Hey Everyone!
Thanks for the email this week! This was a pretty normal week, but I'll share a few funny experiences.
So Like I said last week, lots of people have very interesting views and interpretations of the bible. Especially alot of hispanics seem to have heard and say weird things. Whenever you are talking to them and they say "Pues, dice en La Biblia que..." (well, its says in the Bible that...) theres about a 50/50 chance that its actually in the Bible, and a 50/50 that they interpreted it correctly. A guy last week tried to tell us that it talks about World War 3 in the Bible. We asked him where, he said he wasn't sure, he'd have to ask his dad, who told him that. Its usually different when they ask us, because I can pretty much always tell them exactly where :) I'll try to write down some more funny "dice en la Biblia" quotes.
Another funny source of knowledge this one lady we talked to had was youtube. She told us about 3 or 4 different stories that sounded interesting to say the least, and one of them just crazy. She told us a story of a ballerina who went to hell, and was forced to dance for the demons for eternity. She said the same thing is happening with Micheal Jackson right now because he wasnt baptized. I had a hard time keeping a straight face during that conversation.
In this one apartment that has several people weve contacted and have taught, theres this big guy whos not quite playing with a full deck. While we were talking to the people about Micheal Jackson in dancing in hell, he came up and stood by us and just looked at us. Thinking he might want to say something, I said "how ya doin?" he just nodded his head. A minute later he lit up a cigarette, and just stood there. So I said to them in spanish "do you know this guy thats standing right next to us?" they said yes, and he stands next to people like that alot, and that he "no es bueno de la cabeza." But a little bit later he left, and we left after them. The next day we went to go visit the people we were talking to, but they werent there. As we were leaving, he came out of his apartment and just stared at us. We said "see ya later" and he said "Ya. See ya later. Alot later. Much later!" and went around the corner to get our bikes. He followed us and stared at us while we got on our bikes and I said "have a nice day" and he said "Ya. See ya later." Weird.
Alright, one more funny story. We met a guy outside his house a few weeks ago, and he said his name was Moses. We thought that was pretty cool. We went and knocked on his door the other day, they said they were eating, so we could come back later. I saw some speakers in the room behind him and said "hey are those Peavey sp-2s?", and I got a little conversation about sound stuff going. He invited us in, and it turns out hes a DJ, so we had a little conversation about that. Hes a pretty cool guy. Later, Elder Vail and I made some jokes about DJ Moses, who probably plays his shows in a robe with a giant beard, maybe a "bling" necklace of 2 tablets or something. So now every once in a while one of us will just start laughing and say "Haha. DJ Moses..."
Mar 28, 2011
Mar 21, 2011
DAY 111: This means something...
Did you forget me this week? :(
Kidding!
This was a pretty exciting week. It was transfers, and I got a new companion, Elder Vail. He is from Boise, and is a pretty cool guy. This is his last transfer, so Im pretty much guaranteed to be here in Metarie South for another 2 transfers. Which is fine, I do enjoy it here. Elder Vail served here about a year ago, so we've contacted some of his old investigators, and made them investigators again! It has been a little different with a new companion, I feel like this week has been tougher to focus in. I feel like when we try to just focus on select people, we lose sight of others and of finding opportunities. But when we try to focus on everyone at once and do lots of finding, I feel like we don't get as much done with helping certain people progress. But, such is the battle when you only have so much time.
So, anybody coming on a mission to the south can expect to run into to some Bible bashers. Even if their not up front about it, lots of people know the Bible, and will question you about it. On Wednesday after transfers we stopped at mcdonalds for breakfast, and sat next to this guy with a Bible open, taking notes. We asked what he was studying, and it all went downhill from there. He said "The word of God. Not the word of man, thats all churches teach. Church is all about payin some guy to tell you his opinion about the Bible" We said in our church nobody was paid. We talked a little bit and tried to tell him about the book of Mormon, and one of the other missionaries we were with said "Well the Bible was written in Israel and-" and the guy cut him off and said "No it wasn't. Do you know the history of the Bible? Have you ever gone deep into the Bible?" and we of course said yes. He said "Do you know where you came from?" I said " well before this life we lived with God..." and he said no I mean YOU, where YOU came from? We all came originally from Noah." He went into some rant about how God wanted to destroy the whole world or something but let Noah live. He said "Do you know who was on the ark with Noah?" I started to answer "Japheth, Shem-" and he cut us off again and said "Shem, Ham and Japheth, and from those 8 people we have over 70 races. Have you ever wondered where the American Indians came from?" And we started to say "Well, a group of people left from Jerusalem-" and he cut us off again and said "You don't know that, thats just your theory!" By that point, we were done with our breakfast, clearly this guys mind was as closed as a box, nobody was changing anybody's views, so we just decided to leave. As we were getting up, he said "Those are the type of questions they should be teaching from day 1 at your churches" We just kind of laughed to ourselves and said "right you are". We gave him a Mormon.org card, maybe he'll check it out and yell at his computer instead. There definitely are some crazies in this world.
Speaking of crazies, we just got a new District Leader, Elder Christensen. <-- (approved comment, hes sitting next to me). Hes going to do well. We have a pretty solid district, and should get some good work done this next month. Well, hope all is well, and I'll try to write a hand-written letter today. We dont have much time you know!
-Cam Cardon
Kidding!
This was a pretty exciting week. It was transfers, and I got a new companion, Elder Vail. He is from Boise, and is a pretty cool guy. This is his last transfer, so Im pretty much guaranteed to be here in Metarie South for another 2 transfers. Which is fine, I do enjoy it here. Elder Vail served here about a year ago, so we've contacted some of his old investigators, and made them investigators again! It has been a little different with a new companion, I feel like this week has been tougher to focus in. I feel like when we try to just focus on select people, we lose sight of others and of finding opportunities. But when we try to focus on everyone at once and do lots of finding, I feel like we don't get as much done with helping certain people progress. But, such is the battle when you only have so much time.
So, anybody coming on a mission to the south can expect to run into to some Bible bashers. Even if their not up front about it, lots of people know the Bible, and will question you about it. On Wednesday after transfers we stopped at mcdonalds for breakfast, and sat next to this guy with a Bible open, taking notes. We asked what he was studying, and it all went downhill from there. He said "The word of God. Not the word of man, thats all churches teach. Church is all about payin some guy to tell you his opinion about the Bible" We said in our church nobody was paid. We talked a little bit and tried to tell him about the book of Mormon, and one of the other missionaries we were with said "Well the Bible was written in Israel and-" and the guy cut him off and said "No it wasn't. Do you know the history of the Bible? Have you ever gone deep into the Bible?" and we of course said yes. He said "Do you know where you came from?" I said " well before this life we lived with God..." and he said no I mean YOU, where YOU came from? We all came originally from Noah." He went into some rant about how God wanted to destroy the whole world or something but let Noah live. He said "Do you know who was on the ark with Noah?" I started to answer "Japheth, Shem-" and he cut us off again and said "Shem, Ham and Japheth, and from those 8 people we have over 70 races. Have you ever wondered where the American Indians came from?" And we started to say "Well, a group of people left from Jerusalem-" and he cut us off again and said "You don't know that, thats just your theory!" By that point, we were done with our breakfast, clearly this guys mind was as closed as a box, nobody was changing anybody's views, so we just decided to leave. As we were getting up, he said "Those are the type of questions they should be teaching from day 1 at your churches" We just kind of laughed to ourselves and said "right you are". We gave him a Mormon.org card, maybe he'll check it out and yell at his computer instead. There definitely are some crazies in this world.
Speaking of crazies, we just got a new District Leader, Elder Christensen. <-- (approved comment, hes sitting next to me). Hes going to do well. We have a pretty solid district, and should get some good work done this next month. Well, hope all is well, and I'll try to write a hand-written letter today. We dont have much time you know!
-Cam Cardon
DAY 105
Hey everyone! I sure did get your letter last week! Thanks alot!
Well, this week was pretty good. Last Wed, when there was the tornado warning, was pretty exciting. We went nice and early to the church to go play basketball, and when we left there was a completely overcast skiy, and lots of lightning, so you couldnt see any individual lightning bolts, just kind of the whole sky flashing. We went and played for a while, and could hear the rain pounding down hard on the roof, and when we tried to leave, the road was completely flooded. Like worse than those other pictures I sent you. So we couldnt even leave the church. So we had an hour until our personal study was supposed to start, so I convinced some of the other elders to play some 4-square, and it was awesome. We ended up just doing our personal study there at the church, in our basketball clothes.
That was probably the excitement of the week, and this week is transfers! I'm staying here, and Elder De Los Santos is going to a city called Thibidoux, and I'm getting a new companion named Elder Vail, its his last transfer here in the mission. He is a good missionary, from what Ive seen and heard.
Something kind of funny happened this week as well. President Woods called us regarding the guy we baptized a few weeks ago, Eugenio. He said he got a call from salt lake and said that he was already a member, and is registered as having been baptized in 1989, and was last registered in a ward in Mexico. So we called Eugenio and said "were you baptized before?" and he said no. We said "are you SURE you werent baptized?" He said yes he was sure, and had never attended church or met with missionaries in Mexico. So we have no idea how that happened, but somehow there was a record for him, with the same birthday and same parents and everything. So we just have to have him write a note saying he definitely wasnt baptized before.
Well, thats about it, I'll attach some other pictures, but try to take more this week. Have a great day everyone!
-Elder Cardon
Well, this week was pretty good. Last Wed, when there was the tornado warning, was pretty exciting. We went nice and early to the church to go play basketball, and when we left there was a completely overcast skiy, and lots of lightning, so you couldnt see any individual lightning bolts, just kind of the whole sky flashing. We went and played for a while, and could hear the rain pounding down hard on the roof, and when we tried to leave, the road was completely flooded. Like worse than those other pictures I sent you. So we couldnt even leave the church. So we had an hour until our personal study was supposed to start, so I convinced some of the other elders to play some 4-square, and it was awesome. We ended up just doing our personal study there at the church, in our basketball clothes.
That was probably the excitement of the week, and this week is transfers! I'm staying here, and Elder De Los Santos is going to a city called Thibidoux, and I'm getting a new companion named Elder Vail, its his last transfer here in the mission. He is a good missionary, from what Ive seen and heard.
Something kind of funny happened this week as well. President Woods called us regarding the guy we baptized a few weeks ago, Eugenio. He said he got a call from salt lake and said that he was already a member, and is registered as having been baptized in 1989, and was last registered in a ward in Mexico. So we called Eugenio and said "were you baptized before?" and he said no. We said "are you SURE you werent baptized?" He said yes he was sure, and had never attended church or met with missionaries in Mexico. So we have no idea how that happened, but somehow there was a record for him, with the same birthday and same parents and everything. So we just have to have him write a note saying he definitely wasnt baptized before.
Well, thats about it, I'll attach some other pictures, but try to take more this week. Have a great day everyone!
-Elder Cardon
DAY 97
Madre! Por que no me escribio este semana? No me gusta estar en obscuridad de sus vidas!
But, In other news, we had a baptism this week! Our awesome investigator Eugenio got baptized, and I got to perform the ordinance! It was really cool. I took some pictures. He said he wants to go out with us as often as possible, which is great, because having a member at a lesson is always powerful, and he has a car, so it saves nuestros piernas de un poco de dolor. On saturday it rained. And when I say it rained, I mean it RAINED. Gatos y perros. Sideways as well. It was crazy. The drainage system here isnt great, so alot of the streets were flooded. Luckily ours was alright, being just a bit higher that some other surrounding ones, but I'll attach some pictures of the crazy streets. I think this may start some of the "same old same old" type updates, but I'll try to think of some good one-liners:
So we had a family home evening at a members home with 2 families, and a family of investigators. The investigators had a little 2 year old that was being a little irritable. They said he was probaly just feeling a little sick. Then, a few minutes later, while he was standing in front of the two parents sitting on the couch, the kid just starts throwing up, with a big thick stream of what looked like partially recycled spaghetti-o's. The dad quickly reacted and put his hands out in a cupping shape to catch it, but he filled the dads hands, and kept going! So the mom reached over with her hands and starts filling hers too. Luckily, he stopped with just a bit in the moms hands, so she picked him up and they brought him and they hand-bowl of barf to the bathroom to let the rest out of him. Good thing he didnt keep going, cuz I was sitting next to them and would have been next to offer the use of my hands.
So, this family weve been trying to get to come to church came this week! Their one son, who is 9, has come with us to church for the last 3 weeks, and his mom says every week hes ready an hour early and excited to go. But this week, he got them all to go! So we found them a ride, and their mom and all 6 kids came to church! They have a 2 1/2 year old named Ricardo who is just the cutest little thing ever, he reminds me so much of Daniel. During church, one of the other kids was sitting between me and him, and we totally played that little game where you lean back where to where you cant see them, then pop your head out and go "hah!", and he has this little laugh thats so much like daniels. I miss that kid!
Well, Thats probably all for now, but I want to hear from you guys! Email me! and write me during the week!
-Cam
DAY 90
Hey Everyone!
Well, yes, we do go to a spanish ward. It has about 100 regularly attend. About the music thing... The congregational hymns are rough, at best. Last week we sang a hymn, I dont remember which one, that is a little less commonly sung, and it was bad. But, you can tell some people are really putting their heart into it, it just manifests in a less than harmonically pleasing way. Same thing with the sacrament, I'm really proud of our deacons for setting a good standard and example. Here, theres only 2 or 3 deacon age young men, so its alot of either recent converts and some older members of the ward. Theyll pass 2 trays into one aisle, then have the people pass them back, this one guy last week was scooting around people into the aisle to pass to each person directly. Its pretty disorganized. But, not my job to instruct in that department, and at least everybody gets the sacrament.
Well, we had the wedding last week, I unfortunately didnt take any pictures, but all went well. The night of they asked me to play the piano, she said she wanted here comes the bride for her processional. I said I could probably do it. I sat down and figured it out, and had it down ok. I did some prelude with just the canon in D chord pattern, then when they came for the processional, I played here comes the bride, and it wasnt too bad. The bishop did a simple ceremony, read the family proclamation, and there of course was food afterward, some really good rice and flautas, and a nice big tres leches cake. We scored some leftovers :).
Wednesday something funny happened to us, that Ive heard of happening before. We were knocking doors in an apartment complex, and we knocked one door, a guy looked from the upstairs window, and we saw him, so we waved. We waited for a bit, then decided he wasnt coming, so we went to the next one. We knocked on that one, and a lady answered, and we started talking to her. Then just a second later, the door before opened. So I went back and talked to the guy at the first door, and Elder De Los Santos kept talking to the other one, and we eached talked for about 10 min to them. It was kind of cool, I felt really comfortable with my spanish by mylself to just talk and share a whole message. He was really excited about coming to church, and when I was explaining the Book of Mormon and pulled one out, he asked if we had more books. I started to say "Well we beleive in the Bible as well, and this is..." and he said "no I mean more of those- like if I wanted one" and I said yes and handed it to him. Hopefully well be able to meet more with him, hes a nice guy.
Were going to have a baptism this Saturday, Eujenio will be baptized. There will also be a couple of other ones, from other missionaries, were not quite sure what were gonna do with scheduling yet. And whats really cool is he asked me to baptize him! It should be a great service.
Well, I dont really have any one-liners this week, but maybe I'll think of something for next week. Send me questions and I'll answer them!
-Cam
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