Monday, February 17, 2014

Last Days in Guernica

1/6/14 
My last days in Guernica we called Alex and his mom and asked them if we could cook for them (because they always cook for us) to celebrate my last days in the area.  We prepared some Honduran food (which is actually just Mexican with different name.)  We ended up having tacos and these corn tortilla balls filled with pigskin and cheese. (Haha I really am going to try every single part of an animal here.)

We were cooking and cutting and then my comp asked me if I could cut the peppers and then take out the seeds. These weren’t any normal peppers. They were like jalapenos, just hotter.  So he told me to cut them up so I did exactly that, but cutting out the seeds with the knife was taking way way too long. So I just decided to take it out with my hands.  Much easier.  I relaxed and talked with them and played some church music, etc. etc. Then I started to feel a burn in my fingers, up to my knuckles, then to my wrists then my face, ears, nose, mouth, throat, lips, and all down my arm started to burn.  I didn’t know what to do or say so I just started to laugh and ask for some water.  They all looked at me like I was a loon but it was killing me.  I couldn’t really explain what was going on cause I was laughing but it was burning everywhere.  I finally pointed to the peppers and then they understood.  I had to put my arms in water for the next hour because every time I took them out they burned. I thought one hour was bad, but then it burnt for 2 then 3 then 4 then 10 hours, then I woke up in the night and they were still tingling and even to the next morning they felt really really hot. So I have learned my lesson.  Do not touch anything if you are cutting peppers or wear a good 2 or 5 layers of protection.

The next day was my last day in Guernica and I had to give a talk about missionary work.  I was dang nervous cause usually I don’t talk for very long. Also my companion went to the Ensign and found all of these quotes and scriptures and then when he saw my page and a half of notes he told me "Don’t worry. I can talk for at least 40 minutes if you only have 5 or 10 minutes of material." So I got up there and like a baby I was already choking up when I started to talk but I managed to push through and I didn’t cry until the end.  And after sacrament.  And when everybody was leaving. And later that night.  Haha they call a cry baby a lloron here.  They also call a lloron an Elder Merkley.  Anyways, I ended up talking for 30 on accident, I don’t know how or what I said but I did it! I accidentally took 10 minutes of my comps time so all of his hard work went down the drain... sucker...

After that we went to the pension to go change out of our suits and when we were there the other missionaries called us and asked us if we were ok... When we asked why they told us that our bikes weren’t there.  They have an April fools day here so we thought that they were joking but there were being really really insistent.  So we went down and what do ya know... The bikes really weren’t there.  We looked where they were and somebody had cut the lock and ran off with our bikes in the 15 minutes that we were changing... Gosh dang it...  So we were on foot my last day en Guernica

That night we decided to have a Game night in the church for my final goodbye.  We invited everybody and talked and watched a little movie and had food.  It was real good until everybody wanted to say goodbye.  I didn’t know what to do because there were people there that I had never even talked to and they wanted to take a picture and talk for 30 minutes and I was trying my best to say "Alright time to move along folks" in the nicest way possible.  It was especially hard saying goodbye to the people that we had baptized there-- Fernanda, Bruno, Santiago, Albert, Marivel, and Pierina and also the families like the Guarachis, Avalos, Sajama, and Americes who fed us every single week without fail.  It was a sad sad night but it was gonna happen sometime.

I’m stoked for this transfer. I love you and hope that everything is good. 

Love Andy


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