Well, sorry for the lack of an actual email last week. I didn’t really have a whole lot to report, as I said, and I had to take a lot of time preparing my tech. Elder Ushiñahua gave me a little radio and I was getting some conference talks, writing to my mission president about all the things I’ve got to do as District Leader, and a bunch of other stuff. So this week I’ll try to make up for it…
(… But I don’t really have a whole lot to report this week either!)
Well, for starters, tomorrow are cambios, which probably means that I’m off to another area! I’ve already been here for 6 months now and it’s time for me to go. I’ll honestly be a little sad but I have been here for a while. Maybe it’ll do me good to go off to another part (And maybe have a new responsability! Everyone in my district thinks I’m going to be a zone leader, but I doubt it. I don’t have a whole lot of time as a DL and all the ZLs are new, so they’re not being changed out quite yet. Plus I don’t really want to stop being DL! It’s a lot of fun and I’m learning a lot!) Unfortunately, I won’t know until tonight what’s going to happen, but that will be the first thing I mention in my next email!
I admit, it would be really funny if I didn’t leave because everyone’s already saying good-bye to me! I’ve written in so many notebooks and Books of Mormon!
This is only half of the stack! I’ve been working my way through the books every night, but I don’t get far enough because I finish one or two and end up with three more! It’s really great to see that these people really do like me and it gives me the opportunity to write a little something so they remember me (And how to spell my name! My ward mission leader still doesn’t know how to pronounce it correctly! I’ve actually given up and have started telling everyone — ward members, investigators, contacts in the street — that my name is “Élder Shweder” so that they can manage to pronounce it!). What I don’t like is that I NEVER KNOW WHAT THE HECK I SHOULD WRITE!!! I have no clue what to say and it takes too long to write it all! If I make it sound lame or write something dumb, that’s what they’re going to have to remember me by! Luckily I’ve at least figured out Spanish grammer, so I don’t make mistakes (Hopefully!)
Then we had a little fiesta in our district meeting:
(Man, you can tell that summer’s coming! All the whiter people in the district are a little sunburned! It’s starting to get really hot here! And the weather always messes with you! It’ll be raining in the morning but during the day it must be 80 degrees, and at night it drops down to 60 or 50! It’s like being in Colorado! (But with more dogs. And Spanish!))
I made pancakes, which, might I add, is no small feat! When you have no measuring utinsels and the recipe is according to cups and teaspoons, you kind of have to guess it. Then you don’t have syrup! And when you’ve finally finished mixing all the ingredients you have to cook it on an electric stove that you need to unplug every few minutes to maintain the heat and keep it from burning the pancakes. They ended up pretty well, so I’m proud of it, but it was very hectic for a good half-hour!
But not much else to share for this week. Today I should have a party in the branch, so I’ll take some pictures of that, but I’ll keep you all posted! Until next week!
— Elder Schroeder