Capítulo 75 - It was a really big cow and everyone was scared

 We finally have our ward mission leader, and this week we had our first correlation meeting with him too. Things are going to be a lot easier now that we actually have a ward mission leader. He is a convert of 6 years, and never had the chance to serve a mission, but he is very willing to learn and says that he'll listen and do what we need him to do. It'll be great. So after church we had our meeting with him and it went well. We explained his responsibilities as ward mission leader, and talked about how we can help the work in the ward. 

  The meeting was great, but then all the sudden someone comes into the room and tells us that a cow came into the church and nobody could get it out, so they asked us for help. All churches down here have a huge lot and a huge fence that goes all around the lot and the only exit is a little gate that is just big enough for a car, or in this case, a cow. Now I promise this was a female cow, but it did have some pretty big horns on it's head haha. The point is that it was a really big cow and everyone was scared. I just looked at them like "what are we waiting for? This is going to be fun!" I get near the cow and tried to get it to move. It didn't move. So I took off my belt and whipped it in the butt. It got kind of mad and may have almost hit me with it's horns, but I whipped it again and then it started listening haha. It started moving, and so I just snapped my belt to make loud noises and it went exactly where I wanted it to go. Everyone was cheering haha The cow left and everything was great.

  Later that same day we got to talk to our families!! We had a lot of technical problems, but after the bishop came to save the day, I got to talk to my family. It was great, but the only bad part is that my companion couldn't talk with his because they never answered him, and so we got permission for him to talk to his family today instead. 

Capítulo 74 - Justin and Katerin both got baptized!!

This week we had our zone conference which was really cool. Our mission is doing really well recently, I don't know what a normal mission is like, but with less missionaries than last year, we are having more success this year. We'll see how things keep going. President Chase was really happy. We also had our interviews with President Chase this week. He expressed a few problems that he saw in a few missionaries in one of the areas in the district and so he asked us to go over there and see what is really going on in that area.

  So we garroboed them, meaning that we went over there by surprise to see how things really are, lets just say that it was a needed visit, and we were able to help them a lot. We went with Elder Bills and Elder Mejia (the three of us came to this mission together) and right afterwards we did divisions. I went with Elder Bills, and we came back to my area. we were both shocked by how fast the time has already gone by, we already have 17 months!

  This week was a really good week, Justin and Katerin both got baptized!! it was a struggle with the both of them, but now they have very strong testimonies of the gospel and would never leave. Katerin has already been inviting friends to go to church with her! it's super awesome! I'm sorry that I don't have any pictures this week, next week for sure haha.

Capítulo 73 -My son is Elder Lara

Wow... I never thought that I'd have to translate from spanish to Spanish. My son is Elder Lara. He turned 18 in february and is from Panama. We had our first lesson the first day he got here and it was so funny to see the expressions of the people's faces when he talks. He knows a lot and doesn't need much training, but the people don't understand him when he talks, and when they just look at him all confused like "what did he even say??" I have to repeat it for them. also, he uses words that nobody knows out here. For example, when something is really cool, here they say "Macizo" but in Panama they say "priti" so yeah... basically nobody understands him, but he's great!

  So last week we had contacted a 50 year old man on the street and he told us we could pass by his house this last saturday, and so we did. Well, when we knock on his door, he pops his head out a little window to see who was there. He notices it us, and says "no I can't right know" we noticed immediately that he was more drunk than alcohol himself. We asked him why he couldn't right now. his already red shot eyes started pouring tears and says: "no... my girlfriend left me" I was just shocked by that, and I'm still not sure if I should believe it, but I just looked at him and said: "I know how you feel"  The weirdest part of it all is that right when I said that he disappeared from the window and in half of a second, he opened the door and with his arms wide open says "come here" we hugged for a good 10 seconds because he wouldn't let me go as I was drowning in the smell of alcohol haha. then he says, "come in, you are welcome in my home"  We taught a very very short lesson and we left. It doesn't sound as funny as it was, you just had to be there haha

  This week was interesting. We're changing the attitude of missionary work in the ward, and we're helping a lot of people. We still don't have a ward mission leader, but we did have some strange stake missionary correlation meeting (not sure if that's how it is in english) We didn't really do anything or get to any points or purposes, but I thought the effort was cool haha