The Phoenix summer really makes you tired. Combine that with the wear and tear of a 20 month mission and I've noticed that I'm a lot sleepier during my morning studies than I used to be. Sundays are especially tough since we have to get up even earlier and then I have to sit through a peaceful sacrament meeting in Spanish. My goal every sacrament meeting is just to not fall asleep.
This week brought more of the typical mission stuff. One of our awesome families we're working with hit some marital problems which made it difficult to meet with them this week. I'll be so glad when I no longer have to deal with Mexican husbands.
We had an interesting experience at one of our dinners this week. We went to eat with this one member family that have been in the Church for almost their whole lives and the husband started discussing where the best wine came from. I wasn't entirely sure how to react. "Um, yeah, California wine really does have good accents. I agree, hermano." It was one of those situations that your brain doesn't really have a contingency plan for and so when it happens you just draw a complete blank for how to handle it. I'm not exactly sure what he was thinking discussing wine with the Elders, but it was definitely a new experience for me.
I've been getting a lot of complements on my Spanish lately. I guess after two years I'm finally starting to sound pretty good. I lot of people have been asking me how I learned such good Spanish. I'll admit, it's been a real blessing on my mission not to have to worry about that.
I also went on splits in the English area this week. Man, I'm also really grateful to be a Spanish Elder after visiting their area. The only perk of being an English missionary is that your members spoil you beyond belief. The English Elders we live with always have so much food. That's okay though because I get fat enough with the Spanish ward anyway. We had shrimp seviche last night and it was amazing.
We've been working with a less active member who really wants to change. It's nice to see when someone really wants to accept Christ. You can feel their desire. A lot of what we can do as missionaries really depends on the desire of those we teach. I've noticed that if someone wants to follow Christ and listen to our message, they tend to progress even if we do a poor job of teaching them. I like to be able to help those people who are looking for what we have and we just need to point them in the right direction.
Transfers is next week. I'm out of here. Any mail sent should get to my apartment before next Wednesday or I won't get it for a while. After that you can just send it to the mission office until I get you guys my new address. I might be replacing Elder Cheadle in Cottonwood. That seems possible. It'd be nice to be in the cooler northern part of the mission, despite the scarcity of Mexicans.
Love you guys,
Elder Grasley
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