August 13, 2013

HEEEELLOOOO!!!!!!

Or......¡¿¡¿¡¿QUUUUUUE OOOONDA?!?!?!

This week the sisters that I entered with went home. I'm not ok with it. We just got here. It's not alright that they are HOME now! The mission NEVER ends! But, with the change, it brought more...changes...that makes sense. I am now the proud daddy of Peruvian number two, and son number three. His name is Elder Pinedo. He's 20 years old, and is pretty stinkin pilas. He's a good missionary. He's just got that missionary sense...I'm not sure if that's a thing, but you get what I mean. He's a good worker, and doesn't complain about the heat, or the cold, or the blisters, or the rejects. It's a nice change from my last two! But...I didn't say that.

So, we were sitting in the change meeting, right up front where our zone sits. What normally happens is the new missionaries walk in with their suit coats on, and sit in the first few rows, cuz they don't have a zone to sit with. Everyone who is in this mission remembers that day, so we can all sympathize with them, but it's always fun to see their faces when they walk in. New, scared, nervous, they just have no idea what's about to come! And it's great! Well...they came in and sat down. I was three from the aisle, and I was just looking at them. About twenty minutes into the meeting, one of the new missionaries, a big tall kid with SUPER blonde hair, started to lose it. He started the bob maneuver. I nudged Hermana Brown who was next to me (Que descanse en paz) and we seriously almost died laughing during one of the testimonies of one of the missionaries who was going home. But the best part was this...in between one of his bobs and weaves, a biiiiiiiig old string of drool came roooolling out of his mouth. He tried to catch it, but he didn't make it in time. Drooled allllll over his nice new suit coat. Poor guy. I had to duck my head to keep from laughing out loud. You just read an entire paragraph about drool. You'll never have those 2 minutes back. Time to reevaluate your life.

So, my new kid is a good worker. We as trainers are trained to walk SUPER fast. Just to get the newbies tired. Well, he got tired of always walking behind me around...Saturday, so he tried a new tactic. He ran about 30 feet in front of me, then walked normally till I caught up to him, then walked until he was about 30 feet behind me, then made the 60 feet dash to get in front of me again. Every about 3 minutes we did one of the awesome leapfrog moves. It had me laughing in the streets all day long. I just love training. Another good thing. On Friday, we went to the capital for a new missionaries meeting. The cap is about a four hour bus ride from our area, so we left here at 5:00 to get there for the 10:00 meeting. Well, the ride there is WINDY. It is windy and windy can be. And by windy, I mean there are a lot of curves. Not windy as in there is a lot of wind. Perhaps windey would be a better way to spell it. Well, we got to Chimaltenango, the end of the WORST curves. I thought my companion had been asleep for most of the ride, but I looked over at him, content with the ride up to this point, and he holds up this bag to show me. It looked orange, and I thought it was orange juice. I was really confused for a second, and I mouthed to him, "Que es eso?" and he put his hand to his mouth and made a throwing up kind of motion. Turns out he had puked without anyone even noticing! I was so very proud of him.

On Thursday, to get him accustomed to missionary life, I took him to that little Lamanite pueblo that is on the side of a mountain. Well, we climbed up this part of it that is STRAIGHT UP for about fifteen minutes. By the end, both of us were dying, but it was good fun! At the top we have investigators that to this point I had never visited, well...we had visited the mom, but we always chatted outside. Well, today, dad was home, so we went on in! As I walked in, I became the broom for all of the cobwebs that hadn't been touched in YEARS, I'm sure. The problem is, everyone is SO SHORT!! They stand up straight, and the ceiling is still like...2 feet away, but I'm practically crawling on my hands and knees! The roof of this house literally came up to about three inches below my shoulders. It was terrible! Then, on the way out, I CRACKED my head on the ceiling trying to get out the door...it was just a mess. I'm glad our house here is big enough for a freak like me!

I read Alma 5 this week. Verse 28 really struck me. I realized how much pride is really a stumbling block. Like...it just impedes everything we do! I need to work on that. It just stops me from learning so many things, cuz I always think I'm right! And it's so not true!!! So...that's Elder Hopper's project for the next...80 years, I suppose. I hope I can figure it out before it's too late!

Well, it's been a long one today! I hope everyone is well! Hermanas, BE GOOD!!!
Love you guys!
Love,
Elder Hopper 2