Week 65

Hi Everyone!

Holy cow tons has happened this week and it went by super quick! First of all I have a story from back in Aruba! I was waiting to get video evidence sent to me but they must have forgot so I will send that later! But Juan David's mom asked me and E Carrillo to do a special musical number with me on the piano and E Carrillo on the Violin for Juan David's farewell. In Utah language farewell means the Sunday before you leave and I was pretty sure I was going to get transferred so I told her of course I would do it! I can't play the piano but I wasn't going to be there anyways! So then 2 Tuesdays ago we stopped by and she asked us how the song was coming. I told her it was a work in progress and she told us she can't wait for us to perform it at their house for his farewell party THAT FRIDAY....I freaked out a little but we ran to the church and E. Carrillo taught me an accompaniment for "I’ll go where you want me to go" and then we stole the piano from the church and for two straight days from 6:30 to 8 in the morning and from 9:30 to 10:30 I was practicing and practicing and I guess the gift of tongues works for piano too because we performed it on Friday and I only messed up a little! I will send you the video as soon as I get it.

 But then I headed out to Curasau which has been crazy! I got my new comp who is a big (or as we say, fluffy) guy from Nebraska but his parents are Mexican so he already speaks Spanish. He is a great guy but we are on bikes and that is kind of killing him. I think he is going to be my size by the end of the transfer. We live up on the biggest hill on the island and the only way up or down is this super steep hill. Its steeper than the streets up in the avenues in Salt Lake! So going down is way fun but going up is awful haha.

 But we were opening up an area this week so we were given a member list, a map, and a "good luck" and we were on our way. So this week was kinda tough! I was legit lost 87% of the time and sort of lost the rest! You know how I am with directions, and now I have a newbie with me so that’s no help! haha Its rough but we did lots of contacts and slowly we will build it up and I will probably get transferred right as I start to memorize the area. It’s huge and we are on bikes haha. But it’s all good.So this week there was a lot of getting lost and a lot of contacting, but we managed to find a few people to teach and we are starting to build up this area! poko poko.

 If I had one thing that I could change about the islands it would be giving them doorbells! We just have to stand outside the gate and yell Bon Tardi at the top of our lungs until somebody comes out. But the houses are all small and the windows are always open because they don't have ac so it works alright. It was better in the DR where people’s houses were the size of the shed or smaller, but here I feel like people have a lot of missed opportunities because of that custom.

It sounds like a lot is changing with the family, with everyone having babies!   I am not going to recognize our family when I get back! But at least they will be grown enough so that mom won't make me hold them!

 Here the Papiamento is SO DIFFERENT. It is ridiculous! Papiamento in Aruba is so much easier and has a lot more English influence but here it is more pure Papiamentu which means more Dutch and more Papiamentu so it’s different and kinda hard to get used to! Every time I get transferred I have to learn a new language or dialect! But I am using Papiamentu a ton! We use Spanish sometimes but unlike the other islands there are a lot of people here who just speak Papiamentu and not really anything else, so my Papiamentu is going to rock by the end of this transfer. Also here it is called Papiamentu,  not Papiamento, and they will correct you on that....

Hope all is good with you guys!

Elder Harsh