Powers Out...August 25, 2014

Week 2:

This week has come and gone and I barely realized it!!  It is still really, really hot and humid and we have been without electricity for the past 3 days.  3 days without electricity!!  I am doing good now that we finally have it.    All of the breakers read on so I flipped them off then on but it didn't do anything so we had to wait until today to contact the electric company and our bill was paid so we didn't know what to do!!  The Elders Quorum Pres. is an electrician so he came by and the breakers were just loose.  So stupid!!  We have a very nice fridge but we just ate out.  We bought some eggs and I have my flashlight too so it wasn't that bad.   The people below let us use an extension cord for the nights for a fan for our room but wow it gets hot!!  I became acclimated real well these past few days!! :/ We do our own wash and I have pictures of it I will send later.  It is pretty shnazzy. When we don't get meals from the ward members (which is every breakfast and some dinners) we just make it ourselves and we aren't bad cooks.

Elder Herbas has been kind of sick this week.  No, we didn't play soccer.  I played catch today with him because we didn't have electricity so we couldn't go far.   He seems to be doing better now.  He has an older sister who got married just a little bit ago and twin younger brothers in between Luke and Heath.  His dad is a truck driver.  There are 6 elders and 4 sisters in my district.

Elder Herbas killing a mouse in our apartment

We have a baptism this Saturday (Victor) and I am so excited because this man has such a strong testimony and Satan is really working hard on him right now!!  I dearly hope he can make it to this Saturday!!  It is crazy at how real Satan is and how careful we have to be in everything we do.  Nacho and Melina didn't come to church but really want more of the lessons!!  As far as the work goes, days are super slow.  I am learning how to control my free time real well because meetings here with investigators and members really hardly ever happen so that is kind of frustrating but as I continue to learn that everyone is like that, the latter part of this past week didn't seem so bad.   On the bright side, it is always easy to find someone else to talk to whether it is contacting or sitting down with someone else we know.  Every night we don't go over the lessons I write in my journal.  It is kind of my own time to rewind and refocus.  Our mission is preparing right now to have Elder Christopherson from the Quorum of the Twelve come and speak to us and I can't wait!!  It is going to be such an amazing experience!!

No, I am not playing the piano!  They don't even have pianos to play!  Everything is either with the radio (they only have about 1/2 of the songs on cd) or just acapella.  No, it is a ward!!  I think we had 79 people at church yesterday!?   It really is an adventure every day!!   

I haven't gotten any mail yet and I'm not upset or discouraged!  I would hardly have any time to read it and I have a feeling they won't arrive anyways!  As for my birthday, I haven't even thought about it!  The Relief Society President (who is definitely like a mom) does cake and we have a district meeting that day so we will probably do something, but nothing big planned.

Elder Slack and Elder Herbas at church

The food is still really good but I think that when I am finished here I will have eaten enough rice to last a lifetime!!  That isn't a joke!!  The fruit here is way too good to be true!  So is the bread!!  Good bread at home is from Great Harvest but to be honest, that is the kind of bread the dogs and cats eat. This is bread for the Gods and it tastes like heaven!!  

We are always really busy which is good because then you don't have time to think and for this I thank my Heavenly Father.  It is hard, but I heard a quote in the CCM that will stay with me forever, "There is little growth in a comfort zone, but there is little comfort in a growth zone!"  This is definitely a growth zone!  I have learned so much about myself so far in this adventure and so much about how and what I need to do after my mission.  Every once in a while we get the Liahona in English and it is wonderful to read more about the teachings of Christ in English!!  It is amazing what you can pick up when you actually are interested!  One more week and I will be two months down with 21 months left to go!!  That is crazy to me!  Two months I will never have again to serve!! 

That is basically it for this past week.  I hope all of you are having a wonderful time!!  I love all the videos and pics you guys are sending!  Keep sending them so I can see what is going on!  Gav looks huge and I love the doo!!  Give everyone hugs and kisses!  Love you all! Infinity googles mother!!

Keep on trucking!!

Love, 

Elder Slack

PS

That mouse is the smallest one I have seen here!