Zarahemla Week 8

I've really wanted to wear this every day, but it's
WAY too hot to wear right now!

This week has been pretty great! We got a lot done, and got to see so many miracles.

On Tuesday, after writing emails, we moved into our new apartment with the other Elders' help. Then we left and had a dinner with a family in the ward who are absolutely awesome. We ate homemade tostadas, which were amazing. We passed by Francisco, who is preparing for baptism soon, and visited with him for a bit. After that, we went home, and our apartment was somehow flooded in the bedroom and bathroom! Luckily, we hadn't put many things in there yet, so not much got wet, but we still have no idea how it happened! We spent the rest of that night, until pretty late (past bedtime, oops), getting stuff out and drying it out a bit. Then we just slept in the main study room/kitchen that night while we had fans and a heater trying to dry it out. We got it all figured out though. It was an interesting experience!

My new desk, which is pretty much exactly the same as it was before.

Wednesday morning was spent finishing cleaning up the bedroom and bathroom, and then getting settled in to the apartment. It's a lot quieter than it was in the 4-man apartment, but it's sure easier to focus! We then went to district meeting, and got to meet our new Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders. They're awesome: I'm excited to get to know them better. We then did some logistical things at the mission office, and went contacting on the metro for a while on our way to a dinner appointment with Hermana Gregoria. Her son, Javier, is not a member, so we've been working with him a little bit. We got to visit with him, and it went well. Not the busiest day, but fairly productive.

Thursday was alright, we spent a large chunk of it doing weekly planning which at times gets boring, but it's super important to talk about each of our investigators and their needs. We then passed by a part-member family who we contacted on the bus the other day, and they want to come back to church which is awesome! They also have a 12-year-old daughter who hasn't been baptized, so we will be working with them. Then we did a bit of street and bus contacting, and then went to see Mauricio. He was super happy to see us, since we hadn't been able to see him for a while. He talked about how he always feels good when we visit him. He now calls us his "Hijitos" which is funny. We will be working with him more!

Getting directions the old fashioned way.
We didn't even have light to look at the map!

Friday was pretty good; we were running around a lot which was great. We had lunch with a member family from Honduras, and I got to talk to them a bit about Miles and Chris' mission which was cool. After that, we did a lot of bus contacting, and then went super far to the north end of the island to meet with a potential named Alex. We got pretty lost, and had took almost an hour and a half to get to him. But we got there only a few minutes late, and taught him. He's pretty cool, and he wants to learn more! We then took the long ride home and went to bed.

Saturday was pretty busy, and super awesome. It was very cold, windy, and rainy, and we got pretty soaked. But we went right away in the morning to Victor's house, taught and visited for a bit, and went back home for our studies. After lunch, we went to go see Mauricio, and had an awesome and spiritual lesson with him, which was great. We then went on pretty far down south to meet with a less active member from Chile. We were able to have a long, but amazing, discussion with him, and were able to resolve a lot of his concerns about the church. We are bringing the Bishop with us our next visit, who is also from Chile (It works wonders to have investigators/less active members meet with someone from their home country), who is awesome and will really be able to help.

We've been trying to find the coolest leaves while proselyting. 

Sunday was wonderful. It started out with an extra hour of sleep because of daylight savings, which was extremely needed. We then went down to the church building and had a ward coordination meeting, except this time my trainer (without my knowing beforehand) had me talk about everything. I was actually surprised about how much I could say! I'm so happy that I have been able to notice improvement in my languages; it really helps motivate me. It's been awesome to see how the Spirit can help with learning new languages; I could not do it on my own. During the third hour of church, the Primary was having a lesson about missionary work, and they asked us to come and share our experiences and testimonies about missionary work, and also answer a few questions. It was really fun to talk with all the kids! Some of their questions were pretty silly and funny, as you would expect from kids that age, but some were actually really good. It was fun to get them pumped about missionary work! Then, after church, we got bags of food from 3 different members (they didn't know that other people were already giving us food), since it was fast Sunday. We went home and unpacked it, and there was A TON! We were so hungry though that we ate almost all of it in the 30 minutes we had to eat. I absolutely adore Hispanic wards. We then went out to pass by a family who was referred to us from the zone leaders, but sadly they weren't there. So, we went on the metro to do some contacting, and we talked to a family from Argentina! I was able to talk to them about my dad serving his mission there, and they thought that was really cool.

The mission has been absolutely incredible so far, and it's been amazing to take a small part in this work. I hope everyone is doing well back home! Love you all!

Elder James