Week 55

   Hey mom! I won't get a calling in this branch, the branch is pretty strong, we have about 100 members pretty regularly. We lack about 4 Melchizedek Priesthood holders and more tithes to become a ward. The branch is really strong though, and we have some great members, one that likes to help us out a lot, although his phone only works if he has wifi so it's super frustrating trying to get ahold of him. Melchizedek priesthood is a struggle valley wide and I imagine world wide. Men are always hard heads. Especially down here, they are "machismo" which I think just translates to macho, like they think that they know everything and accepting a new point of view would be looked at as a weakness. Also they get mad at us for talking with their wives/girlfriends. It's great.

    This week all the missionaries are going to speak in sacrament meeting, I will be speaking on true conversion. I'm pretty excited because it's one of those things I didn't really learn about until I was on my mission, the difference between a testimony and be converted to a principle. There are so many things that are super basic but I didn't learn until my mission. It's super weird to think about. I didn't know what the 10 commandments were, like I knew, but I could tell you all of them. Little stuff like that. 

    This area is pretty great, it still touches the border so we still get to speak spanish with people, but we really don't have any ghetto parts of our area where I would feel uncomfortable. And like always, the people here all have a religious background, I have met like 2 people who didn't already believe in Jesus Christ. 

   Unfortunately the area isn't a car area, we actually are not a complete bike area though. We share a car with another area, we get it 3 days a week, Mon, Wed, and Sat. That's pretty nice, it's a ford focus, like 2013 I think. The only thing that's bad about it is that the computer system in it is super confusing and isn't like user friendly, it takes forever to listen to the hymnyou want to on your USB. But aparte de eso, todo esta bien. 

   We had one of the best Saturdays that I've had in my mission, preparing investigators for church the next day. We visited everybody and they were all going to come to church and we were excited. We taught the Restoration to a young family and it was probably the best Restoration lesson I've had so far in my mission. Of course in english haha. Everything made sense, they completely understood it, it helped them to realize that there is only one true church, and were willing to pray and investigate to find it. To top it off they fed us pizza before hand. And then... they didn't come to church because their kids got sick. And nobody else came to church either, who knows why. But we had a miracle investigator come to church, one of our young women, invited a friend and he came, so there was a tender mercy. Why would I ever expect a completely fulfilling Sunday as a missionary? Haha but that is ok, because.. DAVID ARCHULETA CAME TO OUR CHURCH! I know right? Super weird, he knows one of the families here and came to visit the other ward. Guess what else, half of our young women skipped class and went to the other ward's sacrament meeting to be in the same room as him haha. We got to say hi to him afterwards, he is super short! I remember he came to the CCM about a year ago when we were there and I saw him down the hallway with a bunch of people, but up close, it's a different level. I think he's like 5'5 or something. And our mission president came to visit that ward also, but who cares about that.. haha just kidding I was more excited about seeing him that David honestly. 

    I don't really think that I need anything.. I tried on one of the shirts you sent me haha. They are classic fits so they're super baggy and the collar doesn't have enough space for a knot for a tie. The points go like straight down, not to the side like a normal tie. I don't know if that makes sense. But yeah.. I probably will never wear them haha. I'll probably just buy things if I need them, so I can try them on first, it just sucks because I just love spending all the money on my card. 

    I had a crazy dream last night also. I dreamed that I finished my mission. It was super dumb, I like was home, not doing anything, I remember I just played games on my phone. I woke up and was like what the heck was I doing? And so that kind of scared me, first that my sub conscience is trunky, and that I'm going to do nothing with my life after the mission. So that got me thinking a little bit, and I have no idea what I'm going to do with my life after the mission. Yikes, all the other missionaries have like schools they have scholarships for and all this stuff. It worries me a little bit but I just forget about it. I guess we'll see what happens.

    We got a member last week to take us tie digging, just like old times haha. So I got some cool new ties. Honestly it makes me so happy when we go tie digging and I don't know why, after the mission ties will mean just about nothing to me. But that's ok, its fun right now haha.

    Thanks for keeping me updated, have a great week! Love you!

Week 54

   Hey mom, good to see that you guys went to the beach, looks cold. I heard you guys got super lost looking for houses ,haha.

   I know less and less of what to write in these letters haha. Even though everything is new right now. 

   My new area is pretty cool, it is in English, but I've learned that it doesn't really affect my Spanish very much, it just depends on my studies and on my focus speaking it in meetings and with my companion. So I'm not too worried about that, we still talk to people on the street in spanish plenty. 

    Like my last area, there are lots of dogs. I've realized that most dogs just run up to me barking, staying just far enough away that I can't kick them. Which is pretty annoying because I don't know if they're going to try to bite me or not so I can't just not worry about it.

     The branch that I'm in is super cool. The members are really nice, we have a member that is with the missionaries every day, he drives us everywhere. He is a convert of about 1 year and he is 25 and his name is Carlos. He is great, I love him, he is filling out his own mission papers.

      Elder Anderson is my new companion, he is super cool, we actually came into the mission together. I didn't know him in the MTC because he served a little bit in Mexico and then went home and came back out, so he didn't re-enter the MTC. We actually spendtour first day in the mission together. We were dropped off by our trainers in a random neighborhood and told to knock doors for 3 hours. My trainer btw, Elder Rosero is now my zone leader and is sitting next to me, he says hi :) 

    It's strange being in an english speaking area again, teaching in English is so easy, because I can express myself however I want, sometimes. Sometimes there are words that I think explain stuff more in spanish but people speak both here so that's ok. 

      I'm excited for this area, I feel like we are going to accomplish a lot. Only time will tell. Thanks for keeping me updated, I love you, have a great week!

Week 53

     Hey mom! I thought it was cold enough to wear a sweater yesterday, so I wore it out of the apartment, but turns out it wasn't. It was super hot in a sweater, so that's about how cold it is here. No sign of snow yet either.

    This week has been pretty good. Not much has happened out of the ordinary, like usual. Transfers are tomorrow, so either I or Elder Juarez will be transferred. I can't stay with my son for 3 transfers, I think I've only heard of that once. But that's ok, it's been a ton of fun these last two transfers. 

    The other night we went over to Alberto and Anahi's house and told them we will be most likely transferred. And Alberto was almost crying, they want us to come back after our missions and baptize their son, who is 4 right now. He said it has to be us two. Haha it was super nice, made us feel wanted. We ran out of money extra early this month because at the beginning of the month, we decided to buy nerf guns for the FHE's that we have sometimes at the church. We set up Dixie cups and let the little kids shoot them down so they aren't running around everywhere. It was probably not the best idea, but not much we can do about it now. So we have like no food in our apartment, and then I accidentally said that we have no food to one of our members and she gave us a ton of food. The Lord will provide haha.

    I got another flat tire yesterday, I think I've gotten like 6 or 7 in the last few months, super bad luck. Elder Juarez found these little green strips of plastic that line the inside of the treading and so he doesn't get flat tires, I don't know why but I didn't believe it would work so I didn't buy any, but I'll try it now.

    Lately we have had tons of meetings as a zone so that means we have to drive down to the next town, about 45mins away. There are 3 companionships here, we have bikes and the other two have trucks, so we'd usually just get a ride with one of them. But one companionship got their truck taken away for doing donuts and the other one doesnt have any miles left (they only give us so many miles per month). So we have been begging our members to drive us down. And I feel bad asking them for rides, but we have to. It's been like the same 3 people too. But the are the only ones with cars that have a little bit of free time off of work. But somehow I think it has helped our relationship with the members, I think it makes them feel good to serve the missionaries. And I mean, they'll be blessed for it, so I guess I shouldn't feel too bad. 

    But yeah, I'll let you know next week what happened with transfers and everything, eek! Thanks for keeping me updated, I love you! Stay warm!

Week 52

   Hey Mom! This week has been really good. Sounds super weird that you guys are in Maine, talking about snow, it was pretty hot yesterday. Dad doesn't sound like he really loves the wood stove you guys have but it's better than nothing I guess.

    Not really a ton has happened in the past week, Elder Juarez and I are finding a lot more investigators, I think we are working with some 15 people right now or something. The only problem is it's super hard to get in touch with them. They are always gone and it's a small town so people like to leave to go have fun or shop in other towns for the weekends. But it keeps us on our toes I guess. The branch is doing a lot better, we almost filled the parking lot yesterday in church, given it's a small parking lot. But that is improvement. It depends on the weather here a lot, if it's cold in the morning, people don't get out of bed, and when we ask why they didn't go to church, they say, "well it was cold this morning." It's kind of ridiculous but I can't say that I haven't stayed home for silly reasons in the past. 

      Elder Juarez and I are trying to have more love for the people. It is hard to just have a love for everyone. Our zone leaders asked us if we really love people, and we were like yeah, and then he asked if we would die for our members, our investigators or just some random guy on the street, just because we knew how much he means to God. I definitely am not where I need to be when it comes to having charity. There are a few scriptures that I really like,

             1 Cor 13: 1-3

 1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as‍ sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor,‍ and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
       I can be a really "great" missionary, and know what to say and how to help people, what their needs are, but if I don't really love them, it is not going to help either of us. We are trying to look more for the potential in people, praying for the gift of charity and doing more service. I thought going on a mission was enough to show my love, but it really means nothing. We talked about how important it will be for our future with our wives (don't worry, just 1 each) and for being able to serve in the church.
     The mission is a great opportunity to learn, you can never feel adequate with where you are, there is always room for improvement, that's part of what I love about the Gospel.
         Thanks for emailing me! I love you, have a great week, stay warm!

Week 51

Hey Mom!

 Not a whole lot has happened lately. We had interviews with President Maluenda the other day, Tuesday. It went pretty well, received revelation on some things that we can change or include in our area and in our companionship. 

     We had a pretty good week. Thank goodness too. None of our investigators were really progressing so we dropped a lot of people and so we didn't have much to work with, so we went door contacting, my least favorite thing to do. It's not that I don't like talking with people at the door or it's too awkward. Just that it is usually pretty unsuccessful. However, we found 8 new investigators in one day. It was pretty cool, it was like everybody that we talked to just wanted to learn about the Gospel. One of them let us in their house without us even asking and gave us cookies and muffins. In the same little cookie containers that Grammie used to use. It was really great.

    Then we got up earlier than normal on Sunday to go wake everyone up and it was super cold. So we went by everyones house and only one person answered the door and she was mad at us for waking them up and nobody came to church. It was the first week that we've been here without anybody in church. Which was kind of discouraging but that's ok we can deal with it. we just have to work harder this week.

    We went over to a less actives house and she loves my companion because he's from Guatemala and she is from Honduras, so their neighboring countries and have lots of culture in common. She always feeds us a lot and the other day she gave us fireworks and we lit them off in her back yard, it was really fun, I don't know how the neighbors felt about it but it was nice because we didn't on New Year's Eve. 

    Glad to know everyone is doing really well, hope you guys continue to love Maine! Stay warm, I love you!

Week 50

     Hey mom! Glad to hear everyone is doing so well and you are actually kind of happy about the snow. I miss snow, it has gotten pretty cold here the last couple days, sweater weather. It has rained a few days also and biking in the rain is freezing. I love knocking on peoples doors soaking wet.

    New Years was pretty interesting. So we had a zone meeting, then after the zone meeting we watched a movie. Every year on New Years President picks a movie that the mission can watch. Last year they watched Frozen, and then this year we watched The Polar Express. I'm not a big fan of Polar Express so I was a little disappointed, but it was fun taking it easy for a little while with some friends. The rule in the mission is we have to be home by 6 oclock if we dont watch the movie and if we do we have to be home by 8. The movie started at 6, and we had an hour drive home so we had to leave in the middle of the movie, so we didn't even get to watch the whole thing haha. Oh well, we had a tie trade before that and that's the reason I really wanted to go anyways.

     Things are going well in this area, the branch is really changing, there isn't as much hatred as before. We are planning different activities and things so that we can build more unity. It's super weird as a missionary. We see so many people that just have bad relationships just because of silly little things they do, like not trusting each other, little lies, or just a lack of communication. Half of the time I feel like we do couples therapy. Which isn't what we should be doing, we shouldn't get into people's lives or relationships at all. The Gospel will change their behavior anyways, but it is just super weird. 

     Thanks for everything! I love you and miss you! Have a great week!

Week 49

     Hey mom! Glad you guys are liking the new area! Sounds really nice! You guys have a wood stove? Yay! Sounds like a good place for everyone! I hope you don't lose anything in the move!

    Things here are going pretty well, Alberto and Anahi were just confirmed yesterday and received he Holy Ghost. it was really nice, I think they'll do really well here, they just need to get callings now.

     My companion and I continue to get along well, I feel that my spanish is really improving, I have a huge stack of notecards for vocabulary and he can understand everything I say in Spanish even though it's not perfect, so he can tell me how to say it correctly.

    Our branch is looking to make lots of changes. We have talked wth all our auxilaries and obtained their visions for the branch and made some plans of things we can do and I think things will start to change. Some of our leaders dont really have visions so they had to kind of help them make some but that's ok. We are going to have more FHE with different families, trying to combine them if possible. I guess we're just trying to work on the unity in the branch. It's exciting for me, I know probably not for you guys haha. 

    Well not much to write, we just talked the other day so, I hope you have  a great week and don't get snowed in! I love you!