Hello hello. Hows it going.
We had a pretty crasy week here in the office. LOTS of stuff to do. Lots of ups and downs. Lots to be done. But it was good all in all.
Good and bad news as far as baptisms go. Good news - there was a baptism. Bad news - it wasn´t the baptisms that we were planning on. Kinda weird story. The weirder part being the good news. So Sunday went pretty good. One of our progressing investigators went to church. She thoroughly enjoyed it. The other one stayed home because she felt kind of sick/ her son was in from out of town and she didn´t want to leave him in the house by himself. Okay... Anyways. Church went pretty well. I did good and rather than falling asleep in Priesthood (the boring-est hour of every week) like one or two of the other Elders, I was able to have a good personal learning moment as I read in the new manual about George Albert Smith - good stuff. Anyways. The real excitement started right after church. We found out that there was going to be a baptism. Which was unusual. Even weirder though was that she wasn´t any of our investigators. She is a daughter of a member family that has gone to church almost every week for the last 42 years of her life. The reason she wasn´t baptized yet was because she has a mental handicap, to the point where she´s been told that she doesn´t need to be baptized. Well, without advising us or getting a proper interview from a missionary (necessary for all baptisms over the age of 8), the bishop interviewed her and allowed her brother to baptize her. I thought it was weird, but I asked the bishop and he told me that it was a special case and that we didn´t have to worry about it. The funniest part being that at the very last minute Elder Thomson was put in charge of directing the meeting, and the other two elders were put in charge of giving last minute talks. I took charge of adding more water to the font so it was more than knee deep (its just been sitting like that for a while), and scooping as many bugs and grossness out of the font before it happened. Very disorganized, but not our fault. But at least our investigator like it and she told the people there that she was going to get baptized on Friday. In the end, I double checked with the assistants, who then checked with president, and we found out that the bishop had no right to authorize a baptism like that. Oh well. The deed had been done. So we got put in charge of filling out the baptismal record and she now counts as one of our converts. lol. I think I´ve only taught a lesson with her there once before. Too bad we don´t work for numbers....haha.
Anyways, so that went interesting. The rest of Sunday turned into a minor disaster where we passed by one ladies house and got fed TONs of food. She made us try eggplant milanesa (basically breaded and then deep fried). Not too bad. Then we went to our real dinner visit and had to eat even more. We almost were sick. It was funny though because our first lunch visit was a very typical Paraguayan style meal. It made me realize how spoiled I´ve gotten here... I´m scared to go back (to the field). lol. We´ll see how long it takes me to get used to it again...
Monday was pretty normal. We did get one pretty cool visit in though. It was with one of the oldest members in all of Paraguay. Not that shes old, but just that she was one of the first. Apparently the church is sending people to see her give a presentation about the beginnings of the church here in Paraguay. She told us some fun stories, and some old books and stuff. It was fun. And then me and Elder Thomson got to translate for her the blessing that Ezra Taft Benson gave to dedicate the land of Paraguay for the spreading of the gospel. I had never seen it before. So that was cool. Got to read an old book about how mission life was way back when dad and that generation were missionaries. Super cool. We also got to teach our investigators about tithing. They enjoyed it and after explaining why we do it and about the blessings and such they didn´t have any problems with it. Then we went to the church and got to see who my posterity would be. Or as we say it here in the mission - who my ¨kid¨or ¨son¨ would be. His name is Elder Richards. From West Jordan Utah. He was actually the first name on the list of 3 people that I had given to President as possible replacements that I thought would do a good job. He´s a little quiet and shy-ish seeming, but he´s a really good kid. I thought that he would do a good job mainly because he gave back tons of left over money one month and so I assumed that he knows how to use money well and is honest and doesn´t love or live for money. lol
So he showed up on Wednesday. Right in the middle of zone conference week. Poor kid. There´s been tons to do, and then with the conferences, there are just people coming in with problems and needing money all the time. But he´s handling it well. I´m trying not to overwhelm him, but at the same time give him everything he needs to know. Its tricky. The hardest part is not getting bossy as I try and teach him what to do. Its a learning process. Its kind of nice because there are lots of moments when all I can do is sit back, watch him work and correct any mistakes he makes. Its also hard though because I have the huge to do list in my head, and I have to watch him practice while I know that I could get the same work done in a third of the time. But I think its good for me. Its teaching me patience. Its helping me to learn how to be a better teacher from kind of a different angle than I´m used to. He´s picking up really quick. I´m impressed. A lot quicker than I did. He´ll do a great job. The stress mostly just comes from me wanting to solve some of the problems that have come up in the last few weeks, and just get them done for him before I leave them on his own. But there´s only so much time... lol. Good stuff.
But yeah. Even without having to train it would have been crasy. Lots of money spent and lots of trips to the bank. Lots of needy people that are out of money because its the end of the month almost, and they are looking for any last penny then can get. Turns out that there are a lot of people who think I´m grumpy or strict or something like that. That made me kind of sad to hear. A lot of it just comes with the job. People want things from you, but you can´t just give them everything that they want because they ask for it. It is the Lords money after all. I realized too that I like to joke around with people, but that it they don´t know me very well, they think I´m serious and get all defensive. Oh well. Its nice because working as a missionary, and especially as an oficinista teaches you a lot about yourself. Its taught me a lot. It helps you learn patience, people skills, problem solving skills etc. Shows you a lot about where you can improve too. :)
Had a funny moment where on day during a zone conference some lady just walked in, interrupted the meeting and then talked with President or somebody for a second, told everybody there a little bit about herself and then read them one of the poems that she wrote. After that President escorted her to our (its not just mine anymore) office, and asked me to take down her information as a reference. So I got to talk with her for a while. We spoke in English. She´s from Argentina. Likes to travel around and just go random places. She was actually looking for a different church, but saw ours and she says the spirit told her to come in. So... we gave her a pamphlet and a Book of Mormon. Taught her a little bit. Took down her address. Probably will never see her again. Funny moment though because she was just ranting and raving about all sorts of stuff, but seemed pretty with it at the same time. Hopefully the missionaries find her house and can teach her.
Wednesday night we had a lesson with our investigators. Went over the baptismal questions. They seemed pretty determined to go through with it. It was strange because we had to meet in front of our house to teach them because their landlady hates us now and is kicking them out of their house. Mostly because of us and because they now attend our church. We told them that Satan is doing everything possible to keep them from getting baptized. Anyways, we planned it all out and got them ready for the interview the next day.
Thursday came along. We were calling people and inviting them to the baptism that was planned for Friday. All sorts of stuff. We even had less active members all pumped up. They were going to bring a cake, there were a descent number of people planning on going. But when we called them up we got the bad news. They said that they didn´t have time to do the interview. That they had to look for a new house. In the end, Satan was working hard and it was just too much for them. My companion went out with the district leader to see if they could calm them down and do the interview, but to no avail. So that was kind of sad. But they are looking for their new house and say that they are excited to get baptized after they get settled in to their new house. We´ll see how it goes.
The upside of Thursday is that we are now in a threesome. Which is awkward. But leaves openings for divisions. I think this week I´ll try and leave with the young men. But on this day I actually got to leave with Elder Short (the assistant). To none other than my first area - Moroni. Fun stuff. I was excited. I got to see a couple people that I haven´t been in touch with for over a year now. That was really cool. I thought that nobody would remember me because back then I hardly ever talked, and I was only there for 7 weeks. But there were a couple people that recognized me and it made me really happy. I think they really just appreciated the fact that I remembered them. It was awesome. I haven´t smiled so much in a while now. It was good too because I got to point out a lot of less active and old investigators houses to Elder Short. Hopefully it was helpful to him. It gets me really excited (but not trunky) to go around with Dad at the end.
Friday was our zone conference. Super good. We learned lots. And we really felt the spirit. It was great. Rather than focusing on techniques of teaching or things to do differently, we focused a lot more about the very important, but more general things. For instance, Charity. How important that is in the work. Also President taught us all about the complexities of Faith, and how profound and interesting of a subject it can be. Stuff that we will be able to apply in all aspects of the work. Some of my favorite Elders also gave their final testimonies in a zone conference setting. Its always kind of sad to see that they´re going to go. Usually they all say the same thing about how they´ve changed, that they are going to keep being good missionaries etc. But there were a lot this time that actually gave good solid, testimonies. Real testimonies. At the end, you could really just feel the spirit super strong. At presidents request, we all left in silence and it was a really special experience. The only downside being that the whole day my insides just wanted to be outside of me. haha. I was pretty sick. Ugh. But I just fasted it off, didn´t eat, took some medicine, and was able to recover not too bad. Must have been something I ate. It made it hard to focus because I needed to leave the meeting, but it also kept me from falling asleep, so I guess thats good. Turns out that I was just the first one to get it. Turns out that there was something in the food, because basically everyone that I´ve talked today is suffering from the same or worse symptoms. Its actually been quite humorous. We´re pretty used to being sick by now, but it has lead to many lost hours of sleep, or panicked running. haha. We typically refer to the problem as ¨Chivivi Guazu¨, or more simply ¨The Sheevs¨. haha. The very first Guarani phrase that I learned....lol
Anyways. Thats that. Today President Foster of the 70 is with us. We´ll see if we get to have a meeting with us or anything. Otherwise a pretty tranquilo day. We´ve had to get up early and go to bed late every day this week with office stuff, and so I think we might just rest. Glad you had a good tranquilo week. That you´re having fun. Thanks for the letters and the support. Keep me filled in with everything. I love you tons. I hope you have a great week! The church is true, and don´t forget to be good missionaries!
Love,
Elder Humphreys
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Saturday, February 18, 2012
The Office - Week 24
Bueno. Hi family. How´s it going. Life here is splendid. Working hard. Sweating hard. Having a great time.
Actually we had a really good week. Glad to hear that things are good at home. That the b-day party went well... that you´re enjoying the snow... that you´re enjoying the hockey... (how are we doing this year btw?). Crasy to hear that everyone is growing up so fast and that your trip is coming up so soon. How exciting. I can still never remember when the exact trip will be. You´ve been saying that its going to be soon for a while now. lol. Crasy to hear that everybody is getting married here. Things are sure going to be different when I get home. Oh well. Thats life right. Congrats to everyone. How is this EFY thing working then? You say ¨Stay at home¨ program, but I´m assuming its just sleep at home instead of spending the whole day at home by yourself right? haha. Good stuff. Oh well. Should be good anyways. Anyways. Good to hear that life continues on and that you are having a great time. Keep up the good work.
As for us... Sunday was pretty good. We got to church and waited for our investigators. We were dissapointed when they didn´t show up for sacrament meeting. So we called them and found out that they had accidently slept in. So they got ready really quick and made it back in time to go to the sacrament meeting of the other ward, and then to a really quick Gospel Principles class. We´ve talked to them since and gotten them asegurar-ed for baptism.. Wow. I honestly don´t know how to say that in non-Spanglish. Like.... locked in or have made certain. I don´t know. Basically they´ve commited themselves to get baptized the 24th of February, and they are pretty set on it. We´re pretty excited. Should be good. They have member support. We´ve done everything possible to really teach according to their needs. I think they both have pretty solid testimonies of the truth. They could have been baptized last week since they´ve been to church enough times, but we really wanted to make sure that they´d be ready. So hopefully next week I´ll be writing back with good news of baptisms. Its been so long that I´ve almost forgotten what its like. I´m pretty excited. Sunday we also got the news that the member family (the Familia Cañisa) DID go through the temple and were sealed as a family. Good feeling. We had been helping and teaching and encouraging them for a while now and so it was super nice to see how happy they were. The mother was just ecstatic to tell us about how it was and how happy she is. Awesome. Also got to have a really good ward council meeting as well as a great sunday dinner visit. Yum.
Monday was crasy. There were tons of things to do in the office. Worked like crasy. But it was actually not that bad. I much rather would have lots to do than nothing. Tuesday wasn´t much different either. President was leaving town on Wednesday, and so I had to do a whole weeks worth of stuff in just a couple of days because he´s the only one that can sign checks and stuff like that. Almost had a few close calls getting it done. At one point I needed a check pronto, but President was out and about. I almost ignored everyone's advice to just call and ask him where he was. In the end, it turned out that he wasn´t going to get back in time, so I had to meet him at the bank itself where he signed the check 10 minutes before it closed. Close one. lol. Tuesday had an interesting morning. First, Elder Roberts (one of the oficinistas) went to turn off the trickling bidet and instead turned it on, shooting himself in the face. Ugh. haha. Then we had district meeting. The district leader was just busy telling us off for not getting the best numbers last week in certain key indicator areas, where we obviously knew that we could improve next week. Anyways, the new assistant (Elder Short) walked in and when asked if he had any comments went right out and said that the spirit was not felt there in the room and that something had to change. Wow. Bold statement. Anyways, he was able to turn the whole thing around and save some of the lesson. He does a great job here. Sometimes he´s does a great job of being a second conscience - sometimes a little naggy, but really just telling you what you already know and helping you to do better. Good stuff.
Wednesday I got to catch up on all of the stuff that had gotten put to the side the days before. I also got to see the rewards of hard work. I think I had made 7 or 8 checks in those 2 days, but in the end, I needed every one of them and was really glad that I had put in the little effort before hand to save myself from suffering later. Kind of a good analogy for life and the Plan of Salvation I guess.
Anyways. I don´t really remember Thursday. Pretty tranquilo day. But Friday is where the real excitement came. After office work, we got to help set up for the talent show that we´ve been planning. The ward mission leader had the idea a couple weeks back. We were all kind of skeptical because the last activity we planned kind of flopped. Big time. But we played along with it because he was pretty excited. Even up till Friday I was interested to see how it would turn out and who would come. Well, after set up we went and worked. Made some personal and phone-style invites. Actually got some good work done just by using technology to our advantage. Anyways, we showed up at the talent show and people were already getting all ready for there acts. Little by little more and more people showed up. In the end, there were lots of people there. Members, less active members, members and visitors from other wards. Exciting. We had a weird incidence at the beginning where some guy was trying to accuse a member for breaking into his house the other week. Definitely possible. But fortunately he didn´t make a scene, and in the end there wasn´t really any problems. But the talent show went 100 times better than I would have thought. We didn´t have any time at all to participate which was good because we didn´t practice anything. I got forced into accompanying a song I didn´t know, and butchered it. But fortunately I don´t think anyone noticed because they were busy listening to the little primary singers. Other funny parts: The mission leader tried to get me to lead a whole pack of ballerinas upstairs to their changing room by myself. Didn´t fall for it. haha. One of them also tried to give my comp the traditional double kiss thing on stage in front of everybody as he gave them a thank you note kind of thing. In the end he pulled out like a good missionary, but made a scene of himself in front of everybody. haha. The members liked it. In the end, it just went great. I only broke I bottle of soda, but I made sure that everyone knew that it wasn´t me. lol. The dancers were actually really cool. They did lots of traditional dances for us and it was a really memorable moment. In the end, a great ward bonding experience. Super cool. The youth even performed the EFY line dances and all that good stuff.
Today pretty normal. They are opening a new area (hasn´t been done for a while) and so the assistants got to go out and look for a chapel and house. Unfortunately we weren´t invited, but cool nonetheless. Played more piki volley. Sweated tons.
This next week should be good and crasy. We have zone conferences almost every day and so we´ll have extra work on our hands every day. Ugh. Oh well. I´ll also be getting the newbie to train. Crasy how time flies. It still doesn´t feel like I´ve been here that long. So that should be exciting. We find out Monday night who the Elder is, and then he´ll be here Wednesday to start his training. Fun stuff. This might be my one and only time to train anyone in anything, so I plan on making the best of it. Its nice though, because he´s almost guaranteed to be a cool guy and should already know how to speak and how stuff goes. So that´ll be nice. Wish me luck. lol. I also plan on doing a lot of divisions with the young men in the next couple of weeks so that we don´t have to work in a trio when we can be doing double work. Exciting.
But yeah. Thats kind of my week. Went well. For some reason I can´t think of anything new besides that. Hopefully all continues to go well. Glad to hear that things are going well with you all. Love you all lots. I appreciate all of your letters and support. The church is true! Hope you have a great week, and keep up the good work!
Chau!
Elder Humphreys
Actually we had a really good week. Glad to hear that things are good at home. That the b-day party went well... that you´re enjoying the snow... that you´re enjoying the hockey... (how are we doing this year btw?). Crasy to hear that everyone is growing up so fast and that your trip is coming up so soon. How exciting. I can still never remember when the exact trip will be. You´ve been saying that its going to be soon for a while now. lol. Crasy to hear that everybody is getting married here. Things are sure going to be different when I get home. Oh well. Thats life right. Congrats to everyone. How is this EFY thing working then? You say ¨Stay at home¨ program, but I´m assuming its just sleep at home instead of spending the whole day at home by yourself right? haha. Good stuff. Oh well. Should be good anyways. Anyways. Good to hear that life continues on and that you are having a great time. Keep up the good work.
As for us... Sunday was pretty good. We got to church and waited for our investigators. We were dissapointed when they didn´t show up for sacrament meeting. So we called them and found out that they had accidently slept in. So they got ready really quick and made it back in time to go to the sacrament meeting of the other ward, and then to a really quick Gospel Principles class. We´ve talked to them since and gotten them asegurar-ed for baptism.. Wow. I honestly don´t know how to say that in non-Spanglish. Like.... locked in or have made certain. I don´t know. Basically they´ve commited themselves to get baptized the 24th of February, and they are pretty set on it. We´re pretty excited. Should be good. They have member support. We´ve done everything possible to really teach according to their needs. I think they both have pretty solid testimonies of the truth. They could have been baptized last week since they´ve been to church enough times, but we really wanted to make sure that they´d be ready. So hopefully next week I´ll be writing back with good news of baptisms. Its been so long that I´ve almost forgotten what its like. I´m pretty excited. Sunday we also got the news that the member family (the Familia Cañisa) DID go through the temple and were sealed as a family. Good feeling. We had been helping and teaching and encouraging them for a while now and so it was super nice to see how happy they were. The mother was just ecstatic to tell us about how it was and how happy she is. Awesome. Also got to have a really good ward council meeting as well as a great sunday dinner visit. Yum.
Monday was crasy. There were tons of things to do in the office. Worked like crasy. But it was actually not that bad. I much rather would have lots to do than nothing. Tuesday wasn´t much different either. President was leaving town on Wednesday, and so I had to do a whole weeks worth of stuff in just a couple of days because he´s the only one that can sign checks and stuff like that. Almost had a few close calls getting it done. At one point I needed a check pronto, but President was out and about. I almost ignored everyone's advice to just call and ask him where he was. In the end, it turned out that he wasn´t going to get back in time, so I had to meet him at the bank itself where he signed the check 10 minutes before it closed. Close one. lol. Tuesday had an interesting morning. First, Elder Roberts (one of the oficinistas) went to turn off the trickling bidet and instead turned it on, shooting himself in the face. Ugh. haha. Then we had district meeting. The district leader was just busy telling us off for not getting the best numbers last week in certain key indicator areas, where we obviously knew that we could improve next week. Anyways, the new assistant (Elder Short) walked in and when asked if he had any comments went right out and said that the spirit was not felt there in the room and that something had to change. Wow. Bold statement. Anyways, he was able to turn the whole thing around and save some of the lesson. He does a great job here. Sometimes he´s does a great job of being a second conscience - sometimes a little naggy, but really just telling you what you already know and helping you to do better. Good stuff.
Wednesday I got to catch up on all of the stuff that had gotten put to the side the days before. I also got to see the rewards of hard work. I think I had made 7 or 8 checks in those 2 days, but in the end, I needed every one of them and was really glad that I had put in the little effort before hand to save myself from suffering later. Kind of a good analogy for life and the Plan of Salvation I guess.
Anyways. I don´t really remember Thursday. Pretty tranquilo day. But Friday is where the real excitement came. After office work, we got to help set up for the talent show that we´ve been planning. The ward mission leader had the idea a couple weeks back. We were all kind of skeptical because the last activity we planned kind of flopped. Big time. But we played along with it because he was pretty excited. Even up till Friday I was interested to see how it would turn out and who would come. Well, after set up we went and worked. Made some personal and phone-style invites. Actually got some good work done just by using technology to our advantage. Anyways, we showed up at the talent show and people were already getting all ready for there acts. Little by little more and more people showed up. In the end, there were lots of people there. Members, less active members, members and visitors from other wards. Exciting. We had a weird incidence at the beginning where some guy was trying to accuse a member for breaking into his house the other week. Definitely possible. But fortunately he didn´t make a scene, and in the end there wasn´t really any problems. But the talent show went 100 times better than I would have thought. We didn´t have any time at all to participate which was good because we didn´t practice anything. I got forced into accompanying a song I didn´t know, and butchered it. But fortunately I don´t think anyone noticed because they were busy listening to the little primary singers. Other funny parts: The mission leader tried to get me to lead a whole pack of ballerinas upstairs to their changing room by myself. Didn´t fall for it. haha. One of them also tried to give my comp the traditional double kiss thing on stage in front of everybody as he gave them a thank you note kind of thing. In the end he pulled out like a good missionary, but made a scene of himself in front of everybody. haha. The members liked it. In the end, it just went great. I only broke I bottle of soda, but I made sure that everyone knew that it wasn´t me. lol. The dancers were actually really cool. They did lots of traditional dances for us and it was a really memorable moment. In the end, a great ward bonding experience. Super cool. The youth even performed the EFY line dances and all that good stuff.
Today pretty normal. They are opening a new area (hasn´t been done for a while) and so the assistants got to go out and look for a chapel and house. Unfortunately we weren´t invited, but cool nonetheless. Played more piki volley. Sweated tons.
This next week should be good and crasy. We have zone conferences almost every day and so we´ll have extra work on our hands every day. Ugh. Oh well. I´ll also be getting the newbie to train. Crasy how time flies. It still doesn´t feel like I´ve been here that long. So that should be exciting. We find out Monday night who the Elder is, and then he´ll be here Wednesday to start his training. Fun stuff. This might be my one and only time to train anyone in anything, so I plan on making the best of it. Its nice though, because he´s almost guaranteed to be a cool guy and should already know how to speak and how stuff goes. So that´ll be nice. Wish me luck. lol. I also plan on doing a lot of divisions with the young men in the next couple of weeks so that we don´t have to work in a trio when we can be doing double work. Exciting.
But yeah. Thats kind of my week. Went well. For some reason I can´t think of anything new besides that. Hopefully all continues to go well. Glad to hear that things are going well with you all. Love you all lots. I appreciate all of your letters and support. The church is true! Hope you have a great week, and keep up the good work!
Chau!
Elder Humphreys
Saturday, February 11, 2012
The Office - Week 23
Howdy there family and friends! How´s it going?
Things here this week were pretty crasy... Tons of stuff to do and just not enough time. I have a HUGE list of things to do this week coming up. But its not all that bad. The only time tons to do really gets to me is when it causes mistakes to be made, or when there isn´t enough time to get everything done. But things are basically under control and so I actually don´t mind too much. Its better than a couple of weeks ago where I hardly had anything to keep me busy with here in the office. Because of all of the craziness however I can hardly remember when things happened during the week. I do however remember a few random details though so I´ll try and fill you all in.
This was my second last full week as the only Financiero in the office. I have this one coming up left, and then the new guy will be here on the 22nd. Crasy. Time has just flown here in the office. So far I´m still completely in the dark as far as who he will be... I gave a list of 3 names to President of who I would think would make a good replacement, but obviously those are just suggestions. He still hasn´t really given me any hints on who he´s been thinking of. We´ll see. Its kind of fun though to be the experienced one in the office though. I know how to get places, know where the streets are and usually what we should do in many of the random situations that we find ourselves in. So thats nice. Its a lot funner than not knowing what is going on all of the time. lol. I´ve kind of forgotten how to be a real field missionary though, so hopefully the transition back isn´t too hard.
Anyways. I don´t really remember what happened last Saturday... we played some piki-volley and had some fun. Went to work... Most of the people weren´t there. We started fasting at mid-day since Lunch is the main meal here. We also got a sweet invite to lunch at a members house. The coolest thing being that they are one of the 2 American families in the ward.
Sunday went alright. Our investigators didn´t come to church because they had to work. That was kind of a bummer because it means that they won´t be able to get baptized for at least another week or so. But thats alright. We re-explained the importance of Sabbath day observance and I think they really understand it now. I think they will be at church this week. They say that they have given up working on Sundays now. We´ll see how that goes. This will also give them more time to prepare and really understand the importance of baptism. We´ll see how they do in the coming weeks. Also, as I´m sure you all know, it was Superbowl Sunday. Normally, that wouldn´t be very exciting because nobody here watches Football, BUT we got to go to the American families house. It was Super fun. lol. Thankfully they weren´t big football fans, and the tv never even got turned on. haha. But we did have a feast with them and the other Americans in our ward. That was fun. Then we watched a mini-violin recital so that one of their kids could pass of Suzuki 1. That was fun because I knew the songs and even got to pick one of them to play. I picked ¨The Happy Farmer¨.
It was also this day that we went and visited a less active family in our ward and we found out that they were having a hard time. It turns out that about a year ago, he was preparing for his mission. Instead, he had a baby with his girlfriend who is now his wife. She has since gotten baptized and everything, and they seem repented and everything. But its still a touchy subject. His mom gives him a hard time for not having served a mission and it makes him depressed to think about it, or have us visit him. Anyways, they had been fighting because of this subject. So we shared with them a bit about the atonement and how it takes away all guilt and sin. That even though they´ve kinda messed up in the past, they can´t let it take them down. We taught a bit about the temple and how they still have the opportunity to be an eternal family. That a mission sure, would have been great. But he can´t put an eternal family on the line just because he missed a good opportunity in the past. Anyways, that lead to another cool visit about 2 days later. The new American family in our ward is really cool, and they are really excited to help us work. Anyways, we got permission to pick them up in the van and take them over to visit. They made brownies and everything. Soooo american, but super cool. Being in the car kind of scared her (I tried to drive really relaxed, but just being in the streets can freak you out if you´re not used to it). Anyways. He actually never served a mission back in the day, while she did. But now they have a super cool and super happy family. So we were able to share about that and try and show them that everything isn´t lost. I think it bumped up their animo, and I think they are more excited to go to church knowing that they have new friends there.
Annoying parts of the office this week: The bank gave me too much money and I had to give it back. More work then it sounds. Also, there was a zone leader meeting. That meant that there were tons of needy zone leaders kicking it in the office for a good chunk of the day. Ugh. All of the oficinistas have been kinda sick lately. Myself included. Probably from drinking water at members houses or from eating too much burger king since our cook didn´t come for a couple days this week. Oh well. Thats enough complaining though. We enjoy our trials even though we like to complain about them. lol.
Fun purchases of the week: Got a cool calculator watch from an investigators little shop. haha. I thought it fitted my calling as Financiero well. Now I just have to find a place to get a battery for it and I´m good to go. I´m excited. lol. I also bought a kids meal one day for lunch because they had cool Transformer toys. I think the guy working there thought I was ridiculous.... he was probably right.
Wordly but cool experiences: Got passed while driving the van. That doesn´t happen very often and so I was kind of weirded out. Then I realized it was an Audi R...8? I think thats what its called. Whatever IronMan drives. lol. Not something you see every day. Especially in Paraguay.
Language mix up of the week: Spanish is different in all parts of the world. I had to talk to a missionary´s Bishop the other day over the phone so he could send us some money. Anyways, he asked how Elder Meneses was doing. Well in Paraguay, there is a word that means hard-working - ¨Guapo¨. However, as far as my understanding, in every other country it means handsome. haha. So basically I said ¨Yeah, he´s doing great. He´s really handsome and.... I mean... Ugh. He´s... a really hard worker. Anyways, I got to go. Bye¨. And then I hung up. hahaha. Hopefully he knows a thing or two about Paraguayan culture (he´s from Argentina), or else he was probably a little weirded out by that comment. lol
The tire got a whole in it this week. That was lame. Had to take care of that. Not that exciting though.... what else.....We got to give a blessing to one of our members this week. His face was all swollen up and everything. Hopefully that gets better. An investigator gave up a job that he had because he wasn´t allowed to listen to us, and work at this catholic college place at the same time. So even though he´s going through a really rough patch, he gave it up to hopefully continue on his way to baptism. We´re praying that he can get another job soon. One of our member families goes to the temple this week. Thats a good feeling. Maybe I haven´t been able to help many people get baptized as of late, but thats another group of people that I feel like I´ve been able to help get to the temple. We´ve been inviting, teaching and helping them to prepare a lot, and so thats a accomplishing kind of feeling. One of our investigators also called us up and replanned our visit so that we could teach him about the book of mormon that we left him (something that never seems to happen). So that was kind of exciting. Anyways, all in all a really good week in our area too. Only had one run in with some really ¨snakey¨ people that were more interested in my comp than they were in the gospel. haha.
Anyways, today has been pretty tranquilo. Had to run errands and get the tire fixed. On our P-day. lol. Oh well. Got my hair cut. Just ate empanadas for lunch. They were really good though. Pretty tranquilo.
Thanks for the letters. Glad things are going well. Sorry for never really writing personalized letters. I honestly havent really been writing to anyone lately. Partly because I´m a little too lazy. But partly also because being 6 people together on Pday usually means that there is a lot of stuff going on that I have to participate in if my companion is doing. Oh well. I´ll try and be better.
Congrats on the hockey singing. Thats super cool! I´m kinda sad I couldn´t be there. Sounded great though. Glad you´re all working and playing hard. Having fun.
Anyways, I gotta run. My comp wants to go get some groceries. Thanks for everything. Love you tons and hope you have a great week! The church is true and I love being a missionary. Suerte!
Elder Humphreys
Things here this week were pretty crasy... Tons of stuff to do and just not enough time. I have a HUGE list of things to do this week coming up. But its not all that bad. The only time tons to do really gets to me is when it causes mistakes to be made, or when there isn´t enough time to get everything done. But things are basically under control and so I actually don´t mind too much. Its better than a couple of weeks ago where I hardly had anything to keep me busy with here in the office. Because of all of the craziness however I can hardly remember when things happened during the week. I do however remember a few random details though so I´ll try and fill you all in.
This was my second last full week as the only Financiero in the office. I have this one coming up left, and then the new guy will be here on the 22nd. Crasy. Time has just flown here in the office. So far I´m still completely in the dark as far as who he will be... I gave a list of 3 names to President of who I would think would make a good replacement, but obviously those are just suggestions. He still hasn´t really given me any hints on who he´s been thinking of. We´ll see. Its kind of fun though to be the experienced one in the office though. I know how to get places, know where the streets are and usually what we should do in many of the random situations that we find ourselves in. So thats nice. Its a lot funner than not knowing what is going on all of the time. lol. I´ve kind of forgotten how to be a real field missionary though, so hopefully the transition back isn´t too hard.
Anyways. I don´t really remember what happened last Saturday... we played some piki-volley and had some fun. Went to work... Most of the people weren´t there. We started fasting at mid-day since Lunch is the main meal here. We also got a sweet invite to lunch at a members house. The coolest thing being that they are one of the 2 American families in the ward.
Sunday went alright. Our investigators didn´t come to church because they had to work. That was kind of a bummer because it means that they won´t be able to get baptized for at least another week or so. But thats alright. We re-explained the importance of Sabbath day observance and I think they really understand it now. I think they will be at church this week. They say that they have given up working on Sundays now. We´ll see how that goes. This will also give them more time to prepare and really understand the importance of baptism. We´ll see how they do in the coming weeks. Also, as I´m sure you all know, it was Superbowl Sunday. Normally, that wouldn´t be very exciting because nobody here watches Football, BUT we got to go to the American families house. It was Super fun. lol. Thankfully they weren´t big football fans, and the tv never even got turned on. haha. But we did have a feast with them and the other Americans in our ward. That was fun. Then we watched a mini-violin recital so that one of their kids could pass of Suzuki 1. That was fun because I knew the songs and even got to pick one of them to play. I picked ¨The Happy Farmer¨.
It was also this day that we went and visited a less active family in our ward and we found out that they were having a hard time. It turns out that about a year ago, he was preparing for his mission. Instead, he had a baby with his girlfriend who is now his wife. She has since gotten baptized and everything, and they seem repented and everything. But its still a touchy subject. His mom gives him a hard time for not having served a mission and it makes him depressed to think about it, or have us visit him. Anyways, they had been fighting because of this subject. So we shared with them a bit about the atonement and how it takes away all guilt and sin. That even though they´ve kinda messed up in the past, they can´t let it take them down. We taught a bit about the temple and how they still have the opportunity to be an eternal family. That a mission sure, would have been great. But he can´t put an eternal family on the line just because he missed a good opportunity in the past. Anyways, that lead to another cool visit about 2 days later. The new American family in our ward is really cool, and they are really excited to help us work. Anyways, we got permission to pick them up in the van and take them over to visit. They made brownies and everything. Soooo american, but super cool. Being in the car kind of scared her (I tried to drive really relaxed, but just being in the streets can freak you out if you´re not used to it). Anyways. He actually never served a mission back in the day, while she did. But now they have a super cool and super happy family. So we were able to share about that and try and show them that everything isn´t lost. I think it bumped up their animo, and I think they are more excited to go to church knowing that they have new friends there.
Annoying parts of the office this week: The bank gave me too much money and I had to give it back. More work then it sounds. Also, there was a zone leader meeting. That meant that there were tons of needy zone leaders kicking it in the office for a good chunk of the day. Ugh. All of the oficinistas have been kinda sick lately. Myself included. Probably from drinking water at members houses or from eating too much burger king since our cook didn´t come for a couple days this week. Oh well. Thats enough complaining though. We enjoy our trials even though we like to complain about them. lol.
Fun purchases of the week: Got a cool calculator watch from an investigators little shop. haha. I thought it fitted my calling as Financiero well. Now I just have to find a place to get a battery for it and I´m good to go. I´m excited. lol. I also bought a kids meal one day for lunch because they had cool Transformer toys. I think the guy working there thought I was ridiculous.... he was probably right.
Wordly but cool experiences: Got passed while driving the van. That doesn´t happen very often and so I was kind of weirded out. Then I realized it was an Audi R...8? I think thats what its called. Whatever IronMan drives. lol. Not something you see every day. Especially in Paraguay.
Language mix up of the week: Spanish is different in all parts of the world. I had to talk to a missionary´s Bishop the other day over the phone so he could send us some money. Anyways, he asked how Elder Meneses was doing. Well in Paraguay, there is a word that means hard-working - ¨Guapo¨. However, as far as my understanding, in every other country it means handsome. haha. So basically I said ¨Yeah, he´s doing great. He´s really handsome and.... I mean... Ugh. He´s... a really hard worker. Anyways, I got to go. Bye¨. And then I hung up. hahaha. Hopefully he knows a thing or two about Paraguayan culture (he´s from Argentina), or else he was probably a little weirded out by that comment. lol
The tire got a whole in it this week. That was lame. Had to take care of that. Not that exciting though.... what else.....We got to give a blessing to one of our members this week. His face was all swollen up and everything. Hopefully that gets better. An investigator gave up a job that he had because he wasn´t allowed to listen to us, and work at this catholic college place at the same time. So even though he´s going through a really rough patch, he gave it up to hopefully continue on his way to baptism. We´re praying that he can get another job soon. One of our member families goes to the temple this week. Thats a good feeling. Maybe I haven´t been able to help many people get baptized as of late, but thats another group of people that I feel like I´ve been able to help get to the temple. We´ve been inviting, teaching and helping them to prepare a lot, and so thats a accomplishing kind of feeling. One of our investigators also called us up and replanned our visit so that we could teach him about the book of mormon that we left him (something that never seems to happen). So that was kind of exciting. Anyways, all in all a really good week in our area too. Only had one run in with some really ¨snakey¨ people that were more interested in my comp than they were in the gospel. haha.
Anyways, today has been pretty tranquilo. Had to run errands and get the tire fixed. On our P-day. lol. Oh well. Got my hair cut. Just ate empanadas for lunch. They were really good though. Pretty tranquilo.
Thanks for the letters. Glad things are going well. Sorry for never really writing personalized letters. I honestly havent really been writing to anyone lately. Partly because I´m a little too lazy. But partly also because being 6 people together on Pday usually means that there is a lot of stuff going on that I have to participate in if my companion is doing. Oh well. I´ll try and be better.
Congrats on the hockey singing. Thats super cool! I´m kinda sad I couldn´t be there. Sounded great though. Glad you´re all working and playing hard. Having fun.
Anyways, I gotta run. My comp wants to go get some groceries. Thanks for everything. Love you tons and hope you have a great week! The church is true and I love being a missionary. Suerte!
Elder Humphreys
Saturday, February 4, 2012
The Office - Week 22
Howdy!
Well, as you notice, we jumped week 21 and went straight to 22. Looks like I missed a week back and Christmas time, but now we´re back on track. Crasy how time flies though. It feels like just yesterday that I got here in the office. I now feel like I know how everything works, and what needs to be done, but at the same time, I still just feel like that young newbie office Elder that just barely showed up. It´ll be weird to leave and get back to the campo again. The weeks I have left are going to fly by for sure.
On that note, this was kind of a strange week for me. As a missionary, people always ask you how long you´ve been out for and stuff like that out of small talk. A while back I got to that kind of weird moment, where it was a lot easier to say how little I had left instead of how little experience I have in the field. And so that brought me to the strange realization this week of how little time I actually have left. Yesterday was the 3rd which leaves 6 short months before Dad should be showing up. Thats a very strange feeling, and I dont think I like it. Wow. How the time has flown. Once again, I kind of just feel like I´m still that newish missionary that I was a year ago. Obviously I´ve gotten totally used to the routine of getting up, wearing missionary clothes all the time, speaking Spanish, and not being around my family, and so I have grown up a lot. But I just can´t believe how little is left. To a lot of people, 6 months is a long time. Half a year. But from an old missionaries standpoint, that isn´t much at all. 4 and a half changes. One last area. 6 more fast sundays after tomorrow. Wow. Thankfully I feel like it gives me more animo to work. Some people get all homesick and lazy in their last little time. I think for me, it helps me see how much more I want to do, and how much I can do to make the best of what´s left. I think life as a missionary just really gets you thinking about the value of time. Your time is limited. Whether it be the time in each day, the time you have to study, or the time to work hard as a full-time missionary. I actually think its really good, because you see how no time can be wasted. That whether you´re a missionary or not, you really shouldn´t ever just let time go by without making something out of it. Good lessons for life.
Anyways, that wasn´t really my week. You try your best not to spend too much time concentrating on time, and instead, you try and put that time to work. This week was a little bit different of course - changes struck the office again. But, we tried to make the best out of it.
Sunday was a really nice day. Our investigators made it to church for their second time. Without us needing to pass by their house and pick them up or anything like that. They really liked the lessons and I feel like they definitely felt the spirit. That was cool because I think that that is the first time that I´ve had the same people going to church in months now. We´ve gone through quite the dry patch in the last while, but we´ve been doing everything possible to get out of it. Moving forward with faith and diligence and waiting for any miracle that the Lord is willing to give us. So they are both currently preparing to get baptized on the 11th. The mom, Maria, isn´t totally sure on what she wants to do yet. She likes the church and knows that its good, but is just kind of afraid to really commit herself to something new. Her daughter on the other hand, Maria Luz, seems quite set no that date. She reads and prays and feels like the church is true and that this is what she wants to do. So thats great. We´re doing everything that we can, visiting them, getting them to meet members and form relationships with them etc etc. to try and help them to be ready for this date. Awesome.
Other interesting activities of Sunday. My companion finally decided that he´s fed up with having a girlfriend back at home. lol. Its kind of been distracting him lately and he knows that the work here is more important from anything like that going on back at home. So. Hes decided to get cut it all off. So thats been fun. Helping him think of nice ways to let her off easy. Its sure to be a disaster. Luckily I don´t have anything like that that I´ve had to worry about. All I´m going to say is that all of those kids out there should watch out - because its just not worth it. lol. At least from a bystanders viewpoint. Anyways, the cooler part of the story is that with all of his stress and confusion, Elder Thomson did something that I thought was really cool and was humble enough to ask for a blessing. And so during our comp study time I was able to give him a quick blessing at the house. Something that I still don´t really feel 100% comfortable doing. But it was actually a really great experience. Its such a cool feeling to be able to serve your fellow man with that authority of the Lord. It was a special experience for the both of us. I think it helped him feel a lot better and at ease, and it was actually something really good for me too. So that was pretty cool.
Monday was pretty normal. We got changes info that night. It was my last boring, already-know-whats-going-to-happen kind of changes as it was quite clear that me and Elder Thomson would be staying in the same place for the next change. It did have some exciting changes though. Elder Anderson (the assistant) and Elder Pearson got their wishes granted, and have been sent out to ¨whitewash¨ an area together. Thats something that doesn´t happen very often. Also, an old oficinista, Elder Short, got called back as the new assistant. Poor guy. lol. That doesn´t happen very often either. Good stuff. We got to have a good freak out happy dance moment when we saw the changes. haha. But yeah. They left and now we´re back down to 4 oficinistas again. For 3 more weeks before my replacement comes in for his training. Its kind of nice to have less numbers. Less crowded and less opinions to deal with. We´ll sure miss Elder Pearson though...
Tuesday we had one of the easiest change days ever. Only 7 people showed up. We didn´t even have to go pick them up because they showed up scattered and President was able to fit them in his vehicle. There was no rushes, no panics, no lines, no things forgotten. They just sat in the waiting room, did what they were told, and we got them through the list of things to do with tons of time to spare. It was really quite strange. lol. In the end, me and Elder Pearson even slipped out and tried to make a visit to a sick member at the hospital. Unfortunately we were miss informed about visiting hours, but hopefully they think about how its the thought that counts. But yeah. Everything went surprisingly smooth.
The next day wasn´t even that bad either. I had to show up and hand out tons of money to reimburse taxi rides and stuff like that, but unlike changes passed, I had enough experience to not make any big mistakes or let the small things trip me up. In the end, everything went really smoothly. The only bad part being that I misplace a receipt that I kind of need... dang it. But I gave a photocopy of it to the guy that gave it to me, and so hopefully I can just get a copy of his copy and fix that problem. Thats something great about the office - it helps keep you humble. You would think that after enough time here I would be past making dumb mistakes, but oh well. Its all about trying your best, doing everything you can, and fixing any problems that you make. It takes some BAD messing up before you will get fired as an oficinista. lol.
Thursday we went to the airport to drop the dead Elders. There were only 2 Elders and 2 Hermanas. Once again, the easiest change ever. That didn´t mean that it went without problems though. Nothing ever goes 100%. Oh well. We got it done and I´m pretty sure that they made it home in one piece with all of their luggage. lol. Thats how it goes though. Anyways. Otherwise the day was pretty average. There were a couple of things that had me a little grumpy by mid-day, but then a really nice belated Christmas letter showed up and I felt a lot happier. lol. That night we had a Family Home Evening with the 2 that are planning to get baptized. It meant extra walking and planning to have the activity at a members house, and bring another family from a ways away to be there and meet them, but I think it was totally worth it. We got to talk a little about the plan of salvation. It was kind of funny because we accidentally got 3 very talkative ladies in the same room, and it was then kind of hard to teach the lesson we planned. But at the same time, we couldn´t complain too much because they were working on forming friendships. Also fun was that in the middle of the lesson this flash flood hid. I´m sure I´ve mentioned it before, but the drainage system in this country is terrible. I thought it would be better because we are in the city, but that sure wasn´t true. The house we were at is by a main street and looking out the window, I could see that the street was honestly 2 feet deep with water. There was a full scale river right in front of the house. Pretty fun. Fortunately it slowed down by the end and we managed to not get too wet.
Yesterday was pretty tranquilo. Honestly we were pretty pooped from changes. I thought that the exhausted feeling that usually follows changes wouldn´t be as bad this time, but it hit igual. Fortunately we had a fun activity with the young mens to go out and give away pass along cards. That was nice because it gave us a little more animo as we really wanted to set a good example for the kids. They´ve been really excited to work ever since they got back from EFY and so we´re trying to take advantage of that and keep them excited to be missionaries.
Todays been really nice. Being back at 4 has made things really easy. We got here, did some email time, went and ate, Elder Meryhew picked up some new shoes for soccer, we played some piki volley and now we´re wrapping things up. Might even be time to write a hand written letter or two, take a nap, or hopefully get some groceries...
As for the letters you all sent. Thanks for the photos. The guys thought they were hilarious. You can send me my embarrassing stuff whenever you´d like. Still makes me proud. haha. Where is the new Costco at? Closer to our house?? Hope so. After being in a place with such limited food options, Costco sounds heavenly. Sounds like a fun mutual activity. One of the girls should write and tell me more about it. Good stuff. Glad that the basketball is going good and you´re still working hard. Basically, glad to hear that the week went good and that all is well. I only minorly freaked out when you said that you were signing up for classes. Hopefully you can get it all figured out without too much hassle. Right before I left I left a list of all of the classes that I need to take. Hopefully you can find it somewhere. I basically had everything figured out so that all you´ll have to do is pick the times and teachers. Shouldn´t be that bad. But yeah. Sounds good to me. It just adds to the already crasyness of how little time is left.
Anyways, hope things are great. If you ever have any questions let me know and I´ll try and throw in the answers for you. Thanks for everything and for all of the love and support. Things are awesome here and I´m doing my best! Keep up the great work! Love ya!!
Elder Humphreys
Well, as you notice, we jumped week 21 and went straight to 22. Looks like I missed a week back and Christmas time, but now we´re back on track. Crasy how time flies though. It feels like just yesterday that I got here in the office. I now feel like I know how everything works, and what needs to be done, but at the same time, I still just feel like that young newbie office Elder that just barely showed up. It´ll be weird to leave and get back to the campo again. The weeks I have left are going to fly by for sure.
On that note, this was kind of a strange week for me. As a missionary, people always ask you how long you´ve been out for and stuff like that out of small talk. A while back I got to that kind of weird moment, where it was a lot easier to say how little I had left instead of how little experience I have in the field. And so that brought me to the strange realization this week of how little time I actually have left. Yesterday was the 3rd which leaves 6 short months before Dad should be showing up. Thats a very strange feeling, and I dont think I like it. Wow. How the time has flown. Once again, I kind of just feel like I´m still that newish missionary that I was a year ago. Obviously I´ve gotten totally used to the routine of getting up, wearing missionary clothes all the time, speaking Spanish, and not being around my family, and so I have grown up a lot. But I just can´t believe how little is left. To a lot of people, 6 months is a long time. Half a year. But from an old missionaries standpoint, that isn´t much at all. 4 and a half changes. One last area. 6 more fast sundays after tomorrow. Wow. Thankfully I feel like it gives me more animo to work. Some people get all homesick and lazy in their last little time. I think for me, it helps me see how much more I want to do, and how much I can do to make the best of what´s left. I think life as a missionary just really gets you thinking about the value of time. Your time is limited. Whether it be the time in each day, the time you have to study, or the time to work hard as a full-time missionary. I actually think its really good, because you see how no time can be wasted. That whether you´re a missionary or not, you really shouldn´t ever just let time go by without making something out of it. Good lessons for life.
Anyways, that wasn´t really my week. You try your best not to spend too much time concentrating on time, and instead, you try and put that time to work. This week was a little bit different of course - changes struck the office again. But, we tried to make the best out of it.
Sunday was a really nice day. Our investigators made it to church for their second time. Without us needing to pass by their house and pick them up or anything like that. They really liked the lessons and I feel like they definitely felt the spirit. That was cool because I think that that is the first time that I´ve had the same people going to church in months now. We´ve gone through quite the dry patch in the last while, but we´ve been doing everything possible to get out of it. Moving forward with faith and diligence and waiting for any miracle that the Lord is willing to give us. So they are both currently preparing to get baptized on the 11th. The mom, Maria, isn´t totally sure on what she wants to do yet. She likes the church and knows that its good, but is just kind of afraid to really commit herself to something new. Her daughter on the other hand, Maria Luz, seems quite set no that date. She reads and prays and feels like the church is true and that this is what she wants to do. So thats great. We´re doing everything that we can, visiting them, getting them to meet members and form relationships with them etc etc. to try and help them to be ready for this date. Awesome.
Other interesting activities of Sunday. My companion finally decided that he´s fed up with having a girlfriend back at home. lol. Its kind of been distracting him lately and he knows that the work here is more important from anything like that going on back at home. So. Hes decided to get cut it all off. So thats been fun. Helping him think of nice ways to let her off easy. Its sure to be a disaster. Luckily I don´t have anything like that that I´ve had to worry about. All I´m going to say is that all of those kids out there should watch out - because its just not worth it. lol. At least from a bystanders viewpoint. Anyways, the cooler part of the story is that with all of his stress and confusion, Elder Thomson did something that I thought was really cool and was humble enough to ask for a blessing. And so during our comp study time I was able to give him a quick blessing at the house. Something that I still don´t really feel 100% comfortable doing. But it was actually a really great experience. Its such a cool feeling to be able to serve your fellow man with that authority of the Lord. It was a special experience for the both of us. I think it helped him feel a lot better and at ease, and it was actually something really good for me too. So that was pretty cool.
Monday was pretty normal. We got changes info that night. It was my last boring, already-know-whats-going-to-happen kind of changes as it was quite clear that me and Elder Thomson would be staying in the same place for the next change. It did have some exciting changes though. Elder Anderson (the assistant) and Elder Pearson got their wishes granted, and have been sent out to ¨whitewash¨ an area together. Thats something that doesn´t happen very often. Also, an old oficinista, Elder Short, got called back as the new assistant. Poor guy. lol. That doesn´t happen very often either. Good stuff. We got to have a good freak out happy dance moment when we saw the changes. haha. But yeah. They left and now we´re back down to 4 oficinistas again. For 3 more weeks before my replacement comes in for his training. Its kind of nice to have less numbers. Less crowded and less opinions to deal with. We´ll sure miss Elder Pearson though...
Tuesday we had one of the easiest change days ever. Only 7 people showed up. We didn´t even have to go pick them up because they showed up scattered and President was able to fit them in his vehicle. There was no rushes, no panics, no lines, no things forgotten. They just sat in the waiting room, did what they were told, and we got them through the list of things to do with tons of time to spare. It was really quite strange. lol. In the end, me and Elder Pearson even slipped out and tried to make a visit to a sick member at the hospital. Unfortunately we were miss informed about visiting hours, but hopefully they think about how its the thought that counts. But yeah. Everything went surprisingly smooth.
The next day wasn´t even that bad either. I had to show up and hand out tons of money to reimburse taxi rides and stuff like that, but unlike changes passed, I had enough experience to not make any big mistakes or let the small things trip me up. In the end, everything went really smoothly. The only bad part being that I misplace a receipt that I kind of need... dang it. But I gave a photocopy of it to the guy that gave it to me, and so hopefully I can just get a copy of his copy and fix that problem. Thats something great about the office - it helps keep you humble. You would think that after enough time here I would be past making dumb mistakes, but oh well. Its all about trying your best, doing everything you can, and fixing any problems that you make. It takes some BAD messing up before you will get fired as an oficinista. lol.
Thursday we went to the airport to drop the dead Elders. There were only 2 Elders and 2 Hermanas. Once again, the easiest change ever. That didn´t mean that it went without problems though. Nothing ever goes 100%. Oh well. We got it done and I´m pretty sure that they made it home in one piece with all of their luggage. lol. Thats how it goes though. Anyways. Otherwise the day was pretty average. There were a couple of things that had me a little grumpy by mid-day, but then a really nice belated Christmas letter showed up and I felt a lot happier. lol. That night we had a Family Home Evening with the 2 that are planning to get baptized. It meant extra walking and planning to have the activity at a members house, and bring another family from a ways away to be there and meet them, but I think it was totally worth it. We got to talk a little about the plan of salvation. It was kind of funny because we accidentally got 3 very talkative ladies in the same room, and it was then kind of hard to teach the lesson we planned. But at the same time, we couldn´t complain too much because they were working on forming friendships. Also fun was that in the middle of the lesson this flash flood hid. I´m sure I´ve mentioned it before, but the drainage system in this country is terrible. I thought it would be better because we are in the city, but that sure wasn´t true. The house we were at is by a main street and looking out the window, I could see that the street was honestly 2 feet deep with water. There was a full scale river right in front of the house. Pretty fun. Fortunately it slowed down by the end and we managed to not get too wet.
Yesterday was pretty tranquilo. Honestly we were pretty pooped from changes. I thought that the exhausted feeling that usually follows changes wouldn´t be as bad this time, but it hit igual. Fortunately we had a fun activity with the young mens to go out and give away pass along cards. That was nice because it gave us a little more animo as we really wanted to set a good example for the kids. They´ve been really excited to work ever since they got back from EFY and so we´re trying to take advantage of that and keep them excited to be missionaries.
Todays been really nice. Being back at 4 has made things really easy. We got here, did some email time, went and ate, Elder Meryhew picked up some new shoes for soccer, we played some piki volley and now we´re wrapping things up. Might even be time to write a hand written letter or two, take a nap, or hopefully get some groceries...
As for the letters you all sent. Thanks for the photos. The guys thought they were hilarious. You can send me my embarrassing stuff whenever you´d like. Still makes me proud. haha. Where is the new Costco at? Closer to our house?? Hope so. After being in a place with such limited food options, Costco sounds heavenly. Sounds like a fun mutual activity. One of the girls should write and tell me more about it. Good stuff. Glad that the basketball is going good and you´re still working hard. Basically, glad to hear that the week went good and that all is well. I only minorly freaked out when you said that you were signing up for classes. Hopefully you can get it all figured out without too much hassle. Right before I left I left a list of all of the classes that I need to take. Hopefully you can find it somewhere. I basically had everything figured out so that all you´ll have to do is pick the times and teachers. Shouldn´t be that bad. But yeah. Sounds good to me. It just adds to the already crasyness of how little time is left.
Anyways, hope things are great. If you ever have any questions let me know and I´ll try and throw in the answers for you. Thanks for everything and for all of the love and support. Things are awesome here and I´m doing my best! Keep up the great work! Love ya!!
Elder Humphreys
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