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.