September 15, 2014

This is my zone. Four of us are from the states. The rest of us are from Mexico and other Latin American Countries.

So this week was really weird. Different. First off, I went on splits with Elder Z, one of our zone leaders. He’s awesome. He’s from Mexico. He’s the one in the pic with the dark skin and the curly short black hair and the glasses. He’s almost dead, meaning he only has 2 months left on the mission. He left fake poop in the bathroom for me. I learned a lot from him.

I wanted to start using the Book of Mormon more, because without it, it is basically impossible to know that the church is true. Sometimes elders here think the people wouldn’t understand it. They aren’t educated, and they can’t read, and a lot of the time they can’t comprehend some of this stuff. It’s not their fault, just the way things are here. But Tuesday, Elder Z taught every lesson with a part of the Book of Mormon, which we read together. If they couldn’t read, we’d read it to them, and then he explained. It was way more powerful than what we had been doing. They feel the spirit. So now, me and my comp are teaching A LOT from the Book of Mormon. 

Okay second, almost every teaching appointment we had this week fell through. We lost a lot of investigators, and did loads of contacting. We taught an extremely drunk man from Monterey and now he has committed to baptism on October 12^th. (He did this in the second lesson, when he wasn’t drunk like in the first.) That was awesome. He really wants to stop drinking and be happy with his family. 

I had my first zone conference on Saturday. It was awesome. Lots of guidance from Presidente C. The gospel blesses families, and is strongest with families. From now on we’re going to do everything that we can to baptize the families. We’re going to ask for references from members, and teach with them. We’re going to do every thing we can to teach investigators as families. This will be very difficult, but we’re gonna try! 

My Spanish is getting much better. Apparently, for someone with only 4 weeks, it’s really good. With some people I can understand with clarity everything that they say, but others I can’t understand anything. Grammar continues to be my greatest struggle. But every time we’re teaching a lesson, I understand almost everything. So that’s cool! 

I am trying very hard with Spanish. And with the Spirit. Right now it’s just a trial of faith from the Lord, and my faith has grown tremendously, in a way that I know is not possible with success. Eventually we will have success. I don’t know how long this drought will continue, but I will continue to work with all I got and my faith is going to continue to grow. So right now I’m treasuring every trial that I get because that’s how faith grows.