Shut up, Turds--June 18, 2007

I can't believe we are halfway through June. Summer starts in a few days, at least the calendar changes over to summer. Summer started long ago here in Florida. It has been hot, but it doesn't bother me too much. This past week we had some HUGE rainstorms on Tuesday and Wednesday, some good wind on one of the days. We were in our car for both days, and some of the roads we were on had some decent water flow, so we just stopped at the church and took cover till it was done. Then, on Friday it rained again, but we were on bikes this time. It wasn't too bad, because we found a place to take cover about a minute away. On Saturday i caught a glimpse of the weekly weather report for this week and it had the thunderstorm clouds for every day of the week.
Well last week was an interesting one. We are now no longer teaching anyone who we were teaching as of last week. We fasted on Wednesday for the area to see some success and on that same day either we dropped someone, or they dropped us. Interesting how that worked out. But we also had some success finding a couple new people to teach, although one has already been dropped because her husband doesn't want us coming over. Oh well.
One common theme from the week was eating. I can recall two meals in which i didnt want to eat more, but was forced to. On Wednesday night, i had a HUGE plateful of lasagna. I ate it all, and she asked if i wanted more. Apparently she interpereted my "No thank you, i am full" as a "Shovel me up another plateful sista!" I finished it all. Then we had ice cream. The second occasion was on Saturday, when we ate at a Spanish member's house. She didn't speak much English, but her husband did. Plus i was there with one of the Spanish missionaries. We are teaching the husband now. But she made us dinner, as all the Spanish people do, (there is no visit without food) and she asking me if i wanted more pollo, but i was hearing it as "take more chicken!" and so i jsut kept eating. Then, once again, we had ice cream. I think i gained 6 pounds this week.....last time i weighed in at 159, and yesterday i was at 166.....talk about a change in diet (the proper use of the word diet has just been shown).
I don't know if i told you about the frog that was on our porch, well apparently it fried up. And neither of us have the guts to pick it up and move it, so it still layes there, skin and bones.
We had some funny lessons this week. I asked one man when he gets stressed throughout the day, and we went for a half hour straight telling me of one incident that happened weeks ago in which he got stressed out. It was really pointless, and it was hot. We also taught someone who kept their eyes closed the whole time, and i wasn't sure if he was sleeping or not. (Note: That happened back in St. Cloud) Yesterday we commited someone for baptism in July and i commited him to live the Word of Wisdome. USually we'll ask which parts of it they';ll need to quit doing. Most often, it is tobacco. Well for the first time, the reply was "All of it. All 5 of them"
For Fathers Day we were given ties made out of candy bars, and of course the running joke at church was, "You missionaries can't have kids!" har-har-har, real funny. But after church we ate some steaks over at the Giffen's.
This morning we went to the driving range. I'll send you some pics. Boy was i happy. I only bought 35 golf balls to hit, and gave some to Elder Duane, but just after a few i wished i was out on the course. Although we went at like 10 in the morning and it is way too hot to go out and golf for a couple hours. We were only there for like 15 minutes.
Elder Duane, and this may interest Mike, was a avid Homestar Runner fan back home, so he knows all the songs, and sometimes i can sing along with him. Always will i remember when Strongbad interviews Homestar for that job, "I doubt it, i dwove." or the classic song, "I said come on, fghwgads, everybody to the limit, everybody to the limit, everybody come fghwgads."
The past week has been a good experience. We had one occasion where we went to a house to teach someone, who wasn't there, bu ended up teaching whoever was there, and she was reading from the Book of Mormon before we even finished teaching the lesson. She doesn't live around here, but she was definately the one who was prepared for that lesson.
That actually happened a couple times this week. On another occasion, we stopped and talked to a lady for a few seconds one day and she said to come back another time. So we stopped by the next day, and she wasnt there, but her son was, and we taught him everything and will be going back this week.
My companion still has a tough time talking to people. I've generally just been telling him to talk to certain people, but for a few days this week i decided i wouldnt make him do it and see if it got done.....and it didn't get done. So i just got to keep making sure he talks to people.
This week we tested out a myth we were told. If you bury a balloon under the ground, and then pop the balloon, the ground kinda rises and then drops like a sinkhole. Maybe we did something wrong, and maybe it didn't work because we covered it in sand, but nothing happened, just the balloon popped. By the way, there really isn't any dirt in Florida, just sand.
Well thats about all i got. Life goes on. 2 more weeks to the transfer, then will see where i go, or if i stay. I wouldn't really mind staying. I like it here, but we'll see. I'll be heading out now. Take care. Have fun with the pool getting redone, that rhymes by the way. No more rhymes and i mean it, anybody want a peanut? Love ya