Anyone have any spare teeth?

August 19, 2024

Howdy everybody!

     Honestly this week has been kind of a blur, and I can't believe it's already p-day again. I'll just go ahead and start from the beginning of the week. After writing my email last week, the whole district went out to a dock and went fishing. No fishing rods, just fishing line, hooks, and chicken for bait. Not to brag or anything, but I caught 2 fish. You can applaud, that's okay! But the sunburn I got from that was brutal. It's super crazy, they make this thing called sunscreen, apparently it's helpful, huh.

           Anyone have any spare teeth?

     Okay, I love the people here. Most of them are just the nicest people ever. But there's one problem, there's a significant amount of the papiamento speakers that just don't have teeth. Just people out here with these thick Jamaican sounding accents speaking Papiamento with no teeth. But it makes life entertaining, and I vow to be able to understand them someday. My Papiamento is getting a lot better; if someone is speaking clearly, then I can catch about 90 percent of what's being said. But most people don't speak clearly so I really catch like 40, but it's way further along than I thought I would be after weeks of speaking this language. My Spanish is not so hot, unfortunately. All of the Spanish speakers have disappeared, so I only practice Spanish a little bit every day. But we are still learning.

          Exchange miracles

     We do 2 exchanges a transfer here, which is just where you swap companions with the other elders for the day. We had one last week, and it was no biggie. I don't speak the languages but the other elder did. I tried speaking anyway, sometimes surprisingly successful. But this week I had an exchange with Elder Haws. Absolute stud of an elder. He spent the last 19 months of his mission in Guyana English speaking, and then on the same transfer as me, the president moved him to the islands. Which is sick because he already knew Spanish, but he knows as much Papiamento as I do. But we start this exchange knowing we have 3 lessons in Papiamento that evening, with slight concern about how in the world we will make this work. Our plan was to "go for it," and that's what we did. There were two miracles here. One was that 2 of the 3 appointments were canceled, so it was just down to finding people in Papiamento, which isn't as hard. But we still had the one lesson with a sweet old lady named Ingrid.  With a month of Papiamento between the 2 of us, we went out and taught this lesson in Papiamento, and it went incredibly well. I understood almost everything and was able to respond to all the questions and teach. We walked out of the lesson completely shocked at what just happened. It was a moment of gift of tongues for sure. 

          I don't have too much from this week other than super random moments. We have game night every Friday and we usually play soccer. I'm alright at soccer, so I just do my best and speak very little cause everyone speaks Spanish. But I've made some absolute homies playing soccer.

     We were able to get ahold of rides for 8 people to come to church this week. It was a huge miracle, and it was a wild experience to be running around saying hello and introducing our friends to the branch members. Our branch is the best and I love them to pieces.

     Saturday, the ward had a beach day, and the Zone Leaders were asked to help with their truck, so all of the missionaries got to go. It was a lot of playing dominoes, talking with people, stumbling through conversations, and longing for the ability to swim, haha. But my Papiamento made a pretty solid jump that day, and I learned how to dance the bachata and merengue from some random old guy in the branch. The branch was really excited to see the Greengo elder who can't speak Papiamento dancing the bachata alongside everyone else. We got home that afternoon and hit the ground running with lessons and contacting, all around solid day.

     I think that's all I've got for the week. I love you all. Don't forget that God sees you, and he knows you perfectly. No one will ever know you like he does, not even yourself. Remember that you can rely on Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ in all things. It's a lesson I've learned several times over these past 2 months. God wants to hear from you, and he wants to hear how you're doing, so pray often. I love you, I pray for you all often. Shoot me an email If you get bored. 

Ayó!

-Elder Aldrich