Zarahemla Week 9

I'm a missionary ninja!

This week has been awesome! Very busy, we were running around a ton, which is always a good thing of course.

It's finally getting cold, and it was a miracle that I decided to buy some miscellaneous winter stuff last P-Day. I got a hat, gloves, and a scarf, which absolutely saved my life, because on Friday, it went down to -6 degrees, with constant 25-30 km h wind. It was so cold! and it's only going to get colder! But we get to look like ninjas while proselytizing, which is really funny.

On Tuesday we had Zone Conference, which was awesome. Elder Clayton from the Quorum of the Seventy came, and it was super cool to have him teach us. He told us a lot of things that we can improve on, and we came out of it with a lot of goals to work on. He was so in tune with the Spirit and just took the meeting where he was prompted to take it. It was super inspiring. Later that night we made our way to that less active family, the Garcia family, I mentioned last week. We were able to teach the daughter and she committed to be baptized! We will be working with her a lot this week to make that happen. They're such an awesome family, and it's great to see them coming back!

Wednesday was pretty average, and we got a bit done. We had district meeting and talked a lot about zone conference. We made a lot more goals and were able to share insights with each other. We then headed over to Francisco, who is still doing well. He's having a semi difficult time understanding the doctrine, but he really loves learning which is awesome. We were then going to go visit Jesus and Yeni, but sadly Jesus got sick and we haven't been able to see them at all this week. So instead we went to go visit Hermano Mendoza in the hospital again, who is having a hard time. They don't know if he will be able to walk again, but he has such a positive attitude about everything which is so humbling.

My brothers will know why his hand is swollen

Thursday was a fairly different day. We left our apartment right away to go do service for an elderly member in our ward. We raked leaves and cleaned up her back yard a bit, and then she fed us super good Peruvian food. It took a pretty long time, especially since she lives really far away, but it was a wonderful service opportunity (and a wonderful eating opportunity!). Members are so important in missionary work, so it's integral that we have a good relationship with them. After that, we went home, got dressed out of our service clothes, and planned for our lessons. Then we left for Javier, a less active who wants to come back to Church. He also has a girlfriend that we were able to teach, who wants to be baptized! We're going to work with them a lot more in the coming weeks.

Friday was insanely cold, and I can't even believe that it's going to get 30 degrees colder! It was too hot for my winter coat still, but luckily, I had my hat, gloves, and scarf which kept me decently covered. We went to see Hermano Mendoza with the bishop, but he couldn't make it so we just stopped by for a bit to see how he was going. then went home, ate a quick lunch and went to Francisco’s. Had a pretty decent lesson, He's really nice, and always likes giving us snacks when we leave. We then headed over to the Garcia family again, and had an amazing lesson. They couldn't come to Church this past Sunday, but they will try to come next week! We're working closely with the young women in our ward in order to give her some friends at church. MEMBER FRIENDS ARE SO IMPORTANT!

Saturday wasn't super busy, a lot of our appointments fell through and didn't get to see a lot of people, but it was fine. We did get the chance to see Victor, and we read a little bit with him and followed up on how he was doing. Also got to see Raf, a recent convert, and read the Book of Mormon a bit with him too. That night we did a bit of contacting while trying to pass by some potential investigators, and were able to get some done. Slow day, but that happens every once in a while, so it's not bad!

On Sunday, we had Stake Conference which was cool, since it was the first French church meeting that I have been to! I was surprised at what I understood, and it was awesome to visit with so many members. We were able to coordinate with many members to help us with our investigators, particularly Nicole. They're all super excited to work with us! We also had another lesson with Francisco, and he's continuing to improve little by little. He probably won't be able to be baptized this transfer, but we're fairly confident that he will be next transfer!

I look like the big chess piece on Harry Potter

Monday wasn't very busy either, but we had the opportunity to do interviews with President Phillips. He is so awesome and is an amazing mission president. We discussed our investigators, he asked to see how I was doing, and it was great. He's such an amazing president. We then stayed at the office for a bit so Elder Colunga could finish calling all the teams in the district, and then we then got a chance to pass by Hermano Mendoza again (he really gets lonely and loves when missionaries come, so we try to go frequently since he doesn't get many visitors). After that we had some lunch, and then went all the way on the other side of the island to have a baptismal interview for the other Elders in our district. It's awesome to be able to be the district leaders companion, since I don't really have any more responsibilities but get to see all the people about to get baptized which is awesome!

Anyway, I'm doing great and had a wonderful week. I hope everything is going well at home, love you all so much! Have a good week!

Elder James