Holy smokes, careful what you wish for because you just might get some
really cold weather and a pension that hangs out at about 50 degrees
without a way to warm it up!
Yes, I finally experienced some cold. Finally got to use my jacket.
Also, Mom, I got that package that had my sweaters just in time for
the cold. You are the BEST.
I'm not exactly sure how cold it was, but I'm pretty sure it was in
the 40's. Dang cold for this part of town.
Last week, we had our zone meeting. Elder Buhler is in my zone and it
was fantastic to see him again. I had a suitcase full of stuff
waiting for me because the mission office pulled out all of the
packages and what not. So I had two of those big bubble-wrap envelopes
and then all of the stuff that that lady brought to the mission
office. I was stunned haha! Soooo much stuff. I was walking around
like Santa Claus. I shared a lot of the candy and stuff because I
still have a ton. But anyway, that was sweet.
A couple of cool things happened last week. I opened up that Sriracha
hot sauce that was in the package I received and squirted it right up
my left nostril. Some of the splatter shot into my eye as well. It was
so fun! Had a pretty wild burn going on. Next cool thing. I guess I'm
just a truster. A believer. Believer in the little guy. In the
under-dog. I keep trusting these women to give me a good haircut and
they just can't deliver. They can up hang all of their certifications
from the local school for adults, but that doesn't really make a
difference. This lady's name was Nelly. Heard some really positive
reviews about her. Experienced some pretty negative results. It looks
like I have a yamaka cut into my hair haha. Oh well, what can you do?
Waged war on the spiders again. I finally found Raid to combat
spiders. But this time, something in me changed (The Wonder Years). As
I poured out my aerosol fury upon the spiders and watched them
struggle for life, I actually felt really bad. It was like a "Grinch"
type of scenario. Except in this situation, the Grinch was
annihilating all of the Whos insteading of just ruining Christmas
haha. Anyway...that was kind of a weird experience for me.
I think I have mentioned this before, but maybe not. Teeth aren't
really "the cool thing to have" here in this part of the world. It's
really weird because I'll be talking to someone and their "teeth" are
moving up and down or it looks like their gums are about to fall off.
Then I remember that all their teeth are fake haha. But in all
honesty, that sounds like a real sweet life. I was thinking about some
of the benefits and I came up with a few really good ones. Picture
just being able to drink smoothies and eat ice cream without having to
worry about your teeth feeling cold. If you're a little kid, when mom
tells you to brush your teeth, you can just take them out and put them
in a cup. That's pretty much it, though.
Anyway, other than that...we had ALBA'S BAPTISM ON FRIDAY! Por FIN!
The water was cold, but the Spirit was warm haha. We pretty much spent
the whole day cleaning and battling with the baptismal font. After the
baptism, she shared her testimony with us. It was soooo righteous.
Super cool experience.
We have multi-zone conference tomorrow. We have to leave for Formosa
at 4 in the morning. Yaaaayyyy! So that's fun!
Other than all of that, things here are awesome. It's colder, we just
bought a little tiny heater today, I have hot sauce, and my seasoning
game is straight RAW. I'm sure I've got the illest spice game in the
whole mission. One other thing I wanted to tell everyone. If you write
me and I don't respond, just know that I read it, loved it, and it
meant a lot to me. The computer situation here is a real lucha
sometimes, but I really do appreciate every email. Love hearing from
my mains. Anyway, keep on keepin' on. Love you all.
Love,
Elder Sipple
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Monday, May 19, 2014
Just a small town girl......May 19, 2014
A really applicable lyric to my current life.
This week was pretty radski. I went on divisions with Elder De la Peña in Pirané. He was in my zone in Clorinda. He's from Mexico and he's probably the funniest missionary in the world. He's a straight worker too so it was an awesome experience. Also, his pension is super boss so that was sweet. There's a guy in Pirané who is known all throughout the mission. His name is Tucan and he makes things out of leather. I didn't get a chance to visit him but I'm dying to go get an iguana leather belt, a yacaré leather wallet with some jaguar fur inside and who knows what else.
Something funny that I remembered from the MTC is a really good pick-up line that we had. It would be used like this: "Girl, is your name virtue? Because you have been garnishing my thoughts unceasingly." That one is SURE to land you a wife and I already have dibs on it for when I get back.
I had a lot of fun this week having spiders in my bed. It was really a neat experience to wake up and find some spiders trying to have a slumber party in Elder Sipple's bed. I told them that they couldn't share my bed and then I had to White Bible 'em, but I think that they learned their lesson. Dang clowns.
One other thing is that I have made a vow to never make fun of someone for not knowing my native language hoooooooollllllllyyyyyyyyy smooooooooookkkkeeeeessss. Thank goodness that I can take a joke or I would have had a breakdown by now haha. The Sire family is RUTHLESS. I really am so grateful that I have been blessed to be easy-going or else I probably would've chopped a fool or two out here haha.
Soooooo I found out this week that between Fontana and the colony, we have about 470 something members. Of all of them, there are about 12 that are active in Fontana and like 15 in the colony. Fontana used to be where the district was. I don't know what happened, but I want to get buck wild with MLS and really start focusing on finding and activating. It's kinda crazy being a member of the branch presidency. We are involved in trying to arrange like three divorces right now haha. It's a little stressful having the responsibilities to the branch added to the mission work, but it'll be a really good experience. I hope that we can help get the branch to start making progress towards where it was in the past.
Something that I have been thinking about a lot lately is how sometimes people tell us that they don't feel worthy to pray, that they don't know enough or that their prayer isn't good enough. NOTHING could be further from the truth. Heavenly Father is our FATHER. Would our earthly parents have a standard of worthiness in order to talk to them? No! As our Father, Heavenly Father wants to hear from us. He wants to bless us. He wants us to have all that he has and more. Those thoughts of unworthiness or incapability are from Satan. We can always pray to our Father in Heaven. We can always talk to Him. How sad to think that there are people who feel like they have lost the ability to communicate with their Father. I hope that we can all remember the importance and power of prayer in our lives. For me, this week was an example of relying on prayer. It was a tough one, but when we turn everything over to our Father and let Him in, that is when we will really be able to see the power and influence of the Spirit in our lives.
Other than all of that, just a pretty hot week here in Fontana. Had some storms, had some lightning, ate some pomelo, got that vitty-C. I hope all is fantastic for all of you and I love you all to the States and back. I am currently surrounded by screaming kids in this cyber playing Minecraft and standing uncomfortably close to me. With their arms and chubby little stomachs touching my back and shoulders. Swearing in Spanish and English. Breathing really hard. Anyway, gotta love Argentina. Peace and blessings, y'all.
Love,
Elder Sipple
The lunch we had with the Sire family on Sunday. Making ñoquis. We ate a TON and Elder Sipple almost died. Ñoquis, chorizo, carne, Coke...holy smokes. The next picture is me hanging out on la cama paraguaya after lunch.
This week was pretty radski. I went on divisions with Elder De la Peña in Pirané. He was in my zone in Clorinda. He's from Mexico and he's probably the funniest missionary in the world. He's a straight worker too so it was an awesome experience. Also, his pension is super boss so that was sweet. There's a guy in Pirané who is known all throughout the mission. His name is Tucan and he makes things out of leather. I didn't get a chance to visit him but I'm dying to go get an iguana leather belt, a yacaré leather wallet with some jaguar fur inside and who knows what else.
Something funny that I remembered from the MTC is a really good pick-up line that we had. It would be used like this: "Girl, is your name virtue? Because you have been garnishing my thoughts unceasingly." That one is SURE to land you a wife and I already have dibs on it for when I get back.
I had a lot of fun this week having spiders in my bed. It was really a neat experience to wake up and find some spiders trying to have a slumber party in Elder Sipple's bed. I told them that they couldn't share my bed and then I had to White Bible 'em, but I think that they learned their lesson. Dang clowns.
One other thing is that I have made a vow to never make fun of someone for not knowing my native language hoooooooollllllllyyyyyyyyy smooooooooookkkkeeeeessss. Thank goodness that I can take a joke or I would have had a breakdown by now haha. The Sire family is RUTHLESS. I really am so grateful that I have been blessed to be easy-going or else I probably would've chopped a fool or two out here haha.
Soooooo I found out this week that between Fontana and the colony, we have about 470 something members. Of all of them, there are about 12 that are active in Fontana and like 15 in the colony. Fontana used to be where the district was. I don't know what happened, but I want to get buck wild with MLS and really start focusing on finding and activating. It's kinda crazy being a member of the branch presidency. We are involved in trying to arrange like three divorces right now haha. It's a little stressful having the responsibilities to the branch added to the mission work, but it'll be a really good experience. I hope that we can help get the branch to start making progress towards where it was in the past.
Something that I have been thinking about a lot lately is how sometimes people tell us that they don't feel worthy to pray, that they don't know enough or that their prayer isn't good enough. NOTHING could be further from the truth. Heavenly Father is our FATHER. Would our earthly parents have a standard of worthiness in order to talk to them? No! As our Father, Heavenly Father wants to hear from us. He wants to bless us. He wants us to have all that he has and more. Those thoughts of unworthiness or incapability are from Satan. We can always pray to our Father in Heaven. We can always talk to Him. How sad to think that there are people who feel like they have lost the ability to communicate with their Father. I hope that we can all remember the importance and power of prayer in our lives. For me, this week was an example of relying on prayer. It was a tough one, but when we turn everything over to our Father and let Him in, that is when we will really be able to see the power and influence of the Spirit in our lives.
Other than all of that, just a pretty hot week here in Fontana. Had some storms, had some lightning, ate some pomelo, got that vitty-C. I hope all is fantastic for all of you and I love you all to the States and back. I am currently surrounded by screaming kids in this cyber playing Minecraft and standing uncomfortably close to me. With their arms and chubby little stomachs touching my back and shoulders. Swearing in Spanish and English. Breathing really hard. Anyway, gotta love Argentina. Peace and blessings, y'all.
Love,
Elder Sipple
The lunch we had with the Sire family on Sunday. Making ñoquis. We ate a TON and Elder Sipple almost died. Ñoquis, chorizo, carne, Coke...holy smokes. The next picture is me hanging out on la cama paraguaya after lunch.
Also, I think I mentioned we have a grapefruit (pomelo) tree. This is how you eat/drink it. It's fantastic.
A picture from the colony
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
Happy Mother's Day! May 12, 2014
Happy Mother's Day to all! But especially the moms. May 12, 2014
into the sweet sweet forest
Elder Sipple riding in the back of the truck on the way to the colony. A big semi flew by right when we took this picture haha.
Well, not a whole lot of desire to write this week. It's been pretty stressful trying to figure out Skype and everything here. The weather is cooling off...what else...both of our baptisms fell this week, but we have two more next week. So we'll see where we are with that. Anyway, not a whole lot else to write this week. Love you all and I hope that Mother's Day was worth the nine month struggle of bearing a child. Peace and blessings.
Love,
Elder Sipple
Saul's house in the colony (one of the nicer ones)
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