Elder Humphreys -- Old Man

Elder Humphreys and Elder McCain

Hey everybody. Hows life. You can read this letter in a slightly depressed voice this week if you want. Just because I´m an old guy now, and nobody likes growing old. At least not me. I wanted to be a kid forever! lol. But really. Growing up has its ups. Its also got its downs. We had a good week, but it started out on a bad note, with me finding out that my old age is catching up with me - my metabolism must be slowing down or something - turns out I´m a full 15 to 20 pounds heavier than when I checked in to the MTC. At this rate, I´ll be a full 30 more by the time I get home. I tried putting my CTR ring on that I took off a while back (apparently we aren´t supposed to wear rings), but my fingers are chubbier now and I couldn´t get it on. haha :( You probably won´t be able to recognize me... just look for the kid thats too fat for his clothes. haha. Hopefully that skipping rope gets here soon. lol.

But on a happier note! (don´t dwell on the bad stuff right?). This week went really well. Kinda messy and full of traveling, but I enjoyed it. Monday was district meeting. Meant we had to get up early and take more than 8 hours of buses in one day (the one on the way there broke down on us. Twice). But it was fun. Got to work a little bit in Santani, and found a cool new investigator for them. The coolest part though was deffinately the ride home, when I got the front seat on the double decker bus. Super cool view. lol

Tuesday I got to go on a division with Elder Aguilar from Caguazzu, Paraguay. That was fun. Hes got less time than  me on his mission, and he´s waiting on his papers to go on his ¨real¨ mission in Portugal, but in the end, he really knows whats up and how to be a missionary. Had a super successfull day and found a real cool family that I wouldn´t be suprised if they all got baptized. We´ll see what happens. This very well might be my last week here in San Pedro... we´ll see how changes go.. I don´t want to leave. I really like it here. But, we´ll see what happens. Wednesday we used up half the day getting our comps back. Divisions out here are ridiculous. But I enjoyed it, and I´d say it was worth it.

Turns out we have rats or mice. They ate my soup mix while we were in Santani. Not fun.

This week president was telling us that we´ve been having a hard time finding new investigators as a mission, and just opening our mouths. So me and Elder McCain really tried to apply that this week, and we had some good success. We found a couple new investigators because I wasn´t afraid to just open up and talk my way through a potentially slightly awkward encounter with some new investigators, and we also got to do my first real service project here in San Pedro. It was legit. Gave us the oportunity to do some good talking with an inactive member, and when dad comes to visit, he´ll be able to see the super legit fence that I helped make. Good stuff! Its hard to find people that will let you serve them, but its always super rewarding when you can.

Friday we were working on getting everything organized for our ward trip to district conference in Concepcion, about 6 hours away. Lots of people said that they would go, but in the end, Satan was doing his best, and a lot of people couldn´t go for various reasons. But it was cool to see how the conference applied to our members needs in so many ways. But before we left, one of the members got pretty sick. Gave us the opportunity to give a blessing. Also, it was kinda wierd because for the first time yet in my mission, I´m in an area where I´ve had more time than my comp, and I can actually speak. So scarily enough, I was asked to give the blessing. I´ve got the anointing part mastered, because I´ve done that tonnes of times, but this was new for me. I think it was the first time that I´ve ever given one. But it went well. Havent´had a chance to talk to the lady since, but hopefully she´s feeling lots better. First time for everything.

As I was saying though, we took a big ward trip. It was fun. We left at 2 in the morning and travelled all night long to the conference. Had 12 people total, including us, and 2 non members. It went really good. I liked getting to see a new part of paraguay. There was also an area 70 in the conference and some really good talks. I think it was something really good for all the members there. Deffinately a success. But that meant that for my birthday, I got to eat a lot of junk food on the bus, and didn´t sleep good at all. But I wouldn´t have had it any other way. It also meant that a lot of our members were able to get their temple interviews done, and wé´re getting all ready to go to the temple on the 20th. I´m hoping that I´ll be here to see them all go......

Talked a little to Elder Patterson due to my b-day too. That was nice. He´s doing great as always.

But yeah. All in all my birthday went great. I don´t appreciate being so old though. I LOVED the vid that you sent. Glad to see everyone looking so happy and eating great food. lol. I´m glad that you all haven´t forgotten how to sing. hahaha. I also loved the pictures of the baby. How exciting. Weird that I didn´t know he was coming when I left, and that he´ll be all big and grown up by the time I get back. Cool name though. As for my package - still in the office. But I´ll get it soon enough. I´m excited! Funny that Marissa lost her camera... again. lol. But glad that the week sounded good. When did you say that you´re all going to California again? I thought that that was this week.... Glad that Levi isn´t dead, and that you had a good time with the Christensens. They were nice. I like visiting them.

But yeah. Gotta run. Out fo time as usual. Thanks for the letters. I loved them. Keep it real, have a great week, and be good missionaries! Love you lots!

Elder Humphreys