I have to admit, I did have a lot of fun while I was in New Jersey. While I was working hard, I had the opportunity to meet many wonderful people. I wish I had the time and space (on this website) to post pictures of all the wonderful people that I met on my mission. But, due to time and space restraints I can only post a handful of pictures from my mission. Below is a picture of 3 members of the Andino Family and myself.
Going from left to right we have myself, my boy Rosel, Ilsa the diablita, and Dorris. So, what do you think? Could I pass for one of the Andino kids or what? Yeah you’re right. But the majority of the people I met in Jersey did think I was Hispanic:)
In fact, one time when my Boy Rosel was helping me move a J dub came up and spoke to me in Spanish. Until all my white roommates came down stairs and spoke to me in English, this boy had no clue that I wasn’t Hispanic!!! It was kind of cool, I felt pretty good about my Spanish after that:)
Ok, you are probably wondering why I think the Andino’s so cool? Well, it’s because they were cool!! Trust me. I’ll talk about Ilsa later, but Rosel was the man. He was about 17 when I was there. He would go out on team ups with us all the time. Sometimes the boy would go out twice in a week, once with us and once with the other missionaries in the branch. He even helped us move when we moved!! Usually missionaries are helping the members and not the other way around.
The coolest time we had with the Andinos might have been New Year’s Eve of 96-97. We were on a team-up with Ilsa and all of our appointments ditched us. To say the least, we were pretty bummed out. (Is that a PC missionary phrase? Probably not.) Anywise, Ilsa said that her mother was making dinner and that we were more than welcome to join them. Well, we went for dinner and than played a few games after dinner. Have you ever heard of the flour game or the tapping game?
You haven’t?? OOOOHHHHH, this is a good one. Ok, the tapping game is really simple. You have everyone get in a circle facing inward. Everyone puts their hands on the table (or floor), then everyone places their right hand on the right side of the left hand of the person on your right. If everyone does it right, you should have your left hand, than the right hand of the person on your left, than the left hand of the person on your right, than your right hand. Confused yet? Don’t worry that’s the hardest part!!!
Now to start the tapping game. Let’s say I’m starting the game, I’ll start with my right hand. Let’s say you are sitting to my right, and someone else (let’s say Matt) is sitting to your right. If we have our hands on the table (or floor) laid correctly we have my right hand, Matt’s left hand, then your right hand. Now I start by tapping once, the direction starts by going right. So then it’s Matt’s turn to tap with his left hand. If he taps once it continues in the same direction and then you have to tap your right hand. But, if Matt taps twice the direction reverses (to the left) and I have to tap again. I can tap once and then you’ll have to tap your left hand, or I can tap twice and reverse the direction back to the right again. The first person to blow the correct order of taps has to play the consequence. That is the fun part. The better everyone’s hand coordination the faster you have to react and tap therefore the more you mess up. Want to play?
Oh wait, let me tell you the consequences:) The consequence is the flour game. You have to take a slice!!! On a separate table (so it doesn’t’ shake) you place a cup, a butter knife, a penny, a plate and some flower. Now you take the flower and pack the cup full. You place the plate flush on the top of the cup and flip them both over. Place it on top of the table, remove the cup and place the penny on top. Now here is the consequence. If you blow the hand tapping, you have to take the butter knife and cut the mound of flower. The cut has to go from the top of the mound to the bottom!!! Then you have to slide (what you cut ) away from the mound. If the penny falls you have to take the penny off the plate.
Oh, by the way, no hands. No hands, no elbows, or arms. In fact the only thing you can use is part of your head. Take your choice. I recommend your teeth or your lips, but you are welcome to use any part of your head. I love the Andinos because they were good sports. Those guys kept playing in hopes that my companion or I would drop the penny. We never did, in fact we rarely blew the hand tapping part so we rarely had to cut the flour at all.
The Andinos rock!!! I think my boy Rosel lost twice, Ilsa lost once, and Dorris lost once. My comp and I never lost:), but every time someone came over to the house they would want to play again with the new person:) The were good sports the whole night. They got flour all over their faces, in their hair, and even up their noses. It looked like a little dragon when they would exhale and you would see this big cloud puff out of their nose.
Dorris is cool. Bless her heart, she though she’d be different so she tried to remove the penny with her ear!!! That was awesome!!! But that was them. They were open minded and free spirited. They weren’t worried about their appearance or their looks. They were just having fun:) So, shall we play next time we see each other?? I say we should, what do you think?
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