[from July 22, 2017]
Hey Family,
I´ve tried really hard to remember everybody´s birthday... usually some time during the week before I´ll remember and I´ll make a little note in the part of my agenda that I look at when I write, so that way I always remember. I did forget Halloween last year though so I´m gonna do my best to remember it this time.
I really like my new companion. I´ve really liked all my companions; even the ones who have been hard. I think the hardest one I had I still keep in contact with and we´re still good friends even though we had a hard time while we were companions.
Yeah now that I´ve got a year I´m starting to realize I´m one of the old guys, like the people who just left were when I got here. It´s weird to think that when I got here those guys had the same amount of time as I do now.
One of the cool office things is you get to see your release date as a missonary. Mine is July 17, 2018! It doesn´t mean you get home that day, that means you stop being in the field on that day, so I´ll probably get home in that week.
I´m glad to know some of the things I´m doing here will help me in the real world as well. The general secretary almost always is in for 4 and a half changes (or about 7 months). Honestly I´m hoping to leave things in such a good and organized state that I don´t have to stick around training somebody... but we´ll see. I´ve still got quite a while before I hand stuff off, (probably around November) but I still want to make sure everything here is super organized. It was kinda tough to do stuff when nothing was labelled and you just had to know where stuff was. So yeah, basically I´m just preparing way early for my replacement.
It was pretty crazy getting all of those areas closed down. One area was a rama [branch] way out in the middle of nowhere and we had to go there a whole bunch of times cause they left the house TRASHED. It was ok, but driving all the way there and back 3 times kind of stunk. Hopefully in a couple changes we can start slowly opening some back up. I know lots of wards were sad to see the missionaries go. But I really am gald to have a bigger spot to work in. It´s very nice. In the new little bit there´s lots of members, so I´m glad we have it.
Also, during these last changes, I recommended Elder Santillana (my old companion) to President as a zone leader and now he´s the zone leader in MY zone (La Lima). So last week I got to do some divisions with my old companion. Very fun. It´s cool it worked out that way that I get to see him again.
Yeah a missionary was seriously carrying around a Rambo doll, and got it stolen. It seemed pretty weird to me. I had to ask him 3 or 4 times cause I was SURE I was mishearing him over the phone. It stinks getting robbed, that´s for sure, but the poor general secretary has to fill out all the paper work which is almost as bad. When I got robbed I didn´t call anybody cause... well... I can´t really think of a better reason than that it was a pain in the butt and I was too lazy hahah.
And yeah, getting that new truck was so nice. This morning I decided to try out the heated seats even though it was really hot outside. Not a good idea. I really like driving it, it´s a pretty big truck, I think something similar to a Toyota Tundra. It´s called a Nissan Frontier. It´s also a cool thing having the freedom to drive it as much as we need to. I think lots of missions there´s a limit on the mileage. We can drive it as much as we need and the gas is also paid for by the mission. We try not to use it when we don´t have to, but there´s a place that they sell baleadas a little far from our house and when we don´t have dinner we usually go there instead of the one that´s closer. The only thing about this new truck I´m a little woried about is that it looks very nice. I feel kinda like a drug trafficer driving it around sometimes. I feel like we might get it taken if we aren´t careful.
Nah I have literally learned almost no russian, just little tiny things. I haven´t really spent to much time on learning Russian yet. Mainly it´s just trying to read words. I can sound out some stuff now, and I can recognize a couple common words, but it is way tough and I don´t think I´m gonna be able to say too much when I get there. You guys are gonna beat me by a ton when you get there. It´s pretty tough.
One of the things that was kinda hard for me to do was start teaching english. You don´t really recognize all the things you do when you talk. I think if I would have paid more attention in High School English class I would understand sentence structures and stuff a little better.
This last week my new companion asked me a really profound question "after which verbs do you use the word 'to'?" I had to think about it all day before I could answer him (and I don´t even know if I answered right). I told him the only words you use "to" after have shortened versions so you don´t get confused. I told him there were only 3 I could think of at the moment "gonna (going to), wanna (want to), and gotta (got to)"
I should definitely not be trying to teach other people english. I´m just creating bad habits that are gonna frusturate real teachers. But Elder Reyes is getting good, even though he hasn´t got very much time learning english. Pretty cool
I love you guys!
-E´ Stoddard
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