I'm so excited to be out in the field! I leave Monday night, at 11:55pm. It will be a 6 hour plane ride, so it's going to be a long night!
When we practice teaching investigators, we basically watch a video detailing someones problem in their life, like their family died in a car crash, or they struggle with an addiction that tore apart their family, or they had surgery and now can't have kids, things like that. We then plan the lesson according to their needs.
If you have questions about what we're being taught here, please ask! I will definitely try to answer! One of the cool things we learned is to ask why they're interested in the church, and why they are willing to keep their commitments. You get to really know people a lot more that way!
So we're now the oldest district in our zone, so our district leader and his companion are now the zone leaders. Which means I am the new district leader! It's definitely not an easy task. I have to try and guide and help a group of 10 18-20 yr old guys, and I am the second youngest, and definitely the smallest. They seem to listen to me most of the time, but it feels like a pretty heavy burden.
During gym time this week, I played cage soccer a couple times. Bear in mind, I haven't played soccer since indoor last year, and before that 6th grade. It was so much fun! It's like indoor, but there's no roof, and it's just a chain link fence around it. The doors don't close either, which means it's possible to kick it out of bounds, and also out of the arena. I realized that because I'm so small, I can just run at people, and use them to change my direction, because they all weigh at least 50 pounds more than I do! What surprised me though, was how well we held our own against the Mexican teams! We play in a hotseat fashion, where you have teams of 5, and if you score in 5 minutes, the other team has to come off. If nobody scores in 5 minutes, both teams come off. So you can play with 30 people, and get a good amount of playing done! I also realized, if you're not afraid to get hit by the ball, and can immediately play after being hit, you can surprise people who don't expect you to have little regard for personal safety!
One thing I've noticed here, is how people act when they come from a homogeneous community. It's really interesting the confidence with which people say very controversial opinions. I think it definitely has benefited me to grow up in a community where there is, if not diversity, at least a diversity of opinion.
One thing I've learned about Latinos is that they actually do speak faster than we do. It takes more letters on average to say things in Spanish, due to the fact that they have less sounds available (every letter makes it's sound and no other, with a few exceptions). This means that to get across ideas at the rate they have them, they have to talk faster, because they have to fit more or longer words into the same space! It was a really interesting discovery.
I have 30 pages left in Jesus the Christ, and I had some really cool experiences with it. I would be talking about some opinion I had, or thinking about some issue, and when I read Jesus the Christ, It would directly address that topic! This happened as I was thinking about the respect deserved by women, and I read an in depth analysis of Christ's attitude towards women! Also honoring the law, and I read about how Christ's teachings could be practiced under most governments, rather than requiring a systemic body such as was had by the Jews. Seriously, super cool!
So, I had to pack today. That was lame. I have to check the weight of my bags today, even though I'm not leaving until Monday! I will be wearing one of two outfits every day for 4 days, which I guess isn't bad, but it's kind of sad to see my closet empty. Oh well.
We were learning about how to help people overcome addiction, and our teacher had us address a habit our companions had, through the gospel, and ask them to commit to stopping it for a day, or for a week. So, my companion said I should eat less then 3 bags of chips a day. It was very funny, but also difficult, because they don't sell a lot of healthy food at the store, and I get hungry in between meals. I did it pretty well though. It was supposed to help us to empathize with those who have chemical or other addictions, which are by nature much more difficult to overcome than simple habits. Quite an interesting experience.
It's been a pretty great 6 weeks, but now the real world starts. I might get a chance to email on Monday, but if not, the next time you hear from me, I'll be in Peru!
Love you all, and thinking about you too!
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