Semana Tres

BIENVENIDOS A TODOS for this week's segment of "Tall Blonde Elder In Central America!" Speaking of which, I had the opportunity to speak in sacrament meeting our second week here (everyone prepares a talk and then they call 6 people up from the pulpit) and during my talk, all of the Latino's started calling me Fósforo, or match. I asked Elder Corerra of it was because the Spirit of God like a fire was burning within me while I spoke, but he just started laughing and walked away. Come to think of it, I actually have no idea for sure why they were calling me that, I just assumed it was cuz I was tall and blonde.....

We said goodbye to all of the Latinos and the first group of North Americans last night. It was sad to see Hermana Peterson go- it's been awesome to have a familiar face here, and to be able to talk about stuff from the Deerfield Ward back home. But if anyone is ready to go out and change some lives, she is!! I'm really gonna miss the Latinos too. The last two weeks they got really obsessed with having a 'Luchador Fight,' or the CCM version- a big arm wrestle match. For some reason, the two they always wanted were me, and an elder named Ben Bywater who's from Utah too. I went to bed almost every night to groups of Latinos (and some Americans) chanting TADJE, TADJE! They absolutely lost it when I was walking out of the showers to them chanting, and told them "comerá a Ben Bywater por Desayuno," or I will eat Ben Bywater for breakfast. They loved our ties as well, they'd burst into your room just before lights out chanting CORBATAS, CORBATAS!! Wanting you to pull out all of your ties and want you to show them, and trade for theirs!

Before I say anything else, I've gotta clear something up from my first email. I was talking about another elder telling us about his girlfriend, but I mistyped it. He actually said: "Hay muchos pecados en el mar," or there are many sins in the sea. 

When you're stuck in a building with 120 other elders, you've gotta find ways to stay entertained. One of the big things all the elders try to do is 'finessing' each others' name tags- or stealing them without them noticing. I still have the record, during a group picture I snagged four name tags before anybody realized it! If your tag is gone, the Latinos will come up and ask "Dónde está su poder?" or where is your power? And it's kind of as a joke, but it the difference is actually real. I can feel a difference between when I have my tag on, and when I take it off. Every night I'm reluctant to go to bed because it means I have to undress and take off my tag. (Plus you can use the tags as kazoos- we make a dang good choir) That, and I've started dreaming every night here. Which is weird, because back home I never dreamt. Now almost every single night I have a dream, and they're all really realistic and super intense action packed adventures with me and Elder Shipley. Most of them are in a post-apocalyptic world created by the War with Satan that we are all battling in, where we are all living under rocks and surviving off of the word of God where we eat and are never hungry or partake and never thirst. I usually wake up feeling really confused. 

The amount of sirens that drive past the CCM is crazy, usually about 7-8 a day. It fits with the armed guards with shotguns everywhere, and them not letting us study in front of the building because gun shots go off too often. There are guns everywhere- today at the zoo we were walking past the penguin enclosure and a guy walked past pushing a wheelbarrow full of gold dollar coins, and followed by two burly men with shotguns and tasers. A lot of the stuff that goes on down here is pretty ghetto like that, but a lot is also way nicer than America. The Wendy's we went to was absolutely unbelievable, and the McDonalds are like a three story sit down restaurant. 

Overall, I've really enjoyed the CCM experience! There's always interesting stuff happening to mix things up. Like yesterday my chair randomly decided to collapse underneath me and throw me into the wall!! Haha the welds holding it together just decided to snap- I've never heard more fat jokes in my life. And I got to use my medical class skills when one of the elders bruised his elbow and by whipping off my tie to make a sling! There's a lot of writing- In the three weeks that I've been here, I've already made it completely through my first pen. Missions will get you in the habit of journal writing though- I haven't missed a day since I got here! 

When we were walking in with our district to to a temple session, there was a family standing outside taking pictures by the sign. They had a little girl who was about 5, and she grabbed her mom and said "Look mom, it's the missionaries!" When she said that it was the absolute coolest feeling. I have rarely felt the spirit stronger than I did then, confirming that I AM one of those missionaries, and that this is where I'm supposed to be. And to everybody else coming out, I know that this is where you are meant to be too. We watched a devotional by Elder Scott- and he said that we are all called to succeed, not to fail. We have the Lord on our side, and he knows exactly what each one of us is capable of. He will never give us more than we can handle, but always enough to make us grow. 

Sorry that this email is kind of all over the place- I had a lot to write about and none of it really ties together. But I love you all, you're always in my thoughts and prayers! Until next week-

Elder Tadje