October 6th, 2014
Alright, hey everyone. Happy October. I can't believe (you've never heard me say those three words before...) that it is already October again. I feel like it was just yesterday that I was watching my first General Conference as a missionary.
How about that General Conference? I thought it was pretty good. We got to watch all of it except the last two hours (which were broadcast from 10 PM - 12 AM our time), and I thought it was pretty great. I love conference. There's a lot to be learned from the talks that were given. We watched about half of it at the home of some awesome members, the de Bruijn family. The rest we watched at the church building -- it was broadcast.
Did I mention that we watched a session of conference with Carlos at the home of familie de Bruijn? Yep, the same Guatemalan Carlos who I thought was going to stab me. He's actually becoming one of my favorite investigators here. He's so funny... We ate dinner with him and the de Bruijns, then watched conference. Before dinner, I was just chatting with him (in English -- he lived in the US for quite some time, and his Guatemalan accent-peppered English is pretty good), and it turns out he loves playing music. "So, which instruments do you play, Carlos?" "Well, I play a lot... Piano, guitar, trumpet, trombone..." He went on to name a lot of instruments. "What kind of music do you like playing?" "Hmm.. Well on the guitar I play mostly anything. I can play a lot. On the rest, mostly I can only play the happy birthday song. You know the one? Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you..." He was serious. A musical wizard.
He says the funniest things... I'm thinking of starting a Carlos quote-book. During our lesson last week, we were talking about something, and he says, "you know, people with glasses always look like they are more connected to the Holy Spirit!" Maybe we should wear glasses to our appointments with him. He's getting better at his prayers -- last time, he ended with, "in the name of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, amen." Almost there. He loved conference -- afterwards, he told us that he'd learned so much that he thought he'd never have to go to school or read a book again. I think he was being dramatic...
I had a pretty funny moment on exchanges this past Tuesday. You know, sometimes I think that someone could make a pretty funny sitcom from my life as a missionary, but this moment definitely could have been in a funny movie. I was working with Elder Argueta in the city of Leiden. We were having a good time -- seen some pretty solid miracles earlier in the day..found a lot of people on the street, got let in knocking doors and taught a surprise first lesson... God is good.
Anyway, we're walking on this bike path on the side of a four lane highway near the city of Wassenaar. (I'm pretty sure it was legal...) There was a lot of traffic -- it was rush hour -- and the cars were moving pretty slowly. Suddenly, Elder Argueta and I hear honking (which you don't hear a lot -- you can get fined if you honk in a non-honking situation here). We look, and there's this guy waving. Is he waving at us? People don't wave very often here...usually when people make gestures at us from their cars, it isn't a friendly wave. We look around, but we're the only ones he could be waving to. His hand is still out his sun-roof, waving, trying to get our attention. We realize that he's an American member (there are a lot of those that live in Wassenaar). Keep in mind that this is all within five or ten seconds. We start waving back, and then...the man (who is not paying attention, but more focused on waving to us) slams into the car in front of him. Ouch. We would be of absolutely no help in the situation, so we...just kept going. And watched as the traffic got even thicker behind the mild accident. Sorry, guys!
I got to go on some exchanges with past companions this past week -- Elder Robbins and I got to work together in Alkmaar, and Elder Toole and I worked together in Zaandam/Amsterdam. Elder Toole and I had a pretty fun exchange -- it was good to work with that big guy again. It had been almost a year since we were companions, toughing it out as second transfer missionaries in Kortrijk. We've both grown a lot since then. Anyway, we had a dinner appointment with a Ghanaian family and all seven of the other Amsterdam missionaries. We ate this African food -- a lot of it. With our hands. It was like some sort of hard, cooked potato and this green stuff with fish in it (never figured out what the green stuff was). Anyway, we were all stuffed, and Brother Nti (the father of the clan) comes in. "Oh, you all need more!" "No, brother, we can't! We're full. We can't eat anymore." He responds... "Try! Just try." After "trying" (Ghanaians go HARD when it comes to eating!), I eventually respond, "brother, my mother was once pregnant with twins. THAT is how full I am right now." He laughed, but didn't ask me to "try" anymore.
Well...that's all for now. Just remember, though, when you think you can't go any further, or work any harder, or...eat any more...just take on the Ghanaian mentality and try.
Stay cool.
-Elder Bonney
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| PS -- Me, with Elder Bishop and Elder Alston, at the Nti's...trying. I thought I'd explode. |
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