Harry Potter's Room

1/19/15 

Well, another week has come and gone.  Things are so sweet here.  My comp is trying to teach me how to sing still.  

We were going back to the pension one night and we saw this guy walking super slow in front of the pension and he kept on looking at us.  I thought to myself as Hans Solo said so often "I’ve got a bad feeling about this...” So I told my comp "Keep going, we are gonna ride past the pension." So we kept going and as we were passing that guy he looked right at us and he said, "Hey guys! What’s up! Ya’ll Mormons?"

We stopped those little bikes and turned on a dime to talk to him. Turns out that he is from Seattle teaching English here in the summer.  Named Nathaniel.  What a great guy.

We were going to have a reunion de distrito in Monte and then the whole schedules got screwed up so we just ended up making pancakes in the pension with 8 elders.  Yay!  FUNNEST MEETING EVER!

We had a meeting in the morning for some Elders this week but we are 6 hours away from where they were going to have it so they just told us that we should just stay where we were and Skype them.  So we went to a member’s house and made some maple syrup (thanks Katie), with peaches, cream, apples, banana, and French toast.  It was one of the best breakfasts that I have had in a long long time:)

We then went into a small room that kinda reminded me of Harry Potter’s room, just with a window... and legos... and tried to listen to the meeting.  I say tried cause it was all muffled and it sounded like they were behind 3 brick walls. 

Were we determined to stay there all 7 hours? Yes. Did we understand a single word? That would be a definite no.  2ND FUNNEST MEETING EVER!

We had some people come to the pension and kill the many families of spiders that aren’t paying rent here.  So they sprayed some stuff and they said in a couple of hours it will take effect.  We went and slept and then in the morning I found 3 or 4 dead spiders on me.  What a great way to wake me up in the morning!

We were studying this morning and a bird drilled our window.  Sooner or later Mr. Clean is gonna have a lawsuit on his hands for cleaning those windows a little too well.

We got new bikes.  On which this morning we woke up bright and early at 5:30 and we went for a bike ride around the lagoon here that is about 7 miles.  We ate a little snack at the halfway point but it was super cloudy so we didn’t get to many pictures.  Either way.  Coming soon pictures of the bike ride.

I ate lamb.

I learned how to grab flies out of the air.  There is a dragonfly flying around my head in this moment.

I found 300 pesos in my pocket.

Well... to finish off the week yesterday it started showering, just pouring water so we, with our brand new bikes that we have had for less than 24 hours, were riding home from the house of a member cause she gave us a little tupper of food for lunch.

     

I had that food in my right hand and the other hand on the brake.  We were going home calmly in the streets when we saw a car booking it on the left.  Thinking quickly We had to pull the e-brake on the bikes to avoid him but what I didn’t realize is that the left hand brake is for the front wheel so as I squeezed those new brakes in the rain I stopped dead in my tracks, as if I was hitting an invisible wall.  I then flew threw the air like an acrobat with the food in my hands and landed in a puddle with my neck down to my feet completely covered in water... the bad news? I broke my new bike. The good news? I saved the food. I would still count that as a win.

As we were riding home laughing about what just happen and the mass of people who saw me fall with style I thought about a scripture in Doctrine and Covenants 78:19 that says

19 And he who receiveth all things with thankfulness shall be made glorious; and the things of this earth shall be added unto him, even an hundred fold, yea, more.

And D & C 46:32

 And ye must give thanks unto God in the Spirit for whatsoever blessing ye are blessed with.

Many times we have little problems and trials in life.  But it is from these things that we have to learn.  We shouldn’t hold things against people for what they have done, just bless God for the chance to learn and trust that he can help us.  I am learning everyday and be it a day happy or a day full of hardship I am grateful that the Lord has put me here.

I hope that you can all see the good things that the Lord has given you.

And I also hope that you have a great week.  

I0\/3,

Elder Merkley