June 23, 2014

Veggies ruin everything.
My companion got some gumbo mix stuff from his parents a few weeks back, and the stuff is awesome. We made our first batch of it two weeks ago and it was delicious. One of those things where I was stoked to go eat back at the flat because I was about to be munching some gumbo. Then we made some this past Friday and put in some mixed veggies. Not heaps, just a little bit. Worst, idea, ever. There was probably about a handful of veggies in the mix and they took over the whole flavor. Not cool. At least we know now to never desecrate the gumbo with mixed veggies again.
This past week was a struggle, as far as lessons go. We were able to teach a few really awesome lessons, but we had to work hard to get that to happen. It seems as though most of the places we go to, nobody is home or they're too busy. This equates to us walking all over town and never feeling like we're getting anything done. Thankfully Saturday and Sunday ended up being pretty good, so they redeemed us from the dismal week. Hopefully we'll have some better luck in the coming weeks and be able to not only get more teaching in, but some more investigators as well, since right now we only have six investigators. However, there's two families that make up those six. This is the first time on the mission that I've been able to teach a family, let alone two.

To add to the struggle that it was to get into homes, we also got some more rules. When President Rudd first came in he was all about using the existing rules coupled with wisdom. Turns out he's now aware that most of the mission probably doesn't even know what wisdom is. So, in consequence, the mission is now getting more strict. It stinks to watch the change slowly happening. Especially since I'm leadership, so I've been there for the councils where they discussed new rules n such. All good though.

The coolest thing I reckon I've been up to though is I've been teaching myself Te Reo Maori. Which means the Maori language. Te is the, and Reo is language. It's probably not useful at all to know, but I think it's really cook. I started a couple weeks back of just reading the Book of Mormon in Maori, and it actually works. I don't do it exactly like the Other Side of Heaven, but it's close. I found if I read verses side by side, I get too hung up on trying to match up words and paying attention to what the English stuff is talking about. So instead I just read straight Maori, and when I see repetition, I look over into the English one and see what it could mean. I just finished chapter 12 in 1 Nephi this morning. Only that far in and I can already decipher a surprising amount of the stuff that I'm reading. So cool. I understand now when people say they can understand but can't speak a language. Turns out it's really hard to remember everything and try to formulate a sentence out of all of it.
Arohanui! Elder Kurt