Prayer and Practice

Another week down.  And thank goodness that this week it was a rockin´ one.

First, on Wednesday we had interviews with President Callan.  Those always motivate me and help me to focus myself.  That man is such an inspired person, it blows my mind.  The Spirit just radiates from him.  When he talks, you feel it just hit you in the heart.  But in a good way haha.  That animated me a lot.  Kind of sad to think that I´ll only have 1 or 2 more interviews with him.  And then he renewed my temple recommend.  It is reeeally weird to think that 2 years ago I got my temple recommend.  It definately doesn´t seem that long ago.  Don´t know when our next temple trip will be, but I hope to be using that new recommend soon!  I have a royal ancestor that is waiting patiently for me to perform these ordinances on his behalf that he can´t do himself.  That will be a really special moment for me, and I´m excited for it.  One of the strongest parts of my testimony is the temple.

Then with General Conference this passed weekend, how could it not be a rockin´ week?  Every single time, I think "No way this Conference will be better than the last one".  And it always is.  It was really cool too,

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

Mail Me A Birthday Gift - The Bigger The Better

Well if you ask me, this will be the best letter any of you ever get from me, because it was received on the world´s best and most important international holiday - MY BIRTHDAY!

But that´s just my opinion :)

Thank you all for the birthday wishes (Kitty Kat, I did get yours, but I can´t write back because I can only write family through the internet, but thank you! :D).  It makes me feel at home.  And it doesn´t hurt that like 6 members have offered to feed me and give me cake haha.  But we´re just going to visit the first member that asked me (to be fair in choosing) and just do a small something.  I actually don´t know what they´re going to be doing, but I told them that we´ll still be working today and that I didn´t want anything big.  So we´ll see what happens.  This is my last birthday that really matters haha.  Weird huh?  After 21, who cares how old you are?  There are no more milestones.  I mean, maybe if you hit 100, that´s an accomplishment (or maybe a punishment, depending on how you want to think about it), but other than that there are no fun birthdays anymore.  So I´ll try to enjoy this one and sleep as much as possible :)

Luz Gets Baptized

¡Hola mi familia y mis queridos amigazos!  Hace mucho que no les escribo más en español, y quisiera hacerlo hoy :).  ¡Disfruten el trabajo de traducir!  Quizás puedan llamar a Cristina para que traduzca esto.  Estoy muy bien aquí con mi nuevo compañero.  El es rre-bueno, tiene mucho ánimo y muchos deseos de servirle al Señor.  Estoy leyendo el Libro de Mormón en Guaraní.  Puedo entender la mayoría de lo que leo, pero me es muy difícil hablar todavía.  Esta semana voy a mandar por un libro que enseña Guaraní y estudiar eso hasta el final de mi misión.  6 meses es bastante para aprender mucho Guaraní.  Vamos a ver qué pasa.

Ok, that´s enough of Spanish.  You´ll have plenty of translating to do with that paragraph :).  First news is first: we had the baptism on Saturday!  I´ll attach pictures that Elder Beckett took from his camera.  That little girl is the sweetest little girl I´ve ever seen.  Her family is so incredible as well; I´ve really come to love them.  Her little sister Asir didn´t get baptized yet, but Luz told me that after the baptism Asir said "I wanted to get baptized with you." haha.  She regretted not doing it.  We´ll see if we can set something up for her in the next coming week.  She already has her interview, she could get baptized tomorrow if she wanted to.  Also, one of the friends of Luz´s family came to the baptism.  Her name is Chila.  She had talked with missionaries before, but