It was an accident and I felt terrible. But it happened and then it was the best day ever... I had el mejor ensalada which consisted of lechuga and tocino and queso and blackberries and pollo. Anything with bacon is el mejor. Anyway, what does it matter what I ate this week. The food is awesome though, I love the food. Also I eat about 2 mangitos every meal. MANGOS ARE DELICIOUS HERE.
And they have the best Guava juice ever made. And tangerine juice. It tastes like Hercules just crushed a bunch of tangerines into a juice dispenser. It's that good.
Okay so blah blah blah.
Dad asked me if it is rainy season right now last week, and I told him NOT AT ALL because it has been SO sunny and hot. Well, guess what happened the next day. It rained for the first time and HARD. And it's been gloomy and rainy for the past week. Thanks Dad! I really love rain a lot, so I'm glad I got to experience the Mexico City rain. All the missionaries wouldn't go out in it because they were telling everyone the rain burns because of all the pollution.
It doesn't burn. At least it hasn't yet.. hahaha But I'm glad I got to see the sunny and the rainy of Mexico City.
Our district plays Volleyball everyday for gym time. EVERY DAY. It is so much fun. We don't play in the gym because EVERYONE is in the gym and we found this cool little sand court on the campus and seriously just play every single day. It is the most fun I've ever had with volleyball. I love my district so much. Oh it is just so much fun. This week was awesome because it was gloomy and we could see without making wrinkles on your face from squinting so much (usually when it is sunny our eyes burn and we get sunburt and sometimes the sun blocks the ball in the air and you get hit in the face with it if your name is Hermana Olson). Friday the 13th a storm came in in the middle of our game and we kept playing. It was so fun. Then on Valentine's Day, I thought to make the game INTENSE. So at lunch, which is right before gym time, the three hermanas in my district and passed the word around to the elders in our district and other districts in our zone that we were playing an INTENSE game of volleyball at 1:30. We titled it "Valentine's Day Volleyball MASSACRE--Hermanas vs. Elderes" We hurried to get there first to do some intimidating exercises before we began....but everyone in our zone arrived at the same time. And we were all coming from different directions in our district groups hahaha just like that scene in that one movie (I think it's called Anchor Man). We were all so serious. Then when we all got to the sand court we looked around and Elder Merrell said, "Uh, we didn't get a volleyball." So we all sat down and made sand castles until they came back with a volleyball. Hahahaha it was pretty hilarious and pathetic being that we were all so "serious." But when we finally got the ball, we played and had SO much fun.
In the CCM we aren't allowed to be competitive or keep score so the game is pretty silly and fun, but The V-Day Volleyball game was AWESOME. We all just laugh so hard through it all.
Oh also on Valentine's Day, our district decided to write a valentine from a made-up "Hermana Johnson" to an elder in our district, Elder Merrell becasue he ALWAYS pranks us with all sorts of things. He got it and it was hilarious. But then he thought it couldn't be real and was sure it was us. None of us wanted to tell him it was us because he was so excited and we sort of felt bad. The note said, "Come find me!" At the end of it because she wanted to write him after they both leave on missions. We were trying to come up with some way to explain that it wasn't us. Well, guess what happened. We were all sitting at dinner and then HERMANA JOHNSON, a very cute misionera, walks in and Elder Viel says, "Dude, that's probably her." We were all just laughing so hard. While we were at the salad bar I filled her in on why she was getting pointed at so much and said sorry. And she was just more than excited to play along. She went right up to E. Merrell and said, "Happy Valentine's Day." Elder Merrell just looked straight forward at the table and said really quick, "Thanks." They've talked since.... and none of us want to tell him... But the hermana is more than okay with it.... So we just decided to tell him when they get married. yeah, we all feel pretty terrible, BUT WE WEREN'T EXPECTING HER TO BE REAL. yeah, don't prank people, kids. It backfires hard.
Oh another happening of the week, I was on my way home after lunch one day and I came upon a group of about six elders just standing in a semi-circle on the grass. We asked them what was going on and they said they were protecting a this parakeet that was on the grass because they didn't think he could fly and don't want him to get stepped on. The parakeet looked exactly like Qwerty by the way, Jacob. Anyway, they're plan was just to stand there. To me, since we had parakeets, I thought maybe it was one of the Hermano's pets and that it had clipped wings maybe. So I picked it up and started walking it to the Lost and Found. YEAH I'M SO SMART..... hahahaha anyway I was holding him for a bit and then he just flew up into a palm tree. And then I turned around and said, "He can too fly." And then kept on my way walking home. But all the elders and my companion just stood there. Then they all said, "WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!" And then everything I just did kind of wizzed through my brain to figure out why they were all surprised....and then I realized that I had just picked up a wild Mexican parakeet. And then I laughed a lot. And then those elders saw me again later this week and said, "Hey! Hermana go pick up another bird! We've been trying all day!" And so I walked over to the lawn where the green parrots were, (they are like Kib, Ammon!) and I picked a parrot up and held it for a little. Then the elders were just laughing so hard and ran over to pet it, but he flew away. It was pretty bizarre and actually really cool! hahaha The elders were running around trying to grab the parrots. hahaha
We aren't allowed to take pictures on days other than P-day otherwise I would have had some pics with them. But maybe if it brightens up a little more today, I will be able get a picture with one. I haven't seen the parrots or parakeets walking around or flying around at all yet. It's sort of rainy today. The memory is cool enough for me though. :)
But I really hope you get to come to the Mexico CCM, Ammon! because you would go crazy with how many birds there are just flying around in the CCM. The CCM compared to the rest of Mexico City is BEAUTIFUL. It's beautiful anyway, but it is shocking the difference between a polluted and congested city and this beautiful green, safe, quiet, campus. It's so clean too.
There are a lot of crows here too, but they don't look like Ferdinand, they are way different looking. I like the Mexican Crows, but their eyes stare into your soul more.. And their beaks are super thin and pointy.
just call them Fernandos.... but no one knows why because they don't know Ferdinand. Maybe I'll get a pic. There are also a lot of blue jays that have pooped or have nearly pooped on a missionary daily. One hermana and myself have been hit already and an three elders in my district. It's because the sidewalks are right under just a lot of trees (the purlple ones that drop sticky flowers). I have a feeling that those beautiful birds time it ON PURPOSE though...
There are also red bellied doves or something, they are very pretty.
OH there are also these normal looking swallows, but they always stick together in HUGE groups and hang out in trees. And it's really cool to just watch them because you can't really see all of them in the trees, but as soon as one swallow flies down to the ground, the other 35 or so fly down to the ground too, but not just like jump off the branch and land down, NO. It's like they are in a line and just go one after the other and swoop down in a circular movement at least twice and THEN land making it look like a little tornado next to the tree. It is SO pretty!
When we were driving through the city on the way to the temple, there were a lot of dogs and chickens on the roofs of the buildings. And I'm pretty sure there is a rooster on top of one of the nearby houses because I hear him every morning 5:43 on the dot. Every. Morning. It's pretty cool. We don't need to get up until 6:30, but Hermana Smith and I get up every morning at 5:30 and go running around the peaceful campus of the CCM. So I hear him. I wish he would just crow just 15 minutes earlier so I wouldn't have to get up to an alarm clock.. That would be fun. Nope, actually, I hated my rooster alarm clock I used in college, so I'll be fine just listening to him while I run. Sometimes we pass Presidente Call, he's the second counselor in the CCM Presidency, and he goes running every morning too. Last night he and his wife sat next to us at dinner. They are really neat. This is their 3rd mission together.
Okay, well, this is an odd e-mail, if I say so myself.
I am leaving in exactly ONE week! wow! I'm so excited. I've been learning so much and boy oh boy has my testimony grown!
This week in personal study, I realized what an enormous blessing footnotes are! I began studying the amazing account of Joseph Smith's history. At one point he related his experience of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appearing to him and the persecution he received to Paul's, "when he made his defense before King Aggripa." ....thanks to the cartoon Living Scriptures Movie stuff... I knew Paul had held a coat of a guy that participated in stoning Stephen and later was visited by Jesus Christ and later was put in jail, but I wasn't familiar with his defense before Kind Agrippa thing. This led me to a footnote that took me to Acts 24, which was the account of Paul's defense. In this defense, Paul explains to King agrippa and accusers his account of Jesus coming to him and telling him to be a minister and a witness of Jesus Christ. Okay, I don't want to go all into it, but the story of Paul is absolutely amazing. And I am sad that I haven't studied the Bible hardly at all. I had to go back a couple chapters... actually about 20 chapters and read the whole story of Paul, which leads even further into Romans. And the story itself, just read plainly verse by verse, is remarkable. BUT when you actually look at all those little footnotes, which are GALORE! You will be just absolutely jaw dropped with everything you would be missing if you had just read it verse by verse. There are promises from previous chapters that you don't exactly realize are being fulfilled when they are or promises you forget about because you are just reading, there are sites the Bible Dictionary or Topical Guide to explain who on earth people like Festus or Felix or King Agrippa are and in understanding who they are, you understand so much more the weight of what the say and also what is even happening with Paul before and during that trial. And OH after his trial they said he did nothing worthy of death or of bonds... but since he appealed to Ceasar, they decided to make him a prisoner and sent him to italy on a ship called Adramyttium or something like that. Okay, well, the whole story is there in YOUR bible, so just read it, but OH it was just so cool! There was a big storm and all the prisoners and guards on the ship thought all hope was lost, but Paul made a promise that there would be no loss of any man's life. And then the way that that promise is fulfilled is that they have to give up the boat BUT EVERYONE LIVES! And then the people on the Melita Island thing made a fire and then a serpent/viper just sprung up out of nowhere and bit his hand! But Paul just shook him off into the fire and then all the people stopped giving him a hard time that he was a prisoner, because they knew he should have died right there! And then there is a footnote that takes you to Luke 10 or something and it is the Lord's instruction and promise to the seventy and he says something like nothing shall by any means hurt you and you'll have power to tread on serpents or scorpions. And so THAT is fulfilled and I wouldn't have even known it! Okay well, it's just cool.
The bible is amazing. I love it. I wonder if this excitement I have will be the same when people read the Book of Mormon that hadn't before. It's sad how much I took the Bible for granted.... read it guys. And the book of Mormon of course, but seriously. I LOVE FOOTNOTES.
Alright well. I had better go. I love you all! And boy do I love being a missionary! :)
Love,
Hermana Olson
P.S. I am really sorry about how long this is and how much of it talks about birds... But I probably won't get to write next week, just a heads up. I'm going to go play volleyball now for probably 3 hours. Have a FANTASTIC WEEK! I know you will because grandma and grandpa are there :)
Here are some pics. The elders in our district formed our desks into a shape of a heart on Valentine's day. It was fun.
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The sunrise colors here are so pretty.
Me in front of the CCM sign!
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