Happy Australia Day! I believe it's the day that Captain Cook first landed in Australia... it's comparable to our Columbus Day. Basically an extra day off for the Aussies to drink, and a day that the aboriginal people hate because well... Yeah... It was Saturday and we spent about 5.5 hours in the morning moving a member in our Branch into a new home.
Don't have much from this week, except for more funny "Elder Escamilla identity crisis" experiences:
1) We're driving back to our flat for the end of the day and we see an Asian couple going for an evening stroll on our street. Elder Neas says their Chinese and says it's not worth our efforts (I know that sounds really bad, but he meant in regards to being able to speak Chinese... He's had many experiences of Chinese people who won't stop talking to him in Chinese even though he tells them he's not Chinese, but Korean, and doesn't speak Chinese... In Chinese...). So he just goes inside. However, I got pretty excited because, well, you don't see very many Asians in Port Stephens and since I'm Korean speaking... I'll take what I can get. So I "strategically" roll out our rubbish bin to the street right when they walk by our flat, so I can talk to them. I say,
"Hey how's it going! Pretty nice weather for a walk hay?" Then they start speaking to me in Chinese!! ".... ummm.... Sorry?" *Chinese* "... uhh..." *Chinese "Taiwan?" Chinese* "Um, no American" *Chinese "Mei guo ren" Points to our flat* "Yeah I live here..." *Chinese* "Umm... ok.. bye..." *Chinese, walks away*....
They thought I was Chinese, but when I didn't understand, they thought I was Taiwanese... Guess I better start learning some Chinese...
2) Every week, we email our mission president updates on our area, our personal well-being, whether we've killed our companion or not, if so who won, you get the idea. Well last week, President Runia emailed back to me...
"I'm putting you on a special assignment... it's after much pondering and prayer that you serve in this new area."
I get this the day after transfer calls. I'm thinking... "but President, transfers were yesterday... I guess you can make changes. You are the mission president after all."
I email him and text him back the next day, asking if I can get more information on this, but also understanding that he's very busy looking over the combining of the North and South Sydney Missions with over 280 missionaries. So I wait. Wednesday is when all missionaries report to their new areas. I expected to get something before then, nothing. So I wait some more. I don't call him or bother him anymore than my email and text, I understood he was probably busy. I was way excited for the inspired assignment that my mission president had for me from our Heavenly Father. I wasn't prideful about it, I hadn't even told me companion, but I was prayful that I would be able to fulfill the assignment that he had for me. Nervous and excited. My mind wondered, thinking about what's gonna happen. "Are they reopening the Korean program!?", "Are they opening a Korean Branch and he wants another Korean missionary and I to build the Branch!!", "Is he turning me into Chinese speaking?....", etc.
Then the email comes last night, "Call me Elder Escamilla, and we will talk about this." So I gave him a call this morning...
"Hey President, you wanted to talk to me about the special assignment you had for me?"
"Yes! So right now you're serving in the Spanish Ward with Elder.... Pickering, right?"
"Umm... No... I'm serving in the Port Stephens (very White, Aussie, English Speaking) Branch with Elder Neas..."
"Oh... Wait... Uhh... I'm so sorry. There seems to have been a mix up... I meant to send that to Elder *Something Hispanic* from Guatamala... I guess I confused the two of you since you're name is Escamilla... I'm terribly sorry... *Long pause* So how are you doing?"
So my hispanic name strikes again, confusing another poor soul. I've come to learn that Heavenly Father and I have a very interesting sense of humor with each other...
Besides that, very uneventful week. this Wednesday I finished my 12 weeks of training as a new missionary and am no longer a 'Greenie'. Then a month from last Tuesday, I will hit my 6 month mark. So crazy, time is flying. Still Navajo Mowing. No Koreans yet. UV Index is Extreme. Still humid and hot-az. No A/C in our flat is "the best" (Nacho Libre). We still see kangaroos. The Book of Mormon is still the Word of God. The Church is still true. I love you all and have a great week!
Elder Escamilla
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Australia Sydney Mission
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