Appreciating Weirdness

[from March 20, 2017] 

I had a great week.   Things here are all going good.   

As far as the young girls go... Not a whole lot of progress with their mom... We'll see what happens there.   

Nelda and Jesus are both doing very well, and they're both really active in the church (even though they're having some trouble adjusting to mormón culture).  Basically if we're ever without lunch and super hungry we'll call them for a huge meal.  This last week with them we ate something weird that actually wasn't too bad (heart and tongue) with them.  Pumpkin spaghetti sounds pretty weird too.   Sometimes I think Honduras eat some pretty weird stuff and then I remember people eat octopus in Japan.  

I didn't bring my camera around with me this week because almost every day this week we went to parts of our area where things get taken.   This week I'll make a new effort to take more photos... But no promises haha. 

Oh in other news my companion had emergency changes so he's gonna be leaving the area and I'm gonna be getting a new companion (Elder Reyes) it's cause a couple Honduras who were waiting on visas finally get to go to their real missions.  

You know it's funny you asked about if I'd ever had to translate anything. it's actually so so hard to translate. one of the things that starts to happen is your English starts sounding really funny, like a guy who just recently learned english, but it's because your translating from another language and the things they say don't make as much sense in English. i've translated in church before and that's really not that big of a deal. Because if you mess up the only person that's gonna know is you and maybe the American guy you're translating for. What's really stressful is when I translated for the mission presidents wife in a zone conference (because I'm the only gringo in my zone). 

You guys are really enjoying that French food huh?  Did you know that in el salvador they make French bread too?    

Yes we burned a scorpion and this week we burned a venomous looking spider.  Those things aren't super common, but what is really common are lizards and frogs.   One time we went to a park and there were some Americans there freaking out about how there were lizards.  My companion was a little weirded out he said  "it's like me going to America and seeing a squirrel and freaking out" 

The laws here are kinda weird.  There are two types of cops here the National police and the municipal police.  The National police are almost a military force with ak47s trucks riot gear...  Municipal police you really don't pay any attention to.  And the motorcycle thing [the highly-enforced prohibition against two riders] is only for Two adult men... ive seen whole families riding on the back from a single motorcycle.  

People here who smoke will buy 1 cigarette from the pulperia and take one puff and share it with there buddies.   I think it's pretty rare to find somebody here with the type of cash to smoke "a pack a day"  like an American or French chain smoker.  

french people sound weird with clowns and mimes and stuff.  I think one of the mistakes a lot of travelers make is that they want things to be familiar and don't really want to experience things in the way that they do in other places.   I'm really glad you guys are doing all you can to enjoy the French culture no matter how weird and strange it is.  

There are lots of weird things that go on,  but the truth is by the time it gets to be Monday I forget lot of them.  

I love you guys  
elder stoddard