Monday, August 22, 2016

ELDER MATTHEW LEBARON...Korean Hair salons, Gossip, and Shampoo explosions



This week has definitely been an eventful one, I'm starting to realize
that weird things just happen to you as a missionary, I'm not sure if
it's because you are out on the streets more, you interact with a lot
of different people, or maybe people in California are just crazy,
many of these things I have considered throughout this week.

I have learned so much about the ward that I am in, even in the short
time that I have been here. I think that I know a little too much
about people honestly. Being a missionary is one of the weirdest
things in the world, especially how the members interact with you. We
will sit at members houses for long periods of times just listening to
their problems, and a lot of the time we find out all the drama that
is going on between sister so and so. I don't know why that is, maybe
people just think that we are some kind of sound board, it I have
heard way too much about people's marital problems. One of the biggest
struggles that I have found with the members is that they will take
all of your time if you let them, they have no concept of time, and
will often take 2 hours or longer for dinner or visits if you let
them. We visit this older couple in the ward named the Jacksons, they
are so old that they can't make it to church, so we will go and give
them a lesson, sing hymns, and give them service. Everything in that
house is old, the dogs are old, the furniture is old, the paintings,
it's all so old. to top it all of it reeks of dog urine, because the
dogs are so old, I'm pretty sure they just go wherever. During one of
our visits their son that lives there literally monologued for an hour
and 30 minutes no joke, there was no room for us to give a response,
nothing, I have never seen someone talk that long uninterrupted
before.

Julia the Korean woman we have been teaching told us that she would
cut our hair this week, so on Wednesday we headed over. When we
arrived she told us that one of her friends was going to cut our hair,
because she was in school trying to get her license. This woman
literally didn't speak any English, and I had a very unsettling
feeling as I sat in the chair, only imagining what was to come of my
hair. I tired to explain what I wanted, not being able to understand,
the Korean woman called over Julia and she translated for me. I have
never had a more painful haircut in my life, she was using the razor
so fast and aggressively it felt as if she was literally pulling my
hair out. As she was making the final touches on the sides I couldn't
help but notice that my hair was horribly lopsided. I looked back at
Elder low through the mirror, it was apparent that he saw how bad my
hair was as he tried to hide his laughter in the back of the room. I
wasn't exactly sure what to do, Julia was off running the shop, and
there I was, about to leave with this horrendous haircut. luckily the
last minute Julia came over and stood in shock as she looked at my
hair, both the Korean woman began to argue, rapidly responding in
quick high pitched tones in what I could preserve as gibberish.  I Was
no longer a person, but a mannequin with hair, both the woman began to
pull and tug at different parts of my hair trying to come to some
agreement on how to cut it. After five minutes Julia began to cut my
hair, and everything turned the way it should, although my hair was a
little shorter because Julia had to recover what was left of my poor
hair, I was happy with the results

When elder low had his hair cut, Julia decided she was going to cut
his hair. She quickly asked me if I could do her a favor. Since she
was doing elder lows hair, she couldn't run the store. Soon enough I
was sitting behind the counter, directing woman around the store for
different products, and explaining the pricing of different things in
the store. It was one of the strangest things in the world, and people
didn't even bat an eyelash at me, most woman didn't even question that
a well dressed 18 year old boy was now running the salon, and some
even respected my opinion of what shade they should get in their hair,
what a day.

A few days later Julia was apparently closing her store, so she asked
us to come and help clean and box everything. It was probably one of
the most fun service projects that I've done, mainly because we got to
throw a lot of things that were made out of glass into the trash can.
Julia decided that she was going to pay us with hair products, and
gave us probably enough shampoo for my whole mission. She loaded it
all into a bag. Me and elder low split it into two bags because it was
so heavy and headed our way down the street. Elder low was riding
behind me, and I was soon startled by a scream, and a crash, almost
immediately I felt cool water splash all over my back. I looked back,
and saw that Elder Low had torn the bag and Two of the shampoos had
fallen out and exploded all over the road, all over him, and all over
me. His spokes apparently cut the bag open. I'm starting to realize
that I can't trust that guy with carrying things on bikes. So we put
all of the shampoo products in my bag, what must have been 20 pounds
and put it on my handle bars, it takes quite a bit of skill to balance
things on your handle bars I have learned, it was a very terrifying
bike ride home. On the last leg of the journey It felt like my foot
had been drenched in water, I looked down and saw that my foot and leg
was covered in shampoo, one of the bottles we had put in the bag had
gotten broken, and it was leaking as the tore under the immense weight
of the bottles. Luckily we made it home, and I was able to get most of
the shampoo out of my slacks.

California is weird. People are so cold here and don't want to talk to
you, but it makes for some really interesting times when contacting
people. Me and elder Low have been cussed out in several different
languages, chased by dogs, and met some of the craziest people I have
ever met, all and all it makes for a good time, I love it here and
there's so much to do. Keep on praying and looking to God, he has all
the answers and will help us in the good times and especially the bad
times, we are never alone. Until next week,

Elder LeBaron

1 comment:

  1. Wow, Matt, I have never laughed so hard! I hope this next week is better, you are doing great, 'tho! Keep up the good work! XO Diane

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