Mission letter from Ethan:
I can't say for certain if these things are Spain exclusive or even in all of Spain but 10 days in Cádiz has shown me a couple quirks different from the USA 🇺🇲
1. First thing is that I don't know what is going on with the animal life but it's like waking up in a zoo to all sorts of sounds. I feel like someone turnes on the avatar with the blue people audio everymorning when what I'm guessing is the birds start going off every morning. But I'm a big fan of that part of life. It reminds me of Florida a bit. They also have green parrots or parakeets and some other tropical looking birds flying around the city so that is cool.
2. Keeping with the animal theme what do you do to take your dog out when nobody has a yard and there is just very limited grass in the whole city? Apparently you just walk around with a bottle of dishsoap with special city street dog disinfectant and just let them pee anywhere. Throw some special spray and that and you're good to go. It was a bit weird seeing the first time but lowkey a smart idea.
3. Almost nobody in Spain has a car and everyone just walks or takes the bus if it's too far, maybe a train. The sidewalk game here is absolutely on point though. The city was designed for walking pretty much. The Spanish 🚦crosswalk culture is funny though. It's more of an unless something tells me specifically I'll get hit if I walk it's a full send. Green means go, no light means go, red means go unless you can't beat the oncoming traffic, and yellow for you or the cars also means go. So when we are at a cross walk staring at a red light but then see the cars flying by suddenly got a yellow everyone just starts walking no matter who's in the intersection. Wild.
Nobody having a car can be a bit of a problem though. We were walking this week in the rain because a storm came through and saw a car stopped at a cross street. "Necesitan ayuda" we asked. "We don't speak Spanish" replied the two dudes. Somehow we, being some of the only English to Spanish bilingual people in the entire city happened to walk by as two dudes from Saudi Arabia had their car battery die, and prolly the only two that would stop to help in the rain. Shoutout God for guiding us on that one! We tried pushing their car up the hill a couple times to see if our friend could use the speed to slap it into gear but no dice. No big deal we'll just call a member and come have them jump it right? Well like nobody has a car and when we eventually did find someone in the ward with a car none of them had jumper cables. I guess pinzas (cables) are more of an American thing. In europe they just hope their car doesn't die and then pretend to be a Flintstone if it does or something idrk. In the end we were able to help translate and get our homies a roadside assistance to pull up and help out. It was super cool to be able to help like that. English skills suddenly are a bit of a commodity out here. 💪we got to use them earlier in the week too when some tourists from England stopped us and talked to us asking where to buy milk. They knew we spoke English because they were members. So shoutout out the Bristol stake.
4. Spain does daylight savings time a few weeks after the US so yesterday we got to skip another hour of sleep. #scammed
5. Our clothes washer is in the kitchen instead of a dishwasher and we don't have a drier so we get to slap wet clothes on clotheslines hanging outside the window. That's not to bad and all but when we have a rainy week it sure takes a while for the clothes dry!
6. Last fun thing is that for sacrament they just whip a whole baguette 🥖out and start breaking that thing like the last supper took place in a French café. I'm down for it though.
This week was a lot better out here. Those first couple days had me worried not gonna lie but I'm settling in just fine. They say Cádiz is a super hard area to find in, hasn't had a baptism in over a year, hasn't had missionaries consistently in even longer, the hardest Spanish to understand in the country, and where you face rejection all day. But I wouldn't want it any other way. I'm tryna have 7 months to just grind out here. Smooth sailing never made a seasoned sailor and I'm trying to get out of here having made some growth. Bring on the challenge!!
John 16:33 "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." TOUCHDOWN JESUS!
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