Best Mother’s Day Ever! (until next year!)

May 13, 2013

[We got to Skype with Calvin on Mother’s Day and it was amazing! He is tan and happy! He got a bit choked up when our dog Cato entered the picture!He spent time telling stories about the people he’s met, who he’s teaching and where he lives.

Here’s a funny and awkward story he told us about the European custom of greeting:]

“So the kiss thing. They are called bessos or something but basically it’s the custom where when you meet someone you kiss both of their cheeks. as missionaries they told us to try not to let it happen to us. last week we were at this 18 year old investigators house and his mom and aunt came in so i stood up to introduce myself and shake her hand. when she took my hand she pulled me in, and at first i freaked out because i didn’t know what was happening so i was hesitant, and then she pulled me in harder and then i realized what she was doing so i tried to back away from her, but she just pulled me in tighter and then i was just like whatever i´ll just let this happen. so she kissed my cheeks and i backed away and it was really awkward. i got bright red and my companion was laughing so hard. everyone was laughing really hard and then my companion explained that that was the first time anyone had ever done that to me. it was funny and it turned out ok. the investigators family doesn’t really like that he’s talking with the missionaries so it was good to have a funny and light-hearted encounter with them.

im getting better at speaking. I´m using preterite and imperfect (past tense) and starting to use past participles well (which is like ¨we have spoken¨ ¨hemos hablado¨ and my companion said it took him months before he could do that. but understanding is still really hard for me. i really like all my investigators and care about them a lot so it’s difficult to not be able to express myself because i don’t know what they are saying.

o well! Adios!