It was a good week this week. Not gonna lie, we tried our best but still have some areas to improve quite a bit. For us right now, we both aren't the best at finding new people who want to learn. This
means that we only have a few people to teach at the moment and we are trying to change that. The problem for me at least is that I feel awkward talking to people on the street about our beliefs. My Slovak skills still aren't good enough to allow me to have a nice flowing conversation about whatever, so a lot of the time if I try talking about our message it is kind of abrupt and rude sounding. I am working on it. Hopefully this week will be better.
As for some good things, an old friend of ours, Fero, got back in touch with us and that made us happy since he was always a nice guy and we were sad that he cut ties. As well, we were able to get a paper with Hungarian phrases and their Slovak equivalents from this nice older man also named Fero. His first language is Roma, followed by Hungarian, and then Slovak. His Slovak is kind of iffy. His grammar is pretty sketchy, but we get the message. He was so excited to help us learn some Hungarian. On top of all that, Fero writes his own songs in Roma and Hungarian and occasionally Slovak. He has quite a few and he assures us every time we see him that their is absolutely nothing
vulgar in them. He has also told us that if everyone could hear his music, it would change everyone's lives. He is hilarious and wants to make a CD of his music. He told us we could get copies from him once he has it so I am stoked. It is going be awesome. Elder Armstrong and I are anxious to get some of his world class jams so we can spread his brilliance and change the world.
Martina is still doing well and is excited to keep learning. Her two daughters, Helenka and Danelka are both excited to learn, too. They are funny and know a mix of Slovak and English which is pretty common among the younger ones. All of them know Roma perfectly though. We have been using object lessons for them. It is right hard to hold the attention of two girls aged 9 and 10 in a house with 13 people running around in it. We do our best. They are great, but we have to be careful to not use too many symbols or it all gets lost on Danelka. She starts to forget what they symbolize and just takes it literally. We went through our lesson on faith to get to the end and realize she was caught up thinking we were actually talking about a tree. That was a let down.
Alex, who is still my favorite person here in Rotherham, is doing well. I keep trying to sneak attack him with the camera so you can see a picture of him. He always catches me and doesn't let it happen. He finally managed to get dark matter for his guns on Call of Duty Black Ops 3 which he has been working on since I got to England for 6 or more hours every day! He was so happy, and now moved on to get a job. Needless to say, we're so proud! Dark matter is such an accomplishment, but the job is nice too. We have labelled everything in our flat by its Slovak name so we are getting more used to everyday vocab. Alex hooked us up on that since we can't trust the dictionary we have. It told me the word for whisk which turns out to actually mean broom. And the word it told us for some body part (I think the stomach?) turned out to actually be the word for Jaundice. So we have to clear everything we learn by Alex.
I have been reaping the rewards of a few of the gifts from Christmas. Every morning I have a glass of Nesquick chocolate milk and it has really been pulling me through my mornings. Such a blessing. I missed that more than I realized. And we finished the 1000 piece puzzle we had of a Christmas scene. It has been horrible watching it slowly come together because we never have time to just sit down and crank it out. We sacrificed some lunch times to finally put it all together so we could focus again and the satisfaction after that thing is crazy.
Also, I met a lady today who sounded like Minerva McGonagal from Harry Potter. And Alex said they have Harry Potter in Slovak so I know what I'm watching when I go back to America. This email has been really long. Sorry about that. And I didn't even have a spiritual thought. I'll try harder next week.
Love you all,
Elder Pace
I asked Tyson questions and here are his responses....
1. Q) With the zone leaders gone you mentioned you are by yourself. How far away is Poggemon/Peck from you? Do both sets of you serve the same branch?
2. Q) Has Tim figured out a way to still worship? He sounds like a wonderful person. Is he Roma as well?
A) Tim is an English man and he is probably going get a ride with another member to the nearest ward. At least I hope someone will be kind enough to give him a lift.
3. Q) What is the weather like over there now?
A) It isn't very cold, but we have a light misty rain that doesn't stop so you still need to wear your raincoat.
4. Q) How long do you think your chocolate milk mix will last you?
A) It should last me a while. The glass I drink every morning is a small one so it will be a while
5. Q) Do you think you got all your Christmas packages? Did you get your calendar and your Christmas Stocking and the nativity activities (the ideas in the pockets) and the "I'm trying to be Like Jesus especially at Christmas time" program etc? Did you get any of that in enough time to do any of it? If not maybe this next Christmas?
A) I think I got it all. I got the stuff and I did do as many activities as I could from the calendar and I am trying to be like Jesus
6. Q) Have you heard from Niver's friend? Or have you written him? March will be here soon so you guys will have a couple more elders to mix around.
A) We are emailing him today and I emailed Niver too
7. Q) I saw the announcement of our new mission president. He is the CEO of Costa Vida restaurant so a business man. Have you had more dealings with your President to know more about him? In stake conference President Griffin said the missionaries say he is Justice and Sister Griffin is Mercy :) How would you describe President Turvey?
A) President Turvey is so cool. I still haven't had too much interaction with him, but I love him. His teaching still reminds me of dad.
8. Q) Have you been served any food that you have really liked?
9. Q) What has even your favorite pday activity so far?
A) Chair football easily. I love it. I would play normal football, but I can't talk enough people into it. Football meaning soccer by the way.
10. Q) Do you think since all of you are English speakers and speak English to each other when you are together that Slovak has been harder? Brittany said now that she is home speaking English if someone starts speaking Spanish to her it takes a few minutes for her brain to switch over. I would think going back and forth every day between Slovak and English would be tricky!
11. Q) Do you have very many service opportunities? If so, what kind of service do you give? Is the shoe shine business still working?
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