Week 13 - Oh my aching toe! Simon Bolivar

¡Hola!

Ok, let me start by telling you guys about an experience that happened to me this week. So on Lunes (Monday) I got a small in-grown toenail and I thought nothing of it. On Miércoles (Wednesday) y Jueves (and Thursday) y Viernes (and Friday) we walked 20 miles to visit this 14 year old kid who is getting baptized on Saturday. We walked 20 miles each day this week and each day my in-grown toenail got progressively worse. So, on Friday Elder Remington (AP) went on compañero inter-cambiars with us and he told me to call Presidente to get my toe checked out.  My toe was pretty bad!  I was even getting blisters on my other toes because of my in-grown toenail. So after lunch on Saturday I called Presidente and he told me to go to Milagro to the clínica to have it checked out. We went and on the way there I was thinking about what they were going to do to my toe. I thought that they were probably going to give me a shot in my toe and that would numb it so I really wouldn't feel anything. I really thought it wasn't going to hurt very bad.

When we got to the doctors office they told me to wait a couple of minutes.  After two minutes they took me back into this operation room and I took off my shoe and sock and they laid me down on the table. The doctor gave me three shots in my toe and they freaking hurt! Because of the shots I was kinda screaming a little bit.  Then they started cutting my toe nail off.  This hurt soo bad that I was screaming and cussing (I wrote Garrett back yesterday and told him that I hope he cussed in English so nobody could understand what he was saying :-).  Elder Mercado was holding me down because it hurt so bad.  I don't even remember what they did but it felt like a chainsaw was attacking my toe. So after they removed my whole toenail I think I was in shock. I couldn't feel my hands or my legs and I was whiter than snow and I was totally out of it.  When they were done I was just laying there in agony.  Apparently they gave me a shot in my butt--I don't really remember that part. All I remember is that my pants were undone and my shirt was flapping around. So after I came around to it, they gave me some meds and we went home.  The doctors said that I can't walk for a week so I am not working for a week. I am alright though--don't even worry about me. Well, that is the most interesting thing that happened to me this week!!

Now let me answer your questions:

I email you from these little stores that have computers.  We go in, email, pay, and leave.  We have an hour to email.

Yes, I did get the letters from dear elder.

I don't think the people here celebrate that holiday. (I asked him about All Souls Day--November 2nd).

Elder Mercado has taught me to remember everything that happens during our day. I am not perfect at it but every day I try.

I really like that blog thing you are doing for me.  Keep up the good work!!

Ok, now let me tell you the good things that happened this week.  We challenged a 14 year old kid named Rosendo to be baptized and he said yes. So on Saturday he will be baptized.  We also challenged a 21 year old girl named Maria Diaz to be baptized the same day but she didn't come to church this week so she can't be baptized on Saturday.  So not this week but next week hopefully.  There is this woman named Flor Torrez and she has read the Book of Mormon and she knows it's true but she works a lot and she can't go to church.  Until she comes to church she can't be baptized so hopefully we can get her to church soon.  

Each day my Español improves--not a lot but it still improves.  I can understand about 1/4 or so of the conversation and my talking is coming along good.  Well that really was my week.  This week was a different week for sure.

Here are my questions:

1- Do you sill have my Disneyland shorts and my red sweat pants?

2- How are you doing Mom? Give me dets.

3- How is our extended family doing? 

4- I like your 8 question "send me pics!"

5- Please keep sending letters from my friends.

LOVE,

Elder Farley- The picture of the little red thing in the bag is my toenail.

We can't tell if he is covering his mouth because of anxiety and anticipation of the procedure, or if he is covering his mouth out of pain.  I am guessing that it is from pain after the toenail was removed. Isn't that an ancient form of torture?  What a brave boy!

His poor toenail--Ouch!

I think Elder Mercado is trying to give Garrett some sympathy

"Chilin" on P-day while Garrett rests his toe

Week 12 -- Simon Bolivar

¡Hola!

Let me start by asking questions:

1-  Why haven't I seen any pictures of Kendall and her car? What do people say about it?

2- Why haven't I seen any pictures of Hayden?

3- What about pics of Cami? 

4-  How are my friends doing? Por ejemplo Coleman, David, Tyler, etc

5- Tell me more about the family?

Well, those are my questions. BYE!!!!

JK :-) 

My Spanish is way better than before I left, but I feel like it is still bad.  I can say a variation of what I want to say.  It's basically what I want to say but not exactly.  Y puedo entender mas de la conversasion (and I can understand more of conversations) but it's not perfect.  I think that in a couple of months it will get there. Elder Mercado is still my compañero.  I think he will be until I am done with my training.  Nope, nothing scary has happened to me yet, but I have talked to about ten drunk dudes and it's hilarious every time I do. We were walking across the street and this drunk guy rode up on his bike and he stopped right in front of us and he started yelling, "Shut Up!" We just walked right past him and he just stared at us for about a minute and then he rode off.  I thought it was hilarious! Yes, the ZLs do bring us the mail and I don't mind that you send it through Dear elder.com.  One food that I am missing is Indian food.

Well, this week was way better!  We had a baptism which I got to do. His name is Harold Summer Vargas Morina and his is a good story to tell.  He is a member of the church!  He was baptized in May of this year and he holds the Aaronic priesthood.  His whole family is also members.  Well, his sister is one of our investigators and she wanted him to baptize her so we were making sure that he could do that and we found out that his papers were lost.  So technically he wasn't a member!  So we had to re-baptize him and I got to do that (it was in the river too). 

Well, what else happened this week?  I don't know--every day is pretty normal.  We walked, taught and testified.  One thing I learned about my camera is that everyone likes to use it.  I don't think I have taken a single picture on it yet.  Everyone else, especially Elder Mercado takes it from me and takes a bunch of pictures.  I don't mind it as long as I get it back by the end of the day.  So, just know that I probably didn't take any of these pictures myself.  

Hey, I don't know what else to tell you, so if this isn't a good email just let me know.

LOVE,

Elder Farley-

Garrett with Harold Summer Vargas Morina and family

Garrett and Harold after his baptism in the river

Week 11 -- Simon Bolivar -- Finally, some pictures!

¡Chevere!

¿Hola familia como están? Well, let me start by answering your questions. Pues, our baptisms that were scheduled all fell through.  Nobody got baptised!  This month has been hard for baptisms.  So far, in the month of Octubre, we have planned 1 baptism. No bueno pero tratamos (not good but we will try). It gets a little discouraging but I wont stop working. 

Yes, I did find out about my card.

Well, I try not to eat dinner because lunch is so big. For breakfast I usually eat a sandwich with mayonnaise and ham. That is about it that we buy because almuerzo (lunch) is so big.

NO we cannot drink the water. I filled up a picture with water from the tap and the water turned black when it was full!! We buy this huge purified water jug and we drink that, and I just buy water bottles.

I cannot buy dark soda like por ejemplo (for example) cola or Pepsi. For food I think we can eat everything. I haven't heard of anything I can't eat yet.

No, I haven't done any sight seeing.

Our branch has about 40 or so members.

Yes I did receive your packages and I loved them so much. I learned that I cannot send letters or packages so I can't send anything back to you guys, but I encourage you guys to send me more. I especially loved the photo album Davis sent. Keep sending them.

Yes, I did get sick but it was only a bad cold--nothing I couldn't handle.

Yes and no; the humidity is always there and if I am outside I really feel it, but if I go inside I don't anymore.

Well, my favorite part so far has been everything!  I love everything about my mission I can't tell you enough that my mission is awesome!

My week this week was really hard. Thursday we only taught one lesson the entire day. We walked all day with no one to teach it was really hard and really discouraging.  If I had tear ducts I would have cried but for some reason I don't cry.  The rest of the week was a lot better.  We taught a bunch of people and challenged people to be baptized and a lot of them accepted.  In order for them to be baptized though they need to attend church and no one attends church so it's a bit frustrating.  But I don't lose hope.  

This was really my week in a nut shell:  Martes we went to Milagro for the district meeting and then we came home and taught people. Wednesday we did practically the same thing. Thursday was really hard--we taught no one and we honestly did nothing.  Friday was a lot better. We went to Milagro for a zone conference and then came home and taught people.  Saturday and Sunday we did the same thing and taught people. That is really all we do and it's AWESOME!!!

Let me tell you a funny story that happened to us this week: So, Friday we were having a zone fast.  The whole zone was going to fast to accomplish our goal of 60 baptisms by December.  So, Elder Mercado and I started our fast and all was well. Later that day, like 3 hours later, we were visiting an investigator and they asked if we wanted a banana.  She took out these chocolate covered bananas and both of our eyes got huge and we were saying YES, YES!  We took a bite and it was sooo good.  Oh my goodness it was good!  As we took the second bite we both remembered that we were fasting and we both said "Dang it!!!"  So, that was kinda funny :-).  

  

Well, that was my week. 

LOVE 

Elder Farley-

He gave us no explanation about these pictures nor the names of the people in them, but we will leave that for another day.  It took us 5 weeks to get these pictures, so we are just going to enjoy them.  We think he looks great!  To us he looks happy and even a little tan. :-)  I have to admit that I cried when I opened this first picture because I have been so anxious to see him.  This was total salve to my soul.  I sure love this kid!

Elder Mercado and Elder Farley taking a selfie

Garrett with his Birthday cake.  He looks a little warm, don't you think?

Another selfie :-)

Love the hair!  We are guessing that he is riding in a truck and has wind blown hair.  What a goof-ball!

Week 10 -- Simon Bolivar and General Conference

Jenny's comments are in red

¡Hola!

Let me start off by answering your questions:   Yes, I did watch all the sessions of conference.  Me and Elder Mercado had to travel to Milagro and go to the estaca capilla (stake chapel).  That was fun, and since the conference was all day on Saturday we had to stay the night in our zone leaders house. That was really fun! Then on Sunday we stayed in Milagro and watched the rest of conferencia.

The names of the missionaries in my zone go as follows; ME, Elder Mercado, Elder Rounds, Elder Arfaro, Elder Frandsen, Elder Sanchez, Elder Juanes, Elder Arias, Hermana Lundin, Hermana Vidrio; Hermana Parry, Hermana Monrroy.

No, I did not receive the packages yet.  MOM, I haven't figured the camera out yet but I will try. I haven't received the letters from Dear Elder either.

My Spanish is still terrible but I try everyday to work better at it.  I have a really hard time understanding people.  It is so hard! But if they speak slow enough I can get the jist of it. My pronunciation isn't that great either but I work at it.  Everyday it gets better, I just have to be patient and try my best every day and it will come sooner rather than later.

No, there are not other missionaries in Simon Bolivar but the other day we were walking around the town looking for houses with the AP's (Elder Remington y Elder Magill) and we were looking for a house for some new missionaries to live in. So next week sometime there will be new missionaries in Simon Bolivar.

I didn't know that about Simon Bolivar but that's cool! (I told him that Simon Bolivar was a man who gained independence from Spain for most of South America. He is known as the "George Washington" of South America. Garrett is working in a town with his name sake and the country of Bolivia is also named after him.) Yes I am very excited for BYU Idaho.  I am so excited to start after I get back in the winter and spring (we found out this week that Garrett was accepted to BYU Idaho and he got the Winter/Spring track). And finally, no I haven't used your magic trick yet or your stickers because I am waiting until my Spanish gets way better so that I can actually communicate with the kids.

  

Well now let me tell you about my week.  

OK let me just start off by saying that my week was pretty normal. Monday was P-Day. Martes (Tuesday) we went to Milagro for the district meetings. Meircoles (Wednesday) we just tracked and taught and walked and invited a bunch of people to conferencia. We did the same thing on Thursday. On Friday we went around and reminded all the people about conferencia and then on Saturday and Sunday we were in Milagro watching conferencia--a pretty normal week.

I gotta tell you something funny...so one night we were sitting in the house of a member and we were talking and we were getting referncias de ellos (getting references) and I don't really remember much about what was being said but they asked me how my family was acting when I left. Keep in mind my Spanish is terrible, so with the best of my ability I told them what everyone was like and then they all started laughing. So this is what I told them: "My mom was bawling her eyes off crying and my siblings were like see ya in two years and my dad was like good luck son with a thumbs up." So now every time Elder Mercado sees the picture of the family he always says "GOOD LUCK SON" and he has his thumb up. I think it's hilarious because that's not really how it went, right? (no, that is not how it went at all :-)!  We are not sure if Garrett was trying to make that story funnier to the member family or if his Spanish was so bad that they misunderstood what he was trying to say.  What actually happened when he left is that he just gave us all a quick hug and said, "I will see you all in 2 years" and then he was off.  He didn't hang around long enough for me to cry, so the story that he told was totally different than reality.  However, I did cry as I watched him go through security, but he doesn't know that :-))  

Well, that really was my week.  I will try and figure out how to send pictures. I just want to say that I really appreciate what you guys do for me.  All the prayers and everything you do is amazing!  Thank you for everything. I love you all lots and I will keep that in mind mom (he mentioned that he was gaining weight because he was eating so much at their lunch meals and so I told him to just take smaller portions so that he won't offend the people but also to protect himself from gaining weight).  

 LOVE; 

Elder Farley-