Zarahemla Week 6

It's definitely fall here and it's beautiful!

Last week of this transfer! It's already gone by super-fast, and it's weird to think that I'm already more than 1/10 done with my mission! The other Elders in my apartment have all been out a year or more, and they always tell me how scary fast the mission flies by.

This week was quite a bit better than last, in that almost all of our appointments were executed as planned, which was great. On Wednesday, we had district meeting which was wonderful, as always. We went a bit longer, since one of the members of our district is going home this week. We had a little testimony meeting and it was awesome. Then we went out contacting for a bit on the way to a dinner appointment with the Ortega family, who is really amazing. They've been feeding us every week and are super cool. We got out of it a little late though, and couldn't go contacting where we originally had planned on going, so we prayed for guidance and just waited until we got an answer. We both had the same idea to go down a particular route on the metro, and we found a lady from Mexico (I think) who is now a very promising investigator! Right after we found her and got all her information we both knew that she was the one we were supposed to find. It was an amazing experience, since we don't find promising Hispanics every day!

I've been working on my fried rice skills!

Thursday was pretty decent, we spent most of it at our apartment since we had weekly planning to do which lasted about 3 and a half hours, on top of all our other studies. But after we were done we went out contacting again. We accidently totally missed one of our bus stops, and had to wait a long time to get on the bus going back. But it was another little miracle, since on the bus ride back I found an awesome little family from Peru who were super interested! The mother was particularly interested in the Book of Mormon when I gave a little description, so I gave one to her with a few recommended passages, and she seemed really excited! Sadly, they were only visiting, so we won't be able to teach them, but I told them how they can get in contact with the missionaries there. It was so cool! But, right as our conversation was slowing down, a Quebec-qoi woman behind them tried to start Bible bashing me right there on the bus. I sort of knew what she was saying, but her accent was thick Quebec-qoi (which is really difficult to understand and doesn't even sound like French) and I couldn't respond at all. Luckily Elder Colunga saw what was about to go down and came and rescued me and I talked with the Peruvian family a bit more. Bible bashing happens a ton out here, and it gets pretty interesting since most of the arguments they try to argue make absolutely no sense. We (obviously) don't argue back at all, but we always take a little humor out of it. It never weighs us down which is good.

Friday was okay, but I had forgotten my bus and metro card at the apartment which caused many problems the rest of the day. I had to buy a temporary card with the little money I had, and ended up being late to many of our appointments. But besides just having to spend money and being a bit late, it didn't cause too much of a problem. We met with an investigator from the Dominican Republic, who really wants to be baptized. He has some problems though with understanding the doctrine, so we've been working with him with that. After that appointment, and another appointment, being cancelled (not by us surprisingly), we did a bit of contacting the rest of the day and updated the progress record for all of our investigators for our ward leaders. I got to talk to a few Hispanics which was cool, one of which was from Cuba whose accent was SUPER hard to understand. I've been noticing a major difference in all the accents, and it's been hard to understand. For example, Chileans speak fairly fast, and don't pronounce ANY S's unless it's at the beginning of the word. Dominicans have a ton of slang, speak faster than Chileans, and basically leave out half of the letters in every word. Then Cubans, I've come to know, speak insanely fast. My Mexican companion had trouble understanding her at times. It's been hard to pick up on all the different accents, but I know it will get easier and easier.

Another great picture of Elder Colunga 

Saturday was mostly revolved around the baptism of Luisanna, who I mentioned last week. Elder Colunga and I were the witnesses, which was fun! There was a little party as well after with tons of good Hispanic food (of course). It was an awesome experience! We also had the opportunity to meet with Jesus and Yeni again, and they were amazing as always. They were trying to surprise us with a barbecue with Carne Asada that smelled absolutely incredible, but they ran out of propane so they ended up buying us Haitian food again and also gave us a (much needed) ride home. But we're going over tonight instead for the barbecue so it all works out! They are so amazing, I love them so much. We also got transfer calls (when your mission leaders call and tell you where you and your companion are going to be for the next transfer, or 6 weeks, and who will be your new companion), and I'm staying in Zarahemla with Elder Colunga for another 6 weeks! I was almost definitely going to stay in Zarahemla, but our Mission President likes sometimes getting a second trainer for the second transfer, which would have been super hard for me since I don't have as strong of a relationship with the members or investigators as Elder Colunga does, and I would have to help my new companion with the area which would have been hard (but obviously would be an awesome experience to learn).

Sunday was pretty average, we had a meeting with all the ward leaders, we went to church which was awesome as always, and then had a couple appointments that evening. The Bishop of the ward seems to love us now, and he's been giving us rides home from church which is so helpful, and saves us a lot of time. We spend a lot of time at church trying to coordinate with members, and our apartment is super far away, so we didn't get home until about 4:30. Then we left and headed out to the appointment with the Varaona Family. They've been investigating and progressing for a while, and they're so awesome. They have a little 3-year-old girl who is absolutely adorable. There was also a woman visiting that night, so we got to have a great lesson with her as well. She is now an investigator, which is great! We then headed home and went a long way, contacting a bit on the way. It was a pretty solid Sunday!

Me (eyes closed) and Elder Brenchley

Elder Brenchley, who has been in our apartment these past 6 weeks, is leaving which is sad, but I'll probably see him around! Elder Tueller is staying though, and will be getting a new companion tomorrow. I'm mainly glad that I'm staying; a few missionaries from my MTC district actually did get sent to other areas and/or got new companions which would definitely have been stressful. But I'm glad that I'm staying!

Love you all so much, I hope everything is going well. Missionary work is awesome, and I'm having a ton of fun! Love you!

Elder James