Monday, April 11, 2011
“It Rains Every Monday”
Here I am again!
Like it says in the subject line it's raining, pretty sure it has rained at one point every Monday. Besides the rain the weather has spiked up! Earlier this week it was mid sixties. Yesterday it was a toasty eighty-five! This St. G boy is going to have a fun time in the humidity! In fact it's funny; yesterday we walked out into a good layer of fog. Not something I'm too used to seeing back home, but it's common place here. More and more I miss those Red Rocks, and planes keep become Sky West connections, but the love of the people keep me here.
Yesterday was a fun day. (As I tell this story I know it was Sunday). After a long fast we went over to Brother Navarro's house for a fish fry. The catch of the day.... Walleye! Now, being a trout fisherman my whole life I took for granted how easy it is to prepare those little morsels. We all had the pleasure of de-scaling our meal. One fish would take about twenty minutes of going against the scales with a spoon, but it was a nice change. Elders Klein, Ramsey, and Mcllellan all got to tango with the spines on the back of the fish, but I came away scot free!
Now like our Native American Friends, Mexicans believe in saving all they can. While Brother Navarro is quite Americanized, he hasn't deviated from that philosophy. So the whole fish got fried! Fins, spines, head, eyes, only exempting the organs. Obviously the Missionaries got the honor of eating the head. I wish I would have gotten a picture! While the cheeks were good, there wasn't much to save from those other parts of the fish. Fins were also edible! They tasted more like potato chips. After chasing every little corner of the fish to find the meat, I came to the conclusion.... They (the members) took all of the good body pieces, giving the "honor" to the missionaries.
This week I also had my first exchange with Elder Ramsey. He is from Arizona, and has been out for about 6 months. We went to the East end of town. Now you'd think that Elder Ramsey, though he's the Junior companion to Elder Mcllellan, would be driving. Not so! Something is up in the mission office, so yours truly was driving. I'll make Uncle Dave happy by saying we dragged Broad Street from the East end of town, to come back to the West! So my first driving experience wasn't even in my own area! Elder Ramsey did enlighten me on how to prepare fish. We were making Tilapia (spelling?) and he put lemon pepper all over the fish. Then we added pickled Jalapenos to the dish. Little did we know that these chilies weren't normal. We baked it, and ate. Overall the food was good, but the supernaturally hot jalapenos did us in!
On Saturday I went to the temple. It was in Spanish. Oh boy... I could get through most of the session okay, but they talked in vosotros form. Riley will be talking in this form when he comes back, but Hispanics rarely use this. So, hearing people talking this way was difficult. This form is used in the scriptures, but it’s one thing to actually listen to this form of speaking. It's a good thing I could do some parts of the session in English, but I've learned so much, some things have slipped my mind. I needed quite a bit of help at a certain point...
Now those trading cards. Elder hall sent me one. He has been sending them to all of his friends serving in America. So, to return the favor, I'm sending one back! I'd like to send one to Elder Coby Johnson, but I failed to get the mission home address from him. Like every week I am begging at the feet of the master for more.... So... Please?
I love you all, and as soon as I get through all the letters I got from leaving the MTC, arriving to the field, and the ones that have just come. I will make an effort to get each of you a letter! I love you all and hope the best.
Para Siempre,
Elder A. Ipson
The Great Ohio Columbus Mission
Like it says in the subject line it's raining, pretty sure it has rained at one point every Monday. Besides the rain the weather has spiked up! Earlier this week it was mid sixties. Yesterday it was a toasty eighty-five! This St. G boy is going to have a fun time in the humidity! In fact it's funny; yesterday we walked out into a good layer of fog. Not something I'm too used to seeing back home, but it's common place here. More and more I miss those Red Rocks, and planes keep become Sky West connections, but the love of the people keep me here.
Yesterday was a fun day. (As I tell this story I know it was Sunday). After a long fast we went over to Brother Navarro's house for a fish fry. The catch of the day.... Walleye! Now, being a trout fisherman my whole life I took for granted how easy it is to prepare those little morsels. We all had the pleasure of de-scaling our meal. One fish would take about twenty minutes of going against the scales with a spoon, but it was a nice change. Elders Klein, Ramsey, and Mcllellan all got to tango with the spines on the back of the fish, but I came away scot free!
Now like our Native American Friends, Mexicans believe in saving all they can. While Brother Navarro is quite Americanized, he hasn't deviated from that philosophy. So the whole fish got fried! Fins, spines, head, eyes, only exempting the organs. Obviously the Missionaries got the honor of eating the head. I wish I would have gotten a picture! While the cheeks were good, there wasn't much to save from those other parts of the fish. Fins were also edible! They tasted more like potato chips. After chasing every little corner of the fish to find the meat, I came to the conclusion.... They (the members) took all of the good body pieces, giving the "honor" to the missionaries.
This week I also had my first exchange with Elder Ramsey. He is from Arizona, and has been out for about 6 months. We went to the East end of town. Now you'd think that Elder Ramsey, though he's the Junior companion to Elder Mcllellan, would be driving. Not so! Something is up in the mission office, so yours truly was driving. I'll make Uncle Dave happy by saying we dragged Broad Street from the East end of town, to come back to the West! So my first driving experience wasn't even in my own area! Elder Ramsey did enlighten me on how to prepare fish. We were making Tilapia (spelling?) and he put lemon pepper all over the fish. Then we added pickled Jalapenos to the dish. Little did we know that these chilies weren't normal. We baked it, and ate. Overall the food was good, but the supernaturally hot jalapenos did us in!
On Saturday I went to the temple. It was in Spanish. Oh boy... I could get through most of the session okay, but they talked in vosotros form. Riley will be talking in this form when he comes back, but Hispanics rarely use this. So, hearing people talking this way was difficult. This form is used in the scriptures, but it’s one thing to actually listen to this form of speaking. It's a good thing I could do some parts of the session in English, but I've learned so much, some things have slipped my mind. I needed quite a bit of help at a certain point...
Now those trading cards. Elder hall sent me one. He has been sending them to all of his friends serving in America. So, to return the favor, I'm sending one back! I'd like to send one to Elder Coby Johnson, but I failed to get the mission home address from him. Like every week I am begging at the feet of the master for more.... So... Please?
I love you all, and as soon as I get through all the letters I got from leaving the MTC, arriving to the field, and the ones that have just come. I will make an effort to get each of you a letter! I love you all and hope the best.
Para Siempre,
Elder A. Ipson
The Great Ohio Columbus Mission
