I'm doing pretty good, however I sprained my MCL
this Saturday on my right leg so I've been taking it fairly easy and been
limping around the last few days but it is getting better so don't worry. I saw
a doctor this morning because I was worried I tore my meniscus again but she
said it's most likely a sprain and to just take some ibuprofen and if it continues
to see a physiotherapist and referred me to one but I think that it will be
fine. I don't even know how it happened to be honest. Every Friday all of the
Elders and Sisters here run a YSA activity and try to get all of the young
single adults out whether they are members or less actives or investigators or
potential investigators or whoever they are as long as they are young
single adults. We get about 10-15 out including us but they really
enjoy it and have a lot of fun. Anyways Elder M and I were in the
Gym shooting around a basketball and playing 21 and weren't playing
aggressively/competitively or anything because we were still wearing our
missionary clothes and were just waiting for everyone to arrive. All I did was
jump to ally-oop a ball that was going off the rim and when I jumped and was in
the air my knee made a popping sound and kind of hurt a little before I even
landed. It was really strange and doesn't make sense because we weren't even
doing anything and before I left I played basketball at the Y a lot more competitively
and even at the MTC we played basketball and volleyball a lot more
intensely and I had no problems at all. My guess is because my
legs have been somewhat stiff lately seeing as we walk around the whole
city everyday and often are running if not sprinting to make it to our bus stop
a lot and we still do our workouts in the mornings sometimes and sometimes they
involve legs. But yeah I don't know. It's feeling a lot better and should be
fine so don't worry about it.
Brandon is quite a bit bigger than 12,000, no one here really knows. Everyone I ask either doesn't know or give me different numbers; my
guess is it's about the same size maybe a little bigger, maybe a little
smaller than Medicine Hat but I don't really know. The guy I just asked right
now said around 50,000 which is probably correct.
But other than my knee exploding everything has
been pretty good. We have to fend for our selves and have only been fed by
members once since I have been here. And I don't know of any future
dinner appointments as of right now but we are surviving none the less.
One of the main things we do here are service
projects. We try to find and do as many as we can. Since I've been here we have
helped a member out by painting his shed, putting up some rain-gutters,
and helped him take some stuff to the dump. Every Thursday
(and sometimes Wednesdays) we serve people at the soup kitchen, then
help out sorting stuff at the food bank. This Wednesday Elder
M and I are going to donate blood. Last Saturday morning we helped out
at a food drive by packing food boxes and what not. Really enjoy it.
We also are teaching a lot of less actives
and trying to reactivate them and work with lots of potentials and we
have a few other investigators. One of which I challenged to baptism on
Wednesday and He accepted and set a baptismal date for July 6th, which is
really exciting. Even though we haven't seen him since. He’s from Brazil and is
going to University here in Brandon and speaks Portuguese. He can speak English
pretty good and we can understand him pretty well for the most part but there
is still a language barrier sometimes and we're not sure if he always
completely understands everything we teach him so it'd be nice if Brandon came
down next time we see him and they can speak Portuguese together.
It's a really different province here. A
lot poorer. The roads are kind of like they are in Saskatchewan and it's
really flat, no hills here. Most of the houses are over 100 years old. The City
of Brandon is very multicultural. Lots of Native Americans, lots of Spanish and
Asians because there is a huge Maple Leaf Meat plant out here and all their
workers are imported in because they can pay them so little, so people come and
work there for a few years and then sometimes get a job somewhere else
but the Spanish population is constantly growing. It makes it hard sometimes
because there are so many people we see that we can’t even talk to them
because of the Language barrier. That's why there are the Spanish
speaking Elders I suppose.
But it's great, loving almost every moment
of it, except for blowing up my knee and going into some pretty nasty houses
but it's great!
Love you All!
This what we eat all day everyday
