I did something with my ZL and a few other elders this week that was pretty funny, ridiculously difficult and stupid. Have any of you all back home heard of the internet challenge of drinking a gallon of milk? It's like the spoonful of cinnamon challenge, and I've done that already. Feel free to ask Sister Tarver or anyone in the Tarver family how I did at THAT one, or ask to see the video, haha. So we got to talking and decided that we were going to give this milk challenge a try, on my comp's birthday (Elder Johnson). Before that though, at midnight the night before, the ZLs "surprised" us with quite the awakening in the middle of the night. I knew they were coming with a cake, just didn't know exactly when they would. I left the door unlocked and they come in as we were praying to go to bed and banged all over and knocked over a chair and then went off running, haha. We found them hiding behind a bush and then ate ice cream cake at like 12:30. We decided at lunch that day that later in the night, Elder Lainez from Honduras and I were going to attempt the gallon challenge thinking, psshhh I drank so much milk back home, it's gonna be really easy. We bought the gallon at night, 5 bucks by the way, yikes, and then we all went back to our house. Let the games begin! I went in strong, chugging like a quarter of it at the first attempt, and it was surprisingly good milk, because the milk here usually isn't very good. As the time went on, him and I slowed down a bit, as it got heavier and heavier in my stomach. I was sitting down, getting back up, trying to make the horrible pain in my stomach go away, but it wouldn't. I drank more, and more, got to half a gallon. Then, it hit me as I was sitting down. Up I go running, bleck! I threw up, not a lot though. I drank a half gallon in 25 minutes though, which you've gotta admit is pretty impressive. The goal of it is not throwing up. You may be able to drink the whole gallon miraculously, but then you have to wait another hour from when you finish and not throw up in that hour. I was trying to get it over with as quick as possible, just so I could have my hour of "aguantar", but couldn't make it. Elder Lainez was going at it a bit slower, so he lasted longer, but it ended up that him and I drank the exact same amount when we hit our breaking points, half of the gallon. And the funny thing about it all, being that we drank the exact same was when I combined the rest of the 2 gallons together in the morning and it measured, to the drops, exactly a gallon of milk. So we drank a half gallon each and then threw up. Pretty stupid, but hilarious, I want to see if any of you back home are brave enough or dumb enough to try it, good for a laugh.
A cool thing about our house here in Chichemito, Chorrera, is that we have "hot" water in our shower. It's not hot, but it has a water heater and it makes a huge difference when you don't have to get into the ice water in the morning. The heater has a little switch so you can switch to luke warm to normal if you like, and I tried that once and the normal water felt freezing. It's a nice little addition to our already pretty sweet house. We are to be getting lots of necessities this week like a stove, blender (not a necessity but is going to be awesome if we actually get it), iron, and a phone finally. It's really hard being a missionary without a phone in the house, because you want to confirm appointments with investigators and members but you can't, so you show up at their houses and no one is in sight; so hopefully this week. Since Johnson and I are both new to the area, we're trying our best to get to know all the active members in our part of the area and see if they can help us as we help them strengthen their families. We've met quite a few people that live in our area like the ward mission leader, 2nd counselor, and a few faithful families and recent converts. Every family that we visited this week, we talked about doing Family Home Evenings in their houses, which they seem interested in. It's something so simple that all families should do anyway, but most don't. I like doing them because it's something simple that is normal and neutral so investigators don't feel uncomfortable, just like hanging out with neighbors and friends. We'll see if we can do a few of them this week and get some referrals from these members. It's a cool ward I like it, lots of Priesthood surprisingly and lots of families.
In a recent little package of mine that I got from Aunt Debbie (thank you by the way, I sent you off a letter this past week), she included this amazing book by John Bytheway called "Sermons in a Sentence". It's awesome. It gives lots of examples from one word in a verse that is really powerful, all the way to a phrase of 5 words. There was a 2 word example which was, Tender Mercies, which I really loved. It talked about all the tiny little highlights we have in the day, the tender mercies of the Lord that He blesses us with daily. I've been fixated on that phrase for the past week, and every time something goes our way here in the area or I feel the Spirit, I know that is one of the tender mercies. I want you all back home to think and ponder on your tender mercies that you receive, little blessings, bendicioncitas. I promise that as you give thanks for those little blessings, your testimony and gratitude will grow immensly. It's so true what Bytheway says though about marking only powerful phrases that I read in the scriptures instead of the whole verse. Or if I highlight the whole verse, I do it in different colors to add emphasis to certain parts that really speak to me.
One scripture I read this week changed my mission, and it is Alma 26:27, same chapter as my mission scripture but I hadn't really realized how amazing this one scripture is, exactly what any missionary needs to read. Lastly in Alma 22:15 which is the father of King Lamoni admitting that he will abandon ALL that he has just to know the truth of the Gospel. Why can't all people be like that?
I love you all, thanks for everything. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MAX TOMORROW! Woot, 21 years old. Have a great week. Oh...and today is my half birthday...para que sepan :P
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