Last week we had
interviews again. While driving to the church Dad is usually studying so
Elder Bingham drives. On Tuesday there was an older man driving in a van
behind us who got really upset, though we didn’t know why. He passed us
with his window down, shaking his hand at us. Then he slowed down and got
behind us flashing his lights, then to our side motioning us to pull over.
Elder Bingam was worried he wanted to fight him. The man
energetically motioned/spoke to us…about our bright lights!!! What!
All that for having our brights on?!! Then Dad got pulled over by a
policeman (though we don’t know what he did wrong). But as Dad was
rolling down his window and the policeman saw he was dealing with a foreigner
he motioned for us just to go. Whew! Extra crazy driving day.
The day got better when
the Fairhurst’s (military senior couple on a mission) invited us to their
apartment after the morning session of interviews for Taco Bell lunch (they can
buy Taco Bell on the military base). It was fun to watch Elder Min…and
hear his questions. After the next session of interviews we went back
over to the Fairhurst’s where she made us a Kraft mac n cheese dinner (Ben says
he remembers eating that only like twice-I made it so often for the rest of you
kids that we were tired of eating it by the time Ben joined our family).
Also we brought back home some groceries they were able to buy for us and
the Bowcutt’s (office senior couple missionaries).
Wednesday morning right
before we left for the day we could hear a street truck vendor below our window
hollering that he had onions for sale…not Dad’s favorite. Also, while we
were driving I noticed the street we were on was called World Cup Daero (daero
means street).
The bantering between
the assistants is funny for us to watch. After driving for about 25
minutes Elder Bingham “thanked” Elder Min for turning on his seat
warmer…finally noticed! Later I the day it was reciprocated…long time to
notice. Each time I offer candies to them Elder Min takes a candy for
Elder Bingham…only the yellows. In the glove box was a small tin of hard
candies…Elder Bingham asked for purple…Elder Min said, “You like yellow” then
gave him a yellow one, while he was driving. They’re just funny!
Last week at interviews Elder Min asked Elder Hansen (big football player
type guy) "where you neck?” Last week Ben bought two new ties with
the assistants on their P Day. One tie was matching (Ben, Dad, Elder Min,
and Elder Bingham-they were excited to match while teaching during
interviews/instruction) and the other was a colorful paisley type. When
Elder Min saw Ben’s colorful tie he said, ‘Oh Ben…why me not buy?” We
would like to have him hear “Who’s on First” by Abbot and Costello just watch
his confusion…but it’s not a church video.
Saturday afternoon we
drove to a ward activity some distance away. It was like a talent
show/musical numbers for the first part. We had to stand in front and
have Dad say a few words…something about us not having lots of cows in our part
of Texas/being cowboys…but there are a lots of alligators. I wish people
(whoever invites us to a function/activity) would let us know if we are
expected to say a few words. I will try to send a few short video clips…I
don’t know if you will be able to view them…the first is of a young
man playing the accordion. I wish I had recorded the older
people singing along to the traditional folk song. The second video is of
an older man playing the harmonica. He said it was a sad instrument
so he would play a sad song-Army of Helaman - not a sad song! Another clip
is one of the elders playing the violin/the Cotton Eye Joe! This elder
is from Katy, Texas. His name is Elder Nielsen. We have a Sister
Johnson here, from Kingwood, Texas.
So the music part was
fun, unexpected. But then over an hour was spent on a balloon game (10
minutes spent on that game would have been plenty). The object of the
game was to pop a balloon between two people, by hugging each other as hard as
you can. Of course they wanted to have couples go first so that Dad and I
could be up front in front of everyone. We were good sports about it…Dad
was sure to pop the balloon with his finger. The next game was done by
having two people stand back to back (really, stand bottom to bottom), bow and
say, “An yan haseo” while bowing quickly/hard backward thrust to throw the
other person off balance. I wouldn’t participate in that game especially
while wearing a skirt.
But the food at the end
was fun. There were people bbq-ing meat that was cut up, served with
rice, leaves for wrapping, and kimchee. I was impressed while talking
with a woman who teaches English. Her husband sent her to live with his
sister, in America, to study for five months…many years ago. But they had
a five year old daughter at the time…who he took care of. He knew it was
important to his wife.
Sunday we attended
church in our own ward. It felt good to be home this time. I had
not attended our Relief Society before. I sat with Sister Bowcutt and she
told me little bits of what to expect. Some of the sisters ate ears of
corn during the lesson…one of the women picked the kernels off the cob one
kernel at a time. Then she would share them with the older sister sitting
next to her, by setting the kernels on her hymn book or lesson manual. After a while the office elders came in to translate for us. It was
fun to sing the closing hymn with male voices joining us in Relief Society.
In the afternoon we
drove to our stake center to speak at fireside…kind of like welcoming meeting for people to get to know us a bit better. Dad
had provided someone with 100 pictures (some of Dad when he was on his mission
as a young man, others of our family) that were organized and put together for
a slideshow. They are a very patient people. The slideshow was way
slower/much more time spent watching the pictures than what we would do in
America. Also I say they are a patient people because they speak
slower…more words spoken to say the same message we would say more quickly in
English. But they seem to listen more intently/respectfully. So Ben
surprised us by speaking for a good amount of time-he went longer than we
figured he would. But I think part of that was getting used to having somebody
translate for you. It just takes a long time to share a message.
Jokes don’t really work well through the translation. I shared a message
about preparing to serve a mission (older couples as well as young adults can
prepare), plus a little about pioneers. I said that my mom (Grandma
Reichenbach) was a pioneer in our family/both my parents, for serving a mission
and then serving six missions together. Dad did a great job
speaking…including a funny story about a moth from one of his bike rides.
Afterward four different people came up to Dad excited to tell him that they
served missions in his same mission during the same time he was there, or that
they were new converts when that big area conference was held, or that they
knew somebody from one of the pictures that was shown. Another older man
came up to me to tell me that he was a missionary companion with a man who is
the father of one of our sister missionaries. Fun connections.
This past week when I
taught about faith, in Alma 32:21-38 I learned from the missionaries bits and
pieces here and there. It was fun to hear from one who studied physics
point out that a particle is the smallest unit measurable/you can feel it.
Another missionary said she had studied Greek and the word angel= to
speak/encourage. Some key words are remember…try to read Elder Scott’s
October 2009 General Conference talk, beginneth…a missionary shared an experience
where a new member made some mistakes then repented/beginning again on the path
to happiness, and angels…Elder Holland gave a great talk in General Conference
in October 2008. A survey was conducted not long ago asking new converts
to give a one word description of the missionaries who taught them the gospel.
The most frequently used word was angels. That what we think about
our missionaries; they’re angels. We love them!
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