Dear Mommy,
Holy cow I don't even know where to begin with this email this week haha I think I need to start writing down the stuff that happens so I can know what to put in my emails because I feel like it kinda falls out of my brain after a little while. Ummm where to begin, where to begin.... Oh! On your question with Spanish mom, the verb estudiar... to study lol I know what you mean. Spanish is a little less complicated than english, in that if you want to say "I am studying", you can say "estudio", which literally means "I study", or you can say "estoy estudiando" which literally means "I am studying"... they both mean exactly the same thing, although I usually go with estoy estudiando. "Estoy" comes from the verb 'estar' which is 'to be', and estudi'ando' is what's called the "gerund" form, like adding 'ing' to the end of a verb and yeah... I'll stop rambling haha you already get it.
So Alvaro got baptized last Sunday, so we had to wait til this Sunday to confirm him, so I called him on Saturday night to ask him who he would like to do it... I said "maybe someone from the bran-" and before I could even finish my suggestion, he picked ME to do it! Oh my gosh I've never been so scared/flabbergasted in my entire life! I mean, I was flattered and excited that he picked me, but at the same time, I'm not very good at Spanish, even worse when it's in front of a group of people, and doing a confirmation is a lot harder than just doing a baptism because you've gotta add a legitimate blessing on to the end of it... aaaah it was scary! Don't worry, I didn't botch it.... I made sure I memorized his full name before-hand haha. Alvaro Cruz Lara Gomez... yeah all hispanics have like four last names its insane haha. But yeah, it all went well, and he's going to be a great member for the branch.
On a worrisome note, Silvia and her family are kind of falling off the wagon... Silvia and Salvador haven't been to church in two weeks, and their daughter Guadalupe in nearly a month. I don't know how to get them to come on Sundays, it's ridiculous! We've tried explaining the importance of the sacrament to Silvia now that she's baptized, we've tried teaching them all about the sabbath day, and it still seems like it isn't clicking for them... I don't want to lay the law down on them, but I feel like if they don't get it in gear, they're never gonna go anywhere! Dangit, as a missionary sometimes, I wish I could just make people see the importance of the things we teach them... make them get off their lazy butts and do what the Lord wants! I guess that kind of infringes on the whole agency thing though... ah well maybe they'll get it through their noggins soon and become a good family in the branch... just maybe.
On a higher note, we found a lady this week who is absolutely awesome. We found her knocking doors, and her name is Liliana. She told us that she was born as a Catholic, but had never gone to church growing up (surprise, surprise). Also, that her kids had been asking her questions about God, and she had absolutely no answers for them. She said she knew that the Catholic church wasn't the right one, but she didn't know which one would be. The day she was thinking this, we knocked her door. PLOP! That was the sound of "un regalo de los cielos"(a gift from heaven) falling into our hands haha. We taught her about the atonement of Jesus Christ and why it is important to her, and then about the Book of Mormon. She told us that her grandmother had read to her from the bible growing up, but that it just seemed like a bunch of random books thrown together and that it wasn't very clear (go figure huh?), and that she wished there was something more clear that showed us what we should do with our lives. PLOP! I really thought I was going to keel over with how shocked I was from hearing this. This really goes to show that some people really are prepared to hear the message; people who are the elect of God and ready to make the changes necessary in their lives to come into the church. We left her in that visit with Moroni's promise, just 10:3-5, and told her to pray about it. She asked us, "so if I find out that this is true, do I have to give up the virgin and saints and all the stuff from the catholic church?" We told her, basically, yes, expecting her to say that she wasn't going to do it then, but instead, she simply said, "okay, if it's what God wants then I can do it." PLOP! We came back a couple of days later to find out that she had read what we left her, as well as the introduction, as well as the testimonies of the three witnesses, as well as the testimony of the eight witnesses, as well as starting on the testimony of Joseph Smith. She said she was too scared to pray, because she was afraid of talking to the most powerful being in the universe, so we explained that God is our heavenly father, and that just like our fathers here on earth, he loves us and wants to talk with us, so as we closed our lesson, we asked her to pray, and she did... It was one of the most beautiful prayers I've ever heard in my whole life. I can't even wait for her to come to church! Yesterday she couldn't, but next Sunday, she's going to come to general conference which should be sweet, and we have an appointment with her today, so we'll see how things go. Gosh I LOVE being a missionary!
Aside from that, there's not too much going on here, just knocking doors, trying to find people that are ready for the gospel, as well as trying to keep the rest of our investigators progressing. At times, it absolutely crushes you with disappointment out here, but finding people and helping them change their lives as well as develop a love for the Lord... that's what makes it all worth it.
So a quick question... Did Katie Jo ever get the letter I sent her? If not I'm gonna be mad because that was a letter of epic proportions. If not, I'll try to re-construct it in email form so that she has what I tried to write her. That's amazing she's doing so well in school I'm so proud of her... she isn't making stupid mistakes like I did in high school. Tell her I love her and I'm so proud of her... and that boys are stupid and she should stay away from them... well, at least until I get back. That way, I can scare the crap out of them when they ask her on dates haha. She's such a sweetheart, I absolutely love getting all the letters she sends to me. It sounds like she's a total champ when it comes to working and schoolwork! Kudos to her! Is she still driving around in Franklin, or are you guys being sneaky and letting her roll around in Blanca while I'm not there to defend her? Speaking of which, how is that ol' bucket of bolts? Still nicely parked on the side of the house leaking out of the transfer case all over the driveway? If so, I'm sorry dad, I'll clean it up when I get home I promise haha.
Gosh I never realized how much i missed the little holidays you always put on for us mom! Easter sounds like it's going to be a complete blast while you're down there with Michelle and Ryan. The Easter-egg hunt we had down by gunlock was, in all seriousness, probably my absolute favorite memory from Easter... it was so fun! you should definitely do that for Dodge and Addison while you're down there... they would have such a blast with that!
As for food suggestions for when you have those little punks over the missionary night, you should feed them what I got to have last night for dinner... Tacos de Chicharron! We were eating with the other two elders at this lady's house named hermana Avila, and she said "orale, estos son tacos de chicharron... espero que les gusten!" I asked elder McVey (one of the elders from Keizer) what they were, and he said, "don't worry about it, I'll tell ya after. Just eat." So, without questioning more, I ate eight of them. Now, so I don't sound like a total fatty, these aren't hard-shell, pour sour cream and grease all over them tacos, they use the small corn tortillas and put just a little bit of meat in them, then you put salt, lime, salsa verde, onions, and either lettuce or cabbage on them... delicious. but anyways, after we ate those, shared a spiritual thought, and took off to the car. When we got there, I asked him, "okay, what were they really?" He told me that chicharron is pig skin and pig fat... YIKES! haha they really weren't that bad, but i'd rather stick with carne molida (ground beef) in my tacos thank you very much haha. But yeah, for dinner I would suggest tacos with corn tortillas (heat them on the stove on a griddle or a frying pan for about a minute a piece, just don't let them get blackened) and then serve them up with normal taco meat like you make mom, and then have lime, salt, salsa verde, and lettuce. For dessert, go to a panaderia and get some "pan dulce" and hot chocolate. If you want really authentic mexican hot chocolate, you can get some stuff called 'Abuelita' from a mexican specialty store. It's made my nestle, but it has cinnamon and stuff in it, and it's tasty!
But yeah, I'm gonna stop talking about food, because it's starting to make me hungry haha. That about sums up the excitement for this week, but I love you guys so much and I am so grateful for all of your support and love while I'm out here. I'll talk to you guys next week! Be safe!
Con amor para todos de ustedes,
-Elder Kurt Kay Mooney
Monday, March 29, 2010
Monday, March 22, 2010
Another baptism!
Dear Mommy,
All right first thing's first so all of you can stop worrying about Elder McBride, he's home haha. Turns out he had called a friend in California a few weeks prior and set up his "escape" for the day that we had our exchange. But yeah, he was picked up by his friend that morning, didn't buy anything on his card so they couldn't trace him, and drove back to California so he can be a bum without a job and live with his mom again... Ta-Daaa!!! haha. Okay that's super rude of me to say, but gosh dude that's simply unacceptable. If you want to go home, at least be man enough to tell your mission president and do it the right way instead of running away like a seven year old kid... not cool at all.
On a much more uplifting and exciting note, we had a baptism yesterday woot woot!!! Alvaro Lara is now a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I thought I was going to grow some gray hair last night at the baptism though... The baptism started at six, and Alvaro didn't show up until 5:59 instead of 5:30, and both of the speakers showed up at 6:15, so Garcia and i were scrambling to put talks together about baptism and the holy ghost respectively until they showed up... AAAAH! haha. One thing that is funny about this branch that I haven't seen in any others is the fact that they start 10 minutes late for EVERYTHING and they always stay for at least half an hour after whatever meeting they're in is over. Hispanic people love to talk it's awesome haha even if it's just about random stuff. Yesterday after correlation meeting, Elder McVey and I went on an exchange to invite one of their investigators to church and the baptism before church started, and ended up talking to him for nearly half an hour just about random stuff. It's just part of the culture I guess... and I love it!
So you got Preach my Gospel mom? That's sweet! The Koli Poki thing is really helpful, but one thing that'll make it even more helpful is if you do it with a little notebook and a spanish-english dictionary so you can look up words you don't understand and write them in that notebook to study later. Holy cow it's a pain sometimes, but it really does help you to do that, so get to it! Don't forget to read out loud either, because that will help you speak it better as well. So Katie likes Jesse and Joy? Sweet I KNEW she would! haha I did write her a letter last week though... has she not gotten it yet? I wrote her a huge one this last week I promise haha I've been slacking on it so bad, so i wrote a letter of epic proportions that has the translated lyrics to the sweetest Jesse and Joy song ever.... hopefully it wasn't too heavy for just one stamp... it had like seven sheets of paper in it haha.
Mom, you're gonna hate me, but I haven't had to play the piano yet in the mission... I've been afraid that I'm losing my touch, so I have started practicing when we're in the building sometimes haha. Not just hymns, but primary songs to work on sight reading... I played one this last week that reminded me of you so much mom it about brought me to tears haha. You remember that one Christmas song that starts out "Picture a stable in Judea, picture a starry silent night..."? Playing that brought back memories of learning that song with you when I was little... I love you mommy.
Sorry to get all nostalgic there haha... so you've got a recital coming up? That is going to be a sweet concert! you need to kick some butts to get some certain kids practicing the piano mom haha exercise some authoritah! So is the weather treating you guys nicely or is it still good ol' bipolar utah weather? Here it's been surprisingly good! This week, we've had almost a full week of sunshine minus yesterday where it rained, although it cleared up again last night, so yeah no complaints here.
I still haven't heard from Devin, but I hope he emails me soon! Shoot that would just make my day if he actually got baptized... I miss that kid haha. Now we just need to get Kyle baptized and then we could be "the Mormon fatties!" haha.
All right, I'm out of ideas on what to write for this email, but I love you mom, and send my love to everyone else in the family, okay? Have a great week and keep studying spanish as well as your scriptures!
Con amor siempre,
Elder Kurt Kay Mooney
All right first thing's first so all of you can stop worrying about Elder McBride, he's home haha. Turns out he had called a friend in California a few weeks prior and set up his "escape" for the day that we had our exchange. But yeah, he was picked up by his friend that morning, didn't buy anything on his card so they couldn't trace him, and drove back to California so he can be a bum without a job and live with his mom again... Ta-Daaa!!! haha. Okay that's super rude of me to say, but gosh dude that's simply unacceptable. If you want to go home, at least be man enough to tell your mission president and do it the right way instead of running away like a seven year old kid... not cool at all.
On a much more uplifting and exciting note, we had a baptism yesterday woot woot!!! Alvaro Lara is now a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I thought I was going to grow some gray hair last night at the baptism though... The baptism started at six, and Alvaro didn't show up until 5:59 instead of 5:30, and both of the speakers showed up at 6:15, so Garcia and i were scrambling to put talks together about baptism and the holy ghost respectively until they showed up... AAAAH! haha. One thing that is funny about this branch that I haven't seen in any others is the fact that they start 10 minutes late for EVERYTHING and they always stay for at least half an hour after whatever meeting they're in is over. Hispanic people love to talk it's awesome haha even if it's just about random stuff. Yesterday after correlation meeting, Elder McVey and I went on an exchange to invite one of their investigators to church and the baptism before church started, and ended up talking to him for nearly half an hour just about random stuff. It's just part of the culture I guess... and I love it!
So you got Preach my Gospel mom? That's sweet! The Koli Poki thing is really helpful, but one thing that'll make it even more helpful is if you do it with a little notebook and a spanish-english dictionary so you can look up words you don't understand and write them in that notebook to study later. Holy cow it's a pain sometimes, but it really does help you to do that, so get to it! Don't forget to read out loud either, because that will help you speak it better as well. So Katie likes Jesse and Joy? Sweet I KNEW she would! haha I did write her a letter last week though... has she not gotten it yet? I wrote her a huge one this last week I promise haha I've been slacking on it so bad, so i wrote a letter of epic proportions that has the translated lyrics to the sweetest Jesse and Joy song ever.... hopefully it wasn't too heavy for just one stamp... it had like seven sheets of paper in it haha.
Mom, you're gonna hate me, but I haven't had to play the piano yet in the mission... I've been afraid that I'm losing my touch, so I have started practicing when we're in the building sometimes haha. Not just hymns, but primary songs to work on sight reading... I played one this last week that reminded me of you so much mom it about brought me to tears haha. You remember that one Christmas song that starts out "Picture a stable in Judea, picture a starry silent night..."? Playing that brought back memories of learning that song with you when I was little... I love you mommy.
Sorry to get all nostalgic there haha... so you've got a recital coming up? That is going to be a sweet concert! you need to kick some butts to get some certain kids practicing the piano mom haha exercise some authoritah! So is the weather treating you guys nicely or is it still good ol' bipolar utah weather? Here it's been surprisingly good! This week, we've had almost a full week of sunshine minus yesterday where it rained, although it cleared up again last night, so yeah no complaints here.
I still haven't heard from Devin, but I hope he emails me soon! Shoot that would just make my day if he actually got baptized... I miss that kid haha. Now we just need to get Kyle baptized and then we could be "the Mormon fatties!" haha.
All right, I'm out of ideas on what to write for this email, but I love you mom, and send my love to everyone else in the family, okay? Have a great week and keep studying spanish as well as your scriptures!
Con amor siempre,
Elder Kurt Kay Mooney
Monday, March 15, 2010
Comings and GOINGS!
Dearest Mommy,
This week has been pretty sweet... busy as always, but good. I'm just trying to think of what we did this week haha. Well, on the subject of teaching lessons and all, it was totally awesome. We have a solid date set for Alvaro Lara next Sunday at 6:00 p.m. here in the Keizer stake center woot woot! He's such a stud and is going to make a great member. Dana is going to be putting a date for herself in the next little while here, so hopefully that all turns out well. Also, Salvador and Guadalupe (family of Silvia) are hopefully gonna get baptized in the next little while here as well! Aside from that, we're gonna have to start knocking a lot more to find some more people that we can teach, because after them, all we have are Jesus and Yara, and then Pedro Vazquez, who aren't going anywhere anytime soon... it's funny because the last three come to church almost every sunday, but Jesus and Yara are just waiting for papers to get married, and Pedro... well, he's Pedro haha. Slowly but surely he'll bite the bullet and get baptized. But yeah... aside from those, it looks like a lot more knocking for us... woohoo! Honestly it's not even that bad though... it's actually kind of entertaining! It cracks me up because a couple nights back, we went to a member's house to drop off some plates that they had given us food on, and when we knocked the door, they didn't answer forEVER! We knocked three times, and finally their daughter came to the door and through the door asked, "Quien es?" When we said "los misioneros!" she opened up and said, "oh good! My dad thought you guys were la migra!" hahahaha.
Other than that, there was only one other thing that happened this week that is worth really mentioning in this email, but trust me, it's a doooozey!
So this Friday, we had an exchange with our District leader Elder Retis and his companion elder McBride. Retis came down to Salem, and I was up in Woodburn with Elder McBride. Now, elder McBride has been having some problems out here on the mission with wanting to go home, etc., and basically he's been pretty worthless. But anyway, we were on exchange up there, and so that night he looked really mad and frustrated with Retis, but I didn't know why. Anyways, what happened on this exchange was that we went to sleep that night, and the next morning we ate and then he took a shower, then after he got out I took a shower. Then after that, I took a shower, but when I got out, McBride was GONE!!!! Absolutely GONZO!!! The thing that made this even worse is the fact that Elder Retis had accidentally kept the phone of the Woodburn area, so I didn't have a phone, AND McBride stole the car keys. Because of that, I had to run around the complex to find someone with a cell phone to call the elders down in Salem to tell them he had disappeared, and so it turned into a huge fiasco, and long story short, Elder Retis is in a trio in Woodburn with the other elders now, and McBride is gone and we have NO Idea where he is hahaha.
Anyways, that's the quick update for the day, but I love you guys and I miss you so so much! Keep going strong with the spanish, it'll come with some time I promise!
Con amor,
-Elder Mooney
This week has been pretty sweet... busy as always, but good. I'm just trying to think of what we did this week haha. Well, on the subject of teaching lessons and all, it was totally awesome. We have a solid date set for Alvaro Lara next Sunday at 6:00 p.m. here in the Keizer stake center woot woot! He's such a stud and is going to make a great member. Dana is going to be putting a date for herself in the next little while here, so hopefully that all turns out well. Also, Salvador and Guadalupe (family of Silvia) are hopefully gonna get baptized in the next little while here as well! Aside from that, we're gonna have to start knocking a lot more to find some more people that we can teach, because after them, all we have are Jesus and Yara, and then Pedro Vazquez, who aren't going anywhere anytime soon... it's funny because the last three come to church almost every sunday, but Jesus and Yara are just waiting for papers to get married, and Pedro... well, he's Pedro haha. Slowly but surely he'll bite the bullet and get baptized. But yeah... aside from those, it looks like a lot more knocking for us... woohoo! Honestly it's not even that bad though... it's actually kind of entertaining! It cracks me up because a couple nights back, we went to a member's house to drop off some plates that they had given us food on, and when we knocked the door, they didn't answer forEVER! We knocked three times, and finally their daughter came to the door and through the door asked, "Quien es?" When we said "los misioneros!" she opened up and said, "oh good! My dad thought you guys were la migra!" hahahaha.
Other than that, there was only one other thing that happened this week that is worth really mentioning in this email, but trust me, it's a doooozey!
So this Friday, we had an exchange with our District leader Elder Retis and his companion elder McBride. Retis came down to Salem, and I was up in Woodburn with Elder McBride. Now, elder McBride has been having some problems out here on the mission with wanting to go home, etc., and basically he's been pretty worthless. But anyway, we were on exchange up there, and so that night he looked really mad and frustrated with Retis, but I didn't know why. Anyways, what happened on this exchange was that we went to sleep that night, and the next morning we ate and then he took a shower, then after he got out I took a shower. Then after that, I took a shower, but when I got out, McBride was GONE!!!! Absolutely GONZO!!! The thing that made this even worse is the fact that Elder Retis had accidentally kept the phone of the Woodburn area, so I didn't have a phone, AND McBride stole the car keys. Because of that, I had to run around the complex to find someone with a cell phone to call the elders down in Salem to tell them he had disappeared, and so it turned into a huge fiasco, and long story short, Elder Retis is in a trio in Woodburn with the other elders now, and McBride is gone and we have NO Idea where he is hahaha.
Anyways, that's the quick update for the day, but I love you guys and I miss you so so much! Keep going strong with the spanish, it'll come with some time I promise!
Con amor,
-Elder Mooney
Monday, March 8, 2010
Awesome Crazy Week
Mi querida familia,
Holy cow it's been a crazy week haha let me give you the blow-by-blow for what went down:
Monday: P-day. Church funds didn't come through like they're supposed to, so we had no money on our cards to buy groceries etc.. That night, we started an exchange with our district leader Elder Retis.
Tuesday: I spent the day in Woodburn with our district leader, taught seven lessons, and went on divisions while we were on exchange... crazy! Finished the night at about 9:30 (normally ends at 8)
Wednesday: We had district meeting in Woodburn, so we were there for about 4 hours... crazy long this week I don't know why. That night, we taught Alvaro about the word of wisdom and law of chastity... he accepted both.... BOOYEAH!
Thursday: We headed out to Tualatin for zone conference. Started at 9:00 in the morning, and ended around 5:00 that night. Our dinner appointment canceled on us that was supposed to be at six, but while we were over at the Martinez', Silvia decided to cook dinner for us (awesome) That night, we started exchanges with the zone leaders for Friday.
Friday: I was on exchange with our zone leaders in Tigard... Elder Benjamin Roush to be more exact, and it was sweet! Again, another day with six lessons, and lunch at an amazing barbecue place whose name escapes me, but honestly, the most amazing BBQ sandwiches I've ever had! Then we had dinner with a lady from Argentina that says 'Posho' instead of 'Poyo', 'esha' instead of 'eya', etc. which was really funny, but what was amazing is the fact that she is a widowed foster mom with no joke probably 20 kids in her tiny house. She was having troubles transporting all of them, so she bought a bus. Yeah, a BUS! It's hilarious because you see this little short-bus parked in the driveway with 20 little carseats, all attatched in every row of it, it's a crack-up. Aside from that, all the lessons went really well, we taught a lady that night for what was supposed to be only like 20 minutes, but we were there til 9:20 and she is GOLD! Elder Roush and his companion found her two weeks ago, and she never knew how to pray. Now, she prays morning and evening, and gives more beautiful prayers than general authorities. She wants to pray! That, and after she said the closing prayer, she said "I love to pray because it brings such a sweet feeling to my heart" As soon as she said that, I taught her that that is how we feel the holy ghost in our lives, and she was STOKED! She wants to get baptized as soon as she can, so probably in the next couple of weeks she'll be taking the plunge (no pun intended... well.. maybe a little bit haha).
Saturday: Since we didn't have time on Monday to do shopping and we didn't have time thursday for planning, we decided to go shopping at Winco (completely missed our turn to go back to the freeway and drove for 20 min into the Eugene mission...don't worry about it haha), came back to the church and planned for a few hours, and then had a couple appointments after dinner with the Ramirez.
Sunday: This was an epic day for sure! We woke up, wrote a progress report for our investigators to take to correlation, had our meeting, then decided to go invite Silvia and Guadalupe to come to church, because they haven't come the last couple of weeks. We went to their apartment, their car was gone, and we knocked the door and nobody was there! We were afraid they'd bailed and gone to the outlets in Woodburn again, so we left them a note and headed back to church. When we arrived and went to open to the door to principios del evangelio, I about fell over dead. There in the room was Silvia, her husband Salvador, Guadalupe, and her younger sister Andrea! Oh my gosh it was amazing!@!!!! Not only that, but Alvaro was their, and so was Dana! that's a record high for us.. six investigators, and two of them have a baptismal date! (Alvaro of course, and Dana again if we can convince her grandma)
Oh! one other funny thing that happened while we were there. As sacrament meeting was starting, there was a Polynesian guy dressed like a thug sitting on the last pew where we normally sit, so I went over and introduced myself to him and asked him what he was doing in here. I told him, "you may be brown, but you don't look like you speak spanish... where are you from?" (not in a racist way, I LOVE brown people haha) but yeah... within maybe ten seconds of talking to him, I could tell that he was absolutely SLOSHED! Not only that, but I think he had taken something along with it because MAN I don't think I've ever seen anyone that messed up... at least not in a sacrament meeting hahaha. As the meeting was starting, he was talking loud and so I took him out into the foyer and oh my geash this guy was trashed haha. The first time I asked him where he was from, he told me he was from the island of Chook, later he told me he was from Saipan, then he told me he was Tongan, then he told me he hates Tongans and that he was samoan, then he switched back, then he told me he was born and raised in the united states, then he said that his parents were from India... all upon demand when I asked him where he was from. Then he wanted to fight one of the guys in the ward for money, said he would do it for $500 bucks, then began to take off his clothes until he was in just a pair of basketball shorts and a wifebeater in the foyer of the church!!! It was hilarious! Somebody called the cops, and they booted him off the property, but oh man it was comical for sure.
Another exciting thing that happened at church was that Alvaro bore his testimony! I was so mad because I didn't get to hear all of it (mainly because I was talking to a drunk idiot out in the foyer), but yeah it was sweet!
I'm trying to think of what else we have going on that's exciting... well, today we're triple booked for dinner, so that will be interesting! We have dinner with Silvia and the Martinez at 3, we're going out for pizza with a guy in the ward whose getting ready for his mission at 4, and then we have dinner with another member at 5... bleh haha. It's a good thing we run every day here!
Anywho, that about wraps up the excitement here, but thank you for the updates mommy, it sounds like everything is going sweet there! So you're listening to spanish radio? haha I would advise looking into Jessie & Joy they're sweet and a lot easier to listen to than strait up spanish radio with all the banda crap they play. I'm actually gonna send some lyrics I translated from a song of theirs to Katie so that she can look it up... I think she would LOVE to sing it because it's like right in her range. Anywho, I've gotta get writing to Josh and finish my letter to Katie and such, so I'll talk to you guys later I love you!
Con amor,
Elder Kurt Kay Mooney/Martinez
Holy cow it's been a crazy week haha let me give you the blow-by-blow for what went down:
Monday: P-day. Church funds didn't come through like they're supposed to, so we had no money on our cards to buy groceries etc.. That night, we started an exchange with our district leader Elder Retis.
Tuesday: I spent the day in Woodburn with our district leader, taught seven lessons, and went on divisions while we were on exchange... crazy! Finished the night at about 9:30 (normally ends at 8)
Wednesday: We had district meeting in Woodburn, so we were there for about 4 hours... crazy long this week I don't know why. That night, we taught Alvaro about the word of wisdom and law of chastity... he accepted both.... BOOYEAH!
Thursday: We headed out to Tualatin for zone conference. Started at 9:00 in the morning, and ended around 5:00 that night. Our dinner appointment canceled on us that was supposed to be at six, but while we were over at the Martinez', Silvia decided to cook dinner for us (awesome) That night, we started exchanges with the zone leaders for Friday.
Friday: I was on exchange with our zone leaders in Tigard... Elder Benjamin Roush to be more exact, and it was sweet! Again, another day with six lessons, and lunch at an amazing barbecue place whose name escapes me, but honestly, the most amazing BBQ sandwiches I've ever had! Then we had dinner with a lady from Argentina that says 'Posho' instead of 'Poyo', 'esha' instead of 'eya', etc. which was really funny, but what was amazing is the fact that she is a widowed foster mom with no joke probably 20 kids in her tiny house. She was having troubles transporting all of them, so she bought a bus. Yeah, a BUS! It's hilarious because you see this little short-bus parked in the driveway with 20 little carseats, all attatched in every row of it, it's a crack-up. Aside from that, all the lessons went really well, we taught a lady that night for what was supposed to be only like 20 minutes, but we were there til 9:20 and she is GOLD! Elder Roush and his companion found her two weeks ago, and she never knew how to pray. Now, she prays morning and evening, and gives more beautiful prayers than general authorities. She wants to pray! That, and after she said the closing prayer, she said "I love to pray because it brings such a sweet feeling to my heart" As soon as she said that, I taught her that that is how we feel the holy ghost in our lives, and she was STOKED! She wants to get baptized as soon as she can, so probably in the next couple of weeks she'll be taking the plunge (no pun intended... well.. maybe a little bit haha).
Saturday: Since we didn't have time on Monday to do shopping and we didn't have time thursday for planning, we decided to go shopping at Winco (completely missed our turn to go back to the freeway and drove for 20 min into the Eugene mission...don't worry about it haha), came back to the church and planned for a few hours, and then had a couple appointments after dinner with the Ramirez.
Sunday: This was an epic day for sure! We woke up, wrote a progress report for our investigators to take to correlation, had our meeting, then decided to go invite Silvia and Guadalupe to come to church, because they haven't come the last couple of weeks. We went to their apartment, their car was gone, and we knocked the door and nobody was there! We were afraid they'd bailed and gone to the outlets in Woodburn again, so we left them a note and headed back to church. When we arrived and went to open to the door to principios del evangelio, I about fell over dead. There in the room was Silvia, her husband Salvador, Guadalupe, and her younger sister Andrea! Oh my gosh it was amazing!@!!!! Not only that, but Alvaro was their, and so was Dana! that's a record high for us.. six investigators, and two of them have a baptismal date! (Alvaro of course, and Dana again if we can convince her grandma)
Oh! one other funny thing that happened while we were there. As sacrament meeting was starting, there was a Polynesian guy dressed like a thug sitting on the last pew where we normally sit, so I went over and introduced myself to him and asked him what he was doing in here. I told him, "you may be brown, but you don't look like you speak spanish... where are you from?" (not in a racist way, I LOVE brown people haha) but yeah... within maybe ten seconds of talking to him, I could tell that he was absolutely SLOSHED! Not only that, but I think he had taken something along with it because MAN I don't think I've ever seen anyone that messed up... at least not in a sacrament meeting hahaha. As the meeting was starting, he was talking loud and so I took him out into the foyer and oh my geash this guy was trashed haha. The first time I asked him where he was from, he told me he was from the island of Chook, later he told me he was from Saipan, then he told me he was Tongan, then he told me he hates Tongans and that he was samoan, then he switched back, then he told me he was born and raised in the united states, then he said that his parents were from India... all upon demand when I asked him where he was from. Then he wanted to fight one of the guys in the ward for money, said he would do it for $500 bucks, then began to take off his clothes until he was in just a pair of basketball shorts and a wifebeater in the foyer of the church!!! It was hilarious! Somebody called the cops, and they booted him off the property, but oh man it was comical for sure.
Another exciting thing that happened at church was that Alvaro bore his testimony! I was so mad because I didn't get to hear all of it (mainly because I was talking to a drunk idiot out in the foyer), but yeah it was sweet!
I'm trying to think of what else we have going on that's exciting... well, today we're triple booked for dinner, so that will be interesting! We have dinner with Silvia and the Martinez at 3, we're going out for pizza with a guy in the ward whose getting ready for his mission at 4, and then we have dinner with another member at 5... bleh haha. It's a good thing we run every day here!
Anywho, that about wraps up the excitement here, but thank you for the updates mommy, it sounds like everything is going sweet there! So you're listening to spanish radio? haha I would advise looking into Jessie & Joy they're sweet and a lot easier to listen to than strait up spanish radio with all the banda crap they play. I'm actually gonna send some lyrics I translated from a song of theirs to Katie so that she can look it up... I think she would LOVE to sing it because it's like right in her range. Anywho, I've gotta get writing to Josh and finish my letter to Katie and such, so I'll talk to you guys later I love you!
Con amor,
Elder Kurt Kay Mooney/Martinez
Friday, March 5, 2010
Monday, March 1, 2010
Elder "Martinez"
Hey Mommy!
Oh man I am so jealous that sounds like a freaking saweet trip! I'm sorry about having to fight off the pounds though... I know how you feel! It's funny here because all of the Spanish elders are kind of in that boat just because they feed us SO DANG MUCH FOOD! When I was with Smithee, he wouldn't eat anything the whole day just so he could handle the amount of stuff they give us at dinner time. Other elders try to pick up their dinners so they can just eat a normal portion (definitely bad for PR with members), and some on planning day take what's called magnesium citrate to... well... for lack of better terms, clean you out haha just so they aren't packing around an extra 10 pounds of food in their bellies. But yeah, it's really funny to see the different ways people try to keep it off. It wouldn't be so difficult, but you've only got 30 to 40 minutes in the morning to try to burn off a 2,000+ calorie meal, along with whatever they may serve you afterward for dessert, and whatever you choose to eat during the day. So far so good for me though... We've been running every morning since Garcia and I became companions, so all my clothes from before the mission still fit.
Speaking of clothes, can you do me a favor? Run down to Mr. Mac and find out who their tailor is, then smack him for me? I don't mean to bag on these suits, but honestly, I think I'm getting better thread-wear from the suits I bought at Goodwill! My houndstooth pattern dark brown one has the hem blown out on the left pant-leg on one pair, and the other pair of pants the little extend-waist elastic ripped out and I had to sew it back in in the MTC... thank you for showing me how to sew mommy!
Okay enough ranting about my suits haha. Our investigators are doing quite nicely this week... minus Sunday, which was a total flop, because we had planned on having five come to church, and guess how many actually showed up? One. Yeah, that was quite possibly the most ridiculous thing ever. We arranged rides, we visited them all on Saturday, made sure they were going to come, and MWEH (supposed to sound like a duck, but I don't know how else to spell it haha). Luckily, the one who showed up is the one that we have a baptismal date with. His name is Alvaro, and he's a total stud! He's 29 and was dating a member in the branch who is less-active, but he ended up basically dropping her, and is now mostly just interested in the church! We have been teaching him, and he understands EVERYTHING! It's amazing honestly... He comes to church, and participates and answers questions that most of the members won't answer. He's going to be getting baptized the 20th of this month, so here comes baptism number two woot woot!
The one thing that I love about being a missionary though is not the baptizing part. Don't get me wrong, it's all awesome and cool that they become members, but it's the relationships you build with them that makes it so worth it to be out here. Like with Silvia and her family. Gosh I love those guys they're so sweet. We've been going over pretty often to teach Silvia's husband Salvador, as well as their daughter Guadalupe, and through doing that, we've become really close friends with them. It's funny, we were over at their apartment one day talking with them, and just about how a lot of things in English are hard to pronounce, and then we got the fact that "Mooney" is hard to say for Spanish people. I told them that It would be easier as a missionary if I could just change my last name to something Hispanic so everyone could pronounce it, and so they said that they would adopt me as their son and I could just use "Martinez" as my last name while I'm a missionary haha. Anyways, they're super sweet people, and so are all of the people we've been teaching.
Aside from those guys, we've been teaching a couple whose names are Jesus and Yara, and they're so cool! He's just barely 18 and she's 17, and they've got a 10 month old baby named Audi... yes like car haha. Anyways, they're so sweet and have a testimony of everything, but there's one hitch... they're not married yet. They both want to, but have to wait for Yara to get papers so that she's a legal resident. They're about two months away from doing that, so I might still be here for when they get married as well as get baptized. It's so cool though because as we've been talking to him, we only have four lessons and once those are gone, you kind of have to find other stuff to teach, so we've been talking to him a lot about eternal marriage and going to the temple after he's been a member for a year, and he's eating it up! I think they might actually take a trip down to Utah just because he wants to see the Salt Lake temple so badly, and he said as soon as they've been members for a year, they want to get sealed there because it's so beautiful. We're thinking in the next couple of weeks, we might take them over to the Portland temple and have a picnic with them, and maybe show them around the terrarium there in the foyer of the temple. Anyways, ah exciting stuff with them.
Aside from them, we have Dana who is still having problems with her grandma... gosh she's a butthead. That, and yesterday she said she wanted to come to church, we set up a ride for her (because she's only 14), and when the family giving her a ride stopped by, she was ASLEEP! At 12:00 noon she was still asleep so what the heck! We've gotta stop by today and see what exactly happened with her.
Lastly, we have Pedro Vazquez. He is a freaking stud, but he needs to get baptized! His wife is actually an endowed member of the church, and they have three adorable little kids (one of which she had this week!), and gosh they are such a sweet family. Even the names of the kids are adorable! Pedro (Pedrito), Perla, and Paulina. It's hilarious because Pedrito is always dressed up like a storm trooper, spider man, or one of the power rangers running around the house, and Perla LOVES Hanna Montana, and always wearing a Hanna Montana T-shirt that is more like a dress on her, and puts on a pair of sunglasses ans she sings and dances around; but what really cracks me up is she gets mad if you call her Perla. If you do, she gets this angry little look and says, "NO! Soy Hanna Montana!" haha. In my personal opinion, it's a little weird to see a little Hispanic girl insist that her name is Hanna Montana, so along with her mom Rocio, we've opted for the name "Juana Montana" haha.
We finally saw them for the first time in over a week last night because she was in the hospital for most of this week with the baby and all that jazz, but they're doing great now. We are basically trying to build a good relationship with Pedro more than anything right now because he's been taught everything, and he's, well, stubborn haha. We're hoping that he'll get baptized soon, but who knows. Poco a poco, lentamente, it's gonna happen.
Anyways, enough about investigators haha. Life is good here in the mission. I have absolutely no complaints about elder Garcia because he's a total stud. I love teaching with him, and everything we've been doing this week has been saweet! That's the update for this week, and I hope everything is going amazingly at home!
Love,
Elder Kurt Kay Mooney
Oh man I am so jealous that sounds like a freaking saweet trip! I'm sorry about having to fight off the pounds though... I know how you feel! It's funny here because all of the Spanish elders are kind of in that boat just because they feed us SO DANG MUCH FOOD! When I was with Smithee, he wouldn't eat anything the whole day just so he could handle the amount of stuff they give us at dinner time. Other elders try to pick up their dinners so they can just eat a normal portion (definitely bad for PR with members), and some on planning day take what's called magnesium citrate to... well... for lack of better terms, clean you out haha just so they aren't packing around an extra 10 pounds of food in their bellies. But yeah, it's really funny to see the different ways people try to keep it off. It wouldn't be so difficult, but you've only got 30 to 40 minutes in the morning to try to burn off a 2,000+ calorie meal, along with whatever they may serve you afterward for dessert, and whatever you choose to eat during the day. So far so good for me though... We've been running every morning since Garcia and I became companions, so all my clothes from before the mission still fit.
Speaking of clothes, can you do me a favor? Run down to Mr. Mac and find out who their tailor is, then smack him for me? I don't mean to bag on these suits, but honestly, I think I'm getting better thread-wear from the suits I bought at Goodwill! My houndstooth pattern dark brown one has the hem blown out on the left pant-leg on one pair, and the other pair of pants the little extend-waist elastic ripped out and I had to sew it back in in the MTC... thank you for showing me how to sew mommy!
Okay enough ranting about my suits haha. Our investigators are doing quite nicely this week... minus Sunday, which was a total flop, because we had planned on having five come to church, and guess how many actually showed up? One. Yeah, that was quite possibly the most ridiculous thing ever. We arranged rides, we visited them all on Saturday, made sure they were going to come, and MWEH (supposed to sound like a duck, but I don't know how else to spell it haha). Luckily, the one who showed up is the one that we have a baptismal date with. His name is Alvaro, and he's a total stud! He's 29 and was dating a member in the branch who is less-active, but he ended up basically dropping her, and is now mostly just interested in the church! We have been teaching him, and he understands EVERYTHING! It's amazing honestly... He comes to church, and participates and answers questions that most of the members won't answer. He's going to be getting baptized the 20th of this month, so here comes baptism number two woot woot!
The one thing that I love about being a missionary though is not the baptizing part. Don't get me wrong, it's all awesome and cool that they become members, but it's the relationships you build with them that makes it so worth it to be out here. Like with Silvia and her family. Gosh I love those guys they're so sweet. We've been going over pretty often to teach Silvia's husband Salvador, as well as their daughter Guadalupe, and through doing that, we've become really close friends with them. It's funny, we were over at their apartment one day talking with them, and just about how a lot of things in English are hard to pronounce, and then we got the fact that "Mooney" is hard to say for Spanish people. I told them that It would be easier as a missionary if I could just change my last name to something Hispanic so everyone could pronounce it, and so they said that they would adopt me as their son and I could just use "Martinez" as my last name while I'm a missionary haha. Anyways, they're super sweet people, and so are all of the people we've been teaching.
Aside from those guys, we've been teaching a couple whose names are Jesus and Yara, and they're so cool! He's just barely 18 and she's 17, and they've got a 10 month old baby named Audi... yes like car haha. Anyways, they're so sweet and have a testimony of everything, but there's one hitch... they're not married yet. They both want to, but have to wait for Yara to get papers so that she's a legal resident. They're about two months away from doing that, so I might still be here for when they get married as well as get baptized. It's so cool though because as we've been talking to him, we only have four lessons and once those are gone, you kind of have to find other stuff to teach, so we've been talking to him a lot about eternal marriage and going to the temple after he's been a member for a year, and he's eating it up! I think they might actually take a trip down to Utah just because he wants to see the Salt Lake temple so badly, and he said as soon as they've been members for a year, they want to get sealed there because it's so beautiful. We're thinking in the next couple of weeks, we might take them over to the Portland temple and have a picnic with them, and maybe show them around the terrarium there in the foyer of the temple. Anyways, ah exciting stuff with them.
Aside from them, we have Dana who is still having problems with her grandma... gosh she's a butthead. That, and yesterday she said she wanted to come to church, we set up a ride for her (because she's only 14), and when the family giving her a ride stopped by, she was ASLEEP! At 12:00 noon she was still asleep so what the heck! We've gotta stop by today and see what exactly happened with her.
Lastly, we have Pedro Vazquez. He is a freaking stud, but he needs to get baptized! His wife is actually an endowed member of the church, and they have three adorable little kids (one of which she had this week!), and gosh they are such a sweet family. Even the names of the kids are adorable! Pedro (Pedrito), Perla, and Paulina. It's hilarious because Pedrito is always dressed up like a storm trooper, spider man, or one of the power rangers running around the house, and Perla LOVES Hanna Montana, and always wearing a Hanna Montana T-shirt that is more like a dress on her, and puts on a pair of sunglasses ans she sings and dances around; but what really cracks me up is she gets mad if you call her Perla. If you do, she gets this angry little look and says, "NO! Soy Hanna Montana!" haha. In my personal opinion, it's a little weird to see a little Hispanic girl insist that her name is Hanna Montana, so along with her mom Rocio, we've opted for the name "Juana Montana" haha.
We finally saw them for the first time in over a week last night because she was in the hospital for most of this week with the baby and all that jazz, but they're doing great now. We are basically trying to build a good relationship with Pedro more than anything right now because he's been taught everything, and he's, well, stubborn haha. We're hoping that he'll get baptized soon, but who knows. Poco a poco, lentamente, it's gonna happen.
Anyways, enough about investigators haha. Life is good here in the mission. I have absolutely no complaints about elder Garcia because he's a total stud. I love teaching with him, and everything we've been doing this week has been saweet! That's the update for this week, and I hope everything is going amazingly at home!
Love,
Elder Kurt Kay Mooney
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