happiness into his Family's life. We're going to see him tonight and then again Wednesday, Then he goes to Spain to visit his family for a month.. :( meh. oh well.. his family is super awesome. and super active in the church. that will be good for him. :)
Last bit of news.. well.. I got pickpocketted.. someone took our cell-phone. too bad for them it wasn't an iphone like im sure they were expecting two guys in suits to be carrying around. But.. that's a problem.. It had SO many numbers in it. and (as I explained earlier this transfer) we had spent a ton of time organizing the sector. Getting all the numbers out of the phone and onto paper into our area book was the next step for us. UH. Oh... oh well.. God's got a plan. I know he does. Luckily I had already written down all the numbers of the people we are working with now. We just can't call them. So we're having other missionaries in Geneva do our calls for us at night. It's kind of nice actually. it's like having secretaries. Ha. "hey elders, can you schedule us an appointment with family silva for thursday? thanks." hahaha! well.. we'll see how long the office takes to get us a new phone..
I love reading Bri's Emails because they perfectly describe how POLAR OPPOSITE our missions are. haha. "oh yeah, we had a guy walk in to the visitor center and say he wanted to be baptized got a phone call, turns out he DID get baptized a couple weeks later". haha. yeah. Around here, no one just WALKS UP TO US and asks for that stuff. Actually, more than anything people LITERALLY run away from us. haha. I can't even tell you how many times I've cracked up laughing at people because of the RIDICULOUS things they do to avoid us on the streets. I really should start making a list.
Heres a few:
1. Faking a phone call as we walk by. so many people will pull out their phones, say bonjour JUST as we're walking by, and when we pass them they put their phones back in their pockets. haha. i'd say i see that at least 15 times a day. Pretty funny if you think about it. People just pulling their phone out of their pocket to say hi to it. Like it was lonely in their pocket or something. haha.
2. The, I'm going to casually j-walk to the other side of the street, then re-cross the street after you walk by manunver. That one is hilarous. People try to pull it off like they forgot where they were going or something. If as many people as do that to us ACTUALLY forgot where they were going, we have a real epidemic of stupidity in this society.
3. Couples that are casually walking down the street that decide to start kissing JUST as we walk by. It's pretty much 50% of couples. I can almost pin-point the distance we must be from a couple in order for them to start kissing. Either this one is just a coincidence or we as missionaries have a ring of romance that we carry around us about 4 meters in radius. That'd be pretty awesome though if it was true.. nope.. people just don't like missionaries.
I'll list more later. But for now.. I blame the JW's. They made people scared of people in white shirts and ties. Either that, or they made everyone have a VERY personal relationship with their cell phone, gave them short-term memory loss that comes and goes, and made PDA even more popular when there are missionaries near by. ha.
As you can see. We find joy in what we do here. No matter the trials. I know we're doing a great work here. So far in my mission I've given about 2,500 people the opportunity to listen to the restored gospel. I'd say that's pretty great. I've had to opportunity to tell people that Jesus loves them countless times already. Plus I've given about 20-30 people the opportunity to read and pray about the book of mormon, to find out if God REALLY exists. And as long as I'm taking this message to every person I can, I'm doing my job.
I love you all so much!
Thanks for your prayers!
Love,
Elder Lago