Monday, May 25, 2015

Thanks for the birthday wishes.  Yes mom, the package did arrive in time.  I got it on Wednesday and I am not going to lie, I didn't wait to open it, sorry!  But ya, a couple people here in the sector knew that it was my birthday!!  A couple people cooked food for me and some had cake!!  It was really nice, I didn't really expect them to do it because I am a new Elder in a sector so I was really grateful that they took the time to do that for me!  I was really full at the end of it all because everyone gave us food and it was hard to pack it all in!  A tradition here is to smash eggs on people's heads and throw flour on them on their birthday.  I was hoping it wasn't going to happen.  It did happen.  We taught a lesson and afterward they came out and smashed an egg on my head and threw flour on me, so it was interesting.  

 My companion is Elder Romero.  He is from Texas and he is part Mexican, part American, but he didn't speak Spanish before the mission so he is learning.  He has 4 months in the mission!  So he is my comp and my sector is Zarate.  It is really big.  My other areas have been really small but this one is huge!  I don't like being the new one in a sector because you don't know the streets or the houses so it is confusing.  But it is fun!  We have a lot of work to do because there aren't that many people to teach here!  So it is rough but we are going to find a lot of people!   

We are going to work hard this change and see miracles.  This sector is really calm compared to the last one.  There are parts where there is a lot of traffic but there is like nobody in the streets.  My last sector there were always a ton of people in the streets.  So it is a lot quieter here in this sector!   Life is good and things are going well.  I am 20 and I feel older.  

Also we had stake conference this past week and the temple president was there and gave one of the most powerful talks that I have ever heard.  It was incredible.   Love you all!  Have a great week.   

Monday, May 18, 2015

Helloooo family.  I am still here in Bellavista2.  But that is only because they call with the changes later tonight.  We are pretty sure that I am getting changed, it is kind of sad.  I don't really want to go.  

First of all, we are teaching a family and they are seriously so cool.  Family _____.  So they were a reference from Hermana Edith, (the mom of the missionaries here).  Edith asked the dad of the family if he wanted a blessing and he said yes because he recently had heart surgery.  We gave him a blessing and talked for  a while with them and then made another appointment with them.  In the next appointment with them they had read the pamphlet that we left and they explained everything perfectly.  And they said that everything made sense that the pamphlet says.  By the way they are really Catholic but so awesome.  Anyway, we had another lesson this past week and we talked about the Restoration, and their kids were there for this lesson too.  Their daughter is 19 and their son 13.  We talked about the Restoration and the spirit was so strong and they all were accepting of it.  We got through the lesson and invited them to be baptized and the dad started to tell a really long story and it ended with him saying that when he had 13 years, he made the decision to be baptized in our church.  He didn't keep going to our church because he didn't have anyone to go with and then he married his wife and kept going to the Catholic church.  He doesn't remember much about our church and so it is all basically new.  But the lesson ended really good and the spirit was undeniable.  We had another lesson with them and it was all question and answer.  They had so many questions and we spent the whole time answering them but it was another really good lesson and they are learning more and they are reading the Book of Mormon.  They are progressing and it is so awesome to see.

One thing on the mission that I have learned is that the number of lessons that we have at the end of the day doesn't really matter.  It doesn't always show everything we did during the day.  We had a day this week that was really tiring but really good.  At the end of the day we had only taught 2 lessons but it was a good day.  In the afternoon we had SERVICE - two service projects.  1, was for _____, she was moving, close by but didn't have a truck or car to put the stuff in.  So we had a little cart hooked up to a bike that had pedals that didn't work that we would push with the things in it.  Her husband was working so he couldn't help and they had to get everything out that day.  So we would make trips back and forth and back and forth and back and forth.  Until finally we got everything put in the new house.  One fun thing was that the cart we had, the pedals didn't work but to go back to the house, the main road has a little downhill slant.  so one person would hop on and the others would push them and so that was fun.  We had to wait for a red light because it was against the traffic but it is legal here so it's ok.  haha but ya, we helped ____ then we had to go to another house and do another service project.  So that took almost the whole day then we had a couple hours to teach.  But anyway, During the day when we were taking things back and forth I decided to pay attention a little bit.  The whole time there were so many people watching us.  And it was a good thing because we were helping somebody.  It seems like so many people here know who we are, we walk by and they always shout Elder!  And when we are doing good, the people are going to see that so we should always strive to do what is right and people will see our example.  So in the mission the numbers don't always reflect how much good you did in one day.  

The third thing that I want to say is something that hasn't even happened yet.  Today, we are cutting our p day short because we are going to the hospital at 4.  At 4 o clock, thanks to the church, they are doing operación sonrisa!  Operation smile.  When the kids have the thing with their lips, I don't remember what is is called in English.  Cleft tooth?  Something like that, but anyway, today we are going to the hospital because they are doing free surgery for the kids and we are going to be with them before their surgery to play with them and help keep them calm.  So that is going to be fun and hopefully I have lots of pictures next week of the smiles that these kids have.  I am really excited for it.  

That is all for this week folks!  Hope you have a great week and that all goes well!!  I love you all.  I might be writing from a new sector next week!  Chauuuuuuuu

                                                                MORE PICTURES BELOW ENTRIES.

Monday, May 4, 2015

Hello family this week was great just like the last week.  The time is still flying by and it is insane.  The first highlight from this week.  TEMPLE.  We went to the temple on thursday with Luis!  There were other converts there too but it was the first time for Luis.  It was really awesome.  Luis was super worried about the water and how his head was going to be and all that.  But we went in the temple and there was (as always) a peace inside that is so special.  Literally words can't describe what we can feel inside the temple.  The temple president talked to our ward before we did the baptisms and he said that the veil in the temple is very thin and sometimes it doesn't exist.  After that we did the baptisms and afterward we were talking to Luis and he looked happy.  We were talking to him and he thought he was only going to get baptized for 1 person but he did 4 and he said that he was fine and his head didn't hurt him at all.  It is so good to see that he is progressing so much.  

The next highlight from this week was on Saturday.  So this week in our district meeting we had talked about being persistent and we all agreed to be more persistent and just go straight into testifying instead of accepting no for an answer.  Anyways, there wasn't really a differenece in the first part but on Saturday we understood what being persistent really means.  First of all, we were going  to the house of a lady that just got reactivated and she wasn't there but her son answered who is like 45 and told us to come back in an hour.  We came back in an hour and she wasn't there.  After about 20 seconds of walking away we both looked at each other and said why did we not talk with him??  So, FOR THE THIRD TIME we rang his doorbell.  He came out and accepted us and we ended up putting a baptismal date with him for the 6 of June.  

Second, after that we went to a house of this 80 year old lady who had listened to the missionaries before when I first got here.  We went and she said she was busy so we said just for 10 minutes and she again replied no.  Then we said how about just a prayer in your house?  So she went inside to ask around and then she came out and said another time and again we said that the prayer would help her and she said ok, come in.  Then we started to teach a little and at the end of it all we put a date with her also for the 6 of June for baptism. 

Then after that we went to search for a new investigator that we have and he wasn't there but his older sister answered the door and she said no one was there so then we contacted her.  She said that she was really busy at that moment but we kept on persisting and she finally said ok, ya, come in.  So we entered and it turned out that she wasn't doing anything but anyways we started to teach her.  She was probably paying more attention than any other investigator that I have ever had in the mission.  She was able to answer all the questions we gave her and at the end she didn't accept baptism yet but we got invited back for another time.  So all in all we got 3 new investigators from being persistent.  Before this I don't think I really understood what persistent meant but now I do.  It is really easier than it seems to go into a house to teach.  We were able to do great things on Saturday just from going one step farther. 

Also we had another lesson last night in which we were teaching about family history.  We have a convert Yolanda who has gone to the temple but hasn't taken names because her grandpa doesn't want her to be baptized for his parents so we were talking to her grandpa last night to try and get the names.  In the end we didn't get the names quite yet but we were able to soften his point of view a little bit.  And something that I really recognized in this moment was that we are actually in the church of Jesus Christ.  I already new it but this lesson just confirmed it.  Being able to teach him and respond to his questions with scriptures from the Bible (because he doesn't believe in the Book of Mormon) just reassured my testimony.  We are literally in the same church that Christ established in his time.  

This was a great week.  I hope you all have a wonderful week this week and that you have success in everything you do.  Love you all.  Oh and we have a baptism this Saturday if all goes as planned so that will be fun!  Love you all!!