Suck it up, Soldier!

12/16/14

Alright well... this week my comp and I were having a little heated discussion--(jk it wasn’t that heated, just really hot outside... and kind of heated)--and his bike broke.  So he flipped it over to put the chain on and his helmet fell off.  

So he fixed his bike and then we talked for a bit more and when we were leaving he picked up his helmet and I saw that it was dripping.  I looked over to the right and saw a black dog with his eyes full of guilt.  I told my companero to stop and check if it was pee.  The results came in positive.

I saw my first humming bird here:)

We have a plum tree that makes it rain plums. Sometimes when I am collecting them, I sing "its raining men" but I replace men with plums.  The other day parakeets were eating all of our plums so I ran out side and threw a plum at them.

I saw a girl biking with high heels this week.  I looked at her and thought  "if Its hard to walk on high heels, she’s gotta be a keeper"

We were teaching a lesson and little caterpillars kept on falling on us from the trees.  The people were all freaking out saying that they are poisonous and they burn your skin if you touch them.  One touched my companions arm and he started saying "oh... it burns... it burns..."  I just thought to myself ‘suck it up soldier.’

3 days after we went back and the caterpillars were waiting for us.  They were kinda like the ice cubes at the bottom of your glass and then when you hit it, they all attack at the same time. (All credit to Dmitri Martin.) I sat down and out of nowhere like 4 were on my shirt.  I flicked them all off and then I put my arm down and felt somebody stab my arm.  I looked down and there was a little black caterpillar that was stuck in my arm.  I started saying "holy crap that burns... oh man that burns..." then the parts that it touched got hot and swollen and white.  Then the words "Now I know how my companion feels" came to my mind.  And then I thought, "Shut up conscience"

After that lesson that we had we asked the woman if she could pray for us.  We taught her how to do it.  Then she said "Padre Celestial...." and then everything was quiet... for one minute... then for 2 then 3 minutes rolled around. 4...5...6... in pure silence.  Then I thought to myself "alright this is getting out of hand. Is anybody praying here?" So I peeked and said... "Amen?" and they all said amen.

We had intercambios with some elders from an area called Speggazzini.  All 4 of us stayed in our area and did some work.  We had to go farther so my companion and one of them went by foot out to the boonies.  At 9 pm we finished our lesson and it started to drizzle and there was a lot of lightning so we booked it home.  We called the other elders and we couldn’t hear them and then out of nowhere it just started pouring rain.  It poured and poured and poured--kinda like a shower turned on all the way. Then my companion walked in—like a lake monster.

We tried teaching some 10 year old kids and I felt like I would have had more success teaching a dog than I did with them.  Lesson learned: If I have the choice of teaching 10 year olds or a dog... go with the dog.

We also had a Christmas conference this week where we just had a bunch of asado (BBQ kind of) and then we had to put on a play about the Scrooge and the missionaries taught him about why we celebrate Christmas. And who had to be the missionary? If you guessed elder Merkley you would be right.

After that we went to Canuelas cause our area is so far and we had a sleepover there.  I don’t know why but they are always so fun.  I guess that after being with somebody for 24 hours a day 7 days a week, its just kinda nice to talk to somebody new and hear new stories.

The next day we went to a house where the floor had been sinking for like 10 years, to the point where there is almost a hole in the floor in the center.  The family had a priestess come and look at it and she said that there was somebody dead under there and in Argentina you never know. I didn’t believe it, but my companion was getting freaked out and adding to their imagination even saying "yep... there is somebody dead..."  I just looked at him with a good ol glare to the soul telling him to cut it out. So we went and blessed the house and then somebody started screaming and climbing up the wall and we had to lock her in the room until...

Na just kidding I just wanted to spice it up a bit. We just blessed it and got the heck outta there.

Also this week nobody bought bread for the Sacrament so what did we do?  Use some crackers that we found.  During the prayer it was my turn to say it for the bread.  When I got to the part where I have to say, "Bless the bread,” I didn’t know what to say…bread or crackers? Bread or crackers?  I had a 50/50 shot.  So after 5 seconds I thought "this isn’t bread... they are crackers..." so I went with "and bless these crackers for all the..."   Did I have to do that blessing again? Yep but its a good thing that I blessed the crackers too.

This week we had quite a bit of people tell us that they didn’t want to listen to us at all or accept us.  This is normal.  Nothing to see folks but I was reading this morning and I found this scripture.

 Rev3:20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

There are so many people that have no clue what we are sharing and they don’t even know how happy it can make them.  But until they open the door we cant do anything.

It is the same with all of us.  The days that I am not reading the scriptures, I have doubts.  The days that I do I feel a difference.  God gives us the scriptures so that we can know for ourselves the truth and what decisions we should take in our lives, but we will never know until we take the decision to open up the door and experiment with his words.  We will never know if God lives if we never look for him. So that is what I invite you all to do in this Christmas season, open up the door.

I love you all and have a great week

Love, Elder Merkley