Capítulo 28 - My area is twice as big. more to love, right?

Well, this is going to take a lot of explaining, so bare with me haha. Alright, so a little over three weeks ago, I got moved into my new area. This place is super huge, and all of the dirt roads and stick houses look the same. My companion Elder Limones had 9 weeks in the area, and still didn't know it all when I got there.  In  2 weeks, we will be receiving our new mission president. Because of the change of president, they made one of the changes(transfers?) 3 weeks, before the new president comes, and one 9 weeks. so that they new president wouldn't have to worry about changing the missionaries around his first day in the mission.

  Alright, now that we've established this, Elder Limones received a call from president telling him that he needed to move him to being a zone leader in another area. So only having three weeks in this huge area, I'll be taking on a new companion. I spent the whole day going to the main city to get my companion, and heading back to the area. The following day, we head over to the district meeting, and we get told that some elders on the other side of the mission were being sent home (nobody knows why) and the sister elders (super funny story, I just don't have enough room to explain it all) that we were sharing the branch with, would be going to the area of the elders that just got sent home. So... now my area is twice as big. more to love, right?

  Now there's more. We were in the new area teaching a lesson to one of the old investigators of the sister elders, and I swear it was the strangest situation ever. She's this super old lady, with like two teeth, who lives with her daughter, or something like that. Anyways, we were teaching, and out of nowhere like 40 people show up right outside her house and start playing poker, or something to that extent. These guys were all yelling at the top of their lungs while playing. And when asked upon about the people outside, the investigator just says ''oh they're just friends'' It was strange, but anyways, the point is that my companion left the area phone in that house by accident, and when we went back, it wasn't there. We asked a member to call it for us, so we could see if it was in his backpack or something, and it was turned off. So yeah, someone has our phone, and we're phonless missionaries in a new area.

  However, a little distraught, I read in a church magazine that God gives us areas, as missionaries, and situations, because he trusts us, and know we'll grow from it. We'll see what happens. Oh esta, todo bien.

Capítulo 27 - Lots of ups and downs, but ultimately, the good always outways the bad

This week was a really good. Lots of ups and downs, but ultimately, the good always outways the bad when we look back at it. Sunday night, I got something called the Dengue fever. Let me just tell you, it's not fun. However, God always finds a way to make me stop complaining. It was dark, and we were on our was back to the apartment. I was feeling super sick, and I may have accidently hurt my ankle ballin' some kids up in soccer. It started raining, and I was thinking life was just super rough. Then I saw a kid in the distance walking with crutches, and it reminded me of the many months I was walking around with crutches and how terrible that was. The kid got a little closer and it turned out to be a super young boy who was missing a leg. I instantly stopped feeling bad for myself, and tried my best to walk around with a smile.

  Then on Wednesday, we had the privilege of hearing from Elder Rendlund of the qourum of the 12 apostles. We had to wake up at midnight, to make it to the bus stop at 1 in the morning, and then take the 7 hour bus ride to the city, with all of the missionaries from the southern part of our mission, to be there at 8 o'clock. It was a rough morning, but totally worth it. He talked about President Monson, and applied it to all of us. He said that our 89 year old prophet gets up out of his bed every day, and gives every last bit of his energy he has to this church. So then I felt even worse for complaining. It doesnt matter how bad Dengue is, I will always be able to give my all to this work.

  Alright, so the other day we werent allowed to leave the house because I was a little sick, just a little sick. They told me that I had to eat some bananas. So we asked a member to get us some bananas, becuse we couldnt leave the house. This member came back, and I coulnt tell you why, but they gave me sopa de mondongo, which is a cow stomach soup. It's literally the worst thing on the planet, and they decided to give it to us. I just kinda looked at them like, ''What part of 'banana' did you get cow stomach soup from?'' I was glad they just gave it to us and left, because I tried it... and yeah, there was no way I was going to finish that. You can't say I didn't try it haha

Well that's all for this week, I hope everyone has a great week.

Capítulo 26 - Boat ride to Amapala island, I went to the beach for pday!

This week was pretty interesting. I'm still getting to know the area, and my companion, but everything is going well. Our area is really big. But even with this super big area, when I got here, there were almost no investigators. So this week we went out and have been trying to find people like crazy. Something I've noticed out here, more than in the city, is that people talk during prayers. Like during a lesson, I'll be giving the opening prayer and the investigator starts saying their own prayer, or at least repeating my words. That was something they told us in the MTC but i thought that was normal. But this week was just strange. While I was praying at the beginning of a lesson with a family with a million kids, I almost couldn't hold back the laughter as 12 different voices, of these little kids, whispering and repeating my words as I prayed. It was super loud too. Then another time we were in another lesson and the guy yelled my words as I prayed. I couldn't even hear my own words, or thoughts for that matter haha.

  I have realized that I've failed to explain about my new companion. His name is Elder Limones, and he's from Ecuador. He's 20 years old and has 18 months in the mission. Alright, that's all about him. So today, we went to Amapala for Pday, and it was super cool! Amapala is an island out here that is an area where missionaries serve. Yes, I went to the beach for pday! It was super awesome to be there! We took a boat over to the island and watched a baptism that the Elders over there were having in the ocean. That was super cool, and they asked me to be a witness for the baptism, so I got to go in the water! That felt great haha. The boat ride over was pretty cool too. I got to sit at the very front of the boat with my feet sticking over the edge. 

Lots of pictures this week, enjoy, don't miss the one with the baby deer I caught. 

Elder Case

Capítulo 25 - Let me just tell you, it's hot... It's really hot

 Well everyone had told me that the south was a hot place out here, so I can't say that I wasn't warned, but I was not prepared to get off of that 7 hour bus ride to my area in the middle of the night and feel the amount of heat that I did. I wouldn't have wanted to feel that kind of heat during the day, but being the middle of the night, I was terrified of what it would be like in the middle of the day. Let me just tell you, it's hot... It's really hot in the middle of the day. Let me put things into perspective. We have an AC unit in the house (yeah, I got super lucky with that) when we get home at night time, we turn on the AC unit. We put the AC unit at 27 degrees celcius and I'm freezing. For those weird people who don't use celcius, it's over 80 degrees fehrenheit.

  Besides the heat, The area is really interesting. There isn't a single paved road, and the houses are made of dirt and sticks. However, the péople here are super humble and nice. regardless of wanting to be members of the church, they'll hear what we have to say and give us some warm and rather dirty water to drink. The curch down here is a branch, and the area is actually so big, that we share the branch with another set of missionaries.

  Church was a lot different than I was used to. You can't really expect the normals down here, like having a church building. We sort of do down here, but it's actually just a house that we converted into a chapel. I like it though, some people have class outside because there isn't enough room for everyone to be having classes. It's super great down here though, and many great stories to come.