'Tree-To-Tree Adventure' chapín style

March 31, 2015

We basically had the coolest zone P-day ever yesterday. We went to an ´´adventure park´´ about 30 minutes away, which come to find out is actually well within our gigantic area. They had a lot of rope games up in some trees. If anyone has been to the Tree-To-Tree Adventure by Hagg Lake in Oregon it was something like that, only a lot less safe! (but it wasn´t that bad). Anyways, so they had a bunch of rope stuff to climb up and a couple of sweet rope swings. The craziest one was just 2 wood handles that you had to grab onto while sitting on a little wood platform about 20 feet off the ground, and then swing down to the ground. It was funny watching some of the sister missionaries climb up there and then sit there for a really long time thinking about what they were about to do, and then climb back down all shaky. It was pretty intense; I had to think twice about it. The coolest one though was a big net full of plastic balls, with a ledge about 5 or 6 feet up from which one had to ´´trust fall´´ backwards into the ball pit. About half the missionaries chickened out on that one J I did it though, just incase anybody was doubting! All in all it was pretty awesome, and cost a whole 2 dollars per person.

Right now my companion and I are on the other side of the lake with the other missionaries in our zone, which means early mornings, crackers for dinner and breakfast, and sleeping on the floor... WOOHOO

A full medical check up is in order for sure as soon as I get back.... Probably something to wipe my stomach also wouldn´t hurt.... It turns out I have some kind of infection in the lungs or something, but don´t worry! I am taking some antibiotics that I bought off the shelf with no questions asked. It is called doxiciclina or something like that. I´m totally fine, just a cough that won't go away and stuff.

You asked what language we speak since I’m with an American companion now. My companion and I just speak English all the time. He leaves the change after I do, so we are both apt at speaking Spanish, and speaking in English doesn´t hurt our Spanish at all. I would like to find some way to keep it up after the mission though, it seems like it could be quite useful. We met a white family the other day that lives up here called the Jensons. The dad grew up at Sunset High School (in our school district). Him and his wife met on their missions, and afterwards met up again, got married, had kids, and moved to Solola, Guatemala. Pretty cool family, but I don´t think I could ever do that. The whole family is bilingual though!

Thanks for the updates on my college credits transferring from high school. I was actually thinking about those 2 credits the other day! I am super glad that they carry over! That is 2 drops less in the educational bucket, eh!

Glad you had/are having a great time in Hawaii! Sounds like you guys went on the way more awesome version of what we did yesterday (ziplining). Maybe someday I´ll take my new wife on a Hawaiian cruise.... Maybe later this year ;)   Ya never know right?

Love you lots!

#30days,

Elder Rice

Sick, sick, sick again.

March 24, 2015

So not a whole lot has happened since last Thursday except that I got the mother of all colds! I´ve spent the last three days trying to figure out what a missionary with no voice can do all day. Basically my companion just did everything as I slowly followed him around all day and tried not to look too miserable/sick. Due to this set back, we have gone back to waking up right about 6am in order to let my body recover, but as soon as I am better (in the next day or 2) we will be right back up at 4:30 to go get built in the gym.

We did have a pretty cool lesson with a 23 year old guy named Ismael. He had come to church with his girlfriend a couple of weeks ago, and agreed to meet with us. The first time he didn´t have a lot of free time so we only talked for like 10 minutes. So the second visit with him we talked a lot more and he told us that when he came in the church building for the first time he heard in his mind that ´´This was going to be his church´´. He really loved it. So we explained to him about the Book of Mormon and everything. Then he told us that he wasn´t doing this for his girlfriend, but rather because he had felt something special that day. He´s going to get baptized in like 2 weeks.

Everything is going great with my companion right now! I love all my Latin companions, but it has been really nice having 3 white guys in a row....

In order to meet the heavy traveling demands of this summer, I am pretty sure I will have to get a motorcycle. Also, I have already been accepted into the Central Mission RM (Return Missionary) motorcycle gang ´´Temple Runners´´, which necessitates my buying a motorcycle even more. I figure that as my loving protective mom you would totally be down to make a good helmet and jacket part of some sort of welcome home gift. J…Not trying to add to raising your blood pressure or anything, as it sounds like your other 2 children have been having quite the interesting time playing bully towards mom.... Though I have to admit, the story about the bro trip made me laugh out loud a little bit.

37 days until Elder Rice gets home

That is about all I´ve got for now...

NOS VEMOS, Elder Rice

Herding Missionaries

The last 2 days have been the craziest of my mission! Tuesday morning we started out early (5:30am) in a rented tour van for the all change taking place in our mission. Obviously, my companion and I got up early to get weight lifting in one more time together. So we got to changes and everything went normal. I got a new companion (Elder Morris) from Park Valley, Utah. Then when we finished... the games began:

The goal: Get 9 sister missionaries, and 4 elders (along with ourselves as well) and their luggage from the church building to the mission house in the next city over. We were able to convince the assistants to let us throw all the bags in with the people that are leaving the mission. Mistake number one: Sisters don´t like to wear the same clothes 2 days in a row. So we get all the bags sent off and now we have to figure out how to get all of these missionaries to a place where they could spend the night and get ready for the conference with Elder Neil L. Anderson the next day. We walked with them over to the nearest Little Caesers and bought ALL the pizzas. Then we hopped on one intercity bus, got off, got on another one. Then from there we had to walk to the bus stop where the old school buses (turned public transport) pass, and cram all 15 of us onto a bus that was already full. From there we got on another one of these buses before finally arriving at the secretaries´ house and dropping off the elders. Then we got on another bus with the sisters to take them to THE NEXT town over and drop them off. So we then realized that the sisters needed their bags! The bus with all the luggage showed up at the mission house at about 10pm. Sadly, it was all mixed up with the luggage of those that are leaving, and nobody knew whose bags were whose. We did the best we could though.

The next morning we got up at the crack of 2am to load the bags into a different private van we rented specifically for the purpose of moving all the bags and went to go drop them off with the sisters. Only... we were missing 2... So we hauled it back to get them and had everything in place by about 5am. Then instead of wasting time going back to the mission house and coming back to bring the sisters, we just decided to chill out on the sidewalk. Anyways, a lot of other stuff went down, but all in all it was a planning nightmare that we somehow figured out and got everybody’s´ stuff back up here to Solola. Except for 2 little bags that I might have forgotten to grab that the assistants had to drive up to drop off today in the early morning. But at least it is over now!

The conference was awesome!!! Sadly, I missed all of the speakers except for Elder Anderson since I wasn´t able to sleep the night before. He is a great speaker though! His Spanish is so-so, but he is such a powerful guy that it didn´t even matter. He mostly talked about the things we should do differently here than in the States as far as how we teach people. He taught us that we need to teach the doctrine how it is, and if people don´t accept it then it is their choice, and not something we need to try to adjust to their liking.

I should be home on the 30th of April. I would like to drive the car home from the airport, but it is possible I will be too tired... We shall see right? I think one week will be long enough for me to stop introducing myself as Elder Rice, so maybe that next week after I get back I could start working if it can all get arranged.  I do plan on going with you guys in July to Bear Lake and Utah, and I’d like to spend some time there with some of my companions. I´ll probably got to Rexburg also to check it out and see Jared, so I will need to figure that out with my work schedule.

 Anyways, all is well here, we have got about 40 something more days left!

Love you lots! Elder Rice

Sleepless Nights

Last week on Thursday we had a council for the leaders of the mission in the Capital. This means a 3 or more hour bus ride in order to be there at 8am. My companion and I decided that we wanted to show up ridiculously early (5am) in order to get some insider information on the changes. (They say that the early bird gets the worm, right?) So we went to bed at the normal hour (10:30pm) and woke up at 12:30am in order to be up waiting for the first bus out of town at 2am. So we showed up about 15 minutes early and sat down on the sidewalk. It was COLD. And WINDY! As we are waiting, we realized that no bus was going to come at 2am and that we would have to wait until 4am when the next one left. So my companion and I curled up on the sidewalk and slept for a couple of hours like some hobos. We got dang cold! All I can say is I am grateful not to be homeless, because that really sucks... We ended up showing up almost right at 8am, which made 7 ½ hours of being awake before we even started our day... That was a long flippin’ day....

We are really excited here for changes next week. Due to the fact that we will be visited by Elder Anderson of the Quorum of the Twelve on Wednesday, we will have changes on Tuesday. This means that I won`t be writing again until next Thursday, just telling you so nobody gets worried, and my mom doesn’t assume I’ve been kidnapped. Just lots of meetings and other responsibilities this week. Lots of traveling. Not a whole lot of really crazy stuff going on.

Thanks for the advise on dealing with the Sister missionaries, but when I said I’d made them cry it wasn’t because I was mean. The girls were all crying because they were spiritually touched! I have only had to destroy a Sister once, and I didn`t much like it, but she brought it on herself. With all the rest of the Sisters we get along great, we just have to use a lot more caution with what we say to them. It is great! I`ll be able to handle any wife after all this!

Thank you so much Mom for all of the hard work that you have done to get me into college and to get me financial loans and all that jazz. Everything will flow so much better because of it! The apartment Jared is staying in sounds good.  Any housing back home is going to be luxury for me don`t worry ;) Cheaper is better.

I know it is going to be super cold compared to here when I get home.... at least it will almost be summer though, right?

Nos vemos!!! Elder Rice