NOS VEMOS AL RATO MIS QUERIDOS AMIGOS
translate:(SEE YOU MY DEAR FRIENDS Soon)
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Capítulo 101 - Interesting week full of birthday parties
Well, this was a very interesting week full of birthday parties, eggs, flour, water, drunk people, a cult, and a pila full of water. Just so you guys can understand the most of that list, the way people celebrate birthdays out here is breaking eggs on the head of the person who is completing years, then throwing flour and water on top of the egg on top of the head of the same person. Let's just say that there were a lot of eggs being broken on my head hahaha.
I thought I was safe today, but even all of the missionaries in the zone got together and just got me with flour and cake... Yeah, it's been interesting this week haha. My companions and I are tired of cake right now haha. We ate on Friday night, Saturday at lunch, Saturday at 3, Saturday at night, Sunday at lunch, and Sunday at dinner, today at lunch, and dinner tonight will be another celebration haha. yeah... It's just way too much cake haha.
This week we also were walking into to house of a family of investigators, family Maradiaga, and as we walk in, we realize that they are having a cult go down in there house. they invited us, and so we didn't want to be mean and say no, so we stayed for the rest of the 30 minute cult. We sang, and prayed, and well... it was the opposite of what I've learned my whole life haha. At least they let us talk and teach from the book of Mormon, so that was great. It wasn't a waste of time either, We ended up talking to one of the friends they invited to the cult, and she is super awesome! she's named Anaí. We taught her a little bit about the book of Mormon, and even though the family Maradiaga didn't go to church, she showed up by herself! It was awesome!
I'm not sure how much time I'm going to be able to write next week, It might just be a few minutes, but I just want you all to know that I love this country, and these people. It makes me sad thinking that I'm going to have to leave them, but there are also a lot of people that I haven't seen in a while that I would like to see back home.
Capítulo 100 - I'll see you all soon
This week has been crazy! Tuesday we went to Teguz for a leadership counsel. That was really fun, we all thought that we were going to get shaved by President, but it turned out completely different than what we thought.
We got back to our house really late at night, We didn't even have time to eat dinner. The the following day we had zone conference all day long. It was really cool, and we all learned a lot. I just hope that everyone applies the things we learned.
We got back to our house really late at night, We didn't even have time to eat dinner. The the following day we had zone conference all day long. It was really cool, and we all learned a lot. I just hope that everyone applies the things we learned.
After the zone conference, we had divisions with the assistants until Friday. It was super fun and really cool to be with Elder Bills again. We talked a lot about our plans for afterwards and wow... it almost hit us that we're about to go home.
After all of that... Friday afternoon we got a call, and that call has changed everything. We were told that Elder Ramirez will be coming with us in a trio!!! Yes... that same Elder Ramirez that was in the office with me! He came on Sunday, and it's been awesome! I can't believe that he's with me again. Things are going to be super awesome!
I'm really excited for these next upcoming weeks. These last two weeks are going to define a lot of things in my life! I'll see you all soon.
Capítulo 99 - I'm honestly going to be so lost when I get back
This has been an interesting week. I'm sure the most of you all know about the group that has been walking from Honduras to the states. Well... We certainly heard about them just about every person we talk to. People get really angry too. So... To avoid bad situations, my companion says he's from Hawaii (which is true) but when they ask we say it's a separate country that doesn't have a president, and that it's governed by kings and priests.
Then when they ask me, I say that I'm from Venezuela... I'm not sure why I chose Venezuela, but it was the first country that came to mind when they asked haha. I need to learn more about Venezuela because some people have asked me about a few things trying to prove me wrong, but luckily I've been able to pull it off haha.
This week we also had divisions with the Elders from Danlí. I went with Elder Tehuitzil, It was really cool because he is from Los Angeles, and so we were just talking about the good old times. A lot has changed since I've been out here, and I'm honestly going to be so lost when I get back haha.
Capítulo 98 - An Elder, a Pastor, and a bus driver....
Well... I don't really know how to share this story without it sounding like a joke. The beginning honestly sounds like the beginning of a good joke... So we were visiting a the family Salgado Escobar, and while we were talking, in walks, an Elder, a Pastor, and a bus driver. Yeah... it sounds weird, but it's a really cool story. So anyways, they were members from another church that has some crazy beliefs. the point is that they tried attacking the church, and well we just listened, and before we could say anything, our converts started attacking them back. It was really funny, they left really frustrated, and we talked to them about how to handle those situations. It was just really funny to see the whole thing, and it made us really proud of them for defending their beliefs.
This week we also went all the way to Trojes. We talked to President and Elder Uceda, and they wanted us to investigate more about the place. So this week we went. We left at 6 in the morning, and didn't get there until 10 o'clock! it was so far away! We got there... and everyone was looking at us like we were aliens. They didn't know who we were or why we were there until we talked to them. It's a huge city! Im shocked that the church hasn't ever been there before. We'll see what happens.
This week, a lot of the members keep reminding me that I'll be leaving soon. My companion just looks at me and laughs every time someone brings it up. It's crazy to think that I'll be home soon.
Capítulo 97 - Walked home barefoot in the knee deep rain
This week was really cool! On Tuesday I went to drop off Elder Rodríguez and to pick up Elder Wegesend. Elder WEgesend is awesome! It's a good thing that I'm with him because I never realized how hard it is to English. We've been practicing a lot of well needed English speaking together. He's been out here for 18 months, well actually on Friday he completed his 18 months.
The ward is doing well. We had another baptism this week!! Keylin finally got baptized! it was awesome especially because Julio who was baptized 3 weeks ago gave a talk about baptism and did a great job!! He's going to be a strong member. We've also seen Keylin change a lot over the process that we have of teaching her. We have a lot more success to come.
So on Friday, we went to eat dinner, and they lady asks my companion if there-s something that he doesn't like to eat. He responds, that he'll eat anything, then he remembered that he doesn't like Liver, and as he was about to say that he doesn't like liver, she tells us that she made liver hahaha. I'm not a big fan of it either and so I was struggling to shove it down my throat. She gave us a ton! Out of nowhere, Elder Wegesend asked to to bring his back pack because he wanted to ''see'' something on his agenda. Then he rips a page out secretly and in a sly way, rolls up the liver and puts it in his back pack hahaha I was dying of laughter.
This week there was also a lot of rain, and after the baptism it was time to go home and it was raining like insanely. Elder Wegesend was using new shoes and so... we put our shoes in our back packs, and walked home barefoot in the knee deep rain haha.
Capítulo 96 - My last 6 weeks
This week was awesome! Most of what happened this week was that my companion was saying goodbye to everyone because we received a call that he will be going to San Lorenzo these changes with Elder Johnson my MTC companion haha. Also Elder Wegesend, from Hawaii, will be my last companion in my last 6 weeks.
It's crazy to think that next month I'll be going home. Everyone always says that your last General Conference as a missionary always talks directly to you about life after the mission. General Conference is like Christmas for a missionary! It was a good time, and I learned so many things. I won't bore you with talking about how Elder Jeffery R Hollands talk was one of my favorites that talked about anger and the problems that it can cause. It was perfect for a family that we invited because it's their exact same situation! it was great.
Also this week we went to Tegus for a leadership counsel. It was really good and I got to translate for Hermana Chase. It's always fun translating and surprisingly a lot easier now. I might think of doing that as a side job when I get back haha.
A miracle this week after the conference, We walked out of the conference, and we found an old investigator in the conference, she came up to us and said, I've decided that I want to get baptized. It was insane! We were so happy for her, and will be working towards her baptism.
Capítulo 95 - The baptism of Anie!!!
This week was raining so much!! On Wednesday, we left the house all normal, we got back and realized that we left the window wide open. The house looked like a pool! It was fine though because here all the houses are made of pure tile, so it was really easy to take out all the water and nothing got damaged. so all was good.
This week we focused a lot on Any (Anie) and her family. That family is very interesting because the dad is a member that hasn't been active for the last 12 years, and the mom is a member of the reformed church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints... Yeah... that one haha. Anyways, she's super cool and isn't active in her church either, but she gave us a reformed book of Mormon that she had from her church and let me tell you, it's very interesting.
The point is that the mom was happy that we were teaching her little daughter about the church, and we ended up teaching the mom too. We were happy to see the family in church and all happy for the baptism of their daughter, Any, this week. We had less problems this week, but the one problem that we did have was a big one. a few hours before the baptism, we realized that for some reason the baptismal font was full of dirty water.
So.. out of options, we got in and fixed the drain that was broken, cleaned the font, and started filling it up just on time to start the baptism. It turned out great!
Capítulo 94 - 9 baptisms in one week!
This week was awesome! But probably one of the most stressful weeks that I've had haha. I've just never had to plan 9 baptisms in one week. 9 might not usually be as difficult as it was but, but what made it really hard is that those 9 people, Katy, Edgardo, Julio, Sheily, Junior, Pabel, Eduardo, Johan, and Jeffry come from 7 different families. It was insane coordinating baptismal interviews and getting baptismal clothes for all of them. It was all worth it though!
The ward was shocked when we announced the baptisms, they had never seen this amount of baptisms at once, and to be honest, I haven't either haha. We had to start the baptismal service in the sacrament room because we didn't all fit in the room with the baptismal font, and we filled up the sacrament room! It was really cool! We were going to sing a special musical number, but we started a little late due to a few problems with baptismal clothing, so we decided to not for time purposes.
We spent most of the week, preparing everyone for this Saturday, getting everyone ready and making sure that nothing went wrong. Then... after everything went wrong, we had to do our best to fix it all hahaha. Like 30 miracles happened, and everything turned out great.
This week while we were talking with someone who is going to get baptized next week, we found out that her mom is a member of the reformed lds church... It was really interesting. She was very accepting and is willing to let her daughter, Anie, be baptized. We'll see how that goes. We also got to ask her a lot of questions, and I mean A LOT of questions haha. She didn't have all the answers but we got to talk to the Abuela and she knew a little bit more.
Then out of nowhere, she asked us for a blessing because she couldn't see out of one of her eyes. From what we were told, she woke up the next day and could see. she went back to her home very far away, but her family says that she told them that we have the true priesthood authority. It was a cool experience.
Capítulo 93- Thursday we had the baptisms of Marylin and Allison!
Wow... This week was SOO busy. On Tuesday we were doing baptismal interviews, on wednesday we went to Tegus and received a training or a lesson or a talk, or however that's called in english, from Elder Uceda (Area President) with all the leaders in the mission. Then On Thursday we had the baptisms of Marylin and Allison! On Friday we went back to Tegus but this time with the whole mission to receive more training from Elder Uceda. Then on Saturday, there were parades and a whole bunch of parties going on because the 15th of September is independence day here. then on Sunday we had Stake Conference.
It was a pretty busy week to say that least. The meeting on Wednesday was really cool. supposedly whats happening is our mission was selected out of all the missions in central america to receive a tour by the area presidency. What they told us is that we have been increasing rapidly in our success and results and they wanted to see what we were doing. President Chase was really happy with us haha.
It's not normal to have baptisms on a Thursday, but we had to move the baptisms because on Saturday we had stake conference. We would have normally just moved the baptisms to Friday, but on Friday we had to go to Tegus again, so we decided that Thursday was the best option. The baptisms turned out great! So many members showed up, and we even sang a special musical number.
On Friday, the training was basically the same training that we received on Tuesday, with a few adjustments after asking us a few questions about the difficulties that we have in the mission on Tuesday. The really cool part about this guy is that he's a very direct person. Elder Uceda doesn't like beating around the bush. And that's what we needed. Someone who is direct and gets to the point.
Stake conference was also really cool. I just started freaking out when I saw a message from president Chase where I thought he was asking me to get up in front and translate Hermana Chase's talk. After reading the text again he just wanted me to translate HIS talk to Hermana Chase. It was still a little awkward getting up in front of everyone at stake conference, but I always like translating, it's pretty fun, and it's good practice.
Capítulo 92 - Estefany, Rixi, and Fernando were baptized
This week was super hot! Im not kidding when I say that I don't think that I've ever experienced heat and sun and walking and climbing hills like I did this week. It was all worth it though.
Our area is the biggest area in the entire mission, and Im pretty sure its like the biggest area in the whole world. Just to give you guys a picture, to get from one end of my area to the other, its a 15 minute walk to the buses and then a solid 4 hour bus ride. I don't know about you guys, but that seems pretty big to me. The point is that the missionaries here have never left the main town here in Danlí. So Elder Rodriguez and I decided that we would go see how things are out there.
We got on the bus, not knowing even where we were going. There are soooo many people out there!! it would be awesome to be able to work out there every day. We got off the bus in a big town out there. Found out later that it was called San Diego! it was awesome out there!! NOBODY knew about the church. They didn't yell bad words in english or anything! it was crazy! We walked like crazy because we didn't know anything, and we may have gotten lost a bit, but we made it back to our house in one piece after talking to a bunch of people.
We'll be going back in 2 weeks when we get professional help from someone who knows that area. Other than that we had three baptisms this week! Estefany, Rixi, and Fernando were baptized on Sunday morning because they didn't have time on saturday. It was really awesome!
This next week is going to be a lot of meetings. President Useda is coming to the mission, so we'll see what happens!
Capítulo 91 - I saw the biggest spider that ive seen in my entire life!
Wow, what a week. Lets start off from the beggining. So on monday we were in a family home evening with a family that invited us. After we finished the lesson and everything (they asked me to teach) we were eating dinner with them. I got a call, so I walk outside to the back of their house the talk.
Anyways, long story short, I was talking all normal, and out of nowhere, I saw the biggest spider that ive seen in my entire life! It was literally the size of my head and it was like red and black!! and it was just chilling there like he owned the place. I quickly move and start thinking about how to kill the spider demon thing. Then something just says, dont touch it. So listening to that voice, I went back in the house and asked Luis a recently turned 18 youth in the ward and he tells me that its his pet! The whole family knew about it too! he told me that he feeds it things around the house and takes care of it. like feeding it little animals. I about died...
This week we also got to work with a lot of very positive people that are willing to accept the gospel! Theres one in specific named marilyn. She's amazing! shes one of the smartest people that ive met in a long time. She just unerstands everything that we say, and has great questions! her baptism will be coming soon, on the 13th of september... a thursday. Its a long story, but theres a long explination as to why we're doing it on a thursday.
I think the missonaries in the zone think that we're professional movers. We helped the Hermanas move their house because they got changed areas, and now the Elders that lived in the same ward want us to help them move into the old house of the Hermanas.
Also this week we're planning on having 5 baptisms! we'll see how everything turns out. We have high hopes. Also, this week we met with the stake president, and we started our stake wide activty. There were so many poeple there! President Salinas (Stake President) was really happy. High hopes for the future!
Capítulo 90 - Not a big deal, still alive, and still have all my stuff :)
Wow... chapter 90. Time is going by so fast haha. This week was really cool. The two most significant things that happened this week is that we moved houses and the Baptisms of Lizeth, Raul, and the other Elders in the ward baptized Daniela.
The new house is really awesome! we moved for a lot of reasons. The house wasn't really good, it was like... unfinished. Its hard to explain. The less important reason that my mom doesn't need to worry about is that people break into the house. Not a big deal, still alive, and still have all my stuff :) the new house is super awesome though! and super safe haha
The baptisms were awesome! Elmer is the father of Lizeth, and Raul. They were an inactive family that we've been working with FOREVER. Actually, the missionaries have been working with this family since before I got to the area. The point is That Elmer was able to baptize his two kids, and it was one of the greatest moments that I've had in my mission. He and his kids were so happy. He baptized them so slowly and with so much care, it was like a movie. It was really amazing.
I guess everyone thinks I'm a pro at BBQs because we had an activity as an elder's quorum and they had us cooking more meat haha. We've had way too many BBQs these last few days haha. it turned out great though. Nobody had planned any activities, so they asked us to improvise. We started off playing games, and fnished just telling a bunch of jokes. It was actually really fun, and they all liked the activity.
Changes are this week. Elder Rodríguez and I are staying together for another change! we didn't think it was going to happen because he's already been here for 6 months. we had some good changes in the zone, we're really looking forward to this change. I am now entering my last 12 weeks of the mission, gotta make them count.
Capítulo 89- Case-ball
This week was full of divisions! We did divisions three different times this week. Starting off on Tuesday, we went to Danlí B and had divisions with them. That was really fun, especially because i got to go with Elder Rohrbacher... yes, my companion from about 17 months ago haha. It was really cool. And its crazy to think that next week he finishes his two years and will be back in his house.
After the district cousil on Thursday we went and did divisions with la reforma. They're hermanas, so we didnt do normal divisions. They went and worked like normal, but we worked in their area all day with a member who is getting ready to serve a mission. We wanted to help the hermanas out a bit, and from what it looks like we helped a lot. We'll see if the success pans out.
Then the very next day, we had divisions with the Elders from the other half of our ward. I stayed in my half with Elder Martinez ( who was with me in the MTC ) and Elder Rodriguez went with Elder Reyes.
This week we also had a great p-day. We started coordinating things a long time ago because we wanted everything to turn out well. We tried to do an activity with 2 zones (valle verde and Danlí) but the other zone cancelled on us. So it was just us. We played volleyball and soccer, and while we were playing, we all took turns cooking carne asada. It turned out super well!! Especially because elder rodriguez and i marinated the meat the night before. It was AMAZING. After eating we plated basketball and some good old smashball. Nobody could pronounce smashball, so everyone started calling it Case-ball haha.
Changes are coming up next week, so we'll see what happens.
Capítulo 88- They just seem to be falling out of the sky
This week started off with a good Zone Conference. We combined the Zones Danlí and Valle Verde. It was a really good conference. We focused a lot on the book of mormon and how to use it correctly. It's amazing how much i've changed my teaching. When I first started the mission I would wait until like the 4th visit to talk about the book of mormon, but now I understand, and we don't leave a single lesson, or we don't even count the person as a new person that we're teaching unless they have a copy of the book of mormon and an assigned chapter or part.
These past few weeks, the area presidency has been asking us how many less actives have we been visiting and a whole bunch of other stuff so that's also something that we're trying to focus on a little more. While Elder Rodríguez and I were visiting a less active member she asks us if we wanted corn tamales. We both said yes and then she started going on about how she makes really good corn tamales and how it's corn season and a whole bunch of randon stuff. Anyways, she gives us both a plate and starts getting the corn tamales. She then puts them on our plates, and I swear that when that tamale touched the plate, it make a squishing noise and turned into a pancake. It was the most undercooked tamale I had ever seen. i started eating because she was just so happy to see someone eating her food and she hadn't gone to church in while, so I didn't want to give her another reason to not go to church... It was horrible... I was eating pure dough... My companion was suffuring too.
I look over and it seemed like he finished. So I forced it all down my throat, and we got the heck out of there. While we were walkig my companion takes the tamale out of his backpack and we just started dying of laughter. We got sick from that for a few days, but she showed up to church on sunday, so it seemed like it was worth it haha.
This week has been pretty crazy with the people that we are teaching. They just seem to be falling out of the sky. We have been finding so many new people and they are all really positive and really want to learn. We'll see what happens these upcoming weeks!
Capítulo 87 - We had the baptisms of Karla, Yensi, and Hector!
Well this week started off with a good 3 hour trip to Tegus for a conference that we had. That was fun, but the bus trip was terrible. We had to wake up at 4 to get on the bus and get to Tegus on time. Then after the meeting we got back on the bus, and came back up to Danlí the same day. We didn't get back until 7:30 at night
Then we had some crazy divisions this weeks. Well, they started out normal, but it all turned out crazy at the end. We started after our district counsel. I went with Elder Guerra to his area, Bella Vista, and Elder Moreno went to my area. We didn't finish divisions until dinner the next day. That wasn't the plan, but Elder Guerra had to do baptismal interviews in our area and My companion had to do a surprise baptismal interview in Paraíso so he went over there with Elder Moreno and I stayed with Elder Guerra. Paraíso is super far away, so that took them many hours. Then the pouring rain made things insane. It was raining so hard, and everyone was just soaking wet.
After divisions, we had the baptisms of Karla, Yensi, and Hector! It was awesome. Everything turned out well, and a lot of members showed up. Right after the baptism Elder Rodriguez and I were walking to an appointment that we had when we passed by two drunk dudes. I'm pretty sure that one of them tried to rob us, but we weren't very sure haha. One started speaking english saying "Money.... Sorry... Money.... Sorry... How are you.... Goodmorning... sorry... money...." Then the other one was like, "Don't bother them...NO... Don't bother them" but in spanish of course. It was a lot funnier in person because every sound that came out of the first guy's mouth, the second one would tell him not to bother us haha.
Capítulo 86- The bishop asked me to speak about marriage
This week started off in divisions. We did divisions with the other set of Elders in the ward. It was really good, and I got to know the other half of the ward. We also did division in an area called Paraíso, and that was really fun too. I've heard a lot of good things about that area, especially because Elder Alvarado started the mission there, and Elder Marcellino, and Elder Ramirez were both in that ward, and we were all together in the office, so all they did was talk about that ward haha. It lives up to it's legend.
This week we also had a meeting with the stake president to talk about the missionary work in the stake. That went really well, and there will be a few exciting changes that he's going to make to make sure that the missionaries have the help and support that they need. Right after that meeting (Saturday night) I get a call from the bishop telling me that I have to give a talk in church. So... I waited till the morning when we were sitting in Sacrament meeting to prepare my talk. I didn't think it went too well, but a lot of people said they liked it. The bishop asked me to speak about marriage, and the family proclamation... weird, right? A missionary talking about marriage. I thought it was pretty weird.
This week we went to visit a recent convert, and she ask for a blessing for her daughter (non-member) who was sick. We gave her the blessing and we sat down and started talking a bit. Then out of nowhere, the recent convert says, "Elders, can you give me some of that oil?" we asked her why, and she responded with "No, it's cause my neck hurts and I wanted to rub it on my neck." Elder Rodríguez and I couldn't hold in the laughter as we started explaining that that's not how it works.
Capítulo 84 y 85 - That name is so beautiful, I'm going to name my son after you!
Well... I completely forgot to write a letter last week. So I'll have to write about the two weeks at once. So last week, I had to leave my area "La Era" and say goodbye to everyone. It was really sad, but from the looks of it, that will be the last time that I have to do that before I go home.
Saying goodbye was really hard, and I felt like I was leaving my family again. We were with one family saying goodbye, and they asked for my name (that always happens when someone leaves an area) anyways, I told them "Trevor Ryan Case" and the pregnant mom started freaking out and says "that name is so beautiful, I'm going to name my son after you!" I kid you not, that lady almost started crying when she said that she's been looking for a good name for a long time, and so she went with Trevor.
On Tuesday, I got on a bus with a bunch of missionaries and we headed over to Danli. My new area is called "Buena Esperanza" and my companion is Elder Rodriguez from Mexico. Elder Rodriguez is super awesome! I've known him ever since he came to the mission. He's about to hit 18 months in the mission. The new area is great. It's a lot more tropical than Tegus and it looks a lot more like San Lorenzo. In the sense of the dirt roads and the houses, the heat isn't as bad though haha. We share the ward with two more Elders, Elder Martinez (Guatemala) and Elder Reyes (Honduras). They are both super cool!
It was sad to leave my last area, the members, and the investigators, but this new area seems to make up for it. We'll see how things keep going.
Capítulo 83 - Blonde hair and blues eyes
Where do I start for this week.... 4TH OF JULY!!! This wednesday we passed the 4th of july, and we got to celebrate with a family here in the ward. They didn't really understand why we were celebrating on Wednesday, so I had to do a lot of explaining haha. But after they understood why, everything was great. We got there, and the family was already cooking all the food. It smelled so great! and when we started eating the family put on a bunch of patriotic music from the states. It was a great celebration, and there may or may not have been fireworks involved haha.
This family put like 6 pounds of meat on my plate! They put like 3 pork chops, 2 pounds of carne asada, and another pound of two of chorizo. Then to make things even worse, they put and BUNCH of beans, and rice, and platano of the plate too. The plate was HUGE. I couldn't finish. I felt bad, but it was just wayyyy too uch for me to eat at once hahaha. Right after that, we went to our ward mission leader's house for our correlation meeting, and he offered us food. I was already dying of how much I had eaten right before, and I just had to explain everything right there.
This week we were able to visit a lot of families. One family we were with started telling us a story of one of their family members that recently had a baby. I kid you not when they say to me "they baby is just like you, blonde hair and blues eyes" ,I think I sat there in silence for like 5 minutes thinking about my whole life, actually wondering If I have blonde hair and blue eyes. Then I asked, I have blonde hair and blue eyes? They said yes, but then they started looking closer, and they were like "... oh, your eyes aren't blue" and I said, "and my hair??" and they are still convinced that I have blonde hair haha
Capítulo 82 - We had 99 baptisms
This week flew by! I'm honestly not even sure how this week flew by so fast, but wow, here I am, another monday writing home. This week marks a big change in the mission. Ever since I've started the mission, there's only been around 60-80 baptisms a month in the whole mission. Well, the past 2 months, we've been over 100 baptisms for the mission, and we were about to not make it last month. We had 99 baptisms.
Well, we all thought that was it for the streak, and 3 months having over 100 would have been incredible and would have motivated people to work harder and help more people. Then all of the sudden a baptism that happened in the area of the University got moved forward a few days, changing it to the month of June. I went over to do the baptismal interview, and there were a lot of problems with the baptism. Not problems with the interview, but just a few problems with communication in the ward. The baptism almost got cancelled, but it happened by a miracle. Making it the 100th baptism last month.
Long story short, President invited us to ice cream afterwards at McDonalds. Once we got there, we got told that we could buy food if we wanted to (which was a miracle because we didn't have dinner that day. While we were eating, a lady comes up to us and asks us if we would like a tour of the kitchen. We all looked at Hermana Chase, and she says, well, if they accept a book of mormon, we'll do it. And they did haha. It was so cool, and they even let me make a hamburger. So yeah, that was a fun day haha.
It hasn't been raining a lot recently, so there aren't any crazy rain stories this week. However, Elder Farías, my companion that I had in Guapinol, got really sick last week and was sent home for surgery. That was really sad, he called me out of nowhere and told me that he was leaving.
Capítulo 81- Memories from home just started pouring in!
Wow... next week is already the month of July. I don't even know how time is going by so fast, I could have sworn that last month was January. Time really does fly out here.
This week was really great. There's a family in my ward that asked me to cook something from California in their house for dinner one night. I had to think really hard, and then out of nowhere the greatest idea came to me. We made BREAKFAST BURRITOS with them!! It was the BEST thing ever! Oh my gosh, I just took that first bite of the breakfast burrito, and the memories from home just started pouring in. The family was laughing because I had the biggest smile on my face as we were eating. They all LOVED it too. It turned out really well. I may not be a chef, but I make some mean breakfast burritos haha.
This Tuesday we had our zone conference and that was great! we heard of a lot of changes that are coming in the missionary work, like a new preach my gospel, the missionary library is gone, and district meeting don't exist anymore. We don't know all the details, but President will be giving us all of the information this week. We'll see how that goes.
Sunday was also really great. We had a lot of investigators in church, and it was a great sunday, the talks wre great, and the classes were awesome. They all seemed to love church, and so we'll be talking to them this week to see how everything was, and what they actually thought about it.
Capitulo 80 - On Saturday we got hit by a hurricane or something
It rained literally the entire week. I don't think I've ever seen so much rain in my life haha. The rain was pretty normal until Saturday. On Saturday we got hit by a hurricane or something like that (note to mom: I'm fine, I doubt it was a hurricane) the point is the we were teaching a lesson to a family of recent converts and the rain just started pouring and pouring down. Before we realized it, we looked outside and the dirt road turned into a river of rushing water. the family told us to wait for the rain to calm down. we waited for 30 minutes until we realized that we had a appointment right then. We decided to leave. The moment I step in the water got passed my ankles. We started walking across the street and it got up to our waists. It was awesome! At least that's what I thought in the moment.
As we were walking, people were trying to get around, and they couldn't. People would try crossing the dirt roads like we did and they got sucked down the road because the water was really fast. We had to help a few people out of the water. We realized that the appointment we had wasn't home, and so we started moving towards our back up plan. The rain didn't stop, and we were soaking wet. The water got higher and higher and started going into houses, and people were going crazy taking things out of their houses before the water destroyed everything, so we started helping people. Some people's walls fell down and for a lot of unfortunate people, their houses were taken away. I'm pretty sure that just happened in our area, because I asked other people how they were and they said the rain wasn't bad for them.
The next day we had Stake conference. Only one family from our area went to the stake conference because everyone else stayed back reparing their houses and helping other people. President Chase, the President Duarte(temple president), and Elder Perez of the 70 came to the Conference. It was a good conference, and most of the day after the conference, we spent helping people with their houses. We'll see how things go this week.
Capitulo 79 - 1994 Yamaha special edition 175 2-stroke
Well the changes passed by, and i'll be able to finish the training of Elder Lara. I was worried that I might be sent away this change, because I wouldn't have been able to finish the training of Elder Lara, but all is good in the hood.
This week, specifically on Thursday, I did divisions with Elder Bills (who is in my zone) he is also from my group, like, we came to Honduas together, we were in the MTC together and everything, Because we hit 18 months exactly on Thurday! I went over to his area, and his companion came over to mine, and that night we each burned a pair of pants. It was awesome!!
This week we have also been working a lot with Yomari and her family. They're really closed people, but we finally got the sister of Yomari to go to church! it was awesome, and hopefully we'll see more progress in the family. Funny story, so Yomari was a reference that we got from a member, sort of haha. She showed up to church one day with her friend and dissapeared, nobody knew were she lived. that same weeks, we found Yomari riding around on borrowed dirt bike. The dirt bike is awesome! it's a 1994 Yamaha special edition 175 2-stroke. we started talking to her and that's when she told us where she lives. She got baptized a few weeks later. This week, we were talking to Yomari, and the owner of the dirt bike came by, and we started talking about dirt bikes, and out of nowhere he says "hey, when are you going to invite me to your church, I'd like to get to know how it is" That was awesome! so we'll be talking to him this week.
In other news, they shut down both missions in Nicaragua, and sent a lot of the missionaries over here to our mission. We're not sure how long they'll be here for, we just know that we got a whole bunch more missionaries in the mission, and now I don't know the whole mission haha.
Capítulo 78 - VERY far away and on a mountain
This week we have been walking A LOT, but hey, who doesn't love walking? Oh wait... I don't like walking... well at least I'm not the biggest fan of it, but I still do it haha. The good part is that all of our walking hasn't been in vain. We were able to get permission and help Yomari enroll in seminary and she is willing to do ALL the make up work for the entire year! I really don't see that as fair, because she was baptized 2 weeks ago, but the teacher said that she had to do all the make up work for the whole year. But hey, she accepted it and we're helping her understand everything, it's great!
One time when we were walking to Yomari's house (she lives VERY far away and on a mountain) we were climbing the hill and we noticed that there was a group of girls trying to get our attention. One girl tried to pretend to fall and actually ended up smacking the ground face first and almost fell off of a cliff. She was fine, just a few cuts, and stood right up. The funniest part is that my companion just started dying of laughter and all of the friends of the girl too because we all knew that she was just trying to get our attention haha.
Chnages are this week, and they called us on Saturday telling us the changes. The both of us are staying here, but the two Hermanas that are in the other half of the ward are both leaving, and Elder Strickland will be opening the area training a new missionary! Elder Strickland is awesome, and he's also from California, so it will be even better haha
Capítulo 77 - The good part is that God won
This week, we've been making a lot of Panameña food in the house, and it's actually pretty easy to make, and turns out really well. Before the mission, I would have never made so many things with bananas, But everything turns out super good, and I'm considering starting a restaurant of Central American food. We'll see how that goes haha.
Well... changes are coming up this next week. I'm pretty sure that I'll be staying with my companion in the same area, but we'll see next week.
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