#no but seriously. what IF i learned how to play the zither

[airenyah]

me at 3am: what if i learned to play the zither 🤔

[toomanyplotbunnies-sendhelp]

Hello and welcome to Day 1 of "Let's Explore My Plot Bunnies"

This little bunny has been born today (while I was thinking of my other OLDER plot bunnies) and I don't that that much detail about it - like how would the story continue past the premise of it - so I thought this would be a good first plot bunny to begin with.

Edit: As of February 6th, this fic has a title:

"Shen Jiu's forceful adoption" (You don't choose family, family chooses you)"

Here goes nothing:

So, this would be a crossover between SVSSS (PIDW?) and MDZS, where Shen Jiu (the original goods) either runs away from Wu Yanzi or kills him before the Immortal Allience Comference where he meets Yue Qingyuan again. And so Shen Jiu just becomes a Rouge Cultivator (I wanna put forward that Wu Yanzi may have messed with Shen Jiu's head and made him believe that Qi-ge truly just left him behind and didn't care an ounce to come back for him, so Shen Jiu is not exactly in a rush to find his Qi-ge again)

During the first few months on the road, Shen Jiu ends up meeting (a three months pregnant), Cangse Sanren, and her husband Wei Changze. Shen Jiu is not really in the best shame when they meet (he is kinda feral and malnourished + has a distrust towards people a mile long), so of course WWX's parents are like "I am adopting this kid right now".

Since they are worried about Shen Jiu and they want to take care of him, both try to gain his trust, and after maybe half a year, they are somewhat close.

Needless to say, once Wei Ying is born, Shen Jiu is hooked since who can resist baby!WY. Like seriously - Shen Jiu may be a bit too mean sometimes (which is mostly due to trauma and the fact that ancient China had no way - to my knowledge - to treat PTSD) but he ain't someone who would ever be capable of killing a child (I shudder when I think that Shen Jiu and Yue Qingyuan may have seen more children die/suffer than be born in their life).

So this basically ends with Shen Jiu gaining a family, Wei Ying having a big brother that is very protective of him (watch out LWJ) and, in Cang Qiong Sect, we have Shang Qinghua (aka Airplane) who is very much freaking out because "the Scum Villain is nowhere to be found, how is the plot supposed to progress now System".

Small things to note:

• Shen Jiu is about 14 when he meets WWX's parents and 15 when Wei Ying is born - which means when Cloud Recess happens Shen Jiu is in his 30s (tho he still looks like a 20 years old man due to cultivation)

•As a child, Wei Ying couldn't pronounce Shen Jiu's name, so he called him Sè-ge (瑟) which means "zither"; Shen Jiu does in fact learn and (tries to) teach Wei Ying how to play this instrument while he is growing.

•I have no idea how to handle Cangse Sanren and Wei Changze tbh. I kinda want them to remain alive (albeit very injured) after that Night Hunt just so that Shen Jiu isn't alone in taking care of Wei Ying and himself.

•I want Lou Binghe to be a Bai Zhan Desciple in this AU and both him (+ a few other deciples) and Liu Qingge to be present at Cloud Recess just to have them meet Shen Jiu (sorry Binghe, you are literally Wei Ying's age (if not a bit younger); Shen Jiu won't look at you. Liu Qingge on the other hand.... (¬‿¬) )

•Shen Jiu, upon meeting the Jins the first time: "I don't trust you. Get the hell away from me and my brother Satan."

•Shen Jiu immediately after Wei Ying is born: "I only had Wei Ying for less than 5 minutes but if anything happens to him, I will kill everyone here and then myself."

•Shen Jiu, after realizing LWJ likes his little brother: "I will be watching you very closely, mister. Don't you dare try anything with my little brother"

And this is all I have for this Crossover AU.

So what do you guys think?

Good? Bad? Very much looks like my brain is on Crack? (I personally agree with the 3rd one)

Either way, I will be stopping here for today, but if I get any more ideas for this specific au, I will try to expand on it. (I am 89% sure I will be expanding on it at one point or another)

Till next time,

TooManyPlotBunnies - Send Help

[swiftletinthecloud]

Episode 19

Lol poor Xie Bei Ming! He’s been crushing after Dong Ru Shuang and now when she’s showing interest in him romantically, he’s totally failing to pick up her cues! Seeing him hard at work helping her figuring out the poison and making the antidote for the princess and Su Ci, Ru Shuang comes to sit by him, all smiley and cute with romantic music in the background. And Bei Ming’s like “my heart is beating so fast, is yours doing the same?” All the set up for a kissing scene between them, only for him to ask if their fast heart rate is because they got poisoned! And she’s so annoyed she’s like “yes we got poison so here drink this antidote” and knocks him out! 😂

After learning that Fu Zi You has been guarding outside her chamber day and night since she got poisoned, the princess calls him in to thank him. Before that, her maid asked if she wants to changed into something appropriate first, and she’s like “nah who cares.” And the little half step Fu Zi You takes back and keeping his eyes off of her when he came in and realized she’s not all dressed. Adorable. And the princess is very straightforward too; she tells him straight out later that she likes him even though he’s like he only has his late fiancée in his heart and excused his worry for her out of duty only.

Lol Pei Zhao the mastermind! He’s trying to get the foreign prince to call off the engagement between him and the princess by saying that although he hasn’t sought political power in court, he’s been the target of political schemes like assassinations repeatedly. The recent poisoning of the princess was also aimed at him. Of course the protective older brother’s going to go back to the princess and be like maybe we should break off this engagement, staying here isn’t too safe for you. Lol what he’s not expecting was for his sister to be totally chill about it since she also wanted to ask him to break off the engagement too. The princess tells him that before, she followed his wish to marriage Pei Zhao because she believes he knows best but now she likes someone and knows what it’s like to love someone so she’s only interested in marrying for love. And so the engagement between Pei Zhao and the foreign princess is resolved.

And for her work in getting the poisoner and saving the princess, Su Ci is also released and restated since the Emperor now let women work in governmental organizations like men. All’s well that end well.

Now that the engagement is off, the princess is cured and healthy, and the relation between the two nations is peaceful again, both foreign royals are going home. Before leaving though, the princess had asked for Fu Zi You’s position to be restored as thanks for protecting her while she was there and she even gave him a sword pommel ornament she made since he’d lost the one his late love gave him while chasing after her earlier. Now this is both significant in the fact that she gave him a gift *squeal* but also because we know from earlier that the princess doesn’t really care about those feminine virtues like knowing how to play the zither so her also making Zi You something, SIGNIFICANT! 

Ok, for the short time that she’s been around, I really like her. She’s not like other foreign princesses interjected into the drama to cause trouble for our leads and their romance.  Sure her presence there helped solve the trouble that Su Ci’s gender reveal caused but she has her own little story and romance with Fu Zi You going on. I really wish she had proper interactions with Su Ci and Dong Ru Shuang on screen because these girls would have been awesome working together. English sub episodes on Youtube haven’t caught up to the episodes she’s introduced yet, but she needs to be named! so I’m just going to refer to her Viet translation name. 

Ok back to this scene, not only does she gave him a parting gift, but she’s so mature about love and her feelings too even though before, we see Princess Vân Xuyên as kind of a naive person.  She’s like “Yes, I like you, but whether or not you like me back is my problem not yours. I’m not going to force you to return my feelings.  My gift to you doesn’t have to be romantic; it can just be a parting gift between friends. I might only like you for the rest of my life or I might learn to like to someone else in the future, who knows.”  And with a final “I hope we will meet again,” Princess Vân Xuyên walks out of this story for now.  But come on, Zi You! I know you’re still holding on to your feeling for your late love, but you also clearly have some affection for Vân Xuyên as well!  Ugh, I really hope their story will be revisited later because I’m rooting for a happy life for them.

Now that there’s no engagement and threat of exposure hanging over either of their heads, Pei Zhao and Su Ci can be as affectionate and open (to a degree) of their relationship as they want! Kisses after being trapped under a bookshelf while investigating who was behind that corrupted official that tried to poison Vân Xuyên!  (But like, seriously how does Pei Zhao not realize that his uncle is the one who has been plotting against him!)

Also in this episode, Su Ci finally was able to see the case concerning the murder of her clan and “evidence” of her dad plotting treason, but she’s like “that not exactly how my dad’s handwriting looks like.” Dun dun dun, trouble in the future for our romance and our characters when it’s revealed that Su Ci might have links to “traitors” whose deaths Pei Zhao might be involved in since it was during the time while he was on the battlefield?  But dude, we just put one problem behind us so like maybe at least one more soft episode of calm before trouble again, please?

[purplesurveys]

879

All About the Letter Z

Animals I Like: Zebras. Foods I Like: Nothing comes to mind. I Know Someone Who’s (jobs): Nothing for this one either. I Wouldn’t Mind Visiting: Zagreb, in Croatia. Sometimes I Feel: Zestful.  Music I Listen To: Zayn Malik, Zara Larsson. Movies I’ve Seen: Zathura, Zombieland. Names I Like: Zoe, Zara, Zachary. At this point Z doesn’t even look like a letter anymore lol

And now, onto the random questions! 1. When did you first learn how to do zippers correctly? I knew how to move them up or down probably when I started going to school; but I didn’t know you can attach and detach zippers until like the first or second grade. 2. What is something that you have zero of? Working vape pens. I ran out of juice all the way in March. I’m not happy about it. 3. How many different zoos have you been to? Two. The first one was in Subic, which I liked. With the second one I went to, I just felt bad the whole time...I was iffy about going but since it was a family vacation I couldn’t say no. It was super hot, some of the animals looked lethargic and I didn’t know if their living conditions were acceptable. It’s gonna take a lot for me to be dragged to a zoo again, and I’d rather it be in a country that takes their animals more seriously, like Australia. 4. Would you ever want to be a zookeeper or a zoologist? It’d be interesting to be a zoologist. I have mixed feelings about wanting to be a zookeeper. 5. Do you like zucchini? How do you like it prepared? I’ve only had them in ratatouille, and they aren’t bad. 6. Do you think zinnias are pretty? Had to look them up because I’ve never heard of it before and oh my gosh they’re so pretty. Instant favorite right away. They’re as pretty as peonies, my actual favorite. :) 7. Have you ever reached the zenith of a mountain? I haven’t but mountain climbing is very high up on my bucket list. 8. Would you ever like to try to learn to play a zither? I’d love to see it being played, but knowing my lack of any musical ability whatsoever I’ll have to pass on the lessons haha. 9. What do you think of zebras? They’re adorable. Though I did see this zebra video that went viral - there were two rival zebras, and Zebra 1 had Zebra 2′s baby zebra’s head dunked in the water to threaten Zebra 2. It was wild lol. 10. When you’re drunk, do you walk in a zigzag pattern, or are you pretty stable? Well it obviously depends how much I’ve had. I’m almost always pretty stable because I often have to drive home later in the evening. I only allow myself to reach walking-in-a-zigzag-pattern levels if I’m already at someone’s home to stay the night, surrounded by people I trust. 11. Have you ever seen a zeppelin before? I don’t think so. 12. Zorse or Zonkey? No preference. 13. Zorillas or Zebus? Haven’t heard of either but I’ll go with zebu. 14. Have you ever been zapped (shocked) before? Yeah. When I was 11 I plugged in my radio even though I knew my dog (then a puppy) gnawed on the cord; I guess I just wanted to see what would happen. I ended up getting shocked for five seconds, unable to take my hand off, and it hurt to use my right hand for a week. 15. Do you have pizzazz? I’d say others have more of it than I do. I doubt people look at me and think pizzazz. 16. Do you like pizza? LOVE IT 17. Do you listen to jazz music? Yes but I prefer instrumental jazz music. I usually find myself skipping songs that have words. 18. Could you be described as having “zeal”? I guess, for certain things I’m particularly passionate about. 19. Do you ever want to drive a zamboni on the ice? Yes. I always thought it looked so cool. 20. Do you zoom to get from place to place, or are you slow-moving? I’ve been told I zoom. I hate having time wasted. [a-zebra-is-a-striped-horse]

[forkanna]

[AO3 LINK]

NOTE: Apologies for how caustic Kim is at the beginning of this bit haha. Also, rest in peace, Chester Bennington.

You'll probably think I'm being a super lazy storyteller when I start out with "And that's how it went for a week or so." Fuck you, I do what I want. Besides, I'm going to give you some summary stuff, so don't get too bent out of shape.

And that's how it went for a week or so. Knives would disappear for a couple days, then pop back into my life to just chat and hang out, come with me to the library or work, digging through albums at Sonic Boom. Literally a stray dog. None of my attempts to be acerbic and grumpy could drive her off. Sometimes she wanted to get food together, sometimes she wouldn't bring it up. Eventually, she stopped asking about the "challenges" though, which was fine since there weren't any. One thing I had to wonder about, though…

She never invited herself back to my apartment, or asked me to go to her place. Probably the second one is because she's living with her parents while on break from uni. But it was weird; she was spending all this extra time finding me and following me, wanting to have enforced bonding time, but never wanted to see where I lived or make the night longer. It's not so much that I was disappointed by that, of course. Just surprised. Like people who jumbo-size their fast food meal, then order a diet soda. Why go for broke with the eats but then stop short on the drink? Just not logic that I can follow.

Anyway, that was about it until the night Steph and I were going to play an actual show instead of being stuck in the corner of a café. I hadn't been thinking too much about it, because to be honest, the idea of playing this kind of music in front of an audience that actually came specifically to hear live music was terrifying. It took all night for me to psych myself up to not chicken out, since this wasn't exactly my comfort zone with live performance.

"We can do this," she was whispering backstage as we waited anxiously for the emcee to call for us. "We can. We totally can, and we totally will."

"You're going to talk both of us out of it at this rate."

"Shhh." Adjusting her ironic beret, she glanced over at me. "Almost showtime, that guy with the six harmonicas seems close to done."

Nodding, I pushed my coppery bangs out of my face. They were growing out, and finally just long enough that they were almost normal hair. I was just sick of bangs. "Yeah."

"You okay?"

My entire body bristled. "What? Fine. Shut up."

"You've been kind of weird since last week at the Other Cup. Like… we don't talk much outside of band prac-"

"I really don't want to, either," I lied. Sure, it'd be nice to have someone besides the hyper ninja chick to talk to, but Steph didn't have to offer friendship out of pity. We were both above that.

"Suit yourself. Oh, this is us."

Shaking off the vague feeling of nausea, I made myself follow her out onto the tiny stage. The announcer just said our names and encouraged the audience to "give it up", which they did, politely and quietly. We didn't have a band name yet since Steph said she was "over labels" and I didn't want to argue with her. Naming it would be accepting that this was actually the shitty excuse for a band that I was currently part of. The latest of many.

"This one's called 'Garland of Cornelia'," she said into the mic. "And it goes a little something like this."

What a cheeseball.

We played our set, and people actually didn't boo us off. We sounded as good as we possibly could given the kind of crap Steph writes, and dare I say it, we might have been ready for the big time if we could find a flautist. Or a thereminist; that seemed about right for this pretentious bullshit. It made my skin crawl and I really wanted someone else to be playing the bongos instead of me, since really she could play bongos as well as I can — just not at the same time as the zither. But I could fill in with her for now until she found someone who hated the music less than me. Or until I found another rock outfit that wouldn't implode like the others.

Part of the gig was that we got free drinks after our set, so after more polite applause I literally only took enough time to shove my bongos into the bag before heading straight for the bar. "Steam Whistle."

"Can I see some ID?"

"Cute." But the bartender just stared me straight in the face, and he didn't look like the type to mess around. Shrugging, I got it out and showed him, and he got me a beer.

I'd barely had enough time to get two sips in before I spotted Knives at the corner of the bar, far away and close to the door. She wasn't with anybody, and she wasn't looking at me either when I first spotted her. Maybe it was a wild coincidence.

Or maybe the way she did catch me looking at her, gulped, and sprinted for the door meant that it wasn't anything close to a coincidence.

Of course I ran after her. When somebody runs away, it's only natural to want to chase them down and figure out why, isn't it? But when I got outside, she was nowhere to be seen. I thought about trying to follow, asking if anyone saw a speeding Chinese puppy-girl and which way she went, but everybody on that street was either wasted or sleeping it off in doorways. No sense in wasting my time. Disgusted, I turned and went back inside.

What did she want from me? Why didn't she wait? The whole thing was so ridiculously confusing that I focused on downing as much beer as possible for a minute or two.

"What did I miss?" Steph asked when she caught up to me, picking up on my bad mood before she even sat down.

"Life is stupid."

"We weren't that bad. They actually clapped a little. Some of them, anyway."

"Not that. Just… nevermind, I should probably go home."

Her elbow bumped mine on the bar. "Don't be like that. I actually don't hate you, even if the feeling isn't mutual."

"Maybe it should be mutual. Hatred, I mean; just… whatever." My head slumped forward until it connected with the bar. "I'm trying not to care about something that doesn't deserve to be cared about in the first place."

"What's that?"

Another sigh. "The girl from Delicious Cup."

"Oh. You and her are a thing?"

"WHAT? No. Don't jump to conclusions." My hands gently spun the empty pint glass. "She made this proclamation that she's my 'bff' now, I guess. Even though I don't care. Anyway… she was here tonight."

"She came to hear us? That's pretty decent of her."

"No, it's weird. I never told her about this show. How did she know to come see us?"

When I peeked at Steph, I saw one of her eyebrows was raised as she ordered us two more beers. "Uhh, could be the marquee out front that said 'Steph Nordegraf and Kim Pine'? Just a tiny clue."

"Those letters are so tiny, though. Unless she's walking around with a microscope in her bag…"

"Look." The beers arrived, and we both paused to take a swig before she continued, "She clearly looks up to you. Younger girl, right? She needs a role model or something like that. Happens all the time, teenagers latch onto women who are still young enough to be 'friends' but not old enough to be a second mother, and kinda… you know, that word for imitation being the sincerest form of flattery, that thing?"

"Emulate," I guessed.

"Yeah, that's it. Probably all there is to it. Kind of a feather in your cap, if she wants to be like you even with you being the way you are. Don't worry about everything so much."

"And what way am I, exactly?" The point had been to put her on the defensive and shut her down, but of course, it didn't work because nobody takes me seriously anymore. She didn't even hesitate to answer before taking another drink.

"An asshole."

"Thanks."

                                              ~ o ~

"Hey!" Knives said cheerfully as she bounced into No-Account the next day.

"What were you doing at Cameron last night?"

She literally froze in mid-high five. Which I hadn't raised my hand to return, anyway; I wanted answers before we moved along to pleasantries. "Uh… what?"

"You were there. I saw you run out."

"Nahhhhh," she drawled out, very slowly thawing from her frozen pose and tucking her non-high-fived hand behind her back with its twin. "That was the other girl."

"What other girl?"

"I don't know? Not me, that's for sure. Why would I be at Cameron House?"

"Because you're stalking me. We kind of already established that part."

Wilting, she finally leaned against the counter and gave me the puppy-dog eyes. "Am not. Well… not that bad, I don't spy through your bedroom window or anything at night. Just wanna see what you do with your days."

"You could have asked to come along."

"How? You didn't tell me you were playing."

The slight pout won me over, and I sighed. "Fine. Just forget it."

"You guys were good, though! Weird, but good. What do you call that kind of music?"

"Trainwreck."

"Trainwreck, huh?" she asked, again missing that I was being facetious. "It's kinda like, soothing, except for Steph's lyrics are brutal in that Nineties lesbian way."

My eyebrows twitched upward a little. "What do you know about Nineties lesbians?"

"N-nothing, except for Ellen," she laughed nervously. "But the music, I mean… I've been trying to learn about music more. Started because of Sex Bob-omb, but then I kinda started branching out from there."

Rolling my eyes, I grunted, "Nobody should start learning anything because of Sex Bob-omb. Those two demos floating around online are going to forever haunt me."

"They were good! You guys rocked, you just… drifted apart."

Knives looked sad. Like, genuinely sad that everything changed, the way high schoolers usually do right after graduation, or — gee, look at that — after their first year of college. Pathetic and dejected, her sweet little face the picture of a child who had lost their favourite toy and finally figured out it wasn't coming back. Maybe that's why I reached up to lay a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey… we sucked. Not worth getting upset over."

"But you didn't suck. I liked it…"

"You just admitted you didn't know much about music before hearing us. Like… angsty young Kim was listening to Linkin Park constantly in junior high, and now I think they're shit. But that nostalgia factor makes me stop myself from completely hating them. You know?"

"Awww," Knives cooed, momentarily distracted. "Angsty young Kim…"

"Shut up. But you get what I'm saying?"

"Yeah." Her hand came up to wipe her eyes. Had she been crying?! I hadn't noticed because no actual tears fell, and she was looking down and pouting. But now when she looked upward with a slight smile, patting my hand, I could see how shiny her eyes were. "Thanks, I guess. Still liked you guys together, though, but… I guess…"

Swallowing hard, I jerked my hand away. The whole 'emoting' thing made me very uncomfortable. But then I winced when I saw her wince. We both ended up doing a lot of wincing lately. I had to smooth that over somehow.

"Um… you can pick the next movie. Got just enough time for it before my shift is up."

Clearing her throat, she grinned up at me, and the signs that she had been crying were way too clear to ignore. It hurt for some stupid reason. "Cool. But I know even less about movies than about music, so… I dunno. That zombie movie?"

"It's not even real," I sighed, looking over at the new releases. Which were still from forever ago.

"Oh? Well then… 'Action Doctor'?"

"Sounds lame. What about 'It Came From Subspace'?"

"That could be cool… what's it about?"

"Hell if I know. But it's a movie, and I haven't seen it yet, either."

That was what we watched. And the whole time, I found myself looking over at Knives and trying to figure out why she was there. Why she cared so much about whether or not I cared the same amount as her about the implosion of the Bob-omb. Why I cared whether or not she cared. Just this annoying circle of caring that made me want to pull my hair out.

About halfway through, she caught me staring. "What?"

"Just… wondered if you wanted a drink." It was the only excuse I could think of.

"Nah. I'm good. Do you?"

"Nah."

"Do you want something else?"

Even though I felt like I might, like to ask her again why she felt it was so important to watch me and Steph play, or any of those caring-related questions that had been spinning through my head, all I did was shrug. That was simpler. Safer. Less threatening to my grumpy way of life.

But definitely not 'better'. And it was getting harder and harder not to admit that.

                                               To Be Continued…

[snsmissionaries]

2/6/19 -- Sister Nicole Ritman, Spain, Madrid Mission

The Story of Sany/I'm Officially a Cultured Citizen

Subject Line: This email will have two parts! The first is the story of our amiga Sany, who got baptized last Sunday, shared with permission. The second is just about my week.

 The Story of Sany

 Right about when I got to Málaga, we got a text from one of the members saying she had a friend we could go visit. She'd been going through some rough times, and so a few weeks back their other friend gave her a Libro de Mormón and just said "Sany, you mean a lot to me and I know you are going through a hard time. I'm giving this to you because this is what brings me comfort when I'm not feeling good and so I wanted to share it with you because you know I'd do anything to make you feel better and this is something that's important to me. You don't have to read it if you don't want, but I know it can help you." Sany started reading and once she told them she liked it, they invited us to teach her more. I don't know if you all remember, but like a month back I said that we had a first lesson with someone and I'd never seen someone change so much in just one lesson? Well that was Sany! Everytime we taught her, she was so committed to really studying and learning. She applied what she was learning to what she already knew and what she found the guide to the scriptures even though we hadn't showed her yet and looked it up there. She did the 21 day challenge of the Libro de Mormón diligently and really followed the commitments we extended. I don't think we ever had to extend a commitment twice and some she was already doing before we could extend (like starting on Ven Seguime as soon as she finished the 21 day desafío). 

A miracle that happened with Sany was that she lives here and has two daughters living in the Dominican Republic. Well one day Sany told us "I just found out that the church my daughter goes to is the same one! I didn't remember the name but she told me she told me three years back when her boyfriend introduced her to the church and got baptized. She's going on a mission in a few months and is getting ready to go to the temple." Well we were speechless. I'm not making it sound as surprising as it was, but seriously the member we had in the cita and both if us were like" what??!". It's so crazy how they found the church independent of another and gained their own testimonies and now are working to go to the temple together. I wish the missionaries that baptized her daughter would know this extension of the story! 

What I was most impressed with was that most people who work as internas (live-in caretakers for a senior) don't come to church because they work. Well Sany took her work to church. (I'm sure not everyone could but this was her solution). She would get up super early to get both the Señora and herself ready and would carry the wheelchair down the flights of stairs and push her all the way up the giant hill. We'd help her and the Señora loved going out for a stroll, yelling "venga, vamos, rápido! Rápido!" No quiero llegar tarde!" until I was practically running. Going down the hill is almost harder because you have to pull it from not speeding down into traffic. Good times jaja. The day of the baptism, she got permission to get off a few hours earlier to go to church and drop off the Señora. She was so excited! But then this Sunday she got super sick. :/ Good thing we had the baptism last week. 

 I'm Officially a Cultured Citizen 

 So I'll start this part of with a sad story. Three days after the baptism, we got a text saying the man who had baptized Sany had passed away. We hardly believed it, but we asked the Elders and the pres de Sociedad de Socorro and the Elders confirmed the text was talking about him. 

We actually were on our way to a cita with Sany so we gave her the sad news and she was so sad because she was so grateful to him for being a part of her step on the convenant path. We had a good discussion about life and death and the plan of salvation and I was feeling pretty reflective and pensive. 

Then, we leave the cita and see that the pres texted us. And guess what--it's turns out that he's not actually dead! He's not dead its his brother in law! Still sad for his family, but man alive we were so embarrassed. What a big fat fail. Probably the biggest one I'll ever have on the mission. I reread the original text and totally not our fault--it was written in a way that didn't clarify who they were talking about. But literally it was so crazy because lemme tell you it's a weird feeling to find out someone passed but it's a weirder feeling to find out that PSYCH they haven't. Like a TV show in real life except the jokes on you because you have to text the mission office and say "nevermind- we don't actually have to know what happens when we need a signature on the baptismal record of someone who's dead." I'm sure they think we're crazy jaja. And then when we texted Sany all she said was "ahhhh- vale." Luckily she hadn't brought it up since. I'm also glad we found out before Sunday when he would've walked into church alive and all three of us faint of shock. 

 So I chose the header because I felt like it has been a very *cultural* week! Yesterday, we went over for almuerzo with a Tibetan Man and his Moroccan wife and had cous-cous. Literally one of the best things that's ever entered my mouth! Basically you boil a bunch of tasty vegetables and pumpkin and halal beef and spices like cinnamon in a pot for an hour, and then pour it over a giant thing of cous-cous (tiny ball-shaped grain) and pour the broth, gravy all over. We were so close to finishing but we had a slice of pumpkin and some cabbage left. They gave us plates to help us eat the meat, but they wouldn't let us portion it out. We all used our spoons and ate from the same giant platter. They also wouldn't let us drink cold water until after the hot food because I guess mixing cold and hot is bad for your stomach. I suppose that's why they traditionally drink tea at meals, but since we politely refused the tea 50 times no lie (the wife didn't understand until I said it wasn't halal for us jaja and even after the husband would sip his tea and say "oh how delicious! Oh how healthy! Made with 5 herbs!" and made us smell it because we wouldn't sip it lol), we had mint infusion, which is just a fresh mint sprig with hot water poured on top and a little spoon of sugar. It was so good we bought fresh mint today to make it again! Maybe it won't be the same because we don't have the fancy Arab teapot they used to heat the water jk. Definitely an eating cita I'll never forget. 

 Then for Pday today I felt extra cultural because we went to the interactive music museum and saw instruments from all over the world! We stayed in the room with the piano, guitars and cello the longest and all played songs together. (OK in reality I tinkered a tune  while Hermana Zito played the cello. It's her major at BYU and it was worth my museum entry fee to hear her play lol We would all request songs and if she had the tune in her head she could just play it). I also loved the rooms where you jam out to crazy world instruments like the zither, the nose flute, double-guitars and even an ancient harp thing made from a human skull. (you pressed buttons to hear sounds of the instruments you weren't allowed to play). There was also a gladd floor with a medieval wall they uncovered and put a museum time capsule for 2033. I'll be back when they open that! 

 After we went to an Italian restaurant because H Mecca said it looked close to authentic. She ordered in Italian and chatted with the waiter and told us what to order. I felt a little less fake with her lol. We got gnocchi and margherita pizza and the other Hermanas got pasta carbonara which I tried and was probably the best. She gave it a 9/10 for authenticity so I figured that's as close as I'll get until I go visit her in Italy. 

 Then as we were walking back some guy stopped me (somehow he didn't notice the other Hermanas-just me) and in English (was Spanish but was determined to use only English) said "are you from the Mormon church? I love that church! I studied with the boys in Granada. I want to learn again." Hope he's cool and not creepy so I'll keep you updated if he ends up being cool! 

 Also something special about today is a finally debuted my pants! Hermana Mecca did too. Some pics mine don't look too flattering but they're not that bad in real life I promise. I didn't realize how cold my legs were all the time until I wore my pants! 

 Sometimes it's frustrating when you think of everything you should be doing as a missionary that you're not or you try to do but noon shows up (cough cough people who told us they would come to the capacitación H Mecca and I planned and didn't) but the mission is about learning to deal with daily disappointment and trying to find the little adventures. Like when we found a gorgeous historic Barrio in the foothills and the wind was blowing too much for wearing a skirt and it was too confusing to find a single address we wanted to pass by, but it was so gorgeous and so Spanish we weren't even mad jaja. And tip: if you ever accidentally offend a member, they will be appeased with brownies. I'm telling you brownies are the secret here! Convinced!!! 

 Os quiero, 

 Hermana Ritman 

 Contact Information

email: nicole.ritman@myldsmail.net

 Sister Nicole Ritman

Madrid Spain Mission

Avenida de Tenerife, 11

28703 San Sebastian de los Reyes

Madrid, Espana

 Malaga Week 8

https://photos.app.goo.gl/ULpL71c36qcwtFw28