Semana 4? and 4 de julio

Creo que es la semana cuarta, pero no estoy seguro. Pues....

Nothing much has changed this week, so this is going to be a short email, pienso.

I ended up not doing the "new tradition" thing for the musical number on Sunday. I decided we'd just have a rest hymn instead. But it turned out to not matter because it was El Domingo de Ayunar anyways. But after "Master the Tempest is Raging" as our first hymn, the bishopric member stood up and said something like "Leave it to a music major to pick interesting music. These next few weeks are going to be very fun, I can tell. I don't think we've ever sung that song in here." Un poco avergonzando.

Funny story of the week and illustration of my relationship with my companion (who is pretty awesome): Matthew responded to my email with a very interesting and entertaining letter about Salvadoranean and Mexican slang because I'd mentioned in it that I'd have to stop using "guey." He talked about a word "Bicho" que significa "bug" literalmente pero "man" or "dude" in El Salvador, pero mas como "bastard" en el Norte de Mexico. I told Elder Petersen about this and without skipping a beat, he responded. "soo......quizas, bicho." We laughed. then later in the apartment, we were both brushing our teeth and he saw a spot on the floorboard that might have been a bug or maybe just a fault in the wood. He pointed at it and kinda grunted as you do while brushing your teeth. I shrugged and responded "Quizas, bicho." Then he started roaring with laughter while the other missionaries looked at us like we were crazy. Fue muy comico.

Another testament to our relationship: a semidirect quote from Elder Petersen: "I don't know why, but before the MTC I was pretty mature. But now that I'm with Elder Taylor all the time, I'm just, like, not. At all." I don't know if that means I'm a bad influence or if it means that he can "finally be himself around me" or whatever, but in either case it means that he's comfortable enough to be immature around me. And that's good. One thing that I was really looking forward to on the mission was making good friends with other guys, something that's always been a struggle for me. But I feel like we're really good friends, not just companions.

Every day, we go to the TRC (I don't know what it stands for) and teach a lady named Ivette in a role-play setting. We thought she was a member the whole time because most "investigators" in the TRC are members. Nope, it turns out she's furrealzies. We had a particularly good lesson with her (in which all efforts to communicate in spanish were eventually foregone) in which she told us all about her coming from atheism and finding the church. It was really awesome. She kept saying stuff like "I've never told anyone this before." It was cool that Elder Petersen and I had the chance to be there for that.

Hice dos goles en futbol esta semana! Huuju! It's amazing, you make a goal in soccer and suddenly everybody starts passing you the ball as if you know what to do with it. It's a little embarrassing at times: I'm not dreadful at soccer, I can often do something "cool" and I'm pretty good at getting the ball from people and I'd like to think that I'm pretty darn good at looking around and seeing where I'm needed. But my companion played soccer on scholarship for Westminster College. Around campus, he's a bit of a celebrity. Se llama "Elder Futbol." Actually, embarrassing isn't the right word. I don't know. But it is a little weird.

He estado estudiando el subjuntivo en particular, y esta teniendo mas sentido que antes. "Dios nos ama y quiere que seamos felices en esta vida y despues de la muerte." He dicho esta oracion muchas veces en las semanas pasadas. "No creo que gane Mexico la Copa Mundial." Acabo de hacer esa en mi cabeza. Pero es la verdad, porque Mexico no esta en la "running" para la Copa Mundial.

Han oido ustedes acerca de el partido entre Alemania y Brasil?! 7-1! Que avergonzando para Brasil, pero BIEN HECHO para Alemania! He oido que muchas personas creen que ella va a ganar. Daniel: usted gana esta vez. Cuatro anos, Mexico va a ganar. Espera usted. Cuatro anos.

Joshua: Bien hecho en bananagrams! que padre!

Pues, es todo, pienso. Cuidense mucho!

-Elder Taylor

PS: los fotos no son muy bueno. Lo siento.

​

4 de julio

Me olvide! El cuatro de Julio, we got to watch the fireworks del Estadio de Fuego from the parking lot in the Campus Oeste y comer Magnum Bars. Fue muy divertido, y tengo fotos en un otro email. Lo siento.

Also, a little funny thing. Nobody calls me "Elder Taylor." Our first teacher se llama Hermana Cabello es de Peru and she can't pronounce "Taylor." So she calls me something that sounds more like "Eh-ler Tie-lore." So that is my name. "Elder Petersen" becomes "Eh-ler Peersohn," "Elder Price" becomes "Eh-ler Precio," "Elder Sheffield" becomes "Eh-ler She-Feel," "Hermana Wood" becomes "Hermana Booth," "Hermana Grenfell" becomes "Hermana Grin-fall," and she doesn't even bother to pronounce Burgoyne usually. The only two she doesn't really have any problem are "Hermana Hoopes" and "Hermana Riches." It was really funny when she was trying to explain to us that a word was slang. We thought she was saying "it's slain." Then she over-emphasized to make her point clear. "SLAAAYYNG" in a super overthetop gringo accent. It was really funny.

-Elder Taylor


Photos-
1. --
2. Elders Taylor and Petersen
3. Me, Elder Petersen, Elder Sheffield, Elder Price. 
4. The hermanas in the bottom photo: Hermanas Hoopes, Burgoyne, Wood, Grenfell, Riches.

2014.07.02

Hola Todos!

This whole week I've been thinking about what I said in the last email, and I feel like it was really negative and not at all reflective of my experience here. So this one will be better.

I'm becoming better at finding time by myself. I have to always be within sight and sound of my companion, but I can find time where I'm within sight/sound mas o menos (such as when we're in the apartment) that I don't have to interact with anyone. Shining shoes is just such a perfect time.

And Mormons may be crazy, but I am one and plan on being one my entire life, so I'll just have to deal with it. I don't have to remain in Utah forever.

Funny story today: I met an elder from St. George and told him I lived up on St. James Lane. Turns out he does too. He lives right next to the church up there. His name is Elder Whatcott (?) and it also turns out that his brother-in-law is from Meridian. As it turns out, his bro-in-law went to MVHS and is a Bastian. I graduated with his little brother.

Earlier this week, there was a new elder that looked really familiar but not exactly right for who I thought he was. Then when we were playing futbol, he come up to me and smiled and said "hey, Petey!" Apparently we went to seminary together. He's going to Baw-thelona Thpain.

But today, I finally ran into an actual, bona fide friend. We went up to eat at the main campus cafeteria for lunch today and I saw Elder Tanner Howard sitting a table away so I ran up and we hugged and talked. I guess he's going to Tallahassee. Anyway, apparently the terrible trio (Russ Dent, Dustin Something-or-other, and Nick Rollins, the twerps that always chased me down to tackle me in high school) ALL REPORTED TODAY. So I may have to watch my back.

Y el idioma si esta progresando. Hemos hablado con unos nativos en el CCM yendos a misiones varias en el EEUU. Es muy divertido.

Dos metas especificas que tuve esta semana: progresar en deportes, y progresar en el Subjuntivo. Ore por ayuda y he estado haciendo todo en mi poder para progresar en los dos. He estado descrubiendo casos en los que pueda usar el Subjuntivo en Lecciones. Por ejemplo: "Dios quiere que seamos felices." He estado usando eso muchas veces. Y hoy, hice cuatro baloncestas en basquetbol! Arriba arriba! And I dribbled past somebody, THREE TIMES. I'm feeling pretty good right now. I'm not a perfect player or a perfect user of the subjunctive, but I have accomplished my goal: to improve. 

Ideas for lessons out of PME (PMG): seriously, just use the lesson plans provided and adapt them. I don't think once have our lessons gone as planned and multiple times have gone in completely, 100% different directions. But no lesson has been a complete flop. Also, apparently there are a whole lot more sections in PME than just the lessons, mostly about how to improve as a person and as a missionary. I always wondered why there were so many other pages. Those can be very helpful in teaching.

Fui a La Ciudad del Lago Salino por el Consulado de Mexico ayer. Fue divertido, pero no hice la entrevista requerida. Ojala esta bien. Mi companero esta en Las Vegas hoy por la misma razon.

On Sunday, I was sitting up in front of the congregation waiting for the meeting to start. (I was going to bless the water.) The old district was leaving on Monday, so everybody knew we were getting new zone leaders, a new sister training leader and a new music coordinator. My companion was playing the piano and at one point, Elder Sheffield nudged me in the ribs and said that Elder Petersen was being talked to by the Branch President. "Oh shoot," I said. Because if he was getting a calling right then, then that meant that he was likely getting called as zone leader. And you know what that means: I would be zone leader as well. But then Brother Bahr came up to me and said "It's a good thing you're holding that hymnbook because you're going to need it for the next three weeks." So shoot. I'm the new music coordinator and my companion's the new district leader. (Also I'm the new senior companion but that doesn't really count for anything in the CCM.) President Sanchez announced to the Branch that I have the hardest calling in the zone/branch. So yay. I get to find people willing to admit that they can play the piano and do musical numbers, something I'd been very careful to not admit up to this point. I think I'm supposed to be learning something from this.

Also, apparently the suffix "ue" is not just a suffix like Canadian "eh." My companion used it in front of a CCM teacher. Apparently it means "ox" or something but really means something more like "man" or "punk" only slightly more derogatory. Entonces "Vamino ue" no significa "Let's go, eh" sino significa "Let's go punk/man." So I won't be using that on my mission.

GOOD NEWS! I looked over Las Reglas de la CCM otra vez and it DOES NOT SAY "No Music." Si dice: "No music in the residence halls." Anywhere else is fine. WOOHOO! Unfortunately, I've had it in my head for so long that it's taboo, that I think if I were to listen to music I would still feel like I were doing something against the rules. Bummer.

Cool thing: on the way to SLC yesterday I talked to a Palestinian Arab woman. She told me about being LDS in Palestine and having to illegally cross the border to go to church. At one point on a random check, her BYU-J ID got her past an Israeli guard who otherwise would have been able to retain her and who knows what would have happened after that.

Could someone please send this to Matthew McVey-Lee? He wrote me my first day here and I never responded. Thanks!

So Yes, the CCM is difficult. I've many times felt inadequate and many times wondered what the heck I'd gotten myself into. But not once have I contemplated leaving.

We get a new district tonight. Here's my idea for getting a musical number for Sunday. Tell the new district that it's tradition for the new districts to all stand and sing on their first Sunday. What I don't have to tell them is that I'm starting the tradition now.

Chao, todos!

Elder Taylor