P-Tag 3

Hallo!

 

This has been a pretty crazy week! At least I think it has, because everything seems like it has just melted together. It happened yesterday, just like always I guess (since we decided everything happened yesterday). So the "older" districts are leaving this morning. It is so crazy how we have come to love and respect them so much, and we have only known them for 2 1/2 weeks. I guess our intense games of soccer helped out a lot haha. We were down on their floor last night taking pictures and such, and giving hugs. By the time I got back to my room it was already 10:25, and I had five minutes (according to the rules) to get everything done. I didn't get to write in my journal, so I have to do that today. I also have quite a few letters to write, so pdays never really seem free to me haha. So my roommates talked til past midnight last night! Once again, I was trying to sleep, but I can't do that well when the guy on the bottom bunk talks so loud and laughs every five seconds. So I am really tired, once again, and we had to get my companion to get out of bed a couple minutes after 6:30. Fun times I guess. Elder Robins and I are the only ones in our room who do laundry every week, so we went straight there in the morning and then came here to write emails. We aren't supposed to do it til 10:35 but that is way too crazy.

 

So Elder Botcherby and I have taught Andreas (Bro. Evans) 3 times I think, and we got him to read the Book of Mormon and pray for us. We have taught Paul (Bother Ehlen) about three times as well I think. They have all gone well enough. Elder Botcherby kinda froze up when talking about Jospeh Smith and the Restoration yesterday, and he was mad at himself after that. I did my best to help him out, and hopefully the things I said worked. Teaching is so fun haha.

 

So the fireside on Sunday was Bro Doty and his wife, and they are serving in Salt Lake in the Missionary Department or something. Sis Doty talked to us about prayer, and listed off ten things that someone told her about the advantages of prayer (compared to cell phone coverage and data plans and such). It was very good. Then her husband talked about the many healing miracles of Jesus Christ. We stayed after and watched the new Jospeh Smith movie, and I sat next to Tyson haha. Twas fun. The other day at dinner I saw Tyson get up from his chair to get something, so I ran over there and took my glasses off and slipped in to his seat. Elder Johnson noticed obviously, but the rest of his district had no idea it wasn't him haha. Then when Tyson came back he looked kinda confused, and his district finally realized it was not him sitting there. And then my district, who were a couple tables away started saying, "Oh wow, there are two of them!! That's crazy!" Of course they all know, but they try to get other people to notice.

 

I am so excited for Chris to come in! Tyson and I talked to Alex on Sunday and Alex said he had a couple missionaries coming into his zone that were going to Carlsbad California (but English Speaking). So I told him Chris was Spanish speaking, and Alex obviously didn't even remember that lol. So we have no idea where he will end up. Alex has been here for 2 weeks now I think, so he is going to be in Florida in no time! I was thinking last night about how nervous/excited I will be on the night before we fly to Germany. All the older guys leaving today were so happy and excited. We don't get the new German elders for another 3 weeks, so we will be all alone for a while. But we want the newbies to feel the same way about us as we did in 3 weeks about these other guys.

 

So I feel like I have typed nothing, and I only have 9 minutes left! I hate this whole timing system. I can't remember all the questions people ask me, so I promise I will do my best to answer those in personal letters. Sorry for not writing you individually Nathan, I will do that today. Kate too. I am just trying to think of all the cool things that happened this week (which is really hard to do when every day is combined with the one before).

 

Soccer at gym time isn't the same, without all the other German-bound elders. We have a few consistent elders who come play with us, but our district basically dominates, even if we are split onto different teams. Elder Pack, the one we were worried about because he hadn't got any mail the first few days, is a big hustler on the field! He touches the ball more than anyone else. Yesterday he got a cross and kicked it out of the air, straight to the far post and into the top corner. He has found a good skill I guess, always working hard on the field.

 

So the other day my former district leader Elder Taylor was telling us about a few competitions he and his friends had come up with: Han Solo and the Millenium Falcon vs. Cap. Kirk and the Enterprise; Luke Skywalker vs. Blastoise (a pokemon); A jedi vs. a ghost type pokemon (since they cant be hurt by physical attacks); and the best one, that my district argued about for almost an hour, was an Earth-bender vs. an Air-bender ( from the Avatar show). They got way into it! It was really funny to here them all geek out about their opinions, drawing pictures on the board and stuff lol. But then Elder Hansen blew up on Elder Janis, because Janis was being pretty straightforward in saying an air bender would win. Thankfully I was out in the hallway when that happened, but I could feel the tension oozing out of the room. Elder Janis has never done anything to Hansen, and that is the problem. We are trying to work things out. Thankfully everyone seems to like me and I do my best to talk to any of them when they need to talk, so I have not made any "enemies" haha. I plan to keep it that way. Oh, my favorite quote of the week: "Earth-bending to dubstep would be the sickest!!" haha sorry mom and dad, you will just have to ask a teenager about dubstep I suppose.

 

Anyway, I am out of time. The learning/teaching is still going well, and I love progressing in my meager German skills. I love being here and look forward to continue in this same schedule for the next 6 weeks haha.

 

I love you all, and hope you are all safe and happy. If you are not happy, then make it happen! haha. Life is too good to spend your time in anger. Love you!

 

Elder Jalen L. Gibbons

 

P.S. Hello ladies at work! Miss you :)