Adam's Emails for the past 2 weeks!

Week we were in Disneyland

Hey family and friends!

 

Can you believe it's already (or only) been two weeks since I got out here? Measuring time in the MTC is so weird! The days are super long, but before I know it, an entire week has zipped past me! This week isn't quite as eventful as the last one, but there are a couple of things that I want to write you all about! First off, funny story.

 

Every lunch and dinner, the MTC cafeteria offers soup, and I would usually get a bowl or two of it every day (by the way, I noticed that I've been losing weight since I got out here!). The soup usually tastes pretty good, especially with some lime juice squeezed into it (everything tastes better with lime juice). One night, in particular, I had nearly finished my soup when I noticed a ginormous, dead fly at the bottom of the bowl. Yep. Haven't had soup since. It's really funny too, since I didn't think that having flies in the soup was an actual issue. For the rest of the night, I had the Far Side comic stuck in my mind with the bowl of soup poured on the human-sized fly. ("Excuse me, waiter! What's this soup doing on my fly?")

 

My language is still coming along. On Saturday, we had the opportunity to go out into Lima and proselyte for a few hours. Me and my companion were assigned to work in a super-ghetto place, where finding almost 300 stray dogs was a daily thing. Most of them would just ignore us if we ignored them, but later on that night, I heard that one of the Hermanas (Sister Missionaries) got bitten on the ankle by one of them and had to go get a rabies' shot. She was super bummed-out by it too, since it stopped her from proselyting any further (she's OK).

 

Anyways, during the proselyting, me and my companion were taken around a ghetto neighborhood by a member who lived there. We taught an inactive member and an investigating family, both of which we got to commit to coming to church that Sunday. At least, that's what I picked up. The Spanish in the real world compared to the Spanish in the MTC is like a bullet train compared to a snail. When RM's would tell me that they thought the MTC taught them the wrong language, I didn't worry too much when it came down to Spanish. But now, I understand what that's like! The scariest part is that I really need to pick up the pace in learning Spanish or else I'll be out in the field with no idea what people are saying or how to talk to them.

 

Also, serving in that place gave me some culture shock, mission blues, and an irritating cold. I wouldn't go down without a fight, though! The blues went away first, and then the culture shock. The cold is now the only thing that's brave enough to mess with me! It's pretty ironic and funny too. The more I researched about Iquitos, the more I thought, "There is no way I'm catching a cold on my mission!" Then two weeks into the mission, I've got a silly cold. I can already feel it going away now, thank goodness. Being sick is no fun.

 

Shopping on P-Day is a blast as well! I finally gave into the MTC tradition and bought myself a jersey. (It's a Uruguay jersey, but I just got it because it was light blue). The jerseys are bought in a store called Gucho's, which is kind of like a shopping mall and a claustrophobe's nightmare mixed into one. It's really cool. There's one shop that even sold birds, pet mice, and, I kid you not, hedgehogs and armadillos. I didn't even know those were considered pets!

 

Well, that's pretty much my week. 1/3 of the way to getting out into the field! I'm getting pretty excited!

 

So, family, how is Disneyland?! Tell me EVERYTHING! Did Mom and Dad go to the Blue Bayou yet? Have you ridden on the Indiana Jones and Pirates of the Carribean rides 100+ times? How was Midieval Times (probably butchered that spelling)? Most importantly, have you gone on Space Mountain yet? Send me lots and lots of pictures! Especially the ones of Mom on the Hollywood Tower of Terror (if she hasn't gone on that yet, MAKE HER!). Also, tell me all the Disneyland characters you see! I want to know if you saw more than I did last time I went there.

 

Anyway, I probably ought to let you get back to having fun! But before I go, I just want to leave with a thought. I recently watched a devotional given from one of the apostles, telling all the missionaries in the MTC to not only have a good mission, but to have a blast. A lot of the missionaries I talked to said that they had trouble deciding if they wanted to go or not because of the amount of work it was, in which I told them the exact same thing. It's possible to have so much work to do and have fun with it at the same time, because this is the Lord's work, and he wouldn't have us serve a mission save there was a way to get through and come back as a better person. God has a plan for his missionaries, and I'm confident that, despite all the hardships I'll face, it will make me grow into a better person. I say that in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

 

Adios!

-Elder Dixon

Week of September 29th

Hey family and friends!

 

What is up everyone? How has your week been? I heard that Disneyland was a blast! Did you remember to go onto Space Mountain for me? Man, I LOVE hearing from you guys! It's one of the biggest highlights of my week! I'm so glad that all of you are doing so well! Sorry about the sunburns, though. They sound pretty nasty. Although, I heard that down in Iquitos, the missionaries will get tanned EVERYWHERE. Their arms, legs, heads--and even their ties make a tanline! I'm looking forward to the day where you are at the airport, expecting my squishy old self and instead, you get a crispy version of me. I can already imagine the looks on your faces!

 

Speaking of faces, mine has been acting hilariously strange all week! I think it might be the sudden change in atmosphere or something, but the cold I had last week has somehow clogged up my ear. Weird. I could hardly hear anything from that ear now, but it impresses the people I talk to about it. One of the conversations actually went like this: 

 

"You went one whole week with only one ear?" they asked.

 

I turned around to hear them out of my other ear "Wat?"

 

"You went the entire week with only one ear?"

 

"Yeah."

 

 

...I hope you weren't expecting anything funny from that. It was just funny at the time. :P That's another things I love about the MTC here. My district is full of some of the funniest people ever! We all sing in the showers (the men do, anyway). There's pretty much an inside joke for each of us, along with a title of sorts. There are 12 district members, and unlike some of the other districts, there's absolutely zero animosity between any of us! It's the best! In our district, there's:

 

Elder Mann - Killer Smile

Elder Van Uitert - The Brains

Elder Dixon - The One Who Can Beat Up Anybody (somehow?)

Elder Arns - The Silent Comedian

Elder Dahlin - The One Who Is Without-Fail 100% Photogenic

Elder Christensen - A Head Full of Fire, Both Metaphorically and Literally

Elder Burgoyne - Burgy

Elder Foote - Elder Foote

Hermana Wight - Secret Fan of Everything

Hermana Hall - Secret Agent

Hermana Frame - Mom

Hermana Jesperson - Dad

 

That pretty much sums up what our district is like (believe me, it's the best), other than some of the inside jokes we come up with. Yeah, my district is pretty much tha best.

 

On Sunday, because it's General Conference this weekend, we had our fast a week early. We didn't eat Saturday dinner or Sunday breakfast, which wasn't that bad, but for lunch on Sunday, they spoiled us! There were multiple desserts, more food on our plates, and a chocolate fountain! Man, it was great! I felt like I could explode and be content about it afterwards. Pretty much the best meal I've had here! Also, for General Conference, I stocked up. I had planned to buy jelly beans to keep up the tradition of having jelly beans during Conference, but the price of them down here was insane! It was nearly $4 (American dollars) for just a pack smaller than my fist! I decided against the jelly beans and decided to get some peanuts instead, which is a pretty close substitute. I also got myself some little cookie-type things called Casinos. They're super popular down here at the MTC. It's hard not to see a missionary hiding a package of them wherever they went. I won't eat them until Conference, though. They're too good for that. (They're kind of like Oreos, but they taste good without milk too).

 

How are things down...er, up there? Is school going well? I'm glad everyone had a fantasmical time at Disneyland! It sounded like a blast! I hope you all have a great time at General Conference! Make sure you send me your favorite talks and I'll send you mine! I'm so excited to hear what they all have to say! I know that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet, and that the apostles are apostles of God. I'm super grateful that we have this opportunity to hear from them every six months!

 

Have fun at Conference!

-Elder Dixon