A Moment of Silence

Hello hello my family.  It´s always good to hear from and write you all :)

This week has been alright.  My new companion is a little...headstrong, we´ll say haha.  He´s an EXTREMELY hard worker when we´re out of the house, and he knows how to work with the members.  But he is far from obedient, and a bit obnoxious haha.  He complains about everything, oh my goodness.  It´s his way or the highway, and if he doesn´t get it, he gets ticked.  But oh well.  I´m sure we´ll be fine, I get along with just about everybody.  And if it ends up that we don´t get along very well, as long as we work hard and have success than I´m happy with that.  I feel kind of bad for him though.  His mom isn´t really active and neither are his brothers, and his dad isn´t a member.  He never gets letters from his family either.  When he does internet, he writes his brother and President Callan and that´s it.  Poor guy.  I would ask you guys to write him so he has some letters, but nobody knows Spanish to be able to write him haha.  But he´ll be alright, he´s been out for a long time and he´s used to it.  Just keep him in your prayers.

This week, I had kind of a neat experience.  We went with our ward mission leader (Hermano Chaparro) to teach a guy named Alejandro Diaz.  He is a 24 year old guy, real sharp, and knows a lot about the Bible.  We

I Got My Trunkie Papers!! (Going Home Papers)

Lizzy Soulfriend!  I got your Dear Elder, thank you!  I haven´t written because I lost your Georgia address, I´m sorry!  But now that I have it from the Dear Elder, I´m writing you today without exception :)

This week was changes, and Elder Caicedo left already!  The same thing has happened to me that has happened to Elder Pierce.  The only time I´ve been with one companion for more than a change and a half was with my trainer for 2 and a half changes.  I don´t know if it´s a good thing or a bad thing haha, but I´ve convinced myself that it´s good :).  Elder Caicedo went to Yuty (basically way way far away), and I´m still here in Obrero.  My 4th change here, but I don´t mind.  I like it now, and I know that it is the Lord´s plan.  Helps me to know that if he kept me here, it´s because there´s somebody to baptize :)

My new companion is Elder Perales.  He´s from Peru, and a really good worker.  Kinda goofy, but he works incredibly efficiently.  I think we´re going to do a lot of work; he´s already got a lot of baptisms.  He has 1 year 4 months in the mission.  It is really weird to work with somebody who knows what they´re doing haha.  Of my last 5 companions, 4 have been my trainees and the other - Elder Avendaño - was relatively new (6 months in

Eternal Life is Earned, Not Deserved

Hello my family,

Ouch, this week was tough.  There are only 2 things in this country that can stop the people from playing soccer: rain and politics.  This week we had a both.  The temperature is FINALLY starting to go down after an incredibly hot and humid summer season.  We got up to about 112 degrees and like...150% humidity.  It´s alright though, I was much more used to it this year, so I dealt with it much better.  We had some rain here last week, and yesterday we had local elections.  NOBODY was home, and those that were didn´t want to hear us that day.  We visited the leaders and the less-active members.  Turned out pretty well.  We made some plans with the second councelor in the branch presidency.  He is a 24-year-old return missionary and a really smart guy.  Kind of a class-clown, but he knows how to run a branch really well.  We´ll see what happens next week.

This week, I´ll finish on the Atonement.  I´ll start now so I have time.

March From Babylon into Zion

Hello family :)

This week was pretty normal.  We have 2 good families that we´re working with.  One couple is Nelson and Blanca.  We´ve been teaching them for a while, but they´ve just recently started to progress.  Whew!  The other is one that we just found last week.  They are Ramón and Marta.  He is just excellent, already progressing.  She is a bit slower to progress, but she is very nice and there is great potential there.  She studied with the Jehova´s Witnesses (does Jehova have an "h" on the end?  In spanish, it doesn´t.  I´ve forgotten haha), so she has some other beliefs that we´re working on.  But I think it will turn out well.

A lot of things are changing in the mission.  Thankfully it´s all for the better.  With the recent visit from the area president, Elder Arnold, everybody is very motivated and excited about the work, and we´ve changed a few rules to make things run more smoothly and to have more success.  The vision for this mission is a bit overwhelming sometimes.  Elder Arnold said that a goal of 2 baptisms every month for every companionship is very low compared to what this mission can really do.  There is a silent monster of potential explosive