Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Spanish!


Hey!!

So this week was super chill!! Except one of my investigators I don't understand because he refuses to speak spanish to me because he wants to practice his english because supposedly he lived in the states for like 5 years. But his english is spanglish and I don't understand a word he says, but he comes to church with us and today were going to teach his whole family.  I don't know if he is married or not because in spanish he said yes but when I asked in english he said no and gave me a whole long story that I ddn't understand one word.

I am getting to the point where I am forgetting a lot of words in english. and I decided I am not mexican anymore I am Salvadorian.  Because when my companion asks for something or ask what a word means here it's because spanish in mexico is completely different, I was asking for a straw and the word for straw is completely different here. and he always says no monches and here they say va querer and they pronounce there Y and LL with the sound Y in english but here the Y and LL is a J in english a soft J.  So some times I feel bad because he asks me what something is,  in mexican spanish, but I can't give him the word in spanish here cause I only know salvador spanish. I have gotten to the point where I can speak vos pretty well.

Something funny is we have 3 new families we're teaching and these 3 new families all know each other and they know the leader mission.  So I invited them all over for a family night and we made s'mores and everything and bonbons in mexico is marshmallows and here its marshmallos but i just say marsh and they understand because they know I like to cut my words in half sometimes. Anyways back to my story, so he was like hey were going to cook bon bons in the fire and bon bons are lollipops here so they were all looking at him funny and of course I didn't correct him because its just to funny.

So we're doing really well right now!!  We're having a lot of fun!!  Mom I had to use a lot of money this week because my backpack got stolen and shoes too. and Elder Gotschalk's too. So we both bought buslighter new backpacks today, I used the debit card for that but he payed me back just this minute while writing you.  Yeah, I really have hit my 6 months because I had to fix a lot of my pants and shoes and everything, sorry mom.
 
Love all you guys!  Elder McKenna

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

New Companion

Hey

So this week was a lot of fun!! My sons name is Elder Martinez and he is from Mexico and I have learned that Spanish in Mexico is completely different then spanish here.  He is always asking me what some spanish words mean here and I feel bad because I don't know the spanish mexican word. So I am sad for when I talk to Jacob after the mission because he didn't get the chance to learn the cool spanish. I like the El Salvador spanish words more then a lot of the spanish words in mexico, sorry fam!!

So my companion is super cool because he wants to work but he is a little over bearing with the rules and stuff. During study time and everything we study all we are supposed too and we are obedient with exactness.  I even teach him English for one hour every morning but when I talk to the other elders in 'tu" form or in "vos" he corrects me and is always like, rules are rules, we only can talk in "usted".  It's getting really annoying because when I talk to the zone leaders they even speak to me in tu and vos.  I want to be able to speak really well in tu, usted and vos and transition really well but he always corrects me to speak in usted.  Then when we are working and have lessons and teaching he is super lazy, he won't walk worth a darn!  The other day we were in an area 45 min away from where the bishop needed us to go to teach.  My companion walked as slow as a turtle and I was like running because we had 3 lessons in the next two hours and these are 3 families really important.  Here if your late they don't want to receive you.  (but it's okay for them to be late)  So I was running and he refused to even speed walk and this really bugged me because its not okay for me to speak in tu with missionaries but its okay for him to be lazy.  The other thing is he is racist, a little bit, because the zone leaders need to work in my area to know my investigators and to have an interview with them, so he had to work with the other zone leader and he is a gringo and he was so mad saying all these bad things about gringos.

Other then that I really am learning from him and I am glad he has the desire to be obedient. He was mad the other day because I had an idea to door contact with cake in my hands because everyone here likes cake.  So I thought it would be a good fun hard way to work and it was super fun knocking doors with a giant cake in my hands and it actually really worked, the people here loved us and invited us in.  It was super fun.  My companion thought it was disobedient and called the zone leaders and all they said is "hey that's a good idea I want to contact with cake".

Yup!  Having lots of fun!!! love you all!! love the snow pics you sent.  Elder McKenna

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Trainer

Hey guys

I had an interview with the president this week and I am now a trainer.  I am both nervous and happy.  I think I will learn a lot and it will be fun but I am also nervous because I saw the pictures of all the new missionaries coming in and they all look mad.   All the Latinos; not one of them smiled in the pictures and the gringos didn't smile either.  Only one person was smiling in the pictures and he is Chinese.  I want him as my comp because he was the only one that looked happy.

So how crazy is that, my first companion was my trainer and my second companion I'm going to train.  How crazy is that? I am still in the same area though and now that I am going to be training I  am going to be here for 2 more changes (12 weeks).  That's going to be 5 changes in one area. I am excited about that but also sad, that's a lot of time.  So tomorrow I am going to receive my new comp, crazy, I am going to train, please pray for me I can't do this on my own.

Other great news, out of everyone I have baptized all are still active.  But the family Escobar and the family Mandandez need your prayers they are all having family problems.   This week was super crazy.  So this week was super hard for one of our recent convert families because  there grandma died and second she accidentally locked her nephew inside the house.  Here the locks are on the outside of the house so they couldn't get out, so he was super mad and broke all her stuff, took a video and sent a video to her aunt that she is a slob and all this stuff and sent the video to her.  Super crazy and then he threaten to kill her and then the cops came and now he can't live there any more but super crazy week.

Well I'm loving the mission.   Spanish is coming along really great.  I can pretty much have a conversation about anything, I can understand pretty much all gospel doctrine in spanish, but other stuff no.  Hey so I think I know what I am going to do when I get back home.   I am going to study languages and go in to linguistics.  I think it is a good  idea to learn the languages of the world so I can talk to the world. and plus I think it will be super cool to be able to talk to my 2 best friends, Savannah and Martin in different languages.  That will be so chill to just be making fun of people with them in spanish and dutch. Yes of course I am going to learn dutch so I can talk to my bro.  Oh mom whenever you can, please send me book of mormon in french.
have a great week!!!