Monday, June 30, 2014

Week 23

Haha yeah, I know about Mexico. A lot of people in the street talk to me about it. Surprisingly, I stand out here as a Mexican too. Everyone asks me where I'm from cuz they know I'm not from the U.S. they usually guess either Brazilian or Chinese. I don't even look Chinese.
Anyway, sorry I didn't take any pictures this past week, just of my companions. So Elder Sanchez went home!!!! He's sooo dead!!! It's crazy that he's not even a missionary anymore, and then, Elder Burch replaced him! He's the last person on earth I thought I would serve with, haha. Him and I are good buddies and we get along great. Also, he's the first companion I serve with that is shorter than me, so I no longer feel like a midget next to people. And no, thank gosh nobody asked me to marry them this week, but I saw something that made me loose it. I was laughing sooo hard haha.
So Elder Burch and I were hiking up this hill on our way to an investigator's house. We were just talking and we started smelling weed like super strong, so we started saying stuff like "man, someone's smoking up a storm" and stuff like that. We were curious to see who it was. So we passed this old building and we saw this old lady sitting down on some rocks with a pipe in her hand and a HUGE sack of weed on the ground in front of her. I know it's terrible but she looked like the most innocent old lady ever and she was stuffing pipe and getting ready to smoke it haha. It must have been like an entire pound too, it was a huge bag.
We didn't contact her because there's a ridiculously huge amount of high and drunk people walking around like every hour of the day, and if you talk to them they go off for like hours and they will not stop talking. Like, ever. So we do our best to only talk to sober people. I'm super pumped for tonight, we have a Family Home Evening planned out. I'll take pics and show you our investigators next week and all that good stuff.
Alright gtg, take care!! Love you!!

-Elder Zuniga
Elder Zuniga & Elder Burch

Elder Sanchez & Elder Zuniga

Monday, June 23, 2014

Week 22, A Beautiful Island

I have no clue why they transferred me out here but I love it. Really the only think I don't like is not being able to play soccer -.- but whateves. Oh and there's so many dirty women that try hitting on missionaries. A few days ago one of our investigators asked me to marry her! She's like 30 years old and has 3 kids. She's like "if I stopped drinking and made myself look beautiful, would you take me with you to the states and marry me?" I always used to say "I already have a girlfriend" and I was about to say that but then I realized that I don't anymore, so I was like crap! haha Me and my comp just ran away haha.
Oh and I didn't even tell yo about my comp did I? His name is Elder Sanchez, even tho he's not Mexican at all haha. We get along pretty well and he goes home in like 4 days!! Crazy huh?
Man, I'm loving my area so much. It's sooo beautiful! But it's way hard on your legs. We hike up mountains a lot when we visit other smaller zones in our area. People are so humble, a lot of them just grow and harvest their everyday food in their small gardens.

Sundays here are rough. It's sad when only 32 people show up to sacrament meetings. It reminds me of the good old days back in Port Isabel. I also gave a class in Elders Quorum. There's so many people here that have the most ridiculous excuses of why they don't want to get baptized. There's this one guy that goes to church, keeps the commandments, but ONLY wants to get baptized after he dies. Like, baptism for the dead in the temple. I was like WTF mate?? Thanks to whatever Elder taught him that lol.
Hey speaking of Old Spice, they don't sell that in this country!! And I ran out, so it would be pretty cool if you sent me some whenever you can. Along with ketchup, I love ketchup.
Well I hope you're doing great, I miss you tons and thanks for everything!!! Buh bye, love you!!

-Elder Zuniga




Monday, June 16, 2014

Week 21, Emergency Transfer to Santo Antao!

Lol gosh dang your emails are always my favorite to see on P-Days! The gif worked here and I just cracked up about the basketball one in the middle of a tiny internet shop packed with a ton of people.
And man I had the craziest week! I got emergency transferred to the middle of nowhere! It's a super beautiful island called "Santo Antao" (Saint Anthony). I got a call Tuesday morning around 12ish telling me I was going on an emergency transfer, so I went home and packed and got a call at 2:55 that my boat was leaving at 3! I was in such a hurry but I somehow managed to get there on time. I was super sad to leave all my investigators :( but still very excited to work here, not a lot of missionaries get a chance to serve on this island. To get to my area (Ribera Grande) you drive down this road that looks like a desert for about an hour; it just keeps going and going for eternity. Not really, just an hour, but yeah, a very long time. This area is sooo beautiful, these pics can't really compare to real life, especially since I suck at taking pics.


There's mountains all around my area; these pics were taken from our window in our house. The branch here is actually pretty dang small. This Sunday the attendance was only 36, but without a doubt it will start growing.


This area is gorgeous, it's called "Figueral." It's basically a trail up the side of a mountain, it kills your legs soo bad tho haha. It's a good workout.
Well I g2g or else I won't have time to email mom lol. And send more spicy ketchup! I finished it all, lol.
Thanks for everything you do, you're the best!! Love you!! Bye

-Elder Zuniga

Monday, June 9, 2014

Week 20

How on earth did you remember my favorite day in history?
Anyway, so I found out that Me, Elder Olsen, and Elder Burch all got DearJohned at the beginning of our 3rd transfer. That night was funny, even though I hated my life. We just sat in my bed all night eating ice cream and cake and all that good stuff lol.
So this past week I went on splits with Elder Hartman. I stayed over at his house and worked in his area called "Cementerio Tras" (behind the cemetery). It was pretty awesome getting to know other areas. I was gonna send you pics and stuff but I forgot my camera lol. Sorry.
I'm sooo glad I'm not you, school sounds horrible to me right now. Especially math classes, I don't even know how to work the calculator.
So guess what? Now we have sisters in our District. And guess what?? They took cake to the last district meeting. And guess what?? The cake tasted good. It's gonna be a great transfer.
So I've been hearing a lot about this new movie called Ssss....something Approach. I forgot what it's called. But it's this movie about 2 missionaries that get kidnapped in Russia. It's based on a true story. You should watch it.
Man, it's sad how low my standards for music have gotten. A couple of days ago I heard the song "Fireworks" by Katy Perry as we were walking down the street and I got super excited lol.
So, for the first time ever, all the District leaders had a meeting with our Mission President and nobody else was invited, and it was the last time we got to see him :( It was such a spiritual experience for everyone. He has the most powerful testimony I have ever heard, you can literally feel it, it's kinda hard to explain, but basically he made all 10 of us cry lol. Even though I only got to talk to him like 5 times, I'm gonna miss President Oliveira sooo much. He only has 2 weeks left on his mission, then President Matthews is gonna replace him. I'm pretty excited to meet him.
Well, I'll do my hardest to send pics next week, take care! I love you!!!!

-Elder Zuniga

Monday, June 2, 2014

Week 19, District Leader!

Hey I just got dearjohned! Lol. I'm laughing right now but I'm probably gonna cry myself to sleep. Lol, jk.
But good news, I got your package!!! Man you're the best sister every! Soo much ketchup!!! I wrote you a letter telling you thank you and stuff so that's all I'll say for now. Dude! I'm District Leader now! I found out last Monday night. I feel super out of place cuz I'm like the youngest in the district lol. But Elder Olsen is District Leader too so he helps me out. Now I live in a 4-elder house! The 2 other Elders are Elder Burch and Elder Pumbumua (from Mozambique and from Utah, guess which is which, lol.) I was already good friends with Elder Burch before so this transfer should be fun. Well, sorry for not having tons of time, I wrote Yari a whole book saying it's OK lol. Well, take care!! I love you tons!!!

-Elder Zuniga