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.
Love Andy
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