Hey Guys!
Yeah I really love the questions. It helps me to write
important things.
1. (From Jonah) What do you know of Crosby? I have him for physics next year. I
have heard somewhere that he is actually decent.
1. Yeah Crosby is a good
teacher! What Physics did you take? You are way too smart for Physics with
tech. If you just took normal Physics, it is probably his first year teaching
that one, and I don't know how it will be. I had him for ACT Prep and he is
hilarious. I think you will like him.
2. Isaac wants us to tell you that he
sprained his thumb on Sunday while he and Jonah were
wrestling--actually, Isaac and Jonah were crabwalking around and Isaac hurt his
own thumb. He had x-rays today and it is not broken. Isaac has
requested that you send us more pictures of you and Elder Riding together.
He also wants you to know that he "loves ya."
2. Oh no! Give Isaac a big hug from me and tell him I will
pray for him. It's okay though. On Sundays all I want to do is throw crap around
and release all my energy. I wish I could wrestle with you guys. It's actually
something I've missed the most, watching Isaac and Jonah wrestle to the death. I
will send some more pictures. I won't take any right now, just because Elder
Riding got an email from his mom, and [he] is super
excited. I want him to have the full hour.
3. Mom wants to know if you've been cold
at night, and how have you been affected by the rain? Have you been cold
in the day as well?
3. No. I absolutely have not been cold. Here is how my
nights go. I finish praying, and roll over into my bed. My chest and forearms
are usually slick with sweat from where I have been folding my arms. Then, I
lay on top of all of my blankets and fall asleep. Elder Riding does too. We
listen to the sweet sound of dogs being beaten and the entire police force of Mexico city roaring past
the not too distant compound wall simultaneously. Quite soothing. Then around 4
in the morning, me and Elder Riding both wake up at the same time for some
weird reason, and can't go back to sleep until we've gotten into our blankets.
Our psyches won't allow us to fall asleep until we've done it, even though the
inside of my blankets more or less feels like the inside of [a] supernova. Oh man,
the rain is crazy. The gutters here are huge, like at least double the depth of
ours. Some days it won't rain at all, and other days it rains so hard that the
rain comes down horizontally. You think I'm kidding, but we forgot to close our
window when it happened and came back to puddles in our room. Elder Riding lost
some valuables. Some days the rain is just light though, and there [aren't] rivers flowing past our
classroom. It doesn't feel like the temp. varies that much day to day or from day
to night. If that makes any sense.
4. Mom also wonders if you could take a
picture of your schedule sheet so that we know what you're doing when during
the day. If it is easier to paraphrase rather than to take a picture, you
can do that too.
4. Yes I can! But I won't get it to you until next week.
Basically, here is how it goes. Wake up, shower, breakfast, study time, class,
lunch, gym, class, investigator prep, teach the investigator, study time, dinner,
TALL (technology assisted language learning, or technology assisted loss of
sanity, sanity spelled with an l of course, like lsanity), language study time,
planning, get ready for bed, go to bed. My district has been honing our Foosball skills. We have a competition with another district at 1. I play a
mean offense.
5. Mom also wants to know what you're
doing during the exercise time.
5. Oh, woops looks like I just answered that. We tried to
play volleyball, but Elder Riding came down here with an injured knee, so he
can't jump. Plus, he has had this gnarly cold, so he hasn't been feeling well.
Foosball is where it's at anyway. We almost went to the gym to do wrist
workouts. Foosball is life.
6. I want to know how your Spanish is
coming. We've been praying specifically for that all week and I fasted
for that on Sunday (among a couple of other things).
6.Thank you for fasting. Let me put it bluntly. No one is
teaching me Spanish in the ways that I learn Spanish. I diagrammed a sentence
yesterday and asked my teacher a question about sentence structure. He didn't
know the answer. Can you help me? Why is it that sometimes in Spanish that a
direct object precedes the verb, when other times the syntax follows the
English pattern of subject then verb then direct object? My teacher said he
would look to find out, but I am worried. My teacher is really nice though. He
really brings the spirit into lessons. Anyway, know that all my pessimistic
bile has stained those earlier sentences, let me be honest again. I can really
see myself improving and the atonement actively helping me to receive the gift
of tongues. Here is my two week Spanish:
Que onde? Yo soy que Jesucristo es en Salvador y El ama nosotros. Dios es nuestro
Padre Celestial. Puedemos orar todos tiempo acerce de nosotros problemas y
preguntas.
That is kind of where I'm at. Thank you again for praying and
fasting. Also, pray and fast for Elder Riding's Spanish. He is such a hard
worker, but I can tell the frustration is getting to him. He has to deal with a
lot. His sickness, his Spanish, and being a District Leader. He is just such a great guy, companion, and District Leader who tries as hard
as he possibly can to be the best missionary possible. I really love the guy. I'm super glad that we got to be companions, and I would be really pumped if we
got to be companions in the actual field. Speaking of which, Elder Riding beat
a Mexican MMA fighter in an arm wrestle. Twice. The guy has been stabbed three
times. I saw the knife scars. Elder Riding became a legend at the CCM that day.
I'll post pictures of the two of them.
7. Also, how did Fast Sunday
work in the CCM? Were your start and stop times kind of decided for you,
or did you have some leeway? How did that go?
7. We fasted 24 hours. Lunch to lunch. I totally did it
without any hiccups. I actually outlasted a lot of the other missionaries,
which is surprising considering my history as a fasting pansy. Thanks for
thinking of me. Oh! And I need to tell you about the food! It is pretty good
most of the time. I eat a ton. By the time meals roll around I am super hungry. I have never loved
chicken nuggets so much.
8. Last but not least, has anyone in your
district gotten sick?
8. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA YES. I GOT MONTEZUMAS REVEEEEEEENGE AND IT
IS KILLLLLING MEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. Just kidding, it is actually not that terrible.
Here is the story. I would drink like two drinkable yogurts every morning for
the probiotics, hoping that they would prevent any appearances from Monty (that
is now CCM slang in my district thanks to me). Well guess what flavor the yogurts
were? Mango. I found out from Elder Niblett that Mangos are
natural laxatives. This was after like five solid days of the revenge. There
was one day when I was running all over campus looking for a bathroom, because
someone thought it was a good idea to clean them all at the same time. I
finally found one on the second floor of the TSM building. And this morning I
had to drop my laundry and flipping run for my apartment. And Elder Riding has
a gnarly cold. Oh and I drank a prune yogurt today. Guess that makes sense then,
huh.
Anyway it's nice to have two weeks behind me. We tried to
talk to and help the greenies that were coming in, because all of us had
bucketfreakingfuls of sympathy for the newbies. They all looked terrified. I
still have not wept in the bathroom. You can tell bishop. [Bishop Jenson told him that it was normal to cry in the bathroom from homesickness.] The doughnuts were
delicious. Thank you guys so much. And I got one DearElder letter from you,
dad, and one from Emily. Thank you guys. You have no idea what a morale boost
it is to the district when we get mail, even if it isn't ours. Thank you guys so
much. I sent you all letters, so hopefully they get there soon.
Mom, thank you so much. It is nice to see pictures and I
can't wait for the letter. All I want is for you guys to know I love you. I pray
every night that you will all be safe and that you will know I love you. I
still miss you, but I know this is where I am supposed to be.
Do you guys have tips on work? I have a terrible time
focusing in study time. I am awful. I would love some tips on how to buckle
down and learn the language.
I love you all so much, beyond anything else.
Elder Hickman
Holy cow! I love reading his comments! He is awesome!
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