A long, long week

Another week of traveling. This has been a long, long transfer. I have learned a lot and when I talked to President on Sunday, I told him I have grown more this transfer than any other one transfer of my mission. I have gained a lot of patience this transfer in ways I didn't even know I needed. At the beginning of my mission, my idea of a good missionary was one that rebuked every disobedient missionary he saw and always corrected others no matter what they thought of me. I did that for a little while and obviously it didn't work. I have no idea why I thought that was the right thing to do. My thought process was if I don't tell them I don't give them a chance to improve. My other thought was I should never lower my standards for someone else. I took that as meaning that I had to make every companion conform to my beliefs and way of thinking. This transfer I have learned that means my standards don't have to change just because I am being patient with a missionary that is learning. I have learned mainly this transfer that when missionaries are doing something wrong, they already know. I really don't ever need to tell a missionary that he isn't allowed to sleep in past 6:30, because they all already know that; they have heard it 1,000 times from their zone leaders and from the Spirit. The best thing for me to do, especially with a missionary for two days, is to develop a relationship and show them more love. I can have a better chance of helping them to repent later having had a good relationship with them rather than trying to force repentance now and ruining a relationship. It took a long, long time to learn that, but President Hiers and I sat in his office this Sunday laughing about it. He told me he knew it was always something I needed to learn, and that's why he had to be patient with me and do the same thing he was trying to teach me to do, that is be patient, develop a relationship with me, give me new experiences to learn on my own, lead by example, and just love me no matter what. He is a great mission president. I have never heard of anyone seeing him get mad, and I doubt that I ever will. I'm glad he taught me so many things in the past 18 months in a way I never thought would work. Now I am not saying I am very patient and passive or anything; now I have just improved a little bit and have a long way to go. The point I am making is that at least now I know what I am shooting for. I think it will help me a lot in the future with being a young men’s adviser for example, parent, things like that.

Things just keeping better!

Happy Birthday Elder Salazar!

 This has been a good week! They just keep getting better; even more lessons than the week before. We had Elder Salazar’s birthday this week. So there is a lady that lives here that tailors our clothes for free, and it was her birthday, too. SO we went over in the morning to sing her happy birthday and give her a cake as a zone. Then I drove straight to the other elders’ apartment, and they had a sign for Elder Salazar’s birthday and a cake, and they shoved his face in. Then we went to Olive Garden for lunch for his birthday. He had a great day and got a few packages from some friends (thank you!). Then that night we went for a lesson at the Salazar’s house, and they somehow knew it was his birthday and had bought him a cake and a new tie, so that was cool.

SO the Salazar’s: they didn't come to church this Sunday. We went over to their house last night for dinner since they have been dying to feed us. They made a huge meal and invited some member families over. It was getting late, so we had to leave before a spiritual thought. I don't know if we could have gotten them all to quiet down. But we taught them another lesson. They hadn't read in The Book of Mormon, so we read with them. They seem kind of interested. I mean, they say they are, but I'm not feeling a lot of real intent. I think they do it just to be classy, so they can tell their friends they are religious and study with the missionaries or something. We will see what happens.

...the happiest I have ever been.

So before I get started on my area, I can update everyone on Ana and Angel. Ana won't get baptized, and Angel had a baptism set up for this Sunday. Then on Sunday morning, his boss sent him to Arizona for four weeks, too bad. So much stress with that family. I found out Vanessa is moving to Vegas. I think it's probably so Liz can make more money working in clubs, so I think that means she isn't getting baptized anytime soon.

So missionaries do dumb things sometimes. We cleaned “The Sink” again this week. We went for lunch, because Elder Ward said he and his companion had cleaned it in 12 minutes. (It's like a gallon of ice cream, two bananas and a lot of toppings..maybe a little more but around there.) So I texted a few members our zone (building zone unity), and we cleaned it in 10 minutes. Elder Salazar is still new, so he can't eat very much, so I ate about 75% of the ice cream; you can all be proud of me that I learned how to be a gluttonous pig in the mission field. I don't think we ate sugar for two days afterwards. I just couldn't make myself do it.

We went to an 8-year-old baptism on Saturday. She turns nine years old in a month, so it was almost a convert baptism, ha-ha. Oh well; it was still good to go. She had asked me to confirm her, so I did that. Utah baptisms for kids are funny. They do it the first Sunday of every month. There were like 12 kids that had to get baptized. All the people filled the whole chapel, and they send us into the font room by ward. (They send the Spanish ward in first, because we are incapable of waiting reverently.) I realized more this week that I was sent to the Spanish program, so I can learn to chill out and not get so stressed and ocd about what others are doing. I kind of thought about it and was surprised when my heart rate wasn't even raised when we didn't have one single investigator show up until ten minutes after the meeting started.

Life is Great

Last week was great, it's not all about numbers but last week we had a ton of appointments, more than ever in a my mission and it just felt great. Things are moving well, and we are loving it. I guess this week I can just move on down the list of the people we are working with.

 

The temple this morning

The first would be Hernan Zavala. He got back, and the worst of all his work is over with so no more big trips that he knows of. If all goes well, he will get baptized this Sunday. He is kind of iffy about the time, but knows it's something that he needs to do. He went to church on Sunday, and in elders quorum, he was introducing himself again and someone called out asking when he was getting baptized. He laughed and said, “Probably next week if I can't convince these elders otherwise.” They all laughed, because that was them in his shoes within the last five years or so. He is great; he has read all of the Nephi books and is in Mosiah I think now.

The work is progressing; there's so much to do here.

So last p-day was pretty good. The three Cache Valley zones all ended up going to one park, and we played volleyball, football and ultimate Frisbee. Elder Ward was there, and he is doing very well in Idaho. They had four baptisms last week and have three this weekend and a lot more coming. He has so much work he doesn’t even have time to cover his zebra Spanish work which I would guess the Preston Branch is pretty unhappy about.

The next day we had our first district meeting, and it went fine. There are some young missionaries in my district, so it will be a lot of practicing and role-playing. I went on exchanges for the next two days. The first day, I went with Elder Coronado, and it went ok. We didn't teach at all, but we worked the whole time. The next day I went to Elder Mark in his area. We went to go tracting in the trailers. They have been telling me how their area isn't good enough since we started to find people in ours, and they want to trade and all this stuff. So I was determined to find some work for them in that 24 hours. The first door we knocked was an old man named Ramon. We taught him a lesson, and he accepted a baptismal date and volunteered to come to church. It was the most fun lesson of my whole mission except maybe Robin's law of chastity lesson. So Ramon is deaf; the only way he can hear is if you yell as loud as you can. So we taught him in the front yard the whole first lesson in ten minutes yelling at the top of our lungs. As we approached the first vision, I wondered if he would feel the Spirit since we were yelling and half laughing because he kept saying "what?!, what?! what?!". But we screamed the first vision too and he kind of jolted and said it gives him the chills. We connected it, invited him, and he will get baptized in three weeks. I had so much fun with him; I made sure to schedule their next appointment for the next morning so I could teach him again before we ended exchanges. We found him a fellowshipper and brought him to the lesson, so hopefully that should get them started on some work to do. I hope everything works out with Ramon.

We would appreciate the extra prayers for....

Ward Service Project

So I got to talk to my family on Sunday! I pretty much told them all the interesting details from the week so this may end up being a shorter email today.

This morning has been a very adventurous one. We had been ready to go help some missionaries move since last week. We helped our housing coordinator get the trailer all ready for about an hour this morning and went to go help the elder move. He texted us and decided he didn't want to waste his time moving and said, “Don't touch my stuff; I'm not moving.” So after talking to President, he got his way, and we had to push it off to another week when someone can convince him. SO, that was frustrating…learning patience one day at a time! Ha-ha

So this week we went to do service on Saturday. We got to this big park and were spreading these huge piles of bark across a dog park. (And there was a tractor right there across the street! I wanted to tell someone to go get the keys.) We were there for a couple hours before leaving. Then right after that, we had a soccer activity in 90 degree whether. We were very sunburned and very exhausted. That morning we had played ultimate Frisbee with the zone for exercise on top of that. We all have some very lovely farmers tans now.

We love Elder Pyne

So this week was great. We started off with a good district meeting last week. Then we went to costco for lunch. While we stood there, three different people walked up to the five of us standing there and gave us 50 dollars total. Life is good. So I got a package from Amy this week. It was awesome. She sent me a weighted jump-rope to do between sets so no more Mexican ladies will be calling me fat, ha-ha. A Men's Warehouse opened up next to Olive Garden, my two favorite places. I went to get my suits pressed last week, and I decided that’s where I want to work when I am going through college: men’s warehouse.

So, there are dust devils in Utah, as well! We were making a u-turn with all the windows down and one of them attacked us and covered us in dust. We just laughed for like five minutes; it was the weirdest thing. We spend a lot of time laughing. Elder Pyne is the best visa waiter ever! We get along with him really, really well. He isn't timid at all about contacting and understands almost all Spanish. People love him and he makes everyone laugh. He is really short and has a permanent smile on and always has squinted eyes. He was a diver/swimmer/wrestler in high school, so we have wrestled a couple times just for fun without making the people that live underneath us too mad, hopefully. Send us a few of your favorite jokes, because we tell each other jokes when we are going to bed at night, ha-ha. Elder Pyne is awesome. They gave us the best of the group. We are pretty lucky.

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.

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.

That is EXACTLY what we wanted to hear

We pulled over in Soda Springs to play in the snow for just a few minutes.

Let it snow; let it snow! It looks like it will be a white Christmas this year. Everyone says that the amount there is right now is nothing, and we should expect a ton more. I personally think they're all talk, but I guess we will see. Driving in the snow for the first time has been quite the adventure, especially in a two wheel drive Malibu with completely worn down tires. The first day that it snowed really hard we drove 45 minutes up to Soda Springs. It was like 10 degrees up there. We turned into one house/driveway, and I kept sliding and came within probably two inches from hitting the mailbox before the car caught traction and turned. Pretty crazy. We looked at the tire marks, and it was soo so close; we got lucky. Then on the way back, it was nighttime and while crossing a bridge we started to slide out and almost hit the edge of the bridge (50 foot drop) like three times as we slid back and forth..but we didin't...so whoever is praying for us keep it coming! ha-ha. I don't get why they give the other missionaries up north trucks except for us. There are a lot of people in the hospital from wrecks; the roads are soo so slippery. WE will be careful though, sorry to scare you, Mom.

So we started working with the Ventura family this week. They are less active. We have been by just to see if they are home several times a week for about ten weeks and never found them at home (or never gotten hem to answer), but the ward wanted us to go by so we would always keep trying. So we went in and the mom was crying talking about how she needs to come back to church, and her kids (all older, 17, 18,20) don't want to go anymore. So we taught something and invited her back. They didn't come to church. I can't remember the excuse, but it wasn't a very good one. But the big change was her 18 and 20-year-old boys. We met them several times, and they were always kind of annoyed we were there and weren't at all helpful. But while we were there, I gave her oldest son a blessing, because his hemophilia has been pretty bad lately, I guess. So now the boys are really nice to us. We haven't had a follow up appointment; the mom has flaked out every time; but now her kids are nice to us. In fact they gave us a present after we left the first time...50 presliced pieces of American cheese, delicious.

I sound like a Mexican now

This has been a pretty good week. We were tracting, and this man asked us if we wanted to go see his calves. They are everywhere here. I knew you would like to see them.

We went to Big J's finally this week. It's the place that they got the tots from in Napoleon Dynamite...not that great it turns out..haha.

I will give you more info about Elder Ireland. He and I get along really well. We talk too much about worldly things like movies he saw before he left or music that we liked before the mission... so we set goals to get more focused. He is pretty different from me, but we still really like each other. He really likes Elder Senn, too. His Spanish has already improved in a week. He had a pretty heavy guerro accent when he got out, and it only a week it has improved. (…a guerro is a white boy. I sound like a Mexican now, which makes me happy. People occasionally comment on how they like my accent. I still have tons of room to grow, but I am getting good at sounding Mexican-ish.) I spend a lot of language study now just teaching him grammar which kind of makes me review and understand it better, so that is good.

Elder Ireland was a wrestler and musical guy during high school. He likes boy bands and his favorite movie is high school musical.  We are debating this week if listening to Christmas music is appropriate for missionaries...meaning the Michael Buble Christmas album of which he is a huge fan. His girlfriend introduced him to the church, and that’s how he was baptized.

He is a greeny, so obviously he has this natural desire to go tracting, so we have done some of that this week. It usually isn't done here in the normal way by us because of how unproductive it is in town. There are really no Hispanics in town at all; they are all out on the farms which means to tract would be driving from house to house, but we have already covered all the ones close by. So we tracted in town a little bit to get him better at contacting people and just talking to everyone. Not too much practice with Spanish there, so that’s too bad. We tracted our one trailer park (10 trailers) in Franklin, but we have already done that twice. They still aren't interested, but he got to practice a little bit more. It's a different type of work here, lots of driving and seeing members to figure out where Hispanic people live.  Some tracting stories” "I HATE Mormons!” - door slammed…  "This is a Jehovah’s Witness house.” …*ten minutes later* “yes you can send the (English) missionaries by-Success! …lady on the phone while answering the door "Oh no, it’s the elders"...(they say something to her) "oh, don't worry I will"...some lady yelled at her when she was 16 and it’s the church's fault"...no other really interesting ones beyond that..tracting here consists of talking to lots and lots of members.

We had Thanksgiving at the Hatch's house, and it was awesome! We had a competition between them and all their family to see who could gain the most weight, and I got second with like 4.7 pounds (I think?). It was great. There is a police officer in town that asked me to slow down when I first got into this area. I got out of the car one day, and he pulled up next to me and said,  “Slow down in residential areas.” I guess it was a school zone, and I didn’t know it and was going like 30. Anyways, it turns out he is one of the Hatch kids…ha-ha. They started late and then planned on dessert later on…so we didn't get any dessert on Thanksgiving, because I wasn't going to stay for several hours on a proselyting day. I ate plenty though, so I didn't need it, and Jen and Sherm sent me pecan pie, so I had that. It was good to be in their home. Elder Senn and Ireland aren't as social as me, so they just talked to each other, but I talked to lots of people there when they weren't talking to the rest of the family.

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.