What’s up readers!
I hope you have all has a great week!! Hope everyone is getting ready for, or already enjoying, snow, Mariah Carey, skiing, Ohio State’s future playoff dominance, and of course, Christmas! Down here, we too are getting ready for Christmas, Club America already one for the 3rd championship in a row (to everyones great joy and firework use here), and it isn’t snowing anytime soon, but this week was still a great one! Not too many out-of-the-blue things happened, but since your asking, I’ll tell you all about it anyways 😉
First of all, I think I’ve been cursed. I don’t know what I did or who I offended or which witch-lady I cut off in line or stole her spot on the Metro, but it seems that my water-free aparment curse follows me. We woke up two mornings this week without water (in the old reliable apartment where we used to shower!! What!) so we walked a couple blocks to shower in the other Elders’ apartment, in a perfect amount of time to come back home and have the water back on. Two times! I’m telling you, some sort of curse or something has got to be following me. Anyways, that has been exciting for my new companion. For now, we have water, and fingers crossed it stays here. On a related weekly update, food has been great! Some of it has given me minor stomach problems, but I discovered one of my favorite things too. We were waiting for a person that we’ve been teaching to show up, standing on the street corner and I saw this lady cooking up some somethings and they smelled amazing, so I asked her what they were (I didn’t hear her) and asked how much they cost. And it was four for 30 pesos! I would describe them as little, vanilla-ish sweet pancakes and man they are soooo good and so cheap. I think I could eat 25 in one sitting. I think maybe they are a type of gorditas or something? I have no idea, but I am definitely making those things a habit.
We had our ward christmas party this week, which was absolutely awesome! Went right along with our habit in our apartment of playing the 24 hour Christmas music radio on gospel stream. I swear this station plays the same 5 songs on repeat, including 3 different covers of that dang Polar Express song, and only once or twice a day do they throw in something good, like “Jingle Bell Rock” or “Let It Snow”, and man when one of those songs come on, all other things take a 3-4 minute break to have a small dance party. I have yet to hear “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire” or whatever the heck that song is called, and I’m starting to get a little inpatient about that. Oh well. Anyways! Ward Christmas party was awesome, and I feel like I’m almostttttt there with the Spanish. I am super excited about how my Spanish is coming and I feel almost fluent. Thank goodness! I spent the whole time just getting to know members better, and especially a bunch of people getting to know the Church! I feel like I can finally connect and make people laugh and man that makes me happy! Anyways, free tacos, drinks, and cake, and I’d call it a success.
Starting last Wednesday, my companion woke up pretty doggone sick, poor lil fella. I, of course, have my tank of an immune system here to back me up, and only had the sniffles for a day. Heck yeah! My companion is still hacking and sniffing and occasionally whimpering, but he’s been drinking loads of herbal tea to help. We’ve made bathroom stops incredibly frequently because of that, but hey, I’m not complaining, I always have to use the bathroom. I’m starting to realize this email has no flow or rhythm to it, but thats okay, I’ll just keep pressing on. People here don’t get publicly embarrased I guess, because man people here do weird stuff. Lots of people kissing on the Metro or just in the street, and I mean like every other person you see, and I swear people here stand on the street “performing” to get spare change in weird ways. There’s this little old lady who sings really loud over other songs through a microphone while dancing. I see her all over the place. Theres also a few other people that do things like break dancing, regular dancing to electronic music, and some people offering to show people how they can eat 3 pizzas in 5 minutes or drink chug a bucket of juice without breathing. I haven’t been convinced to give away the 50 pesos to watch it happen, but idea of having that video is quite intriguing. I met a guy who was smoking weed but came up to me and said “all you mormon missionaries know how to play the guitar. Can I play you something?” So I watched him play a little guitar for us and this frail old man and some of his friends just sort of broke into what I assume was improve singing along to the guitar…and it was so awesome!!
My Spanish abilities have been tested this week, even if I feel like I’m almost there. Since we are in the Centro, we have a bunch of tourists from all over the world with a bunch of different accents. Especially this past week, we’ve met a ton of people from all over Central and South America that are here, waiting for a CVP1 appointment so they can cross the border to different parts of the United States. I think almost everyone we have that we are teaching are from another country, waiting here to cross to the US. And man, some of them have really sad and difficult life stories, and it makes me very thankful for the life I grew up in, and sad for people who grow up in corrupt and unsafe countries. One of these people we are teaching is a girl named Sofia from Venezuela, and she thinks my accent is really weird. Oh well, I think her’s is a little strange itself. She has lots of sayings that I guess just don’t transfer over the same in English, such as “heart of watermelon” ( I’m assuming that one means sweetheart or something) and “he got punched by the moon”, although I still have no idea what that means. Apparently I’ve been punched by the moon! Not making that up, who knows what it means.
Anyways, she came to church with us last Sunday, and as we were sitting there, she bumped her shoulder into me, so I looked over and she was grabbing the leg of my companion and my firs thoughts were 😳 oh no!! What is going on ovee there! She said something to him, and he stood up to leave the chapel, and told me to follow them. I was pretty confused until we got out into the hall and she fully fainted, fell right on the ground! Whoa! There were a few members out there that helped us; got her all layed down on the couch and ran an bought a gatorade and stuff. Turns out she didn’t sleep the night before, because her neighbor was blasting music all night long (remember, Saturdays are the goth rock festival) and she didn’t eat anything in the morning. One member said something along the lines of “Lucky girl. I’ve always wanted to have the King Lamoni experience and be come over by the Spirit like that” which I thought was pretty epic! Anyways, that kind of consumed the rest of church time, since we had to walk her back home. After that, we ran back to the church for a baptism! One friend we were teaching named Eleaquin was baptized, and it was so awesome! While he lives in the Cuauhtémoc North area, I was there to teach him everything so I was so so happy to see him progress to baptism, and even happier to see how happy HE was! I played the piano during it and shared a small spiritual thought, and it ended up being a pretty diverse and fun Sunday!
Yesterday morning, we woke up an hour early to start our new morning habit. There’s this absolutely awesome member in our ward named Pako, and he teaches a bunch of exercise classes and things, and last week offered to do morning workouts in the park outside his houss with us, just like my companion did when he was first in the mission, so we gladly accepted. I would describe what we did as basically 45 Minutes to Burn or whatever those DVDs are called. He would show us some little workout to do, and we’d do it while he sing-song counted down and encouraged us. I must admit, today I woke up the most sore I’ve been in awhile, so I guess it worked! Except man I felt so weak, I felt like the one dude who stands in the back right corner who does all the modified workouts, like jogging in place in half time or whatever, that guy was me yesterday morning. Yeesh! So embarrassing. But anyways, I can say it was quite the solid workout and it was a nice start to the day, so the plan is to go back tomorrow and I guess basically every weekday until I get transferred. More public embarrassment to come my way! But nothing as embarrassing as watching Jared West try to pedal a bike for the first time. Yeesh! Keep those sidewalks clear people of Milton Keynes.
Anyways, other than that, this week has been pretty normal. Ernesto, in our ward, has started texting me weekly updates on the Bengals scores which I think is kind of funny, and then whenever I see him in person he gives me a 10 minute play-by-play. I certainly would not call myself the worlds most dedicated Bengals fan, but I think I can slowly convert this guy to drop the Raiders and pick up Cincinnati as the favorite. He’s such a funny guy, he’s pretty old but like such a beast. He’s a speedwalker, that’s like his morning workout routine, and I’ve seen him carry more chairs in one go than any other members. Plus, his mustache is this huge, bright white handlebar and it is the envy of the whole ward. Cool guy! Someday I’ll have that mustache 😈
Well, I think that just about wraps up the stories from the week. So, here comes a little spiritual thought from the week!
This week I was reading in the end of Helaman and in 3rd Nephi. And I think the story is cool!
Basically, Samuel is a dude that went on the wall of the city and preaches that the people need to prepare for when Christ comes. Most of them don’t like that very much and try to shoot him off the wall. But, he can’t be hit, and he tells them that on the night of Christ’s birth, the sun will go down, but there will be no night, it will be bright just like a normal day! A few people believe what he says, and a few more believe once they see he can’t be hit by there arrows and rocks.
So this sign Samuel prophecies won’t come for 5 or so years, and during this time, Nephi the third is baptizing and preaching to the people that believe what Samuel says, and working to convince the others of the truth that don’t. Anyways, at this point the 5 year mark is rolling around, and all the unbelievers that tried to kill the Samuel guy are like well! If this sign doesn’t come within the next 2 weeks or whatever it was, we are going to kill you all and all your little prophets too!
And of course, Nephi is pretty distraught by this. All these people he’s loved and sacraficed for, that have stood as disciples of Christ despite everyone else, are just going to be killed? So, this is what Nephi does:
“Now it came to pass that when Nephi, the son of Nephi, saw this wickedness of his people, his heart was exceedingly sorrowful.
And it came to pass that he went out and bowed himself down upon the earth, and cried mightily to his God in behalf of his people, yea, those who were about to be destroyed because of their faith.
And it came to pass that he cried mightily unto the Lord all that day.”
Now tell me that isn’t a great example. What’s the first thing Nephi does in the face of a trial? He turns, with all of his heart, and pleads unto the Lord for help and mercy. He doesn’t try to take it all back, he doesn’t deny his faith, and he doesn’t even try to convince these people to give them just a few more months. He instantly turns to the Lord in prayer for help and consolation. Which is the exact first thing WE should do in the face of our own trials! The first thing we should do is turn to the Lord. That’s because, a lot of times, this is exactly what happens after that:
“The voice of the Lord came unto him, saying:
Lift up your head and be of good cheer; for behold, the time is at hand, and on this night shall the sign be given, and on the morrow come I into the world, to show unto the world that I will fulfil all that which I have caused to be spoken by the mouth of my holy prophets.
And it came to pass that the words which came unto Nephi were fulfilled, according as they had been spoken; for behold, at the going down of the sun there was no darkness; and the people began to be astonished because there was no darkness when the night came.”
Boom. Answer came. All those righteous people saved, and on top of that, a whole ton of wicked ones that were converted. Of course, prayers won’t always be answered in the exact timing or way we asked, but just as prophecied, Christ’s plan ruled over man’s plan, and He was born. And because He was born, because He fulfilled His plans and died for us, and was resurrected, and now lives as surely as we live, we too can overcome death, sadness, and pain. All because of Him! Remember and celebrate Him this Christmas season. I hope all of your little Light the World acts that I invited you to do are going great! 😉
My invitation this week is to pray in times of need, and rejoice in the birth of Christ this week. Simple invitation, but I promise it’ll bring so many blessings. “By small and simple means are great things brought to pass!”
So do the small things to remember, and focus on Christ this Christmas. I hope its a great one, its coming up quick! Anyways, I love all you guys so dang much, and I miss you like crazy! Wish I could be there to celebrate with you all, but I guess this is where I’m supposed to be, so here is where I’ll stay. I’m sure I’ll be thinking about you tons!
I’ll see you next week!! Make it a great one! I love you all so much!
Chao mis quieridos capos! I love you all!
World’s biggest Bengals fan,
-Noah 🫶🏻
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