Jared’s Skype Call—Mother’s Day 2012 May 13, 2012
We had the computer on and Skype was up and waiting for
about 1 ½ hours before Jared called.
When Jared Skpyed at Christmas, he actually called 30 minutes later than
we had expected. This year he called
about 10 minutes early, which threw us off a little! I ran into the room when I noticed he was
calling. I rounded up the troops after
that and began a very nice chat with Jared.
Jared mentioned that he had to get up at 5:00 in the morning Monday so
he could chat with us. What a good boy!
We noticed that the video of Jared was a little bit blurry
but the sound was better than at Christmas.
We actually were very lucky to hear from Jared at all because the
internet cut out for the whole country when lightening hit some of the
wires. So glad we still got our call!
We made a list of questions and Jared answered most of them
for us.
Carl’s mom was visiting so she joined in on the chat as
well. She asked him what he was up to
and he said, “Preachin, teachin, workin.”
She asked if he was avoiding the
rock throwers and he said, “Usually.” :S
She wondered if he had given away any of
the ties that she had sent him (She sent him 15 or more to give away to people
over there so if anyone came and threatened him for his tie again, he would
have one to give away!). He mentioned
that he had begun to give them away.
*Side note: The
little parakeet we have in the other room is constantly chatting during the
video we took. It’s like she wanted to get in on all the “happy” going on in
the other room!
He mentioned that he will have transfers coming up on the 18th
of May. He’s still the junior companion
most likely. He mentioned that there are
about 8 MTC groups in the country at one time.
He is in the 5th oldest group, 3 other groups have come after
him. So he may still end up being the
young one in the group for awhile.
Jared tells us he has no plans to burn anything for his one
year anniversary. (???)
Maddie showed off her 7th Grade Who Am I project
and her art on the front.
Jared’s Uncle Ben, Carl’s brother, popped in and started
staring at Jared in the camera about this point. It was good for a good laugh!
He says he is not getting a lot of snail mail and would love
to get some. He says his mailbox is lonely.
Maddie wanted to ask Jared some of the questions from her
Who Am I project. One of the questions
was what his most memorable memory of her.
He said he remembers playing “Christmas Morning” with her for about the
2 weeks before every Christmas when they were younger. They would wrap up things from around the
house and put them under our little one foot tree. They would then pretend to fall asleep and
wake up a minute later and it would be Christmas morning. They would then open all the presents. What a fun memory!
Maddie asked him what animal she imagined him being and he
said a mouse, because they’re quiet and she looks like a mouse. He thinks she is very hardworking and that she
got much better grades then him in 7th grade.
He talks about how every week he has to do some evaluation
every week with his companion and they have to always start out with one
strength of the companion and then things that could be improved.
We asked him how to
speak some things in Armenian for us. Carl joked around and asked him to say, “Where
is the bathroom?” and he said, “Donde es
el baño?” That made everyone laugh. He
did a great job of answering all our crazy questions on language. Uncle Ben asked him how to say, “Luke, I am you
father.” Later on Ben also said, “They didn’t teach you how to say, “Come
to the dark side” did they?” Between Ben
and Carl, they kept us all laughing during the conversation.
Jared says he feels like he is now able to understand
people now. He said that not being able
to understand people at our last Skype session really caused him problems. It’s much better now. He said there’s room for improvement. Jared quote, “…there are times when I’m like,
‘Wait, what??” He kept us laughing too! We told him that his friend, Arman/Sticks
from Armenia,
said that he spoke Armenian really well to which Jared replied, “Yeah, well he’s
a really nice kid!”
They usually go out into the public about 11:00 a.m. He said, “Sometimes we throw a Josh ..a meal…..lunch” He was struggling to come up with the word
for lunch. He said they don’t have words
for breakfast, lunch, and dinner in Armenian.
It just is Josh. We noticed a few
times during the conversation with Jared that he was struggling to come up with
English words to explain things. He said
that there are a few words that just don’t translate over from Armenian.
He said there are about 9 blocks in Nork where they have been
wandering around talking to people. He
mentioned a “Power Hour” where they talk to anyone who looks at them at
all. They also talk to people they meet
on the Marshutinees and taxis.
He says he’s visited most of the places he’s wanted to visit
already.
Jared’s Aunt Tomoko, Ben’s wife, came in at this point and
talked to him about how things were going.
We wondered why he kept being sent out for a week or two to new areas and
then being sent back to Yerevan. He doesn’t know why. He likes being in Yerevan though. Much better amenities, like running water,
warm showers, etc. While he was talking,
he mentioned something about one of his companions, Poker Peterson. Poker?
He said that meant small. There
is also an Elder Peterson they call Boyo Peterson. He’s tall. He said the typical time with
companions is 3 months, not Jared’s situation of only 2 weeks with some
companions.
Jared told us that he has many stories that he will share
once he gets back.
He thinks that most likely he will leave Friday, June 14,
2013 and will get home Saturday, June 15.
Jared mentioned that Cinnabon showed up in Armenia. He was
very happy! Georgia,
near Armenia,
has a McDonalds that the Armenian missionaries are jealous of.
He said his back is okay.
Nights and mornings aren’t always good but he says he just takes
Advil. He got sick recently and lost his
voice. But he’s better now. He was on another round of antibiotics.
He said they don’t have Cheetos over there. They have Lays potato chips but they’re
labeled in Arabic. They have to guess at
the flavors. “The ones with the
shishkabobs on them we assume are barbecue.”
He was happy because they are getting chips over there that are labeled
in Russian and apparently he can now read Russian. He learned it while he was in Malatsia. He said that it’s helpful to know Russian
because Russian words sound like Armerican words half the time. “So we were wondering if this stuff was body
wash or shampoo and we read the Russian label and it said, ‘champoo’, so we
found out it was probably shampoo!” The
word for pineapple in French is Annanas, and in Russian this flavored item said
the same thing so Jared knew it was pineapple. Jared says the Armenian cheese is just awful,
way too salty. They get cheese shipped
from other places, like a cheese called
Ferndindale (sp) that tastes like cheddar.
He says he lost 15 pounds at first when he was in Armenia. Then he gained some back. He’s now weighing
less than he did before college. They’re
walking a lot and there are a lot of hills in Nork. He’s now lost 5 more pounds. He’s
doing his push-ups and planks.
He told us one mild story that he planned on waiting to tell
us. He said that he and his companion
were being aimed at by a car that was driving in a parking lot. Jared got out of the way but his companion
didn’t. His companion was fine. The guy claimed there was ice but Jared did
not agree. He was pretty ticked. Jared said he has not been hit by any cars or
buses in the country.
He said you have to be careful about what you say because if
you don’t pronounce some words right, you’ll change the meaning completely. He gave the example of James 1:5 “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to
all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” If
you mispronounce the ….’and it will be given him’ you end up saying “…and he will be castrated.” When Jared spoke that phrase we could barely hear a difference. Eek!
He gets a good 15 minute, $6 (6000 dram) haircut from a guy
who is in the area.
He said the whole mission has learned to do the Rubik’s
cube. Jared hates them and doesn’t want
anything to do with them.
He said the last group of pictures, which looked amazing,
said a member, who is his landlord as well, took the pictures.
Lots of "We Love You!" and things like that and then that was it!
Until this December!!!
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