From: Austin Ipson
Sent: Monday, November 21, 2011 9:22 AM
Sent: Monday, November 21, 2011 9:22 AM
Florence, KY
That is the question, will I have Turkey this Thanksgiving.? The answer.... Yes! The Bishop from the Lakeside Park Ward will have the Zone Leaders, and all four Spanish Missionaries over at their house this Thanksgiving. Don't worry, there will be no watching of football. Why? We are putting together a Thanksgiving Dinner with our investigators. Thanks to the surplus coupons, and cash surplus from the coming birthday. The Dinner should work out fairly smooth. However, that leaves one variable. Who's going to cook it all.... Well, I made a poor choice at the beginning of the mission. I showed that I could cook decently. It doesn't help when I whip out my Mandil (Apron) every time I move into a new apartment. So, even if I follow the reciepe, who know's how this turkey is going to turn out for our investigators.
How the idea of this dinner got started was through some service we did for some of our investigators. They had a car up in the Nasty Natty, and they needed some way to be guided there, inconspicously. So we whipped out the GPS (heh-peh-ess-eh), piled into the 08 Malibu (Definatly doesn't compare to the Kurt Busch Radio Sweetheart) & paved the way for a pair of paperless Mexicans! The operation went smoothly, and they got their car sitution "figured out". (We popped the hood and there was a timing chain, and piston heads showing). I don't know what's going to go down at this point but they feel more at ease on what surgery their car is going through.
The two that we guided in the truck were Cristhian, and Misael. Misael happens to work at the local Mexi-mart, and was able to get some "carne asada" for us. So when we finished our duty up in the Natty they invited us over for some tacos. While talking with Misael, we found out he hadn't ever heard of Thanksgiving in his ten years in the States, so we wanted to return the favor. So I'm making them Thanksgiving Dinner!
This past Sunday it finally fell my turn to translate for a high council sunday. I was a bit nervous to get started, but it was a fun experience. I found out where my weak areas are in the language. However I realized that I don't have much for grammar problems, now it is just a matter of expanding the vocab. That's the difficult part of serving stateside spanish, but it has really forced me to learn Spanish. In fact I don't just learn one Spanish. I learn several. I have to talk to Guatemalens, Mexicans, Dominicans, Cubans, Columbians, El Salvadoranians, etc. Each one of them has different nuances that you learn and pick up. It's been a blessing to be able to experience the Cornucopia of the Hispanic world!
With Elder Z. Ipson with less then a 100 days, I now have hope that I'll reach my year mark. Time has kind of made a little slump just before the Holiday Season, but it's picking up! The help really came when President Nilsen talked about "clipping in". He talked about when he was training for Lotoja with Shawn Bradley. Immediately I was all ears. Basketball and biking! He made an example though. He put a missionary up on his Cannondale without clips, and had them peddle. He messed with the brakes, and proved you need something more. He had the missionary put on the shoes, and try again. This time being commited he had more power to push through the brakes that President applied. That impacted me. I need to clip in, and just pound my way to the top of the hill! After that, I can use my downhill drafting techniques!
Thank you for remembering my birthday, and sending me something as odd as Christmas Decorations! They will be well appricated. Not only by me, but the other missionaries.
Muchas Gracias por todo, y les amo.
Para Siempre,
Elder A. Ipson
The Great Ohio Columbus Mission
