May 2012

May 7, 2012  

I am getting fat.  Alright, not really, but you’d be surprised as to how much we eat. I’m a little ashamed to say it, knowing how poorly Justin ate in Mexico with delicious cow stomach tacos, and Brandon losing about 25 pounds in Ecuador, but it’s true. It is a huge blessing to have a pensionista that gives us 3 meals a day and great members that feed us lunch on the weekends.  One thing you need to understand is that here, if there isn’t rice, it’s not a meal. They eat rice at least once a day with lunch and sometimes for dinner as well. The members always give us an unhumanly mound of rice and other stuff. I guess you could say I am getting a little bit of a gut.

Good news this week... we had a baptism! There is an investigator named Jesus that was supposed to get baptized my first week here but he suddenly started working a ridiculous amount and we couldn’t find him until two Saturdays ago. He still had the desire to get baptized so we talked with him again throughout the week and baptized him on Sunday.  It was great for us to finally get a baptism in this transfer. It is very fun to testify everyday that, because God loves us, he has put prophets and apostles back on the earth, along with the power, authority, and truth that we need to return to his presence. Spanish is good. Some days I feel like a pro, whereas in other moments I can still feel quite green. My companion says I speak well, I just need to work on the little things - the articles of la, lo and el for example. 

May 14     It was nice to see your faces and be able to talk to all of you. It was especially amazing to be able to see the view from the deck and remember sitting at the table, eating a nice steak on those Sunday afternoons with the family. You all look quite well and I am motivated to work hard every time I hear of the successes and happiness you are having. As you all know it is the last week of the transfer and we will be praying hard so that Walter, Hunberto, Hansel, and Ronald can get baptized on Saturday.  We’ll also be doing plenty of knocking so that we find investigators for the upcoming transfer.

May 21      We ended the change pretty well with one baptism this weekend. Walter is a 16 year old who has 2 friends that are members. He’s been attending church ever since I got here and even seminary at 6 in the morning for the past 3 weeks. He’s a real solid kid who has great desires.

This last week we had a district service project and helped our pensionista paint her house. We were there for 4 hours in the morning trying to paint every wall white, sweating gallons. But it was fun to be with the other elders from the district and have some laughs.

In other news, Elder Saavedra is getting transferred. We were pretty set on having another opportunity to work together and baptize those that didn’t get baptized this change.  Tomorrow I will receive a new companion.  The start of a new transfer is always an interesting feeling. There is a lot of encouragement that comes from having the opportunity to improve on things you’ve been slacking on and having 6 fresh weeks ahead.

May 28

Monday night Elder Saavedra said all of his goodbyes.   He looked at me and said `you better work your tail of too. Don’t blow it’.   I was ready and excited for the challenge.  At the beginning of the transfer meeting I saw all my past companions, one of which being Elder Salmon.  I was with him in Lopez Albujar for one transfer and I taught him the area. While I left and went to Sechura, then came to Ramon Castilla, he stayed in Lopez.  So anywho, president started announcing the changes. ` in the zone of Castilla, Elder salmon will be returning to work with - because they didn’t do it right the first time (laughter) - Elder Farmer in Ramon Castilla``. woah! It was a big surprise.  Having the same companion twice doesn’t happen often and it happened.  We already know each other and right away I told him we were going to work are tails off.   I commented to Justin how some nights you walk back to the apartment feeling great because people listened to you and respected you, but last Friday was a tough day because we lost various golden investigators.  I was feeling pretty down and wondering why those kind of days happen when my hopes and attitude is so high.  I opened the bible and randomly turned to Mathew 10.  It was an incredible motivation and testimony builder on the scriptures.  It is when Christ authorizes his apostles and instructs them on there missions.  I invite you all to read it and compare it to you personal lives.