Monday, April 20, 2015

Ik wil alleen blanke Elders

If you just translated the title, you'll understand soon enough.

Ahem! *activate morning news announcer's voice* Good morning loved ones. It's another beautiful day in Groningen. We're looking a pleasant day filled with low winds, lots of sun, and a 100% chance of crazy college students. Throw on your funky high tops and get outside, everyone! There's slacking to be done, hazing to be taken too far, and parties full of loose co-eds.

As you may have guessed, Groningen is a college town. And I love it. It feels so much like Austin that it's a little strange! I love the crazy things you see people do. It's just a rippin' good time for everyone involved.

Transfers went pretty smoothly. It basically involves throwing ridiculous amounts of luggage and bikes onto trains and praying that the doors don't close while you're either loading or unloading. It happens every time to at least one person. But that's just how it goes. 

My new companion is Elder Moomey. He's on his last transfer, so I will be "killing" him. Luckily, he's as focused as all get out! We have been out and working super hard already. The other two Elders in the apartment are Elder Yocom (said like it's spelled) and Elder Bishesar (he's from Suriname). We all get along super well! It's great.

Okay, you are now going to understand the title. Elders Yocom and Bishesar whitewashed in to Groningen. That means neither of them were here before. It's always difficult, and it causes a lot of funky problems. One such was a former investigator that came into church yesterday. He looked a little untidy and came and sat by me. HE started to speak very loudly but I couldn't understand him. Then, I realized he was saying the word "paper"-- very poorly. I didn't know who he was, but I handed him a sheet and he started to write down his name and that he is deaf. I ended up having to write down all of the lesson that was being taught (I realized I haven't written in Dutch very often). The lesson ended and he asked if he could make an appointment with us. I went to talk to Elder Moomey before committing to anything, because the members seemed quite surprised that he was there. Moomey said that he was a former investigator from the other Elders that were now gone. Apparently, he had called his lawyer and stuff, too, because he was angry that they invited him to be baptized. Apparently a lot of other crazy crap went down, and we just didn't really want to get involved. We thought that maybe we could have him spend time with the other Elders and he'd make an appointment with them. So we had them write for him during Sacrament Meeting.

After church, he comes up to us with his little sheet of paper. On it, he had asked again for an appointment, and that he didn't want one with the other Elders because Elder Bishesar isn't white. Terrible, right? Well, we now have an appointment with him for next week. We'll see how that goes.

Other things... I was sick yesterday. Not fun. But I'm a lot better now. 

Sorry I don't have pictures. I kinda slacked on them this week.

Til next week everyone!

Elder Shaw

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