Salsa Canning Day

Tomatoes have been very scarce this year.  We've looked everywhere and most people said their tomato crops didn't make it or produce very much.  Lisa and Devin got lucky and found out fry's market had tomatoes in (when just last week I called and they said they weren't getting any and definitely not selling by the box.  So They ran over and grabbed 6 boxes of tomatoes.  We used 2 boxes to can salsa and they used their 4 to do tomato juice. Mom was out of town so us girls decided to make it ourselves.  It is a ton of work, but also so worth it.  We got it all cleaned up and in the roaster by 12:30. We started at 10:30.  around 4:00 Steph came back over and helped me fill up bottles and pressure cook them. I  wish we could have made more with how fast we go through salsa around here, but we split it up between the 3 of us and and have already dug into it.  So yummy.

 

Week #3

Preston Monson	Mon, Sep 19, 4:07 PM

Alright everyone so somebody procrastinated the email and is spend running before pday ends. So my apologies, bare with me and next week will be better. Anyways. This week was good. I'm getting into the groove of things.. kinda. The language is coming. But I can't understand a lot of things, like if a woman is explaining that she stabbed her husband a few years ago and got out if jail recently, I just smile and nod not having a clue what's going on. Anyways, that's how it goes a lot of the time. They will be talking about some messed up things and then my comp says in english "we need to go" and I am always surprised to find out what on earth was going on. Something interesting happened back home this week. These whole two months I've been gone I get texts from my parents "Preston we love you so much, we are so proud of you." Well today I open my email from my mom to see that my room has been turned into a gym. Nothing like replacing your son who is serving a missions room with a treadmill to show you love him. And you know what's even better? I don't like running. But when I would run with my dad I'd beg for us to just get a treadmill so I could at least run in the air conditioning. But my dad laughed and told me to get over myself, that running outside was free and we get to enjoy nature. Well dad. What happened?? So yeah I'll be looking for somewhere to stay when I return home. Let me know if you have any ideas. Anyways.. one thing that is still there I noticed were my shoes. So that's good. At least they know better than to mess with my shoes. But anyways yeah, had to rant about that for a minute because I'm barely three months in and the renovations/changes have begun. Spiritual thought for the week. I had a lot of impressions just that I needed to speak this week. And I thought to myself like. What on earth, I can't talk worth a crap like why. But I did it. Felt the Spirit really strong. And then they would say "Que". Which is "what?" So yeah they didn't understand. And my comp had to explain it again which was fun but I'm glad I at least tried speaking. Anyways I hope you all have an absolutely splendid week. Little comment on the food. Not that bad. Just don't ask what it is and eat. I'm making it. And then.. there was a caterpillar in our apartment this morning. And I guess my comp hates these things more than me. So I had to be brave and sweep it into the trash. I'm becoming a man. You are all witnesses. Anyways.. till next week! -elder Monson 

 

Dixie's Homecoming

Shaylee was asked by a boy named Ben who she met at FSY this summer to go to his homecoming dance.  He goes to Dixie. They hung out a couple times before homecoming to get to know each other a little bit better.  Dixie's homecoming was at the first part of September.  They went to Sand Hallow on their day date and then he took Shaylee to Lisa's home to get her ready there so he didn't have to drive to hurricane to pick her up.  I  meet them down at Lisa's.  Lisa did her hair and Makeup. I  just curled her hair. While we were working on her she mentioned she was hungry so Devin went to work making her tacos.  She was so excited and loved them.  She looked gorgeous and so grown up.  She came home around 9:00 and said Dixie decided to enforce a rule that you couldn't bring a date from another school to their dances.  So they went and got ice-cream and then went hot tubing instead.  She had a fun time.

 

Soccer Season for Landon

Landon started it Fall soccer in Sept.  He loves soccer.  We aren't coaching him this year, and that has been good for him to have someone else in charge.  He loves to play all the positions and is actually really good about seeing the field and knowing to pass and just knowing the game well for his age.  He is on a Kindergarten coed team.  They've had a great season so far and Landon is having a blast.  The hard part is setting out. lol.

 

Preston in Paraguay

Preston Monson <preston.monson@missionary.org>

What is up everyone?  Elder Monson is doing good. My comp and I contacted 34 new people this week and invited 7 people to be baptized. We also got 4 people to say they were coming to church. And then we went to pick them up Sunday morning. And they were all gone. So that's how we were robbed. It went from 4 to 0. Which was embarrassing because I was talking my comp and I up to our district leader and everyone the whole week and then nobody showed up so that was just great. I didn't actually get robbed. I think all the potential robbers are scared of me down here. I've been working out in the mornings and like I know they're looking and kinda scared. If I saw a white guy with my newly acclaimed muscle and shirt and tie on. I'd think he was an agent from America and I wouldn't be testing him you know. So that's how I think they feel. A little timid to test me. As they should be. But yeah good week. Taught so many people and I'm picking up a little more on what they're saying. Slowly but surely. We went on divisions this week. Which is where we are with a different companion for 24 hours. Of course they put me the new guy with the Latino in our district. The only person who doesn't speak English in our district. Not that I hate the kid but. I was nervous about communicating. However, it was awesome. I loved it. We had to use translator a few times bit like I felt so good because we were kind of communicating and I was doing good! And then him and my companion talked and he told my companion that my spanish is not good. And needs a lot of work. So I was humbled immediately after which was awesome. Anyways. We crossed a river on my division and there was no bridge. Just a bunch of plywood. And it was so scary. I thought I was going to die. The plywood like sunk down every step and man it was unreal. There's a lot of weird people here. So many that are drunk and just come up and freak me out. But they are all so nice. These people are so nice. Also on my division I realized I'm in the poor area. We were serving in the Latinos area and the houses looked nice. So much nicer. The houses I teach in are very sad. I feel sorry and just like yeah it's hard to see. But the people that live in these houses are so much nicer than the people who lived in these nice houses. So I don't know. Cool experiences. I got to help in another blessing this week and it was awesome. As well as go to a baptism to help out for our zone Leaders (who happen to be in my district) so it was really cool to see that and help out. I'm doing good. Had some struggles but for the most part did really good. Thought for the week is all things are possible with God's help. My spanish will get there with his help. My worries and fears get put to comfort with his help. Just it's awesome how much help I've received. Anyways, thanks for being on my email list, I hope you enjoyed. Go have a great week everyone. 

Love everyone's favorite,

Elder Monson