Yoga in the Rain

Right off the bat I want to clarify that we didn’t actually do it outside in the rain, but the past couple nights we have been bored of being in the same routine so Elder Weiss (who took a yoga class in high school) had been leading us in yoga in the hour and a half we have in our houses at night, and it’s been fun. Some of us have been getting a little TOO relaxed, with all the smells and noises that end up getting released, which make it hard to focus when we’re laughing so hard. One night it was raining so we turned all the lights off and opened all the windows and just listened to the rain (or at least tried to amongst other noises) and it was fun.

Some cool things I learned this week:

-The hymn “Called to Serve” (Llamado a Servir) has two more verses in Spanish than it does in English.

-When a group of 18-19 year old young adults go without outside entertainment for a long enough time they’ll start singing things like the Bob the Builder and Thomas the -Train theme songs over and over again.

-Give that same group of young adults a ball of yarn and they’ll come up with countless games to help themselves study and to just play when we reach the point of diminishing study returns. 

-The word for “peanut” in Spanish is “cacahuate” (pronounced ca-ca-wah-tay)

-When you learn a new language, after a long enough time, eventually things just devolve into ideas instead of just words for things, so it doesn’t take too much thought to translate after a while, because there are multiple words for this certain idea

-Given enough time being around the same people, there are NO secrets whatsoever

-The word for pancake in Spanish is “panqueque,” and the word “pan” means bread and “qué” means what, and Elder Weiss pointed out that if you separate the words, panqueque means “Bread, what-what?”

-Some of the Elders In my district think I look like an Iguana and/or a weasel with my hair. Better than reminding them of a gorilla or chihuahua like they said some of the other Elders in our district remind them of. Also Elder Walker, who’s a country bumpkin from eastern Oregon in a town of less than 500 people reminds us all of a mountain goat. 

Our district was the first district in our zone that memorized all the scriptures and references before the end of our fourth week though, so don’t worry, we’re still being really productive. 

Some other super cool news, we are pretty sure the cafeteria here put out some not so great food, and I’ll spare you on ALL the details, but needless to say all the bathrooms around campus were pretty busy this last week and a half. We’re all a little more careful about the food now to say the least. 

I got bored the other night when we were writing in our journals and I traced all the veins on my feet.

We have a new class mascot. Elder Prince really likes to draw donuts on the white board, so Elder Williams, with a little more artistic talent, drew a donut who is a little more intense (see below).

On a more spiritual thought, last Friday we watched a video that the church produced called “Hope Works: Being Green by Jill Thomas” and I’d like to challenge all of you guys to watch it. It is produced by the church, but even for those of you who aren’t members, it still carries a crazy good message and it doesn’t hammer the gospel things home too hard if that would be a problem for you, so I’d like everyone to find a time and watch it with their families if possible, or just by themselves. It’s about a lady who was striving for the perfect life her entire life, and how after her daughter died in a tragic accident she learned how to adapt and still find peace and joy, even when things would never be the same because of this change in her life. I feel that it can be super applicable in all of our lives, and it has a nice feel-good message. 

Am learning more and more about myself every day, and even though I could do with a change of scenery, we’re still having a fun, productive time here. 

Love all you guys, and keep on thinking of the greater good!

-Elder Peters

Scriptures to look up:

D&C 11:12-14

Being Green by Jill Thomas (not technically a scripture but still good)