Love our Visa Waiters!

Elder Ward, Elder Pyne (waiting for a visa to Argentina) and Elder Bassett

Another week, and it's still a great day to be a missionary in the Utah Ogden Mission (that's our mission's motto). We are loving it with our brand new set of 11 visa waiters that showed up yesterday heading to Argentina. Visa waiters never really have gone to zone leaders, but as soon as we found out there were some coming in, we called the assistants and asked if we could have one, ha-ha. So…  Elder Pyne got here yesterday after six weeks in the MTC and is heading to Mendoza Argentina. He is from St. Louis and has been here about 24 hours. He is a really nice guy; we like him a lot. He is excited about missionary work and seems to get along really well in our companionship. He did Rosetta Stone before the mission, so he talks just about as much Spanish as I did when I got out. He did really well with his first contact yesterday, and of course, loves the perks of being a Utah missionary. We went to Sam’s Club today, and a lady walked up and handed us 20 dollars for lunch. That’s always a plus. We went to Olive Garden again last week with the assistants, and someone paid for us so that was a lot more breadsticks as well.

Something AWFUL happened in church on Sunday, though. I saw a lady that recognized me from my first area of the mission. She walked up to me and told me that I looked fat. I said what?! I haven't put on any weight, and she said it looked like I had put on a bunch. I was very offended despite everyone telling me that means I look healthy. This is the same lady that eight months ago told me that I looked like I was 14; so I wasn't exactly happy to see her again either. Then she went and bought us rancheritos and brought it to her house on Sunday, ha-ha. I don't think they quite understand the whole Sabbath-day-holy thing. We thought she planned on making the burritos herself when we called the night before to ask about dinner. 

More!

Elder Cabrera

So I'll tell you about Elder Cabrera now. He is Elder Martinez’s cousin. He was born in Guatemala and grew up in LA. His dad is living in San Francisco now, and that is where he has been for a long time. His dad is less active, and he hopes his mission will help his dad go back to church. His mom is in Guatemala and is on dialysis, and he may or may not see her again. It has been a couple years since he saw her last. He is 25 years old and said he is really the only kid to serve a mission in his ward. He wasn’t ever active in the church growing up. He said he kind of just went back and forth. He is the second most prideful person in the world (me being the first) which means we do butt heads a lot on stuff...the most amazing thing happened. He told me I need to be more serious! I never thought I would hear that from a companion, but he gets mad if I laugh while we are out proselyting. So I guess I will teach him what Elder Martinez did for me. I really couldn't have fun or joke around at all until Elder Martinez kind of changed me and showed me how to be obedient and enjoy your mission, too. I am not sure how Elder Martinez did it, but I will figure it out. 

He is a great teacher. He asks good questions and is very good at connecting with people. He sincerely cares about people and has a desire to help them better their lives. He is a really good missionary, and I am going to learn a lot from him and him from me. I just don't know how to teach him without doing it in a prideful way. Another thing is that he REALLY can't handle my sarcasm. I didn't even realize how much I joke around with Elder Martinez and Elder Shaw, but it really offends him. I just found that out last night, so I need to work on that. However, in comp inventory, he did say I need to smile more in the mornings when I wake up so I am still getting that feedback, ha-ha. 

BTW-Elder Martinez is a Utah Ogden version of Elder Endemano, Elder Hamilton, Elder Mackie etc...there aren't any other missionaries like him at all...there are some good ones..but not even CLOSE to Elder Martinez. I can't say the best missionary I have ever seen, because I have seen some great ones, but he is up there. It's one of those things that really just makes me wonder why he isn't one the missionaries leading us and the disobedient ones with big numbers of baptisms are the ones leading us. He is too humble to ever say that, but I notice it.

Look at those lips!

Pues, this week has felt pretty long actually. Having three different companions in one week is quite a change! People have asked me if I will be homesick about Emma...nah. I will be fine. Keep sending the pictures; I can take it. I was sad on p-day, but it didn’t last longer than that…. Sorry to the rest of the family; she and Jessica, I feel like, are the only ones in the family I ever pray for anymore. 

So I did end up getting those Costco pictures from Mom. It was kind of funny. We were at Costco shopping, and I knew they might be coming. Then our ride showed up at 3:00 so we had to leave. I went to the picture place, and they said they wouldn’t be ready until 3:30. So I had to leave without the pictures. We got home, and I was just going crazy and couldn’t take it. I called president to ask him permission to drive to Costco to get the pictures. He said, “I am at Costco right now! I will just get them for you!” So he picked them up, and it did cost money which was ok. I just paid him back. Then I went and picked them up in the office the next day and walked around showing them to all the office staff. Not an effective use of time, I guess, but I was excited. I carry a couple in my scriptures to show people when it comes up in conversation...with me, it pretty much does come up in every conversation. I'm sure it drives my companions crazy.

Utah is COLD!

Utah is COLD! We have been biking all week, sliding around all over the ice.

Elder Bozarth and Elder Shumway

OK, so quick summary of our companionships this week. We started the week with eight missionaries in the ward: five of them in our apartment, the other three-our zone leaders. Last week Elder Jones went home to get some health issues settled before going back out in six more months. Elder Shumway and Elder Bozarth (Spain visa waiters) were sent to Westpoint in the English work because of another missionary that went home. There were a couple other missionaries that went home early so this has been a crazy week. One of our zone leaders goes home after serving 26 months (there's only like two planes a year that travel to his home) back to Greenland. So just like that, we will only have four serving in Mount Lewis Alpha and Omega. Alpha and Sigma areas combined into just the Alpha area, and Elder Martinez and I are covering both (sigma and alpha).

Goodbye Idaho "Legends" zone!

This is my 12/12/12 at 12:12 picture...The smile is weak, because I had a high fever and just got done throwing up all morning in this picture, ha-ha...the stress of all those 12's was two much for me.

Goodbye Idaho "legends" zone! I will be transferred to Mount Lewis Alpha in North Ogden to be serving as the district leader. (Right next to my greenie area!) I will be serving with a couple, or maybe one, visa waiter starting tomorrow.  I am not even really sure which companion I will have: Elder Jones, Elder Shumway, or Elder Bozarth...probably the latter, but I don't know yet. They are all headed to Spain except for Elder Jones; he is going to Argentina with Elder Ireland.

So this has been a different week. We have all three of us had the flu all week! We had had it the week before that, and it wasn't too bad. I woke up early on Wednesday and was feeling awful and went to zone study with a fever. I figured that Elder Masima wouldn't let a little sickness stop him, so we tracted in the 20 degree snow that day while I had a fever. It turns out I am just not as tough as Elder Masima; by Saturday we were all throwing up and had fevers. I pretty much slept on the bathroom floor all day Saturday. I kept feeling guilty for taking the "day off," but I wasn't enjoying myself at least. I am a little better now. Unfortunately we missed a couple lessons that night, but overall, it just made it an unproductive week this week. Luckily we are recovering.

It can really snow in Idaho! So we found a cool guy this week. We asked if he served a mission, and he said, “No, I was called to be a stake president when I was 19!” It was in 1950, but still it was pretty cool. He had some good stories to tell. So one thing I will miss about Idaho is how much people love the missionaries here. We were standing there in the church on Sunday waiting for our ward mission leader and there were a group of probably 8 to 10 year old kids standing about 30 feet away from us in the hallway. As we listened we could hear them daring each other to go and shake our hand, but they were all too scared, ha-ha. Eventually the teacher was brave enough to take the lead, and they all took turns meeting us and shaking our hands. We also had someone anonymously pay for us at Tapatio, Subway, and Chinese this week! So that is pretty cool.

I have a new companion!!!

Elder Senn and I got a new companion! His name is Elder Ireland, and he is from Lincoln, CA. He is headed to Mendoza, Argentina which means he knows very well my friend from my MTC district as well as some of my uncles, friends in common in Lincoln, and even a couple people from Antelope. It is kind of cool to have that connection. He will probably be here for a while. Visa's take a while. He is a nice guy; I am happy to be with him. He has been a member a year, and he likes to sing. He wrestled all four years of high school. He has been dating a girl from Peru for four years who will graduate from BYU-Hawaii next year. He understands lots of Spanish, a little more than he speaks, but we will work with him and help him be as prepared as possible once his visa issue works out.  Go pay his parents a visit....neither of them are members of the LDS church, but his mom is taking the lessons!

So Ignacia...lots of news on her. I will start with district meeting. We talked about going back to basics: basic spirit sandwich, why we are there, and committing people to baptism. Our zone leaders told us they had prayed about a promise; they said if we updated our area books every night, we would each have a miracle baptism by the end of the transfer. We set three baptismal dates that day…well kind of. The first one was Ignacia. We had already been doing our area books everyday so the miracles came quick when we agreed to keep doing it. We taught a lesson to Igancia just about baptism and the answer to her prayer. She had kept her reading commitment and felt the Spirit testify of its truthfulness. She was convinced that’s exactly what it was. She used to live in Orem with her four kids. Her husband left her and her kids for another woman; this is pretty recent. She had very bad depression and wanted to leave her kids. In her head, she was convinced that leaving her kids would be better for them, because she just wasn't a good mom and didn't know what to do. So she left...and I don't know how far away...but at some point a voice told her to go back to her kids. The voice said that her kids wouldn't be better off without her, and that they needed her. Then the voice told her to move to Preston with her brother. That was about four weeks ago. She is getting baptized either this week or next.

Ok, so wipe those tears away, and I will tell you a little more about our other investigators.