This week was crazy! On Tuesday we had divisions with our zone leader. I went to his area and his companion Elder George came to our area. It was a really interesting experience. Elder Raymundo is from Guatemala and has 4 months left in the mission, and is already dying (Mexican way of saying trunky). It was really weird because for the first 3 hours we didn't do hardly anything. We wandered around the area for a while, ate lunch, and wandered around some more, went to a funeral for 45 minutes, taught a few lessons, and then went home at 7:30! The whole day we spent going back and forth from the house and back out to teach because my comp was sick and so I thought he just had to use the bathroom again, but we didn't go back out after that! In the mission the rule is you have to be back by 8:30 at the absolute latest. I felt really uncomfortable and wanted to say something but wasn't sure what since it wasn't my area and wasn't my companion. If it was my area and my companion I would've, but I just felt weird. They always complain that their area is like opening a new area, but from what I saw they don't do anything to try and find new people to teach! Ridiculous. This Wednesday we are having Super Divisions with the whole Zone, every companionship is going to split with another companionship in the zone for 2 nights. We will find out who and where we are going on Tuesday night. I hope I get to stay in my area because I think it would be a good experience to lead the area without my comp for a day and that I would learn a lot, and we have air conditioning :)
Wednesday we had Zone Conference which was really good. The zone leaders brought a bunch of members from their ward and we practiced contacting and teaching. It was really good. My comp and I are really bad at contacting people in the street. It's one of our goals to work on. I feel awkward just walking up to people and talking to them, but I just have to do it. Thursday we had the training meeting with all the missionaries from my generation which was really fun. I got to see Elder Hyde and Elder Merling. They are doing great! Friday was a good day but was frustrating because the numbers we had didn't show the amount of work we did. Hardly anyone that we had appointments with was able to meet with us and was just a frustrating day. Saturday however was really good. We taught almost all the lessons we had planned and found lots of new investigators. We had an appointment to teach a less active in the ward who is mostly blind and used to be a 7th day Adventist. We went to teach her and found her finishing up lunch with 3 of her Adventist friends! We sat down and they asked if they could share something with us and we said yes and that we would like to share something too. They taught us about the book of Revelations and how it says that there will be a period of 1000 years when Christ will live on the earth. (Wow!) We taught them about the Book of Mormon. It was actually a really powerful lesson. We talked about where the Book of Mormon came from and how it can help us in our lives, and why it would be important to read it because if we read it and ask God if its true, and he tells us its true, then that means that its translator, Joseph Smith is a prophet of God, and that the church that he established through Joseph Smith is the restored Church of Jesus Christ on the earth. They all agreed that it would be important to read the book and find out if its true, but when we handed each of them a book they just started saying no over and over and saying that they respect us, but they already have their religion. It was like a switch was flipped from saying oh ya makes sense we need to read this to NOPE! It happens all the time. There are TONS of Catholics, 7th day, JW, and all kinds of churches here. Sunday is always the hardest day because we have to wear our suit coats, we don't have study in the morning, we usually never have solid appointments, and if our investigators don't show up to church, its always sad. In the mission you have to go to church 5 times consecutive only missing once in between to be baptized, so if they don't come to church we have to set another date 6 weeks in the future. 4 of our dates fell out yesterday. Brandon, who is the 14 year old son of a less active that we teach, we think his girlfriend is causing problems. He was going to be baptized on the 30th. Itsel, who had to stay home and take care of her drunk grandpa, but she also wants to wait to be baptized when her mom comes back in December. Lino, the brother of one of our active members who is a good investigator just doesn't come to church. And Elias, who is also a good investigator but hasn't come to church. Its frustrating because they like our message and want to be baptized but aren't willing to change or to do the things necessary to be baptized. Remember the lady named Gloria that practically contacted us in the street? She can't be baptized yet because she isn't married and her boyfriend won't come back from the military for a few months, but her daughter Iris and their friend Elena will probably be baptized next month if all goes well. They have been to church twice and they love it.
One of the last lessons we had we brought out a picture of the temple and they LOVED it and started saying how much they wanted to go there and one of them was crying. It was very cool and the spirit was so strong. One of Gloria's daughters is a member and is visiting her right now which is good. There are lots of highs and lows in the mission. I think its more mentally tiring than it is physically tiring, and its really physically tiring. But I am learning to love it more and more. This morning our alarm went off at 6:30 and as we were trying to force us out of bed we heard a giant crash of thunder, loudest I've ever heard, and then it just started POURING! It was really cool. I love rain and supposedly this is the start of a really rainy season here so I'm excited. This morning only lasted like 30 minutes. I think the primary song that talks about the beauty of the earth after rain probably confuses the Mexican kids because it just makes everything dirty and muddy here haha. But its fun. My Spanish is getting better every day. Sometimes I'll make mistakes that are funny, kinda like my comp speaking English. The other day we were practicing teaching the fall of Adam and Eve and the Plan of Salvation, and I accidentally said that Satan Tempted Eve to eat the fruit, and she ate him, instead of it. It's literally a one letter difference but my companion couldn't stop laughing at Eve eating Satan.
I thought of some things you can send me when you want to send a package:
Vitamins
Book of Mormon INSTITUTE manual in English. We have one in Spanish but I want an English one
I don't know where you would find this but having some pictures of the Tampico temple that are just little that we can give to investigators and converts would be really cool.
A scripture cover case thing for my Spanish scriptures. I didn't buy one in the MTC because they only have the ugly ones, but my comp has a simple black one that just zips around his bible that I like. So if you can find anything like that...
Crayola Twistable Colored pencils and a short, clear ruler for marking scriptures
A small English Book of Mormon, just the regular blue ones that the missionaries give to people
That's all I can think of! Don't send clippers, I will try and find one here.
That's all I have to say.... Any question???
PS I get to go to the temple every 3 months if I am close, so I will go at the end of next transfer
oh ya and also the missionaries don't ever baptize in our mission, only members.
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