Zarahemla Week 21

Our District

Family,

He cumplido seis meses en el campo misional. Siento que acabo de llegar aqui! He aprendido muchisimas cosas en estos meses pasados, y estoy muy agradecido por todo lo que he visto. Estoy tan emocionado por los proximos dieciocho meses en este lugar asombroso! This week was super great! We were able to do a ton of cool things, and we saw lots of miracles as always! Anyway, here's what we've been up to in Zarahemla this past week.

Last P-day, after emails, we went to meet Guillermo at a metro station to go to the Biodôme together. When we got there (a little bit late), he wasn't there yet. We would have called him, but of course our phone had to break the day before and we still hadn't gotten a replacement yet. We waited for about 30 minutes, then left. Went to the mission office to get the phone and noticed that Guillermo had left a message. Turned out he got there an hour and a half late and was confused why we weren't there haha! It was such a funny message, he called me "Hermano James Bond" (as he always does) like a million times. It's so funny, and it's been taking time to get used to, but most Latinos have absolutely NO sense of time. They're just so chill all of the time! Which of course is a good thing at time, but not so much when you have other things to do! We had time since we had planned to go to the Biodôme but didn't, so we decided to go to La Banquise again for poutine. Really good as always! After we finished all of our chores for the day, we went to two appointments, that both fell through. We then felt like we should pass by this guy named Alder (not Elder lol) whose address we had received a few days back. We passed by, he was home, and we taught an awesome lesson! The spirit was super strong. He was such a cool guy!

Poutine at La Banquise with Elder Landetta

On Wednesday we had Zone Conference, which was awesome as always. They talked a lot about keeping the Sabbath day holy, and all the many blessings that come from doing so. Being in the mission field, I truly have been able to see how doing more meaningful things on the Sabbath can really bless your life. At times it seems like just another rule to keep, but it's really such a major blessing to take one day out of the week to have a rest from the world! I encourage everyone to find a few ways you can make your Sabbath more meaningful. I will promise that as you do, you will be blessed more than you can imagine! Later that night, after Zone conference, we had the opportunity to eat at Eddy's house (one of our investigators whose wife is a member). They fed us some classic Honduran food which was so awesome. They're such a great little family.

Thursday wasn't busy at all, but we did get some good stuff done. We had district meeting in the morning, where we were able to discuss a lot about the things we had learned in zone conference and how to apply them. We set some goals as a district, and recommitted ourselves to old goals. We then went home, and were able to do our weekly planning. After that, we left for some appointments, and had a little miracle! We were going to pass by a former investigator, but for some reason, we weren't thinking and passed our stop on the bus. We got off at the next stop, and walked backwards. On the way, we ran into the former that we were going to pass by! It was so crazy—if we had not passed the stop, we would have gone to his house and he wouldn't have been there. It was a cool little miracle!

Death-Star hard boiled egg

Friday was my 6-month mark. Super crazy! I have some pictures of me burning a tie (little mission tradition apparently), but I'll have to send them next week. We spent a good part of the day contacting, and passed by some old formers who were pretty solid. We passed by one lady named Iris, who was apparently super golden, but sadly she wasn't there. Went to Hermano Sanchez and visited him a little bit, were able to settle some concerns he had about the church. We all have questions sometimes, and sometimes these questions or doubts about the church or the gospel can affect what we have come to believe. However, the solutions to these problems are out there, we just have to look! And sometimes they are difficult to find, but it's important that we always "Doubt [our] doubts before [we] doubt [our] faith!" (Elder Holland) Later on that night, we had another little miracle similar to the one the night before. As we were waiting for a bus, we saw a Hispanic lady and we, of course, talked with her. Turned out, it was Iris who we tried to pass by earlier in the day! It was such a cool miracle again!

Saturday was going to be really busy, but sadly a lot of our appointments fell through. However, we were able to pass by a lot of people, and we found a lot of new investigators as well. We had an appointment with Alder again, who we met last Tuesday, but apparently, he moved to Mexico! It was sad, but Elder Landetta and I laughed about it a little bit. That's the second person who just randomly decided to go to back to their home country! They probably just got fed up with the cold, and if that's the case, I don't blame them!

Sunday was awesome. I've been having troubles with feeling stressed during church meetings. I worry so much about our investigators not coming or, if they did come, their experience at church. However, this Sunday, I made an effort to just enjoy the meetings. When I did, I was truly able to learn from the talks and classes, feel the spirit, and just enjoy a rest from the stresses of the week. It goes back to what we discussed in Zone conference—Sunday really is such an amazing blessing to forget about all the stresses that we have on a day to day basis! It was very refreshing. After church we were able to pass by Hermano Mendoza again, which was an awesome experience as always. Una Hermana in the ward gave us some food to eat when we got home, so we went home and had some dinner which was amazing. We then went and passed by a less active family who Elder Landetta remembers teaching. We passed by and had a little visit with them, and they were so awesome. They still have very strong testimonies of the gospel, they just needed, as many do, an extra push (usually social) to go to church. It's important to notice when a fellow member might be in need of that push, and when we recognize it, be the push that they need!

Monday was fairly chill (as in not busy but also very cold). We spent a good three hours solid outside knocking doors looking for Hispanics. It was another little miracle though, when we were getting super cold after about two hours, I said to Elder Landetta something like, "I want someone to let us in; not so we can share our message, but so that we can be warm for only a few seconds!" The next door we knocked, the guy just let us in saying "just come, in it's too cold to talk to you by the door." It was super funny. Later that night we had dinner with Hermana Guerra from Chile, who is an absolute salvaje. She's super funny, and also cooks amazingly. It was so nice.

It's been an awesome week as you can see. I'm loving my time here, and I'm loving working with Elder Landetta. He's going home very soon, but that hasn't affected him at all! He's teaching me so much, and I'm so happy for everything I've learned and continue to learn. I love you all so much, I hope you have an amazing week!

Elder James

Zarahemla Week 20

We went all the way up to the North Shore of the Island.
The St. Lawrence River is completely frozen solid!

Another week gone, and in just a few days, I will hit my 6th month mark on my mission. That's so crazy! I still feel like I'm brand new! I have a lot of things I want to do, so I hope that I'll be able to use this pressure to work harder. Elder Landetta and I had a great week, and I'm learning a ton from him. We’ve had a lot freezing rain lately, so almost every day we have been helping tons of cars get out, which has been funny. Here's what we have been up to this past week.

Last P-day we spent most of the day deep-deep cleaning our apartment. It's still fairly new, so it's not bad at all, but it definitely needed a bit of cleaning. After we finished all our chores, we headed to the familia Vinces to eat dinner. They're from Honduras, so they cooked us some classic Honduran food. It was super good! Then we met up with a recently returned missionary to go teach Edward, a referral that we received from one of the sisters in our ward. He's from Venezuela, and had an insane number of stories to tell about his expériences from there. He's here basically in a type of witness protection program which is crazy. We talked a TON though, and got home pretty late. He's a great guy!

Visiting Francisco 

Wednesday was very busy, and we got a lot done. We had a leadership meeting (Elder Landetta is the district leader) which was cool, then left to meet with Francisco. It was our last meeting, since he keeps having some problems with some commitments. But it's fine! It was fun teaching him, and although it might not be his time now, he still has a chance! Then we headed over to a recent convert who is less active to see how he's been doing. We got there a bit early, so we decided to do some contacting. We knocked a door of a Haitian couple, and they invited us in! We taught them all of the Restoration, which was cool, but super weird. I'm only used to doing basic contacts in French, but not full lessons! Luckily Elder Landetta is basically fluent in French, so it wasn't a problem. Then we met with Jose, the recent convert, who's a really cool guy. Got him to commit to read his scriptures every day again, which is great! Hopefully he'll be able to come back to church soon. Then we went and ate at the Familia Escobar's house, and she taught us (well me basically) how to make rice the real Hispanic way. I finally can, and it's super good! Then we went down to visit with Hermano Sanchez which was fun. He's a really nice guy.

Elder James & Elder Higbee - both from the Cedar Hills Manila Stake 

Thursday wasn't as busy, but we got a few things done. We had a coordination meeting with our ward mission leader and the other missionary teams in our ward which was good as always, then we had district meeting with the zone leaders and sister training leaders. Basically, the entire district has been super busy lately, so it's been difficult to get studies in every day. Wee got chastised a little bit on that which was needed, haha. After district meeting we visited a former investigator that Elder Landetta taught here when he served in Zarahemla, and he wants to investigate again which is awesome! Then we went home, and did some weekly planning. After that we passed by a few potentials up north, then went to a couple, Cynthia (Peru) y Andres (Guatemala), that we contacted on the bus and set up an appointment with a while ago. They were super nice, but we all talked a lot, and it was super late, so we were getting stressed about getting home on time. Then we heard a knock at the door, and it was the pizza man. We should have left a long time before, so we just wrapped it up and ran basically. We got home SUPER late, but it wasn't a big deal. You can't do much when you teach such great Hispanics.

Friday was fairly busy as well. We visited Guillermo (who's meeting us today to go visit the Biodôme), which went pretty well. He's on track to get baptized fairly soon—next month! We went home, had our studies and ate, then went contacting in the same area where we found a lot of people last week, but didn't have as good of luck. Then we went down to visit Alicia, who we hadn't seen in a LONG time. She still wants to be baptized, but it's just so hard to visit her since her parents work a ton and we can't get in contact with her sometimes. But we will hopefully be able to see her more consistently! We then passed by a few potentials, then went home.

Elder Landetta barely made it inside the door - he was exhausted!

Saturday was pretty good; we got a lot done. We left right away to help a member from Honduras move apartments (just one building down). We didn't want to spend too much time there, but the other people they asked to come didn't show up, so we ended up doing it until around 13h30. It was a bit inconvenient, but they gave us pizza, so it made it worth it! We then went to the opposite side of the island to pass by a potential that said he would be home, but sadly wasn't there. Since we were already in that area, and an appointment with Jesus and Yeni fell through, we decided to pass by a referral we got the day before. They weren't there, but we noticed a couple of kids playing across the street who we heard were speaking Spanish. We found their mom at the window watching them. Turned out, she was the cousin of the member who we had just helped move that morning! We asked if we could share our message with her, and she told us to come back later that night and she'd be able to. So, we left, passed by a couple of people, then went back and were able to teach their entire family! It was such a miracle, and they were pretty interested! Such an amazing experience. We then tried to go home, but it was super difficult. We had freezing rain the night before and into the day, and by this time at night there was a thick sheet of ice over EVERYTHING. It was SO hard to walk! It took us 20 minutes to walk to a place that should have taken only 5! We both fell a few times, but it was pretty fun.

Sunday was great; fairly average. Went to church, and had a few of our investigators there, which was great. After all the meetings, the ward had a surprise birthday party for the Bishop in the gym. It was extremely loud, and there was a French ward still meeting in the chapel and they were NOT happy about it. But our ward didn't care and kept having a great time, haha. After that, we went to pass by a referral who lived super far east, and then went to visit Hermano Mendoza to give him the sacrament. Then we went home and had some dinner that the members had given us. It was a fairly good day!

Saying goodbye to Nicole's Grandma

Monday was alright, but we had a few people cancel on us, so we didn't end up being able to do much. We were able to repent and get all of our studies in that morning though! We spent a lot of time contacting, passed by some of the people Elder Landetta remembered, and went our way to Nicole's house to say goodbye to her Grandmother who left back to Mexico later that night. While on the bus on the way there, Elder Landetta asked for the phone and I handed it to him. He didn't have a good grip though, and dropped it about 3 feet onto the floor. It wasn't a bad drop at all, but for some reason the phone just wouldn't turn on again! It was super funny, since the phones they give us are not very strong. So, for last night, and this morning, we don't have a phone. Luckily today is P day, so it's not that big of a deal! We went to Nicole's house, and visited with them for a while, took pictures, and said goodbye to her grandma. She was so awesome in helping with Nicole! We'll miss her for sure. Then we went and got some Haitian food and ate it at home. I freaking love Haitian food; it's so big here in Montréal.

It’s been a great week. I'm loving working with Elder Landetta; he's been really helping me with my Spanish. We basically only talk in Spanish all day, which I've been loving. He's an awesome missionary and is super diligent. I'm still loving it here!

Love you all so much—hope you have an amazing week!

Elder James

Zarahemla Week 19

My new companion - Elder Landetta

This week has been awesome, and I'm so happy that I am able to stay in Zarahemla! My new companion, Elder Landetta, is a BEAST at missionary work. I've been learning a ton from him already, especially in Spanish. I'm so glad that I have another native Spanish speaker as a companion, my language skills have really improved with him (but his Spanish is a little different than what I'm used to). I'm starting to dream and think in Spanish which has been so crazy! But, anyway, this is how this past week has been.

I'm very proud of myself!

Last P-day was mainly focused on getting Elder Durgante all packed up, which took a while. I converted him to use vacuum bags, the same as Elder Colunga did to me. We fit what he had in 2 large suitcases and 1 medium suitcase into only 1 large and 1 medium. I was very proud of the accomplishment. After P-day was over, we headed over and had another great lesson with Issac y Laura. They have such an amazing little family, and the lesson we had was super spiritual. They have so many sincere and meaningful questions, that lessons are always very focused. They're so nice!

Nicole got a polaroid camera and gave us the pictures!

 Wednesday was spent making sure that all our transfer plans were set and getting everything ready for Elder Durgante's trip on Thursday. We were able to see Hermano Mendoza to share a little message, take pictures, and say goodbye. He's such an awesome guy. We then went to a dinner appointment with the familia Diaz from Chile. It was SO good, they are super nice. Shared a little message with them, then left to visit Nicole so Elder Durgnate could take pictures and say goodbye. She got a Polaroid camera for Christmas, and we took a few pictures.

Saying goodbye to Elder Durgante 

Thursday was transfer day, so everything was a bit stressful, but it all went smoothly. We took all of Elder Durgante's stuff to the bus station, and said goodbye to Elder Durgante. It was fun to be with him for a transfer! Short, but great! Then I went with another Elder to the mission office to wait for my new companion, Elder Landetta. At the mission office, I was able to see a ton of missionaries I came in with that had been marooned out in the barren wasteland areas of the far north. It was so great so see them! After a while we went back out, and I picked up Elder Landetta at the bus stop. He had a bag that weight about 42 Kg that I took home on the metro and busses. It was so awful having to take it through the snow to our house, and it ended up breaking. He didn't care though, since this is most likely the last time he is being transferred (he only has 2 transfers left). We did weekly planning so he could be updated on all the new things in the area. He's so excited to be back! After we finished, we left to go visit Marcela, but there wasn't another man in the house so we couldn't teach her. We might be passing her off to Sisters so that it's not as hard to teach her. We did some tracting the rest of the night, and we found a couple of good people!

Friday was really productive. I'm so grateful to have such a seasoned missionary helping me learn! We had District Meeting in the morning, which went well, and then went home to do some transfer planning for a little bit. We set some goals that we want to accomplish this transfer, and we are shooting for 2 baptisms this transfer. It's realistic; we will just have to work super hard! Then we headed to Francisco, and had a pretty good lesson with him. We had a lesson planned, but when we showed up he wanted to read a passage in the Book of Mormon and discuss it. The lesson went about an hour long, and we only went through the introduction and three verses. At least he likes the Book of Mormon! Then we went to pass by a couple of people that Elder Landetta remembered teaching that were really solid. Went knocking a little bit in a Spanish area, then went home.

Saturday was also really busy. Planned for a little bit in the morning, then left right away. Went to visit Guillermo, who last Sunday just randomly showed up at church and really wants to be baptized. Had an awesome lesson with him, and have him committed to be baptized in the next couple of weeks! It's so amazing that there are people that are so prepared for the Gospel, it's very humbling. It makes you want to try so much harder to find the people who are just ready to listen. They're for sure out there! Then we went and visited Jesus and Yeni, who are doing great. They still are struggling with the same legal problem, but that should change very soon. When it does, we hope they will be able to be more focused on the gospel! Did a few other things, visited Roy, a potential Elder Durgante and I found, but he sadly wasn't home. We then went home, and started calling our investigators to invite them to church the next day.

Sunday was super awesome! Went to church, and when the meeting started, only one of our investigators, Eddy, showed up. I stressed out about them for a while, but when it was time to take the Sacrament, I knew I should just focus on that and forget about the other things occupying my mind. When I did, Jesus, Yeni, and Guillermo all showed up! It was so amazing! Jesus and Yeni haven't been to church together in so long! It was such a blessing. After church we went straight to visit Hermano Mendoza and give him the Sacrament, and shared a message with him. He's doing awesome, still improving little by little. After that we went to visit the Mayta family, whose son served his mission in Washington DC! I talked to him a bit about it, it was so cool. He really loved his mission.

Monday was really busy as well, and we got a lot done. We completed our studies in the morning, ate some lunch, then left. Passed by Mauricio, who set up an appointment with us but wasn't there. We had a block of about three hours free, since it was Monday and we couldn't set up any appointments, so we decided to go street contacting in an area that Elder Landetta remembered being super successful. We went, and it was like we were in South America (except for the fact that it was FREEZING cold and SUPER windy)! We kept finding tons of Hispanics. Cubans, Mexicans, Chileans, Peruvians, Guatamalans, Argentinians, it was crazy! Almost everyone you saw was Hispanic! It was so awesome. We then walked about 7 kilometers to pick up food from a member, got lost, and got there super late. But we still got it, and everything was good. Walked down to the metro station, and it was so nice to be somewhat warm again. We were outside for about 3.5 hours straight! It was rough, I couldn't feel or move my face by the end! Went to visit Issac y Laura again, and had another great lesson. They have been super interested, and super warm and open. Then we went home, and ate the food the member had given us. It was such a great and busy day!

Goodbye pizza (sorry it's blurry)!

I've had such a great week, and again, I'm so grateful that Elder Landetta is my companion. He's so great, and has been teaching me a ton about missionary work. My Spanish is improving so fast, which is great! I was really worried about not getting it polished off a little bit before serving in French, but I've been doing so much better! It's really been so cool. I'm definitely going to savor the little time I have left here!

Love you all so very much, and I hope you have an amazing week!

Elder James