To start this thing off, I think I’m going to ask that you forgive my grammar and spelling mistakes because I’m using a computer from 1990 and the letters aren’t very clear on the screen, so I’m just kind of going by what it seems like to me. I really miss having a computer… I’ve only got an hour and a half to do everything, and I miss having a computer that actually works well…
I think Thanksgiving is this week, but I have to admit that I’m not exactly sure. They don’t celebrate it here in Peru, so I’m just going according to what my calendar says. I want to do something cool, but I’ll admit I don’t have any ideas — food is kind of expensive, and everything I buy I would have to buy today. Maybe I’ll just buy a liter of ice cream and eat it all — you get just as full as if you’d had eaten turkey, pie, mashed potatoes, and stuffing! (The only problem is that it has absolutely no nutrients whatsoever! But at least it’s not GMO!)
This week was a little interesting, with a few milestones, strange events, and some cool spiritual experiences, so I’ll consider it a success.
First, I finished the Green Book! I don’t actually know what it’s called, or why it’s called the Green Book (it’s actually white, but with a little bit of green on the front and the spine), but it’s the book I use to study Spanish. I’ve been working through it and would have finished it a long time ago if I actually had time to study Spanish! But I finally finished all the practices and stuff, so the only thing left to do is read the dictionary to learn how to say the stuff I want. The grammar is really hard, but the thing that stops me from being able to express myself are the words. I have to use the same words for every situation (For example, in English I can say, “my arm hurts” and, “my arm aches” and it’s basically the same, but with a slight difference. In Spanish, I can only say it one way, and it’s limiting!)
As for strange events, the first is that I had to do a couple of unplanned acts for the ward talent show we had. First they told us about five minutes before that the performers still hadn’t shown up, so we had to sing “I Am a Child of God” in Spanish, Portugues, and English, and after that I decided to to a kata (a martial arts performance) because we had investigatores and had to make a good impression, so I filled some time with that. I was really rusty with the English!
The other interesting event was that I was walking down the street and out of nowhere some guy walked up to me and asked me why I wanted to kick him out of my country. I was a little confused until I realized that Trump is President now, so I had to explain that I didn’t do anything!
But yeah, that’s it for this week because I’m out of time. ¡Hasta luego!
— Elder Schroeder