Dearest Woman that Gave Me Life-
Eye twitch hasn´t changed. The mission nurse and I decided not to go to the doctor. She is emphatic that it´s only a muscle twitch. Sigh. I dunno. Thanks for the photos. I always LOVE the photos you send me!!
I am changing. Faster than I thought!! I don´t really think about much besides the work anymore. This week has been monumental. There are good days and bad days. When the work is going really well, I obviously can´t stop thinking about it. When we have hard days with lots of walking and no appts, then I am a little more distracted. The other day we passed by a burger king and I started singing the national anthem and patriotic american songs for a half hour as we walked to the other side of the city. I am a pretty patriotic american, if I do say so myself. I forgot the pledge of allegiance though. For about an hour. But I finally remembered it. I was a tad freaked out!! But that was a momentary distraction. Usually I am focused!! I have a long list of things to say, so I will start with that. First off- I haven´t gotten your package yet, so I don´t know if you sent it or not or what. But yeah. And I would love it if you gave me a salsa recipe. Cause they don´t have salsa here. I prefer salsa with more sauce than vegetables. Anyway. That´s all. I love you so much.
The other day we went to a member´s home and helped them weed their garden. We were there the day before eating during medio dia and I offered to help them, so they told us to come the next day. I was SOOOO excited. I have missed pulling weeds!! not even kidding. I was seriously excited to go and do that. Elder Pardo had never pulled weeds before, so this was new to him. Haha. He didn´t like it. I loved it though. I felt like I was just at home and I could look up and see one of my brothers in front of me pulling weeds too!! Except it was Elder Pardo. But it was still great! I really enjoyed it. As I did that I was thinking about my future. I remember the things I used to say to you and Dad, about how my yard will be 100 percent concrete so I don´t have to pull weeds, or how I will pay someone to take care of my yard. Ha. Jeez. I said some pretty foolish things over the years. I want exactly what my parents want now. Just a big yard that I can work in every saturday with my family. There´s something beautiful about that. I am also grateful that I was taught to work. It has made a huge difference in my mission. Knowing how to paint, and work in the yard, and knowing how to do simple projects!! Lots of people don´t know how to do that stuff, because they have never done it before. I am so grateful for parents that taught me how to work. I was thinking about everything that you guys wanted me to do and to learn, and the thoughts and feelings that you guys had about things that I did not agree with. I remember fighting with you about so many things. I remember TOTALLY disagreeing with some of the ways that you did things. And now I do a little self reflection and realize that I want the exact same things as you do now. I have completely become exactly what you guys have wanted me to be (not really, I have a mountain of flaws and stuff, but when it comes to how I feel about life and things in general). I don´t know you you did it!! It was a slow process but now I am totally just a younger version of my parents. It´s kind of weird!
So I made greek chicken on Thursday, to celebrate Spencer´s birthday by myself in Spain while you were all eating cake and living it up. It turned out pretty decent, except they can tomatoes differently here. And the tomatoes weren´t really stewed. But it tasted fine. Just kind of runny. I even sang happy birthday for him. It was a cute moment. Haha. I only had two homesick days this week. Thursday and yesterday. ALWAYS the sundays. Elder Pardo made fun of me for making greek chicken!! He says that nobody in the mission field makes grand recipes or something. Just cook as fast as possible and eat. I like to cook though. I am going to try and make lasagna this week. We´ll see what happens! They have these things here called Kebabs. They are turkish food!! From Turkey. Ya know?? I LOVE LOVE it. So good. There are tons of muslims here and they all own kebab shops. I can´t explain it. I´ll have to send a picture. We didn´t go to Gibraltar today, btw. That´s ok though. They also have this stuff called chicharron. It´s literally fried bacon. I am surprised I haven´t heard of that before. Why wouldn´t America be the first one to take the most unhealthy meet there is, and then fry it? I dunno. I think Dad would love it though!! It´s pretty amazing. Everybody loves snails here. They boil them and then suck them out of the shell. People order huge cups of snails and just eat them one by one. I haven´t tried them yet. It looks disgusting.
The work is going so well. We have been working so hard in Jerez, and this month we will finally see the fruits of our labors and the blessings of the Lord. We have a goal of 8 baptisms. The mission goal is 55 for the month of June (55 for the whole mission) and elder pardo and I will have 8!! I know we can do it if we have faith. Victoriano won´t be baptized this week. He is a little scared. He is 69 years old and isn´t too eager to change everything, but he knows it´s true. So we are taking things a little slower and I will probably recommit him to the 29th of June. We have four other people that are set to be baptized on that day right now, and a family of three that will be baptized as soon as they get their stinking marriage certificate!!!!!! UGH. I am praying that it comes soon. And then we have like four other investigators that we are trying to set dates for. We work so hard, and I am becoming so engrossed in this. At first it was different. I obviously cared about it, but I didn´t think about the work before I went to sleep at night, or while I was walking. Things are different now. I am starting to love this so much. I really care about this work. The badge on my chest has taken on a new meaning for me. I am representing my family and my Savior. Nobody else. My name is not on the badge. Missionaries need to forget about themselves and remember who they represent. And I have really begun to do that. I have my days of course. But they are getting less and less frequent. That´s for sure. I am so happy. I honestly have never been so exhausted in my entire life. I am always tired. In every way. Physically, mentally, and spiritually exhausted. I feel like I am back on the 50 miler. Every single day. And I don´t know why!! We don´t walk that far or anything. And we usually just sit on people´s couches and talk. But my brain is tired, and so is my body. I feel a great satisfaction though. Haha. I just wrote that and realized that they are the same words my blessing uses. Great satisfaction. Well it´s definitely true. SO exhausted, but SO happy. This is what I am supposed to be doing. I know that without a doubt. I am relieved that it is finally happening to me.
It is so hot here. And humid. I am glistening 24/7. I carry around sunscreen always and everyone makes fun of me but I don´t even care. After that day on the beach in California, I am NEVER going to risk it with sunburns. It´s not flipping worth it. Plus I don´t want skin cancer. So I haven´t been sun burned. But I am still sweating constantly. My best friend is the little black fan. Haha. And I am sick too. I don´t know why. I am always using oils and taking vitamins and doing all this stuff to try and keep myself healthy when I start to get sick, and it´s been that way for a week. I am not quite sick, but not totally healthy. And it makes working out even harder because I am dead tired and kind of ill, but I do it anyway. I seriously sweat a lot. It´s stinking humid. I am not used to humidity. I miss the dry utah air so so so so much. But I am not too bothered or anything by the heat. I will look down at my skin when I am in our piso and see sweat just running down my arms and laugh. Maybe I will lose weight or something. Right now my attitude is kind of like "bring on the suffering" cause I know the more I get the better I will be. So I am excited for July and August. Bring on the heat!!!
People think I look like Nick Jonas. I have no idea why cause I totally don´t see it. But I can´t tell you how often I hear that I look like the youngest Jonas brother. BUt there are definitely worse things in life!! The members are great. We are working hard together. Yesterday we had four investigators in church, and in the gospel principles class they were talking about gifts of the spirit. And then the teacher started talking about the gift of tongues and he looked at me and asked if I have ever had any experiences with this gift recently, and all of the sudden my investigators started talking about how I "always have the gift of tongues and can understand everything" and all this stuff and I just felt awesome!! I am really being blessed with the language.
Well I am out of time. Elder Pardo is done. The days go by really slow. But the weeks are flying by. I can´t believe I will have three months soon. The time really does fly by. I love you all so much. I will finish your letter today mom.
Spencer, send me an email about how to make that breakfast sandwich with the ciabatta rolls or whatever. I am sick of muesli. Thanks.
I love you,
Elder Sharp
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