Lots of Meetings & Food

May 29, 2012

Hola Familia,

Sorry I didn't email yesterday but like you guessed the libraries were all closed. We found out at about 7 last night that the Jensens (the senior missionaries across the hall from us) have a computer with internet in their apartment but by then it was too late to email. So here we are. Tuesday email.

Ok so English class went really well on Tuesday. We had six people there which was really good for a first class and they all had a good time. On Wednesday was mega zone conference (Zones 4 (northwest Queens), 5 (northeast Queens), 6 (south Queens)) which was really good.  I saw a lot of my old companions (Sterling, Sanford, and Leavitt) there and got to talk with them for a while which was fun.  President Nelson is really trying to whip us into shape before the new president comes.  He is pushing really hard about just studying Preach My Gospel and teaching the basic, fundamental doctrines in it, and as we have been doing that more and more over the last couple of months, we have all noticed the teaching getting better.  Usually he has had us do practices for just one principle and try to get that one down pat. This time he just picked one paragraph from one principle and had us practice teaching just that.  It is really powerful. Guess the prophets knew what they were doing when they wrote it. Who knew?

On Thursday we found went to an appointment with a guy who Elder Scoffield fearlessed a while back.  We went in and we were just getting to know him for a while and he started talking about how his dad died when he was a kid and he misses him.  So we both thought Plan of Salvation for the lesson even though Preach My Gospel says to stick to the order of the lessons unless prompted by the Spirit.  About half way through the lesson it wasn't going too well (well we were teaching pretty well but it just wasn't what he needed to hear to feel the Spirit at that point) and we tried to transition and saved the lesson a little bit, but he didn't learn anything about what makes us different than every other church in the world. Luckily he is really nice and humble (only been in the U.S. for a few months, my theory still holds), and invited us back.  But I guess PMG was right again.  The prophets must really know what they're talking about.

On Friday I went on an exchange into the English program again.  It was pretty fun but nothing really noteworthy.

Saturday was a pretty normal day. Sunday was an interesting day.  We went to church. Delilah's whole family has been sick all week so she still hasn't been confirmed. After church we went to branch council. That was fun. Spanish church meetings can get pretty crazy. Everyone talks at the same time and everyone keeps complaining about how the branch isn't following the manual. Most of their specific points I would challenge them to go find in the manual. Like one of the points that was argued for a while was that the manual says that the Sacrament can't be passed to the people in the foyer. Oh well it's fun. Then we went to a lady we knocked into last week that invited us over for baleatas. So we went over there and ate four baleatas each. Then we went back to the church for correlation which turned into branch council part 2 because a few of the ward leaders came.  They give a few good ideas between a lot of chatting. So it turned into a long correlation. I really do love this branch, they are awesome, they are just still learning a lot.

But then we went over to visit a member family and when we got there she asked if we wanted some pupusas.  Still being slightly full from the baleatas and having our dinner appointment in an hour we told of course, but only one each please. One each, of course Elders, let me go grab eight for the two of you. Luckily they weren't too big but it was still pretty filling.  So then we went straight from that to Hna. Alarcón's for our dinner appointment. She is a head chef for a high end catering company. We started out with a soup that was very good. At this point I am full. Now she brings out a salad. Alright pretty light I can handle that. Now some chicken and potato salad. I grabbed a small piece of chicken and a little bit of potato salad. Luckily the chicken piece had a lot of bones in it which means less meat but the scraps on my plate looks like I ate more. Then dessert, a scoop of ice cream in pineapple juice. Alright, by then I'm done. Oh wait I forgot about second dessert. A slice of chocolate pie that was one of the richest deserts I have ever had. I got about half way through and I just had to stop. Oh man that was terrible.  The food was all delicious but three eating appointments is a little overboard.

Well that's it for this week.

Love you all,

Elder Pearce