esta bien

A Pic not sure if I ever sent

All the mangos

Near our house

 

Hola!

 

We had an interesting week this week. Worked hard. Didn{t have too much success. Oh well. Thats the life of a missionary I guess. Some weeks are a little more challenging. The great thing though, was that there were a couple of times where I quite clearly was able to see that even though the people were letting us down, when we continued to work as hard as we could and not give up or lose our faith, the Lord quite clearly blessed us. We spent a lot of time walking and ¨enjoying¨ the heat, but in the end, there were a lot of blessings in our work, so it was all worth it.

 

I sent a couple of random photos because since we did all this walking, theres suprisingly little to talk about. But esta bien. I try and remember the highlights.

 

Tuesday and Wednesday morning we got to travel into the office for a ¨Capacitacion¨ or basically a training meeting. We talked about the new program that we{re using as missionaries, and how to better apply what we{ve learned. I really enjoyed it. And not just because the office has AC. lol. I learned a lot. It was also really cool because we got to do a lot of practices. It was there that I{ve really started to feel like I{m doing better at stepping up as Junior Comp. Often its Senior Comp leads the lesson, and JC gives his two cents whenever its required. But I got to practice and play an equal part so that was great. We{re doing that a lot better in lessons too and so thats exciting.

 

Tuesday night we had a really cool experience. After what appeared as a less than successful day, we were on our way home when a lady at a bus stop called us over. We had hardly seen her, but when we came over we noticed she was crying. Shes a lady of about 65 years. She told us about how she has raised her grandkids since they were babies, and now after a long fight with her daughter, they were moving out to live somewhere else. She was distraught and told us that all these problems made her want to just throw herself out into the trafic right then and there to end all the pain. It was sad. Especially because she was totally with it and not drunk or anything. Just really sad. Told us that she needed spiritual help. It was a great moment to be a servent of the Lord. We were able to help her calm down, and let her know of the plan that God has for her, and even though there are problems in our lives, we can overcome them. We stood by as she watched her grandkids get on the bus that took them away, and then we walked her to her house and after sharing a little (it was getting pretty late), we said a prayer with her. She had calmed right down and has been feeling lots better. We{ve only been able to visit her once since then, but she{s doing a lot better, and is interested in our message. I don{t know if she{ll ever get baptized. I hope so. Her family (whats left of it), seems really cool and I hope we can help them too, and we{re going to do whatever we can. Nevertheless, it was just a great oportunity for us to directly help someone in such a moment. Now the goal is to help them find that relief and happiness for eternity.

 

We also had a cool experience with Diego. This week we{ve been sharing a lot from the Liahonna. The picture on the fronts not my favorite... but the messages are excelent. We{ve been talking a lot with the youth about setting goals to go on missions, go to the temple etc (probably in the new era), and sharing the testimony of Elder Kikuchi which has helped a lot of people really open up about their conversions and doubts. With Diego, we had got on the topic of missions, and the sacrifices we make to go on them. We told him about the blessings that we recieve from serving the Lord and how greatful we are for that. We hadn{t even gotten into the real message yet, and I was thinking about how I{d love to be able to add on to that discussion, but didn{t think that what we had applied so well. So as we talked I started flipping through the magazine and found exactly what we needed. It was a story I hadn{t read before, but was a testimony of a young man who gave up his career for his mission, and was so thankful and blessed for that decision. It applied perfectly. It was a great testimony to me of the power of the spirit and how it speaks through your thoughts. I didn{t know what I was looking for as I flipped through the Liahonna, but I found exactly what I think we needed at just the right time. And although we hadn{t read it all the way through properly, we were still able to teach a great lesson with the help of the spirit. It was really cool.

 

Random less spiritual notes of the week. We Played ¨Tootie Fruity¨ with the Serafini{s. My team won. Its basically just Scatergories. Thanks for all the practice that you guys gave me so I could look super smart in front of our converts. lol. I also burnt my tongue on cheese grease out of an empenada. Almost cried. Be careful when you eat melted cheese. Its dangerous. Elder Call is a born janitor. He cleaned the toilet out by hand today. I{ll have to send the pic next week. lol. I mopped the floor.

 

We{ve heard a lot about Japan from the people here. They know nothing about the facts, but they{re all scared and ready for 2012 to roll around. lol. We{ve got to spend a lot of time talking about the signs of the times and how we need to be prepared both physically and spiritually. Hopefully we can use that to help people here be more prepared. And hopefully they get everything sorted out so that there aren{t any more problems.

 

Another cool experience. Last night we were working at night. Our visits all fell through, leaving us an hour and a half to work in the pitch black with nobody to visit anywhere close. Not going to lie, it was tempting to call it a day. We were right by our house. Its really hard to find people to teach at that time of night etc. But we decided that we{d be diligent and keep doing what we could. We went around and tried contacting the houses nearby that didn{t look like everyone there was already sleeping. After clapping at all the ones nearby we had nothing. We didn{t know what else to do. I saw a house right near ours that had a light on but we had already passed it. Looking back, it was basically try it, or take the two steps to the house and call it quits. We just wanted to stop, and it seemed like it{d be a waste. But we try to always do whatever we can. So we backtracked. Low and behold, we were able to talk with somebody and get in and visit with him shortly. It was another testament to me about how if we do all we can and work diligently, the Lord is going to bless us. Once again, I don{t know if this guy is going to get baptized. But I do know that the Lord put him in our path and we were blessed for working hard. Its awesome how the Lord loves us enough to do that for us.

 

Anyways, I´m right out of time. Love you all so much. The church is true, the Lord knows us, and he is always looking to bless us, as long as we are willing to do our part. Keep being great people. I}m praying for you all daily!

 

Love you lots,

 

Elder Humphreys