Elder Benjamin Sierra's Missionary Blog

BIG MIKE'S DEMISE AND MY COMP GOES TO THE HOSPITAL. PLUS: THEY CALL ME THE CARAMELIZED GRINGO

AUGUST 19, 2016

Dear Family,

Haha that's awesome! I'm glad to hear that Dad is progressing in music. I think that's really cool! I don't have quite as much to write about so I'll have more time today to read stuff. I also have some pics and video I'll share in a bit.

So, I need to preface my next story with a little neat fact! If you put the clip-on name tags up to your lips you can blow on it like a kazoo! So now for the burning questions... what happened to Big Mike? Well, about a week ago we found him in our room AGAIN (he really likes our room). He started running around and ran into one of my p-day shirts on the ground so we carefully lured him out and he booked it out of our room. As he started running out of the room into the hall, Elder Tanner kicked him down the hall! (kinda like one would pass a soccer ball) and in mid-stride Elder Manwarring was walking around the corner wondering what the commotion was about, yelled WOAH and Stomped him like a Gangster. Big Mike pretty much died immediately, having [suffered] a cracked skull. We have some hunting-style pictures around him and also a funeral service. Big Mike wasn't inherently bad, but that's what happens when you choose the thug life.

So yeah, I got JG's pictures right after I was done reading emails, so I bet it seemed like I was understating excitement, haha! That's incredible, though! I'm so happy for him! I'm still a bit confused though... did he propose or was it on the DL? If he proposed can I see those pics?

Last p-day was a half p-day since we were assigned to go to the temple. It was very beautiful and nice to go. They gave us translators so it was like the same as home pretty much. There was a store right next to it that we could go to. I got an ordinance card in Spanish and a nice pen that said La caridad nunca deja de ser. (Charity never faileth) And there was also this guy selling mango slices in a big cup right next to the gate of the temple. It was FANTASTIC! I know it seems stupid that I'm raving about mango but it was seriously the best fruit I've ever had in my life and it was only 20 pesos! Everyone got some and every time someone asked us about the temple we'd go off on the mangos.

We have this one investigator named Elsa. She's a 16-year-old girl who was only getting into the church because of her parents. She keeps going on tangents about Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter during the lesson and when we finally got her to pray she thanked Heavenly Father for Facebook! It was rough. Afterward, our teacher came back to evaluate us and she asked if we loved Elsa because that would be the only way she would learn. I told her 'no' and that I had to work on it. Elder Whitacre had a lesson with her yesterday and she straight up asked if he was gay because he said Gandalf was his favorite character and she pointed out that Ian McClellan is gay. LOL

It happened during class so everyone was struggling not to lose it!

Oh yeah, so my companion got appendicitis a couple days ago. He ate some Pollo con Mole (which I avoided) and later was having the worst time. We got him to the hospital the next morning and they operated on him that day. He's doing pretty fine now and our district is doing exchanges with him every night and day. The nurse that was with me that entire day in the hospital was really neat. His name was Mosíah and he won the bronze medal in boxing at the Bejing Olympics. He also loves Kripsy Kreme. When we got Elder Neddo settled into his hospital room, one of the first things he said was, "You want to go to Krispy Kreme?" So we went! This morning, I had to accompany Elder Whitacre to do an exchange at the hospital (bless his heart he's missing p-day) and this time, Mosíah was all like "Yo quiero Kispy Kreme" (I want Krispy Kreme), so we went again!

We also made rapper names for everyone in the District.

Some of the better ones are, Drizzly Bear, Little Biscuit, Ill Loops, Cash Tal,and Slick Bert.

They call me the Caramelized Gringo 'cause I act like a gringo but I have good Spanish and am brown.

I think that's all I've got for now. I'll try to get those emails out!

Love you all! Bye!

P.S. In answer to mom's inquiry: "...nah the hospital is one of the very best in Mexico (I mean, it has a Krispy Kreme on the bottom floor!)"