I accidently checked the other day... I can't believe I'm the only one that noticed. But today marks Elder Humphreys' 1/3rd mark on the mission. Wierd. But we're not going to dwell on that. Because its just a number. And it just hurts my brain to think about.,.. I feel like I just checked into the MTC yesterday....
You can tell my sisters that I'll always reply if I get anything. Something seems to be broken somewhere. I thought it was just that nobody liked writting me...lol. As for grandma and grandpa... I haven't gotten anything for a while now. But its been 3 weeks since the mail got delivered so I'll have to tell you next week. And I think there area a couple that I got a little while back but am still writting back to. I have lots of bus riding time now so its great. Every week I have time with nothing to do so I just study, read, write a letter or two, and maybe get a short nap or two.
As for the security in the house we're just peachy. Its a good strong gate. But we're glad to be moving. It turns out that the owner of the house is kinda crasy and I'm glad that I won't have to deal with her anymore. Oh. And as far as sending pictures goes. Lots of people just buy SD cards. They aren't too expensive. Then just carry or mail them. I dunno. With the new picture taking rule I don't have tonnes myself. :( Gotta do something about that.
But as for this week. Its depressing to say but it turns out I've been living a lie....lol. Apparently the horse wasn't really horse. It was about as much of a horse as is horse radish. Some silly spanish play on words. Bife a Caballo, not Bife DE Caballo. LAME. I'm so embarrassed....haha. I did drink real cow milk this week though. It was pretty gross. Had like curds or whatever they're called floating in it. The milk situation in this country is a mess. I'm excited for a glass of "real" milk one day in the future back at home.
We talked with this really interesting guy this week. He's the friend of a member and he came to church this week and last week. Don't know if I mentioned him last week or not. Basically he used to be a preacher for some baptist church or something for a really long time. Also went to jail for a bit (not exactly sure why), but now he really wants to turn his life around. Claims to already know that the Book of Mormon is true, and has been preaching from it for the past 15 years now. Appears to know everything really well and is really excited to be baptized. So thats kinda interesting. Seems too good to be true. But we're teaching him anyways and we'll see what happens. Fortunately he has to have an interview with president for having gone to jail before. So hopefully president can figure him out. He seems just a LITTLE bit sketchy. Maybe he's just an answer to our prayers though. We'll see.
As far as Easter went, it was interesting here. People in this town are really catholic. Even more than the rest of the country. And so they take this "Holy week" pretty seriously. It made work wierd for us because there were a lot of people around, but they were all visiting family, or just wanted to enjoy their week off rather than talk. It seemed like basically all of our investigators were out of town visiting their parents or something like that. Oh well. Hopefully next weeks more successful... Had some "ham" for easter dinner, but it was just really fatty pig leg that they BBQ'd. But beggers can't be choosers! We have a lot more people feeding us now which is nice, but the stomach doesn't handle food from poor members as well as the food we used to make at home. But the lunch visits are nice because you don't have to make it, and you get to spend more time with the members. So hopefully there are a lot more in the future!
Saturday the second councillor from the nearest ward (4 hours aways) came out and did interviews with all the members. That was super good. Its tricky because we run the ward, but we don't really do interviews like that. So its good to help people realize where they can improve. Stuff like that. Also the members are going to the temple this week. So we've had to teach like crasy to get them ready. Nobody in town has been before so they have no idea how it is. We've managed to help them with their doubts and problems, and get them all stoked to go and do baptisms. There are even one or two of them that might be going through to do an endowment session and so crasily enough I'VE been teaching temple prep. And to think that less than a year ago I was in the same spot as them. But its been awesome. I love talking about the temple (just the parts your allowed to talk about of course :). I think they love it too. There have been some missionaries in the past here that like to just go and hang out with people. Thats all fun and stuff, but its really nice to actually do something for the people and watch them progress in the gospel. Yah missionary work!
Heard there were some big earthquakes in the states this week or something? Is it just me or is the world falling apart? lol. I can't remember there ever having been so many problems in just one year. Ironically enough I just taught the Gospel Principles class on the signs of the second comming. Fun stuff.
As for success, I think we're finally going to see another baptism this week! Yay. Clotilde and her son Adrian look pretty set to go. I wasn't here when they found them, but they're great people and I think they'll be good and ready. So hopefully all the prayers go through and nothing gets in the way at the last second.
Just a small request. Sometimes there is a little bit of time at the church or at the house with nothing to do. I was thinking that trying to learn a little song on the piano might be good, and something besides just a regular hymn. Theres a classical piece that I got in my music and I think mom always used to play it and so I really like it. Doesn't sound toooo hard. So maybe you could just scan it in and I could print it out? Its called "Sonata #8 in C Minor, Op. 13 "Pathétique"" by Beethoven. I think its in that really old book of Beethoven thats falling apart. If you could that'd be great.
But that was the week. Went fairly descently. This coming week should be pretty good. Planning on teaching a lot of temple prep, driving 4 ours out and then 4 hours back for two hours worth of meetings with the district and zone leaders, having a baptism, moving houses, being able to see some of the members leave for the temple, then Marissas going to get old, I might get to go to the temple AGAIN (lucky me!), and we have interviews and zone conference too. Should be a blast. Not to mention that mothers day is coming up. Not too long and we'll be chatting by phone. Wierd! But thats how it goes. Starting out part 2 of 3. Hope it goes swell!
Anyways. Love you lots! Have a good week!
Elder Humphreys
Monday, April 25, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
Week 1 in San Pedro de Ycuamandyyú
Whew! Crasy week. Lots of change. Where to start....
Hope all is just swell back there at home. Heard about a bunch of tornadoes hittin down somewhere but not sure what the deal was with that. Hopefully everyones homes are still in one piece. I´m also glad to be alive here to talk to you as well. Had some river fish last monday. I think it was called Millanesa (basically means ¨breaded¨) de Surubí. Pretty good stuff at this place right by the river. Also, we got a couple of lunch visits here in San Pedro, but I haven´t gotten too sick yet. Besides that... went out for lunch today and I ordered.... Horse. Gross right? It actually didn´t taste all that bad. Came with an egg and a bunch of onions on top. That was the worst part. lol.
So Peter´s going to Chile then? How legit is that!? Sounds like Chile´s a pretty hoppin place. I´ll have to get some more details next time I talk with Elder Villalon. From what I´ve heard, I think they talk pretty fast there, but at least they speak spanish and not the half spanish half guarani they speak here. lol. But thanks for filling me in. I´ll have to make sure I hurry and write him back. Tell them that if they have any questions to just ask! Send an email or something. About anything too. I´m now an expert on shoes, hot climate, you name it. haha. Hope you´re all havin fun with the b-day plans. You wont be getting off as easy as you used to with mine.
But yeah. As for how the week went. Tuesday was pretty crasy. Ran around like crasy saying goodbyes and taking pictures with people. Didnt get to say goodbye to everyone that I wanted to, but oh well. I think I hit the most important people, and even got a couple of souvenirs. Turns out I´m still a painfully slow packer. lol. But yeah. It was sad to have to say goodbye to everyone. I had been thinking I would have been there a little bit longer, but turned out to be my time to leave. It appeared as though there were at least a couple of people that were genuinely sad to see me go though, so that made me happy.
Met up at the office wednesday. Turns out to get to our area and back is about 6.5 hours and there are only about 3 buses that leave a day. So the day was basically wasted sitting and waiting, and then traveling. The bus was pretty rough too. Didn´t have AC or anything. At least there were seats. And the view in someparts even reminded me of Alberta. But yeah. Turns out our area is pretty much the 2nd most isolated of any in the mission. We´re about 4 hours from the nearest set of misisonaries. So thats pretty legit. The area is really new and I´´m only the 7th missionary to ever come out here. So the are doesn´t have many people that have been members for more than a year now. We don´t even have a ward yet. Each week we have about 25 people that meet in a rented building. My comp runs the meeting and presides. So its pretty legit like that. But the members are awesome!They´ve had to sacrifice a lot, and they have really strong testimonies.
Our house is a dump. But we´re going to move at the beginning of next month :) We live in front of the highway, hav a gate for a front door, the bathroom is outside, the floor is made of dirt and bricks etc. But i´m not complaining. It did make me really homesick for my last area at first though.
But yeah. We áre in the poorest department ´(its like a province) in the country, but its not too bad here in town. Its just because the place is really spaced out and everyone that doesn´t live in town are farmers. Read a talk by Elder Christofferson in the Ensign this month about ´Always remembering Him´. It was really good. It talked about 3 things we need to do to keep our covenants to always remember christ. I cant remember them perfectly right now. But they were about always remembering that we´re going to be accountable for whatever we¨ve done and acting accordingly, having faith and turning to the lord in all our times of need.... and I cant remember the first point. But its one to look up for sure. I used it in the talk I had to give on sunday. Went pretty well. Crasily enough, it was the first time ive given a talk since beeing here. Thats what you get for being in big wards for so long. I played the piano and thats the first time theyve done that before I think. It was a disaster. Maybe we´ll go back to just listening to the hymns on CD but people want me to teach them piano too so that will be interesting. Donçt think I´m qualified for that.
Oh. Just for the record. I forgot to mention that me and Elder Villalon hitch-hiked to the church the other week. First time I´ve done that before so thankfully now its in the history books. Fortunately the driver was legit and not a serial killer or something.
Anyways. Thats how it is. Sounds like the last bunch of misisonaries here have been a bunch of goofs and slackers, and so we got a lot of work ahead of us. But thats cool with us. Elder Chatelain is a good guy and I´m happy to be able to work with him. Hes willing to work, and hopefully well be able to have some good success in this change.
But thats it. Out of time. Love you lots. Theres going to be lots of partying going down this week for the semana santa aka Easter week activities. So I´ll let you know how that goes. Hope you all have a fabulous easter get together without me. I cleaned out the freezer this week and all the ice and snow reminded me of home. Is it warming up yet? Its stillpretty hot here. But yeah. Love you lots! Have a happy easter´! Bye!
Love, Elder Humphreys
PS If you´re ever sending a package any time soon, do you think you could throw in a skipping rope. Like a nice one, not just a plastic kids one. I´ve been having a hard time gettin my hands on a new one and the one I got from Elder Lee broke. Thanks. Let me know what ya do.
Hope all is just swell back there at home. Heard about a bunch of tornadoes hittin down somewhere but not sure what the deal was with that. Hopefully everyones homes are still in one piece. I´m also glad to be alive here to talk to you as well. Had some river fish last monday. I think it was called Millanesa (basically means ¨breaded¨) de Surubí. Pretty good stuff at this place right by the river. Also, we got a couple of lunch visits here in San Pedro, but I haven´t gotten too sick yet. Besides that... went out for lunch today and I ordered.... Horse. Gross right? It actually didn´t taste all that bad. Came with an egg and a bunch of onions on top. That was the worst part. lol.
So Peter´s going to Chile then? How legit is that!? Sounds like Chile´s a pretty hoppin place. I´ll have to get some more details next time I talk with Elder Villalon. From what I´ve heard, I think they talk pretty fast there, but at least they speak spanish and not the half spanish half guarani they speak here. lol. But thanks for filling me in. I´ll have to make sure I hurry and write him back. Tell them that if they have any questions to just ask! Send an email or something. About anything too. I´m now an expert on shoes, hot climate, you name it. haha. Hope you´re all havin fun with the b-day plans. You wont be getting off as easy as you used to with mine.
But yeah. As for how the week went. Tuesday was pretty crasy. Ran around like crasy saying goodbyes and taking pictures with people. Didnt get to say goodbye to everyone that I wanted to, but oh well. I think I hit the most important people, and even got a couple of souvenirs. Turns out I´m still a painfully slow packer. lol. But yeah. It was sad to have to say goodbye to everyone. I had been thinking I would have been there a little bit longer, but turned out to be my time to leave. It appeared as though there were at least a couple of people that were genuinely sad to see me go though, so that made me happy.
Met up at the office wednesday. Turns out to get to our area and back is about 6.5 hours and there are only about 3 buses that leave a day. So the day was basically wasted sitting and waiting, and then traveling. The bus was pretty rough too. Didn´t have AC or anything. At least there were seats. And the view in someparts even reminded me of Alberta. But yeah. Turns out our area is pretty much the 2nd most isolated of any in the mission. We´re about 4 hours from the nearest set of misisonaries. So thats pretty legit. The area is really new and I´´m only the 7th missionary to ever come out here. So the are doesn´t have many people that have been members for more than a year now. We don´t even have a ward yet. Each week we have about 25 people that meet in a rented building. My comp runs the meeting and presides. So its pretty legit like that. But the members are awesome!They´ve had to sacrifice a lot, and they have really strong testimonies.
Our house is a dump. But we´re going to move at the beginning of next month :) We live in front of the highway, hav a gate for a front door, the bathroom is outside, the floor is made of dirt and bricks etc. But i´m not complaining. It did make me really homesick for my last area at first though.
But yeah. We áre in the poorest department ´(its like a province) in the country, but its not too bad here in town. Its just because the place is really spaced out and everyone that doesn´t live in town are farmers. Read a talk by Elder Christofferson in the Ensign this month about ´Always remembering Him´. It was really good. It talked about 3 things we need to do to keep our covenants to always remember christ. I cant remember them perfectly right now. But they were about always remembering that we´re going to be accountable for whatever we¨ve done and acting accordingly, having faith and turning to the lord in all our times of need.... and I cant remember the first point. But its one to look up for sure. I used it in the talk I had to give on sunday. Went pretty well. Crasily enough, it was the first time ive given a talk since beeing here. Thats what you get for being in big wards for so long. I played the piano and thats the first time theyve done that before I think. It was a disaster. Maybe we´ll go back to just listening to the hymns on CD but people want me to teach them piano too so that will be interesting. Donçt think I´m qualified for that.
Oh. Just for the record. I forgot to mention that me and Elder Villalon hitch-hiked to the church the other week. First time I´ve done that before so thankfully now its in the history books. Fortunately the driver was legit and not a serial killer or something.
Anyways. Thats how it is. Sounds like the last bunch of misisonaries here have been a bunch of goofs and slackers, and so we got a lot of work ahead of us. But thats cool with us. Elder Chatelain is a good guy and I´m happy to be able to work with him. Hes willing to work, and hopefully well be able to have some good success in this change.
But thats it. Out of time. Love you lots. Theres going to be lots of partying going down this week for the semana santa aka Easter week activities. So I´ll let you know how that goes. Hope you all have a fabulous easter get together without me. I cleaned out the freezer this week and all the ice and snow reminded me of home. Is it warming up yet? Its stillpretty hot here. But yeah. Love you lots! Have a happy easter´! Bye!
Love, Elder Humphreys
PS If you´re ever sending a package any time soon, do you think you could throw in a skipping rope. Like a nice one, not just a plastic kids one. I´ve been having a hard time gettin my hands on a new one and the one I got from Elder Lee broke. Thanks. Let me know what ya do.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Elder Humphreys is going LEJOS!
Mba´e la porte chera´a! (just practicing up on my Guarani. lol)
Phew. Had quite the week. Its funny because even as I write this I´m having a hard time not getting spanish mixed in here with my English. lol. Not even joking. Its funny what one week with a Latin comp can do to you. Fortunately Elder Villalón is really patient with me and my spanish. But it actually hasn{t been all that bad. At times I{ve had a hard time communicating what I want to say, but for the most part we havent had any problems getting along with the spanish. I think my spanish is probably 12X better after just this week. Its funny because Ive actually had a hard time just speaking in English with other missionaries though. Its cool too because E. Villalon knows a little english too so its helpful if I can{t find a word.
But as for the week. Went super well. Elder Villalon is(was) a great comp. He really knows how to work. Before I thought we were doing everything possible. Now I can see all the places where I have to improve. But its been super cool. We taught tonnes of lessons, found lots of new people to teach. Being latin, he{s got no shame at all and he talks to people all the time. In buses, in the streets, inturrupts them from whatever they were doing, and gets them interested in hearing about the gospel. And on top of that, hes a hard worker, and not a goof like most of the other latins. Super cool. So needless to say, I learned a bunch, and am excited to keep up all the stuff I learned.
Not to say that the week was without struggles. Its hard to be better! lol. But its good. I like it. It was also hard to introduce the area to him when he has such a different way of working. I felt kinda useless in that regard at times. But we made it. I think he{s got a good idea of the area now and know the important places and people. Hes not the cook that Elder Call was either. Ive tried doing things like Elder Call did them and they didnt turn out as good. But I{ve been able to practice the cooking and so I{ll be a master chef in no time. lol. I think we ate something wierd in the streets too, but I can{t remember what it is.
But besides this I{m not really sure what to say. Its wierd becuase there weren{t really any fun stories. Maybe that shows how much we worked. Not that we weren{t working before!! I don{t want you all to think I was slacking before or anything. But he just really knows what he{s doing and Im just really happy becuase I just feel like I know so much better what I should and can do. All new missionaries get trained by really good missionaries like him now. I feel kinda ripped off. lol. Not that Elder Lee was bad, but every missionary has different levels of commitment and ability. Elder Villalón is like the ¨dad¨ I never ha. lol.
Had the time change this week. That threw me off. I keep waking up at 5:30. Lame. Its wierd too because its not dark when we get up which is nice, but its going to take some getting used to. The sun goes down at.. 7?... and then you get to work in the dark for 2 and a half more hours in the dark. Wierd.
Got a letter from Craig and the family. Say ¨THANKS!¨ for me. I really enjoyed it.
Read Alma 26 this week. Super legit. I enjoyed it a lot. lol. Kinda applies to the whole missionary work in Paraguay thing.
Today we´re going out to eat fish down by the river. Should be an adventure. Elder V loves fish (apparently there{s a lot in Chile). Its kinda scary if you think too much about it because I{ll probably get mercury poisioning or something because the fish are coming out of the Rio Paraguayo. Its pretty dirty. But its another experience I gotta try. lol. Wish me luck!
When{s Natalie{s baby comming? If you{re still looking for names, I think I{ll suggest Juan Carlos, Liz, Maria, Pedro, Romina, Diego, Amado/a, Ruth, Gustavo. Something like that. Not that those names have any special significance or anything... Its just wierd because it feels like I don{t get to hear those names anymore....lol. They seem really original.
But now for the part that you{ve all been waiting for.... CHANGES! I{m sure you{re about as excited to hear about them as we always are. lol. Turns out that its finally time for me to pack my bags and take some pictures because I{m off! Elder Villalon is staying to be zone leader with a newbie, and I{m headed lejos. If you haven{t gotten around to looking that word up yet it means... far. lol. My new area is called San Pedro. Not sure if thats what its called if you look it up on a map. But its about half way between Asuncion and Concepcion. Right out in the middle of nowhere! Agh! Scary, but fun stuff. Sounds like I{ll finally be in a ward where there isnt the leadership to run itself and I{ll be half in charge with Elder Chatalain (not sure how you spell that). As far as I know hes a good guy. From what I{ve heard. I{ve heard San Pedro is a really pretty place so I{m pretty excited. Should be an adventure. I{m sad to leave because I really love the people here, and I was kinda hoping to stay one more. But I know its all in Gods plan. He knows best! So next week I{ll be writing you from way out there. Thats supossing that there{s internet and that my bus doesn{t break down on the way. I{ll let you know. But thats a wrap. Love you all! Hope all is well! Have a great week!!!
Love Elder Humphreys
Phew. Had quite the week. Its funny because even as I write this I´m having a hard time not getting spanish mixed in here with my English. lol. Not even joking. Its funny what one week with a Latin comp can do to you. Fortunately Elder Villalón is really patient with me and my spanish. But it actually hasn{t been all that bad. At times I{ve had a hard time communicating what I want to say, but for the most part we havent had any problems getting along with the spanish. I think my spanish is probably 12X better after just this week. Its funny because Ive actually had a hard time just speaking in English with other missionaries though. Its cool too because E. Villalon knows a little english too so its helpful if I can{t find a word.
But as for the week. Went super well. Elder Villalon is(was) a great comp. He really knows how to work. Before I thought we were doing everything possible. Now I can see all the places where I have to improve. But its been super cool. We taught tonnes of lessons, found lots of new people to teach. Being latin, he{s got no shame at all and he talks to people all the time. In buses, in the streets, inturrupts them from whatever they were doing, and gets them interested in hearing about the gospel. And on top of that, hes a hard worker, and not a goof like most of the other latins. Super cool. So needless to say, I learned a bunch, and am excited to keep up all the stuff I learned.
Not to say that the week was without struggles. Its hard to be better! lol. But its good. I like it. It was also hard to introduce the area to him when he has such a different way of working. I felt kinda useless in that regard at times. But we made it. I think he{s got a good idea of the area now and know the important places and people. Hes not the cook that Elder Call was either. Ive tried doing things like Elder Call did them and they didnt turn out as good. But I{ve been able to practice the cooking and so I{ll be a master chef in no time. lol. I think we ate something wierd in the streets too, but I can{t remember what it is.
But besides this I{m not really sure what to say. Its wierd becuase there weren{t really any fun stories. Maybe that shows how much we worked. Not that we weren{t working before!! I don{t want you all to think I was slacking before or anything. But he just really knows what he{s doing and Im just really happy becuase I just feel like I know so much better what I should and can do. All new missionaries get trained by really good missionaries like him now. I feel kinda ripped off. lol. Not that Elder Lee was bad, but every missionary has different levels of commitment and ability. Elder Villalón is like the ¨dad¨ I never ha. lol.
Had the time change this week. That threw me off. I keep waking up at 5:30. Lame. Its wierd too because its not dark when we get up which is nice, but its going to take some getting used to. The sun goes down at.. 7?... and then you get to work in the dark for 2 and a half more hours in the dark. Wierd.
Got a letter from Craig and the family. Say ¨THANKS!¨ for me. I really enjoyed it.
Read Alma 26 this week. Super legit. I enjoyed it a lot. lol. Kinda applies to the whole missionary work in Paraguay thing.
Today we´re going out to eat fish down by the river. Should be an adventure. Elder V loves fish (apparently there{s a lot in Chile). Its kinda scary if you think too much about it because I{ll probably get mercury poisioning or something because the fish are coming out of the Rio Paraguayo. Its pretty dirty. But its another experience I gotta try. lol. Wish me luck!
When{s Natalie{s baby comming? If you{re still looking for names, I think I{ll suggest Juan Carlos, Liz, Maria, Pedro, Romina, Diego, Amado/a, Ruth, Gustavo. Something like that. Not that those names have any special significance or anything... Its just wierd because it feels like I don{t get to hear those names anymore....lol. They seem really original.
But now for the part that you{ve all been waiting for.... CHANGES! I{m sure you{re about as excited to hear about them as we always are. lol. Turns out that its finally time for me to pack my bags and take some pictures because I{m off! Elder Villalon is staying to be zone leader with a newbie, and I{m headed lejos. If you haven{t gotten around to looking that word up yet it means... far. lol. My new area is called San Pedro. Not sure if thats what its called if you look it up on a map. But its about half way between Asuncion and Concepcion. Right out in the middle of nowhere! Agh! Scary, but fun stuff. Sounds like I{ll finally be in a ward where there isnt the leadership to run itself and I{ll be half in charge with Elder Chatalain (not sure how you spell that). As far as I know hes a good guy. From what I{ve heard. I{ve heard San Pedro is a really pretty place so I{m pretty excited. Should be an adventure. I{m sad to leave because I really love the people here, and I was kinda hoping to stay one more. But I know its all in Gods plan. He knows best! So next week I{ll be writing you from way out there. Thats supossing that there{s internet and that my bus doesn{t break down on the way. I{ll let you know. But thats a wrap. Love you all! Hope all is well! Have a great week!!!
Love Elder Humphreys
Monday, April 4, 2011
Special Changes!!!
Howdy. Glad to hear that you all had what sounded like fabulous weeks. Mine was a little crasy...
The week started pretty normal. Got a package from the Lloyds. That was super nice and awesome. Elder Call loved it almost as much as I did. haha. Took a nap on Monday during p-day time. Turns out that I don{t really like naps anymore. Wierd eh? When you don{t get to sleep for at least 3 hours its just not worth it. lol.
Random question if anybody happens to know: I was looking for a scripture that I thought I remembered learning about in Seminary but I can{t seem to find it anywhere. It talks about how we are a ¨strange and unusual people¨. That people look at the things we do and may think that we{re a little wierd. But we should be happy with that because its right. We are a little unusual. But in a good way. Something like that. I think the problem might just be that the words aren{t strange or unusual. Just something like that. Oh well.
What else. Oh. I was super excited for this week to come. We got to go to the temple and also got to listen to GenCon. Sweet! We had a little bit of a let down when we found out that this time when we went to the temple, we{d only be allowed to do a normal session, and not baptisms, confermations, sealings etc. But oh well. The only thing you could do was accept the fact that that was the rule. But we were just happy to get to go in the first place and the session is the most important part, so it wasn{t too big of a deal. No missionaries rioting or anything like that.
Before the temple though was Thursday. We were just minding our business, trying to prepare people to go to church to see the conference and whatnot. Talked to this one bible fanatic guy. It was another one of those kinda sad situations because he knew lots and was almost entirely 100% right in what he said. But he refused to let us read from the Book of Mormon or read it himself. Didn{t want to talk about it. He just wanted to do all the talking. We got stuck talking for waaaay too long. Dang it. I almost lost my patience because he wouldn{t let us leave. And then to top it all off, we gave him an invitation to conference. On it, along with other pics, it had a picture of the Christ on it. He started going off about how that wasn{t really Jesus Christ, and that we were worshipping images. We explained that it was just a picture but he told us it was like saying ¨its just one smoke. I won{t get addicted¨. And so he ripped that part of the invitation off and gave it back. lol. He was just a little crasy. But oh well. It was more sad than anything. He wants to follow Christ really bad, but he just couldn{t reccognize how to do it when it was right in front of him.
But ANYWAYS. That afternoon we{re just minding our own business. Got a phone call. What!? Yup. Special Changes. Changes aren{t supposed to be for a week and a half, but apparently President has something planned. Fortunately its me who gets to stay. So Elder Call and me ran around like crazies to say goodbye to everyone he wanted to remember. I was terribly scared of to get a new comp after so long. But word on the street was that the new guy was a good guy. And someone from Chile. Ahhhh! lol
Went to the temple. Guess who I saw? Elder Patterson!! First time since I{ve been here. Super cool. Sounds like he{s doing great. Hes had what appears as some bad ¨luck¨ with his comps (of course its not luck, but you know what I mean), but he{s doing great and is in great spirits. We got to talk for a while after the session and it was really nice. Just got to talk about home, other people we know, how the works doing etc. Fun stuff. The temple was great. LOVE IT there. Its too bad we can{t go more often with it so close, but I guess we{re here to do work for the living and not for the dead. Shucks.
Looks like the dollar is dropping eh? Thats no good. They put the money on our cards before the dollar dropped too far, so it looks like we{ll have to live off a little less this month. Hope I can make it. lol
I got double ¨had¨ for April Fools day. But I don{t want to talk about it....lol
Anyways. After that I got my new comp Sat morning. His name is Elder Villalón. He{s from Chile. Hes actually super legit. Its actually sad because it looks like I might be leaving in a week and a half here, and he{ll be zone leader, but I hope we get to stay together. Im really enjoying being together already. Being latin, hes able to communicate with the people a lot better and I think that really helps. The problem with latins is that they{re more often slackers, but not in his case. He works harder than any other missionary I know, so thats awesome. Theres so much Im going to learn in just this week. Im excited. And its nice cuz even though we speak Spanish all day I know it well enough now that we can communicate, and he{s helping me get better where I{m lacking. I think I{ve spoken more in this last weekend that in all of the last week. Its awesome. He{s also really good at sharing the teaching, being obedient and going the extra mile. Theres a lot of things he does that my other comps and I never did and so its cool because it shows me all the ways in which I can improve. I just wish we could have been comps sooner. lol. So yah, I{m pretty happy about that. Theres already been a lot of progression in the people we{re working with. He{s already dropped me and Elder Calls number one investigator though...lol. Oh well. I think it was the right choice for her right now too, it was just hard to do. Oh, thats the other thing. He{s not worried at all about just talking to anybody anywhere. In the street, busses whatever. My other comps were a little scared of that. I{m excited to improve and follow his good example.
Anyways, I was going to mention all the AWESOME things I learned at conf but no time! Shucks. One thing I liked though was how true Pres Hollands talk was. I saw in each and every talk how it could either apply to me, my investigators and/or my family and their situation. The Church is true! I love hearing the words of the prophets. Sorry gotta run. Re-listen to the talks if you haven{t. They}re the best. Love You all!
Love,
Elder Humphreys
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