Week 21

Enjoying a trompoburger (hamburger with a special meat called Trompo) after a hard days work!!!

This week was HOT! It stayed up in the high 90´s low 100´s all week, but next week it´s supposed to be purely low to mid 100´s! We are in what they call the ¨Canicula¨ which is 40 days of endless heat and sun:P Needless to say this week was a little rough with the heat, but nevertheless we worked hard and were able to have a lot of cool experiences.

   

First of all this week I noticed how far my abilities to speak the language have grown. I am feeling more confident in being able to at least get across what I am wanting to say, whether or not in the most correct way I would say no. I am amazed to think how fast I´ve been learning it and a lot of investigators and members pointed it out this week when I would be talking with them and then they would ask how long I´ve been out on my mission. When I say 5 months, they are super surprised to hear and always ask me how I learned so fast. My answer is yeah of course I worked hard and continue to work hard on my language skills, but there´s absolutely no way I could be where I am without the help of the Lord and the gift of tongues. I really can´t take credit, all I can say is I am extremely grateful for the many blessings I have received and I hope I can pay at least a little bit back to my Heavenly Father through diligent work.

We found a couch!

We´ve continued to be very busy with all our many investigators, less active members and other activities to attend to. This Friday our ward had a talent show and my district with the help of some members, performed a play that starts in the pre-existence and is primarily about two young men named Fulano (me) and Mangano (Elder Pasapera). I played Fulano, who is a lot like me because he was born into the church and ends up serving a mission. Elder Pasapera played Mangano who is a pretty normal guy with problems in his family. In the play Mangano and I are friends in the pre-existence and I promise to find him when we enter the earth:) We end up meeting when I change schools and I decide to invite him to learn about the gospel. I end up baptizing him and we leave on missions together! It was super fun and I am grateful for my previous acting experience because I had to memorize and practice for the show outside of my regular missionary work, which is to say basically there wasn´t time for practice, but it turned out great for how little time practicing we had and the ward had a blast laughing and enjoying the performance.

Opening scene with God, Jesus and Satan in the grand council

Our investigators are all doing great. I am sad and a little disappointed in two of our star families, Ana and Luis, and Kerena and Ismael, because they didn´t make it to church even though we talked with them all week about it and they seemed excited and encouraged. But it´s something I have experienced and will continue experiencing because everyone has their agency and sometimes things just don´t work out. What I´m not going to do is give up on them because they are super special and I can see great blessings to come in their lives. Luckily Keren, our farthest along investigator, made it to church and so did her little brother Gael! She now has been 6 times:) and this is Gael´s first time, he´s 11. We are working hard to help Keren feel ready for baptism because she has a lot of doubts and insecurities still, but she isn´t giving up and neither are we, I have faith that she is going to continue progressing and be able to receive many blessings in her life including baptism and receiving the Holy Ghost:D I´m excited for another hard but rewarding week! 

We ran out of pancake mix so I made french toast!!:)