Monday Elder Mathis and I went around saying goodbye to people. All of our baptisms and less actives that we brought back to the church were crying to hear he was leaving. Two menos activos (two less active) are going to get married the 5th of April and sealed in the temple soon. I'm soo stoked they told us that we had to make time and go and watch them get sealed. That would be sooooo coool. It was a good day and for some reason I've never seen people so close to missionaries. Everyone was crying. One lady didn't understand that He was going to leave forever. She thought it was just another day change, but when we told her, she started to cry, but after all the crying we had our last district meeting and took a photo. I'm sad that Elder Feliz(Happy) is gone too, but an elder named Elder Sanabria is coming in his place instead who is way cool, and the coolest part of it is that he was in my area for months when he first started too.
Tuesday came and I met my new companion: Elder Chronister. I've met him before because we had sunday meetings together. He has a lot of energy and Animo (Encourage), we returned to the house and to my surprise he wasn't the same guy as I thought I knew. Where as I love it here in Contreras, all the hills, losing weight, the sun burn, and trees, it's like living in Oregon just with garbage and drunks and graffiti everywhere. He doesn't like it here, for the last week all he did was complain about how hard it is and how much it sucks.....But oh well, he's a missionary He can suck it up.
We are really cool together though when were just walking and talking and in the house and stuff, he's kind of rebelios with the rules which makes it really hard on me to be obedient when your comp isn't, but there is definitely a reason that He is a senior comp and district leader. He only has 12 more weeks than I do, so we both can't speak spanish that well. I thought I knew spanish really well, but then I realized that when you don't have a comp that's been here for a year and a half,there is more pressure to learn the language.
We had a lot of success this week. We have 12 investigators with baptismal dates, all for this change, but a lot of them are super flaky, I would feel terribnle to baptize them in their current state. We have a lot of work to do, but we had intercambios (exchanges) for one day and Elder Sanabri came to my area. We had such a good time. He's way cool and I think it's awesome that he's returning to the same ward just different half of it. I hope one day I can do the same with this ward. We now have a whopping 200 that come every week. Third biggest ward here in our mission. (soon to be the biggest when I'm (I mean the lord) is done here) We are doing really good work, but I have to show my huge area, so he just follows me around everywhere, and I have to make all the decisions. There are a lot of things that we lack, but I won't rag on my comp, I'm sure he's ragging on me right now to his family. I feel humbled though I feel bad for calling catholics what I did. They ruin my life, but without their church I'm sure this country would be straight dead right now.
We had a good week, with lessons and new investigaters. and this week was ward conference, there was like 300 people there and the Stake President gave our investigator/recien converso/menos activo class (less active), and it was soo cool. we have 2 baptisms planned this week as well, but I honestly don't think it will go through, the last like 10 dates we had fell through and it is heart breaking, I love the people here but the investigators are soooo flaky, it kills my heart,literally kills my heart. I got a dear elder sent two months again, hahaha, maybe dear elders aren't all that fast, but it's all good. I loved the candy and bubbles and shampoo sent from Harrison and I just had run out of the old spice, so the re-supply was in perfect timing.
Tomorrow I will be 6 months into my mission and 1/4 the way through . That literally blows my mind how fast it's gone. I don't know about you guys, but time is shooting by. I'm really good at conserving my money now. I actually have money to buy things from the shops in the road. I got over my sickness, but sickness here for a missionary doesn't mean anything. You have to keep working anyways. It's now like in school where the first cold that comes around and half the people leave for a week. you get sick every other week here, but my immune system should be strong as an ox when I come back. It's been warming up here, we don't have to sleep with our little heater thing now, just in the cocoon of blankets. Elder Sanabria showed me what it really is to be a misisonary, in the way he works and teaches, the spirit is so strong. I've learned this week that the spirit can't testify of things that aren't true. I tried bearing my testimony of obedience when I first got here, but the spirit wouldn't testify of my words. Now that I've humble myself a little and am almost completly obedient I have a huge testimony of how God is wanting to bless you, but he literally can't if we choose not to accept it with our disobedience. Now I can bear a wicked testimony.
It was a good week and I still have to get used to how Elder Chron teaches becasue we don't have the spririt anymore like Elder Mathis and I had, but all in time. I'm stoked and blessed to always have been companions with district leaders and in the same ward with zone leaders. We cleaned the house super good today like We've never before, and for how fast time flies here, the house gets so dirty with two 20 year olds only living in it at nights. Things are going good, and I don't have too many cool stories except for one this week.......one night Elder Chronister and I were chilling writing in our journals and wW received a message from a no name number..... it was full of spanish cuss words and it said that we needed to leave Estela alone or he was going to get a gang of people and shoot us.......................
I love you all and I love your letters. I'm glad no one is sick and all working hard. I hope mom that everything is cool and settled down at work and dad:the scouts are progressing, like progressing investigators. You've been given a calling from God to receive revelation for them. I'm almost in tears to think that a lot of my friends are on their missions and I only hope that one day I can see Geoff Yoon and John White do the same, and Lucas and Harrison and Kevan and Chris, and Clay and everyone else. Keep pressing forward. and remember alma 26 27. *-' Elder Ordway
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