Zarahemla Week 17

Elder Durgante has been DYING in the cold! 

Hola de Montréal! He estado trabajando en mi espanol durante gran parte de los ultimos dias, porque los trasferencias son el proximo miercoles y me temo que quizas no voy a estar aqui nada mas. Pero tengo fe que sirviré en una otra area en espanol mas tarde en mi mission! Ojala que yo pueda!

Anyway, this week has really been awesome! We've been very busy which is always a great thing. We saw tons of miracles finding this week, which was super cool. Here is what we've been up to the past week.

Banh Mi Sandwiches - our new favorites

Last P day, we weren't able to do much since we had to do emails an hour and a half away from our house (all the libraries were still closed for New Year’s). But we had the opportunity to shovel some snow of a member, and he gave us these super good Vietnamese sandwiches called Banh Mi. They were SUPER good, and only $4! We ended up getting it again later—they were amazing!

Wednesday was spent mainly passing by some of the former investigators that we found in our records the past couple of days, and we've been seeing tons of progress from that already. We passed by three former investigators, and two of them were there, and said they would love to see from missionaries again! We passed off a couple of them to other companionships, as we have been finding a lot recently. It's been so amazing! We also were able to eat at Hermana Gregoria's house again, who makes amazing Peruvian food. When we got there thoug,h her son had not yet come back from work, so she invited some random Dominican man to eat with us so that we could go in the apartment. It was so funny! Had papas con huancaina from her again, which was so good! Two weeks in a row!

Thursday was awesome! We were pretty busy and got a lot done. We left basically right away to go to a hospital an hour and a half away to give a blessing to a Hermana in our ward. It was a special experience; it's always so amazing to be there for someone who needs help, and be able to brighten up their day. It really is super humbling. After that we went to district meeting, which was great as usual. Then we went La Banquise (we weren't going to eat dinner so we decided to eat something very filling) for my second time, but this time I did NOT get a large order of poutine. It was still extremely filling though! We then went and passed by a few formers and got a decent amount of contacts. We passed by one former, who wasn't home, but we felt that we should knock on the door right next to his. Turned out it was a young Mexican family, who eventually invited us in! We shared a great lesson with them, and they were super interested and wanted us to come back! It was really a miracle. Then we ran to Nicole, who we were fairly late for because of the unexpected lesson. We taught her about Noche de Hogar (Family Home Evening), and she is now going to take the initiative to do it every week with her family! She is going to be such a help in working with her parents.

Friday was a VERY cold day. Since we were busy on Thursday, we decided to do our weekly planning on Friday, which was lucky since it was so cold outside. But we still left later in the afternoon, and were able to pass by a couple other formers. We had a bible bashing session with one of them, but luckily Elder Durgante actually knows a lot about the Bible, so we held our own! We then went to Francisco's for a lesson, and he had a friend over that we were able to teach as well. It went really well, and now his friend is a new investigator as well! That night after the lesson was incredibly windy and cold; about -38 C (with wind). We walked around and passed by a few other investigators, which was interesting with the cold. But it was fun!

Saturday was difficult. We had a lot of appointments set up, but sadly most of them fell through. We went to visit a new investigator, but he wasn't home. Then we went to visit Victor, who was too busy to see us at that time. Tried to go by Mauricio, but he was too busy to see us as well. Then went to a family that we had an appointment with, but they weren't home either. Sometimes we just have those days, but it's important to keep trying and know that you are doing your best! We were able to have a lesson with Jesus and Yeni, which went really well. After visiting with them, we passed by a former nearby who wasn't home. So, we did the same thing, and knocked nearby to see if they knew her. We found a family from Guatemala, and they agreed to see us again too! They also told us a few apartment buildings that are ALL Hispanic, which is basically gold for us. We're definitely going to be passing by soon.

Sunday was good, and fairly busy. They were going to change the time of church to be an hour earlier, which would have been awful since it's about an hour away from us, but luckily they didn't! We had a great time at church, and were able to coordinate a lot with our members. This next week might be my last in Zarahemla, so we tried to get a couple more dinners arranged before I leave! We then went home and ate, and went with a member to visit Hermano Mendoza in the hospital again. This time we gave him the sacrament, which he was so thankful for. A lot of times people take the sacrament for granted, but it is such an amazing blessing. I have been able to see how much it means to someone who hasn't been able to come to church for a while. We should always remember what it means, and how wonderful of a blessing it is. We then went and started an exchange with the other Elders.

Nicole gave us slippers as a late Christmas present
(it's an inside joke and hard to explain) 

Monday was fairly busy, as we were out basically all-day long. I was on exchange with Elder Drysdale, which was fairly fun. We tried to pass by a few formers again in the morning, and ended up shoveling a lot random people's snow who needed help. It wasn't very cold, but it had snowed all the night before, and all day, so there was a good couple of fresh inches of snow on top of the other stuff we had already gotten. TONS of people were having trouble getting out of parking spots, so we helped a lot with that too. We got really dirty! We were also able to have an awesome lesson with Mauricio; we could totally tell he could feel the spirit. We really want to help him, but he is very poor and works so much that it's hard to get him to come to church or see us frequently. He's really awesome though, and still calls us his Hijitos. We were also able to see Eddy, who is still doing great, but we're really trying to work with him to help him commit to baptism. He thinks he doesn't know enough, but he's basically already a member. Hopefully we'll be able to figure out what he needs to progress.

Anyway, it's really been such an amazing week. As I said before, we get transfer calls next Saturday, and I don't think I will be staying here in Zarahemla. I really hope that (and probably will) be able to serve again in Spanish, because I absolutely love these people. It's been so amazing to get to know all of them and work with them! Whatever happens though, I know it will be for the best. My French is not very good right now, so it will be a great opportunity to work on that as well. I'm definitely going to make this next week count, though!

Love you all so much, and I hope you're doing well! Have an amazing week!

Elder James