20,000 Lessons for the Week

9/22/14 

Alright so this week Imma write so dang much that ya’ll gonna need a bookmark.

So to start out the week.  When I was younger I spat out of the car window as we were going.  It then came back to hit me in the face.

My pops then taught me ‘Don’t spit into the wind.’

This week as I was riding on my bike did I listen to that advice? No.

My companion is learning English.  This week we taught a lesson to a family where the kid was yelling and taking our stuff and when the parents tried saying something he just yelled at them. (I would have taken out moms yard stick)  Anyways when we left the house Elder Racchumi said in English "He is a devil..." haha I don’t know why I thought it was so funny. 

We continue having phantoms in our house.  This week we heard the phone going off to wake up in the morning.  So we got out, prayed, got ready to exercise and then we went out and started.  My companion and I felt way more tired that we should have been.  So my companion looked at the spare clock that he had and it said that it was 4 in the morning...

So we went back to bed:)

We got invited to a service to clean a park. We went to the spring party of the branch here.

And then we also went to a birthday party of the daughter of some investigadors.  While we were there they had food and drinks and all the stuff that you could possibly want... even a bounce house.

As I looked at the bounce house I was tempted to go in.  More tempted than the trix bunny is for some cereal. So when nobody was looking I snuck in and started jumping.

I thought to myself "Man its so bouncy that I bet that I can do a backflip in this..."

So I got a decent jump and I went for it... got 25%...got 50%...got milk? (stupid joke, yes. do I care? nope.) ...got 60%... and then I saw the ground get closer to me and with my knees I drilled face then causing my glasses to make a sliding motion up my face taking off the epidermis and spilling red platelets on my face and the whole tent.  I looked like a fool walking in trying to cover up my head.  but ya fue.

I actually have a pretty sweet picture of it. 

Dad, I know I won’t do it again.

Uncle Scot, I didn’t poke an eye out.

This same week the same family is super super generous and one of them, Marito, gave me a "Padre Nuestro" (the catholic Prayer thing) ring.  

There may be some of you who are asking why did I choose to title my card home this week like I did.  

These past couple of weeks my companion and I have been wanting to find some new people, but not just do it in the average way that everybody does it.  We started talking to some members and we found out that there is a news channel that gives a 10 minute slot to a pastor every week.

We went from side to side asking people how we could get on and nobody had a clear answer.  Even when we went to the channel 2 they told us that they didn’t know and that we had to talk to the head man first who is only there at 8 at night every night.

So finally Elder Racchumi and I found him and got the things cleared up so that we could go.  We gave them our number and then after that they told us that they would be calling us soon to tell us when we can go.

Literally the next day we got a call from another pastor (who tried bible bashing with us by saying "Hey don’t take this the wrong way but... everything that you teach is a lie..." oh man we had a good laugh about that.) And he told us that another pastor canceled and that we were on the stage in less than 1 day.

So Elder Racchumi and I started practicing for all the time that we possibly had.  We were practicing in the streets, in lunch, in dinner.  Everywhere, like those green eggs and ham.

   And then the moment came.  We nocked on the door to tell them that we were here to teach.  The man opened the door and told us that we can come in and help our pastor when he gets here... after explaining for 20 minutes we finally helped him realize that we don’t have a pastor and that it is us that are going to teach. (Ma real bad grammar... help a son out here...)

So we get in there shaking more than a cell phone on vibrate. And we started practicing for the big time.  

So a guy walks up to us and asks us "So... which one of you two is going to teach?"  

We told him both of us and he told us that there is only one. 

We thought that it was just another miscommunication but after trying to explain to him that we are like a fridge we have the fridge and the freezer but they come together he told us that still... we can only have one.

Like I explained earlier my companion is learning a bit of English so he looked at me and said "you..."

So I got up there and... I... got so nervous that I puked everywhere...

Psyche! No, I got up there and they showed a couple of things and then they told me where to look and then I taught about how the church came to be and that’s the way the cookie crumbled.

I was pretty satisfied with it after.  I was a little shaky but I gave a little prayer with Elder Racchumi and It turned out well.  We also counted it as 20,000 lessons for the week.

I’m not sure but I think if you look for Canal 2 ATCCO San Clemente 17 de Septiembre tienen agrabado

The next day I felt like a celebrity.  They gave me time right in the middle of the nightly news, when everybody is watching so we had people honking and telling us "May God bless you!" all sorts of things like that. They repeated it and I saw it in the house of a member, Victor.  Kinda embarrasing but the honey badger don’t care. (Man I hope that somebody out there gets that joke...)

So this week we had changes.

My old crew in the zone all packed up and left.  And now we have a whole bunch of new people that I don’t know and I feel like a stranger in my own house.

To start out I went up and tried talking to a new sister who only had like 2 days.  

This is how the conversation went 

"Hey there where are you from?"

(She didn’t hear me and walked off...)

So then a good 3 hours later when we were in the bus I thought well... here goes round 2

"How were the first 2 days of the mission?"

(She didn’t hear me and started reading...)

So I then thought "Well.... lets just call it good."

So we were riding on another bus and I was trying to collect all of my stuff to get off.  I’m still convinced that the bus driver was waiting for me to try to step off cause as soon as I tried stepping out he shut the doors and I had to try to escape from the clenching grasps of the door like Hans Solo when he has to escape from that giant space worm’s mouth.

Anyways this week, just after going on TV I came across Alma 58:11.  I felt like God was talking to me.  Prayer helps me feel better when I’m nervous or scared.  It helps me know what I have to do even when I don’t want to.  God guides us if we are listening, and helps us if we are asking and looking.  

Oh... also for P-day my companion and I found that there is a maze close to our house (one of the biggest of South America) so we went with the district and got lost for a good 30ish minutes and had a race with the other missionaries.  We took 2nd.  

After that we dressed up like pirates.

I hope that you all have a great week.

Love,

Elder Merkley