The Fifth Week (fifth is such a weird word)!

Sunshine and leprechauns; Elder Jones is back with a snack pack attack!

And thus my fifth (blauh, such a weird word!) week at Hogwarts draws to a close. It's been pretty normal down here; we've really just been more focused on the "mastering" (we're all such gringos) of this beautiful language.

HOWEVER! Before you go closing the page and skip off to enjoy some delicious lime skittles (which I was recently informed no longer exist in this reality [thank you for the notification Haley], so...hmm...), I do INDEED have stories to ramble to thou about!

Approximately six Earth Rolls ago (also known as last Friday), we performed which was known by the tongues of our forefathers as "Splits" (we newbies were paired up with an experienced missionary for the cause of gaining experience in the field). My temporary companion was an Elder with the last name Martin (who almost ironically is planning on going to Utah State as well). To get to his area, we took a "Concho", the Dominican word for a cute little cab in which about four people are stuffed in the backseat, and around two (not including the driver) are popped in the front. The traffic here is akin to the mind of Leonardo Da Vinci: it's absolute madness and insanity, but there's a strange sense of order to it. (I've never before seen a two lane road occupied by four cars side-by-side.) So we bounced off, to a quaint little area called...umm..Ariea. I can't quite recall the name, but it sounded a lot like "Area". Huh. Anyway, so we marched off, so as to fulfill an appointment set the day before, with a member of the church who's floating a bit at the "inactive". While he spoke extremely fast (I understood about 15% of the conversation), his personality was so entertaining and friendly, I found myself laughing even when I'd no idea what had just been said (actually, that's normal for me ;D ).

After the meeting, we slipped down some alleys/side-roads between the buildings to get the the residential areas (think of it like the individual neighborhoods inside a city, except the streets for such are sidewalks that cut past buildings), so as to get to our next appointment. We shared a bit about the Restoration of the fullness of Christ's Church, then left with a prayer. To wrap up the planned part of our schedule, we traversed over to our last appointment, with a woman who my companion had contacted the day before. Unfortunately, she wasn't home, but her husband displayed some interest. SUPER COOL NOTE! While we were praying before the actual lesson, this totally random guy came up and started listening. After we closed with an "Amen", the man asked if he could enter this other guy's house to listen to our message. I talked to Elder Martin about it later, and he said such is not at all uncommon here, as the people are quite a bit more welcoming than we are state-side. TIGHT! (Like a Concho!)

To wrap up our evening of missionary-ing, we returned to the bread and butter (actually, at one point, we literally did have bread and butter; delicious!) of trackting, or, in the words of the ancient times, talking to flipping everybody to see who holds interest! And, much like the University, everybody was really polite about it, even those who weren't at all interested!

As the chapter of the day began to close, we ran into a guy who was from the U.S. (and almost ironically, literally from New York). We didn't really talk much about the gospel (he kept saying that we should apply for ATT while we were down here, as our pasty lack of melanin would somehow grant us a higher chance of being hired [we subsequently explained to him that, in a sense, Missionary work is our full-time job for the next two years {well, without the getting paid part, but still}]), but he did express interest in chatting with us another time. So coolness there!

Afterward in the Epilouge, we popped back in a Concho, and zipped back over to the MTC.
After a bit of a daily wrap up, I crawled back to my room, and passed out.

It's been a sweet but serene week! I was hit in the eye with a paper airplane, and subsequently invented a paper airplane that causes the user to increase in irritation! (No matter how hard you throw it, it flips around after about two feet and smashes into you! Or the ground in front of you!)

And...that's all I got. My simmering pot of story sauce has run dry!

Peace, Love, Unity, Serenity!

-Elder Jones

(And I expect someone to re-invent lime Skittles by the time I get back!)