Zarahemla Week 7

Our district, from left to right: Hermana Garcia, Hermana De La Pena, Hermana Ferger,
Hermana Jex, Hermana Hepburn, Hermana Salvador, Elder Drysdale,
Elder Torres, Elder Colunga, and Elder James

This week has been pretty cool! We found out on last P-Day that Elder Colunga and I have to move out of our 4-man apartment, so we've spent a lot of time this week getting ready for that (we're moving today). But it's fine, we'll have much more time!

Monday was pretty uneventful. The two appointments we had that night had both "smurfed" (weren't there or cancelled when you get there), so not much happened. We did find a pretty cool alley that we took a couple of sick pictures in.

Me with Elder Wensel

Tuesday was decent. We were pretty sad, since we had to say goodbye to Elder Brenchley, but I'll see him again so that's fine. We checked out the new apartment, and it's a bit nicer than our old one, but it's quite a bit smaller. It's definitely enough for our needs though, so we'll make it work. We then went out to our appointments, and it started absolutely pouring. We got soaked and really cold (it was about 8 degrees Celsius), and didn't get home until late, but we made the best out of it and had some fun. Visited with an elderly member who has been having health problems recently, and she was very happy to have some company. It's awesome to be able to help people with any problems they have. It's been a very humbling experience so far.

Me and Elder Tueller

Wednesday was great, it had stopped raining which was amazing since we had a lot of walking to do. We visited an investigator who we've been working a lot with recently, and he's been progressing consistently. One (sort of) problem with teaching in Spanish is that the investigators like to talk A TON. With him, our lesson ended up going almost two and a half hours long, and he talked for about 85% of it. It's awesome though, he's very friendly and I'm sure he'll be baptized soon. He has a baptismal date for the 18th of November, so hopefully he'll be ready by then! We then went over to a recent convert, Rafael, to give him a French Book of Mormon to practice his French (and get him to read). He's super awesome, we've been visiting him about every week and it's been cool to get to know him. He's from Mexico and is really funny. We went back home and did some language study, and I got to know Elder Tueller's new companion, Elder Wensel more. He's pretty cool, although I'm not going to get to know him very well since we're moving out today. It was great to meet him though!

Thursday was pretty uneventful, had district meeting and met the two new missionaries in our district. One new Sister is on her 5th transfer (I think) and is awesome, and one new Elder who is right out of the MTC. He's cool as well! We got a lot of planning and logistical things done that day, which was great. We didn't have any appointments set up that night, so we went bus contacting for about an hour and a half. I talked to a woman from Peru for a long time, and she was super interested in the Gospel! I taught her most of the Restoration, and she was super interested to come to church. She is going to bring her friend next Sunday! She seems very solid, which is great.

Friday was fairly busy, which is always good. Had a coordination meeting with the ward mission leader, which was great. Went back home, had lunch, and left for Jesus and Yeni. On the way, we met another guy from the Dominican Republic who was also really interested to go to church next Sunday as well! This week in total we found 4 people who right away just wanted to go to church. It was so crazy and so cool! We didn't even invite any of them, they all asked if they could come! Jesus and Yeni were amazing as always, they're progressing so consistently and fast. They love reading the Book of Mormon, and finally said that they know it's the word of God! They're very ready for baptism. We then went to the chapel to go to a ward Halloween party that we had invited a couple of investigating families to. We visited for a while there, got fed (I love Hispanic wards, we've been getting so much food from them recently), and then went home. Pretty awesome day!

Eating McDonald's after a hard day's work!

Saturday was great, even more busy than Friday. We got ready and left right away for a lesson with a part member family which went really well. They have such adorable kids! We then headed back home to do our studies (the family could only meet us in the morning, so we had to skip them). After that we headed over to Francisco’s house again, and had a lesson with Hermano Farfan, who is the ward mission leader. It's always great to have members with us, it makes lessons a lot more spiritual with a third perspective. It was a little shorter this time, only about an hour and a half long. But it was great, he learned a lot. We then picked up A TON of food from one of the Hermanas in the ward (leftover from a Relief Society activity). We then left for the Varaona Family, and visited with them and shared a thought. There's awesome, and the mother always calls us "Mis Hijos" which means "My Sons." They're so fun. We then went home fairly late, so we grabbed McDonalds (we had both been craving it all week long) to save us time instead of cooking.

Sunday was good, and fairly typical. The Primary Program was that day, which as always is super adorable. Makes me feel bad though that four year olds can speak better Spanish than I can! We then got fed by one of the Hermanas again after all the meetings, which was amazing as always. We left and did some contacting, passed by a few investigators, and had dinner at the Amador Family's house (members). They're Dominican, and are super funny. The food is very similar to Haitian food, which of course means it was amazing. We then did a bit of contacting on the busses, then went home.

Monday was fairly good. We spent a good portion of it packing. We had been taking small trips of stuff to our new apartment (since we have to move by bus and walking), and we took all of our study materials and spent a bit of time getting things set up and taking inventory of things we needed to buy on P-Day. then went to visit Hermano Mendoza again in a new hospital, but he had given us the wrong address so we sort of wasted a chunk of time looking for it. But it was fine, we had a decent amount of contacting time. It was insanely windy, apparently the other Elders saw one of the white car tents (they put them up to protect from snow in the winter) flying down the road. The wind was about at a constant 45 km/h! It was really crazy. After doing contacting, we made our way to Hermana Guerra's house for dinner. It was SO amazing. It was like a three-course meal plus dessert! We were super grateful for it, especially since we skipped lunch. We then went home and did a ton more packing in preparation for moving. Pretty great day!

As you can tell, the members in our ward are SO awesome. We've been fed so much by them this week, it's insane. We're so grateful to see them sacrifice for us, especially since sometimes they are in tough financial positions. We always are thoughtful in not eating at particular member's houses too much of course, but we know that they will be blessed for their sacrifices. I've been having such an amazing time, and I'm so grateful for this opportunity.

Love you all so much, have a good week!