One family is Hispanic, the Jimenez family, and are tons of fun. The husband in not a member, the mother hasn't been to church in a while, and two of her four kids go to a different ward with some of their extended family. Sister Jimenez is always cracking jokes and is very nice to us. I had mentioned how we don't get fed very much in this area, and her 14-year-old son elbowed her saying "hint hint..." so they invited us to a barbecue birthday party for one of their grandchildren (turning 4). It was at a park by some reservoir and we had a great time with all of the family! We met all of her children and her husband, her brother (who is a less-active member in our ward), and a few other friends. They had a pinata and cake too :) It was a beautiful day (which means very little-to-no humidity...ha) and helped us get to know the family much better.
We've also been teaching these two kids - Derek (12) and Dylan (10). Their mom was baptized around 5 years ago and hasn't attended church in a long time. The boys like Elders a lot better than Sisters (the 10 year old wouldn't come down for the lessons before because they're girls...) and we have a blast with them. They can be pretty distracted and attention-hungry, but we manage to have good lessons with them. We had finished one of our lessons and Dylan had rode his skateboard away outside and a minute later came back with two small boxes of Krispy Kream donuts and said "I GOT DONUTS!!!!" Haha, my first thought was "Did he pull those out of a trash can, or did he steal those?" but I guess the guy who delivers the donuts always gives the kids who run to the truck a few boxes. So we got to take one of the two boxes! Yum.
Wednesday we went to the Fisher-Titus Hospital to seek out their volunteer opportunities. Missionaries have gone there in the past and so we thought we'd give it a shot. They said they would love us to come and help escort their patients to different rooms or parts of the hospital. We think it's a great opportunity to be one-on-one with different people have leave the door open for questions and answers! We had to get TB Shots and background checks while we were there - not sure I'll pass the background check ;)
Wednesday night we also helped with a primary activity. It was on missionary work and the Sisters before us were supposed to be doing all of it. So the Sunday before, the Primary President pulled us aside and asked if we knew anything about it. NO! But we were happy to pull something together. It was only for senior primary (ages like 8-12 or something like that? There were like 12 girls and 3 boys). I kind of took charge or the whole thing and decided that we'd be having the kids come to the "Sandusky MTC." We typed up some fake mission calls (that looked just like our real ones) and had the Bishop sign them all. We called them to the Ecuador Guayaquil South Mission because one of the ladies in the Primary Presidency served her mission there. The Primary President made some nametags and we made passports of the kids to travel to each of the 4 stations we'd have set-up. One station was the "culture" station, where Sister Torres brought all kinds of pictures and objects from her mission and she taught the kids about learning the language, eating the food, etc. One station was the "study" station, where they talked about studying the scriptures on a mission and more of the spiritual side of the activity. One was the "work" station, and we had the Sandusky Elders set up some fake-tracting opportunities. Members (including the Bishop) were in different classrooms in a hallway and the little kids had to knock on the door and do what we do. We heard the kids were pretty impressive. Our station was the "dress" station. It was awesome! We took the bags of leftover Sister-clothes from our apartment and some of our clothes and decorated our area like a big closet. We also had some shoes on a table to shine (we didn't bring the polish, just the brushes), an ironing board and iron (not plugged in), a shirt needing some buttons sewed on, and outside had the shaving station! So we taught the kids about how important it was to be able to do these things (shining shoes, sewing, ironing, etc.) and had them do them all. We then would have them put on some of the different clothes we had brought and so they were all dressed up like missionaries - they loved it! We then brought them outside where we had balloons with faces on them, shaving cream, and some cheap-o razors. We explained that Elders need to be clean-shaven and that these missionaries (the balloons) needed help shaving. So we would put shaving cream all over the balloon and hold the balloons for the kids while they shaved. Most of the realized that if they just used the plastic-side of the razor, the chances of the balloon popping went way down. But some cut the balloon and "the companion exploded with anger" - and got shaving cream ALL OVER them! hahaha it was awesome! They had the dress-up clothes on so it was okay. Overall the activity went great and the Primary leaders were very impressed and grateful. We had fun.
Friday was a Zone Conference - they had everyone bear their testimony at the end who would be leaving before the next Zone Conference. Saturday we walked around Norwalk all day from about 2pm to 8pm because we're very low on miles for this month! So we walked and walked and walked and were able to make contact with everyone who we were trying to see! We also got more honks and yells from cars driving-by on the busier roads than probably my whole mission put together! The people of Norwalk are a different people... But we love 'em anyways.
It's been busy as usual and we're having a blast. Elder Jarvis and I are doing our best to find some success in our area. I'm able to understand a little bit more everyday why I got transferred here with only 6 weeks left - there's always a reason when it comes to Heavenly Father. I hope everyone reading this can also see His hand in their lives. Everything always seems to work out as we do what we are told. I'm grateful for knowing that. Love you all, have an awesome day!
Love, Elder Dransfield
Learning about the culture of Ecuator
The "study" station
Knocking on doors. The bishop answered.
learning about ironing
Picking out missionary clothes
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