Bike Frustions

October 14, 2015

         Today was a chill p-day.  We cleaned the rest of the house.  Somehow the entire kitchen had a film of sticky oily stuff covering it.  After writing and shopping, we ate and took a nap (1 hour for my comp and 30 minutes for me)  My comp got his haircut and when we got back he took another 1 ½ hour nap while I got to workout really hard.  When we went back to work (on time), I went out in just my short sleeve shirt with was funny because it was around 50 degrees and raining (and we didn’t have an umbrella.)

Miracle #401: I learned that my wrecked shoes are under warrantee and I will be able to get a new pair.

         I’m really grateful for my companion, because he listens to my advice and when there is a problem, he doesn’t shut down when there is a problem that needs to be corrected. We resolved to improve together.  I am working on my tact and teaching as a team, but I am getting better.  It is funny how my biggest mission problems aren’t the normal ones like language difficulties, invitations, contacting, obedience, etc.  I realized that most of my problems revolve around not playing well with my companions.

October 15, 2015

         Today was really a fun day of divisions.  I felt my sector and went out with Elder Ware.  We had a really fun time talking, but most of the day was just spent contacting door to door.  It was quite entertaining to talk to Elder Ware in English and contact immediately in Spanish.  Elder Ware is hilarious and we just had a good time all day long.  It is pretty funny because he was my DL for a while, but we never got to do legit divisions because our division day was spent in the house when we were both sick.  This time we actually worked and I have to say that it was one of the better days of my mission. He gave me a few tips on being a DL that will really help me.

Eating lunch as a district.  The sisters made the meal which was nicaraguan food.

Miracle # 402: I have a great district of missionaries who don’t really have any issues.

         The funny part of the day was sharing mission stories.  We both had the same companion and had the same problem with him which helped me to realize that it wasn’t all my fault that I struggled with him.  Elder Ware is a super humble and patient guy, but he had the same feelings that I did when he was with the same elder that I struggled with.  As I reflect back on what I have learned during my mission from Elder Ware, I am really fortunate to have known him.  Despite all the really hard times, I have learned a lot of stuff that I wouldn’t trade.

October 16, 2015

         Today was pretty fun.  We had a fun service project that was basically just organizing a cluttered warehouse of medical supplies.  We were given awful instructions so in the end we just started throwing boxes up on industrial shelves.  I loved climbing up and down the shelves a million times!  We enjoyed ourselves, but by the time we got done, it was way late and we still had to shower and plan for the day.  It took a while to hit the streets.

Miracle #403:  The A. family was different today because they payed 100% attention and sincerely wanted to do the work that we left for them to do.

         The funny part of the day was when my companion’s back wheel basically turned into spaghetti. (think jelly car tires) It was awful and he had to ride it for like 10 km afterward.  I’m convinced something went down yesterday while I was gone.  I wasn’t in the best mood in the world today, but it was still a good day.  We had to ride really slowly for my comp’s bike, so I was even able to memorize a ton of scriptures as we rode along.  I feel really worn out tonight.

I had to replace this horrible bike seat (for obvious reasons) with a more comfortable one.

October 17, 2015

         Today was interesting. Because of my companion’s broken back rim, we didn’t work at all again this morning.  I got so frustrated, that I left my comp to change the rim.  It took him a while but in the end, he got the job done and he had a really big sense of accomplishment and I was kindof proud of him.  We got a really tiny lunch and therefore we were super hungry all day long. It really stinks being hungry all the time, but that’s what happens when you are 19 years old, and work out all the time, and don’t get fed.   Most of the day today was just spent contacting and we found some really cool new people.

Miracle #404: After taking a short nap, I felt a million times better and was able to work the rest of the day.  I was a ton happier all day.

         The funny part of the day was helping out a member with a blessing and then afterwards helping her son with his English (he is a translator) It was funny because they had candy on the table that we ate.  My comp especially loved it, and it helped us get through the day.

October 18, 2015

         So it turned out that the funny part of the day yesterday wasn’t so funny for the family.  Their non-member father got PISSED at us yesterday (not when we were there) because apparently we offended him by eating his candy.  The Relief Society President talked to us and chastised us.  That irritated me because we only went there to help them out and because they asked us to come.  Now we have to go back and apologize. 

Miracle #405: For the first time in basically my entire mission, I participated in a useful meeting with an actual ward mission leader.  The ward is going to make calendars to accompany us. I am excited.

          The funny part of the day was in the end of the day when we had to decide between contacting and going to a birthday party that we were invited to.  When I asked my comp what he wanted to do, he immediately opted for the party. Honestly, I wanted to go too, but it is kind of a waste of time, so I was on the fence.  It turned out to be a good choice because we got to know the family better.  Tonight I had to make the calls for DL.

October 19, 2015

Today we had division with Elder Valle and his kid. After a rainy morning of not-so-fun contacts, we had not-so-great lunch which consisted of undercooked noodles and beans.  The noodles were all stuck together and hard, while the beans were the texture of peanuts.  After that super delicious treat, we went up to actually do the division and we showed up on time, but then we sat there waiting for nearly an hour.  The day was so rainy that we couldn’t ride bikes so we just walked.  It was kind of lame.  We did have fun climbing a hill to cross over to another part of the sector. (normally we go around)

Miracle #406: We had a first lesson with a golden investigator who read The Book of Mormon that we gave her.

The funny part of the day was when I was walking along and I failed to notice a puddle that turned out to be ankle deep.  I had wet feet all day long.

October 20, 2015

         Today was both really bad and really good. It was great because m bike broke down again.  I snapped the handlebar in half.  It was so rusty that when I pulled on it, it just broke off, causing me to run into a bush.  I was so pissed.  I really thought that nothing more could possible go wrong on my bike.  Once again, I fixed my bike and afterwards started working on the area book again.  Every time I work on it, it get a little bit better, and I think it is close to being really good.

Broken handle bars, rusted through, snapped right in half.

Miracle #407: We went to apologize for eating all of that family’s candy, and they weren’t even angry about it.

         The funny part of the day really was the whole bike situation.  As frustrating as it is, it is also hilarious.  In other good news, I got a package from home for Halloween.  I also have no self control, when it comes to candy and beef jerky.  I have already almost finished my Junior Mints! Other than care packages, I eat really healthy foods which when combined with exercise has helped me to become super fit on my mission.  This is something that makes me super happy.

Foods in my frig

Bike Heaven

October 7, 2015

         Today was a fun pday. We started off by playing sports as a zone, which consisted of me being goalie because I don’t play soccer (really I wasn’t even playing as a goalie since I just did exercises on the goal line.)  Overall it was a good time especially when we played volleyball afterwards.  For about 3 hours we all just messed around as a zone.  After that we did our buys, wrote our families, and ate lunch. By the time we got all done, it was 5ish and my comp went to sleep. I got to work on the bikes and was appalled at the condition they’re in.  They are really old, really crappy, really poorly treated bikes.

Miracle #394: I rode a bike for the first time in more than a year.  I must admit that my butt is really hurt.

         The fun part of the day was cleaning the house.  So fun to clean up the filth of 2 other elders.  I’m pretty sure that they hadn’t cleaned up in around a month from all the oil caked onto the stovetop.  The good news is that for tomorrow, the house is cleaned and the bikes are good to go.  The bad thing is that we are going to accompany the sisters tomorrow afternoon because they’re both brand new in this sector.  I’m not sure how I feel about being in a sector with sister missionaries and I am especially unsure of how to be their leader.

October 8, 2015

         Well today was fun. All morning long, we did our weekly planning.  We ate lunch with the members who live right next to us.  Technically we live in and add-on to their house.  After that, we has a service project out in the field with our sector.  We saddled up our broken bikes and rode out.  My butt is so not used to a bike seat.  I am going to have to get used to it really fast though. Even tough the service was fun, I enjoyed the bike ride more than anything.  The best part about the riding is that we can use our bags again!!!  No, actually, the very best part about the bikes is exercising all day long as we go out and visit people.  It’s absolutely great!

Miracle #395: I met a member (the ward mission leader) who is as nuts about working out as I am.  We gave each other some tips and ideas.  

A calisthenics move called the dragon flag.... you have to lower your feet to this position and raise them straight up while only letting your shoulders touch the ground.

         The funny part of the day was walking the sisters home to their apartment at night.  Elder M. told me that they used to do it because it was dangerous for the sisters.  But seriously, it is so chill here that it didn’t take much intelligence to know why they really did it.  There used to be a sister in this ward who was quite beautiful and had quite the charm with the other elders.  I am 90% sure that the sisters won’t need to be walked home anymore.

October 9, 2015

         Today was an interesting day.  It started in the morning with a new leader training thing where we learned all about how to be a good leader.  One of the things that they really stressed was believe it or not…having a clean house.  Weird considering that a LOT of my mission problems revolve around the fact that I want to live in a clean house and the other elders don’t. Anyway, because of the meeting we missed lunch and had to eat in the house. We have an hour to eat, but we were done in 15 minutes.  I wanted to take the remaining 45 minutes to clean the filth, but my comp wanted to leave.  When I explained to him why I was cleaning he decided to study more.  It is a good thing it doesn’t bother me doing it alone anymore.

Miracle #396:  I got to practice piano on a full size keyboard for the first time in more than 4 months. Wow!

         The funny part of the day was having to turn in our bikes with a list of all the problems of each bike.  I was kindof blown away that I had already made the list.  For one of the bikes I wrote, “there is not hope.  Buy a new bike.”  The treatment of those bikes was awful.  The elders let the tread get so worn that it was just flat rubber.  Each bike had a huge list of issues and we’re really hoping that by tomorrow we will have them back.  I am trying to be chill in this sector, but you can really tell that my comp is new and just figuring out the mission.

October 10, 2015

         Today we practically didn’t do any missionary work.  This morning we went to the mission office to pick up and take our bikes to the shop (because the office didn’t have time to do that yet.)  As it turned out, the man was so busy that he wasn’t going to be able to fix them for around a week.  When I explained that I knew how to fix bikes, he said well you can go and buy your parts and use my tools if you want to fix them.  FANTASTIC!  It took about 2 hours, but we got our crappy bikes fixed up and running.  After that, we went to lunch where they started cooking when we arrived.  It was around a 2 ½ hour lunch followed by a service project for a less active family for 3 hours.  By this time it was around 8:00. When we finally got out to work, the bikes needed even more help, and in addition, our cita fell.  It was a relaxed day where we weren’t very productive.

Miracle #397: During the service project, we found out why this less active family doesn’t go to church anymore. They don’t like hypocrites and someone apparently offended them.

         The funny part of the day was probably in the service because we were sanding walls and EVERYONE got covered in white dust.  Every time we took a step, dust flew everywhere.  The ridiculous part of the day was seeing how little my comp knows about bikes.  But today, he learned today how to replace the brakes!

Carlos's cute baby boy, Carlos.

October 11, 2015

         Today was a pretty darn good day! This ward is really quite friendly and I liked my first day here.  After church, we went to a baptism! Jazmin and Steven got baptized and I got to assist.  It is weird going back to an old sector even though I haven’t been gone for very long.  It somehow felt like it had been ages since I had been there with them.  There were over 40 people there supporting the baptism and it turned out awesome.  I got to baptize Jazmin and it was without a hitch.  The only bad thing was that it made us miss lunch, but then a member gave us some sandwiches and saved the day. 

Familia Ruiz Lagos (crazy carlos) I love this family.....

Miracle #398:  In the supposedly unreceptive part of the sector, we had 2 exceptionally good contacts. 

         The funny part of the day was probably making the calls as a district leader tonight. It was awful, but in the end I survived.  Sadly, I am going to be doing this for a while.  I have to learn this sector fast and figure out this new job.  I don’t want to be as rude or overbearing as I have been in my other sectors, so this week I will just be chill and when I have figured out things a little more I will be able to lead better. 

October 12, 2015

         Today was a good day.  The morning was dedicated to morning contacts.  The only guy we found is already an active member.  After our studies and my exercises we went to lunch with the bishop.  After lunch we spent an hour and a half cleaning up the area book, and now it is finally organized. This evening we did street contacts from our bikes. It was strange to get off a bike to talk to someone, but it was fun.  I think that this sector is really fun because going from house to house is super fast on a bike.  It is a blast to bike 10-20 km a day, and it makes me super tired at the end of the day.

Miracle #399: We had a division today!  We also had a great contact with twins.

          The funny part of the day was a lesson with a lady who is very slowly progressing and goes off topic a ton.  In less than a minute, we go from talking about prayer, reading, and going to church to talking about how sad it is that Zone left One Direction.  We are teaching way more “snakes” than normal here in Portezuela. It seems pretty weird.  I am not a fan.      

October 13, 2015

         Well today was fun.  It started with district meeting.  We had our first leadership meeting and it felt weird being in there.  My comp has it rough because he is so new to the mission that he really has to jump in without really having any experience.  My new companion doesn’t like how loud I am.... he´s always telling me to be quieter, so I told him that no matter what he says I’m going to be loud because that’s who I am, and I have always been that way.  It´s really frustrating when the missionaries in your ward (him and another sister missionary) think that your personality is not adequate for a missionary.  But this really is how I was born and despite almost 20 years of trying to modify my “loudness”, I haven’t made much progress.

         After the meeting, we went and replaced the rim on my back tire.  Overall I spent a little over $50 fixing all of the bikes.  We have to see it they will hold up.

Miracle #400: We had citas all day long and that is a miracle because it was raining all day long.

         There were two funny parts of the day and both had to do with bikes.  The first was seeing the sisters getting “help” from members to “fix” their brakes.  Their brakes came loose, but instead of tightening the cable, they just took the bracket where the cable sits and bent it closed with the cable situated farther back.  That is why these bikes are so trashed.  I fixed their bikes and taught them how to do it themselves in the future.  The other funny part of the day was riding in the rain and getting spray all up our backs.  We got filthy!  This is why we are told to not ride our bikes in the rain.  Haha!  It is great fun here.

The consequences of riding our bikes in the rain.

        

Transfer to Portezuelo

There was a strong breez (with elder jones)

September 30, 2015

            Today was a pretty rough pday.  We didn’t go anywhere so we sat in the house.  My comp was pissed all day long and just spewed BS that I ignored all together.  Today was MY pday and I worked out, studied extra, and threw in an extra nap in the afternoon.  My comp was under the impression that all of the pdays that we have done were my choice….seriously frustrating since 5 of the 7 we have been together we have done what he wants to do.  Anyway, my comp ran out of money (typical of all Latin comps I have had) so we had to leave to take out more. 

Miracle #387: The Primary president and her daughter accidentally locked themselves out of their house so they happened to be in the street when we passed by.  They had nothing else to do, so they went visiting with us and it went very well.

            The funny part of the day was probably going out with a member and TRYING to teach the restoration.  The member talked so so so much and never testified not did he let us testify.  Elder Corbo got ticked but I just let it slide and moved on.  I was really proud of my patience with my really grumpy comp today. The other thing that happened today is that my old bishop, Bishop Cifuentes, came and visited for lunch.  He had a dream that I was going to be transferred and he wanted to see me before that happened.  It was nice to see him again. 

Jolie the dog and one of my favorite families (perez sotelo)

October 1, 2015

            Well today was another overall decent day.  This morning we had a rough visit with R. where I decided that whether I stay or leave, we are going to have to stop passing by.  After that, Elder Corbo confessed in our weekly planning that he genuinely ‘hates” me and that this has been the worst time of his mission.  All I said in return (and I actually said it calmly) was that I didn’t hate him and that it hasn’t even been close to the worst time of my mission.  I told him that I learned tons from being his companion that I am thankful for.

Miracle # 388: We went to a future investigator who we didn’t visit when we were supposed to.  She remembered the appointment so I felt badly, but the miracle was that she set up a new appointment with us.

             The funny part of the day was just running into 2 investigators in the street randomly.  It was funny because these two people don’t know each other but were walking down the street together when we ran into them.  We also got invited to dinner and my comp wanted to go, so I just rolled with it.  I couldn’t get him out of the dinner appointment and we ended up getting home 20 minutes late.  I was ticked.  I am supposed to let people/companions make their own decisions, but when it affect me too, it is really really hard to do.  I will just have to figure it out if I stay here another transfer.

October 2, 2015

            Today has been a little sucky.  This morning we went to a cita and it fell through.  My comp and I got into an argument where he was intentionally trying to irritate me.  It didn’t work very well because I just have learned how to not let things bother me like they used to. He is really helping me get a hold of my anger a LOT more.  I have still been letting him be the big boss man of the sector and it’s not working so well, but I haven’t criticized him and I don’t plan to.  The miracle of the day was pretty lame because it didn’t really help that much, but is showed that someone cares and sometimes that is all that you need to get through the day.

Miracle # 389: The other elders did a house inventory with us and really tried to help us out.  It was a nice gesture which I appreciated.

            The funny part of the day was calling president to let him know that we have to leave the mission boundaries to take my comp to an eye exam.  Prior to this call, I hadn’t written the president for a couple of weeks, but then yesterday I wrote him a long email.  Unfortunately, I messed up the address and sent the email to myldsmail instead of ldschurch, so he hadn’t received my email this week.  He chewed me out, but when I explained the situation he just laughed and said, “Dang it, so close! Well some Elder Cook is going to have a really weird email this week.”  We got a good laugh out of it.

October 3, 2015

            Today was decent.  It started with an early morning visit to the eye doctor for my comp.  He has to use glasses for reading now.  After finding out that he needed +1.00 glasses, we went to interviews with the president where we learned that we both are going to get “assignments.”  I am going to leave the sector and be a district leader with a missionary that is just finishing his training, in a zone where I have never been.  I was a little bit bummed.  My two bits of advice from the president were judge less and calm down. 

Miracle #390: We got my comp his glasses and they have fixed his headaches.  Maybe that will help him to be happier.

            The funny part of the day was either trying and failing to stay awake in general conference, or playing darts with Steven (the kid who is getting baptized next week.)  I learned a lot in general conference despite sleepiness. I keep feeling like I am missing something.  I know that I need to humble myself and ask for the Lord’s help and forgiveness a lot more than I already do.

October 4, 2015

            Today was a long day of packing and general conference with very little times for much else.  My comp is completely sick of me and won’t take any last minute advice so in the street he got pissed at me this morning.  He was trying to argue with me about our new investigator M. who he has no faith is sincere. I told him that I thought she would go to conference, but he is sure that she won’t.

María at general conference.

Miracle #391: My hopes were realized when M. was ready to go when we passed by to get her for conference. Even though she appears to be a snake, her interest in the gospel is undeniable.  She told me that she wishes that she would have learned the gospel sooner in life so that she could have been a missionary.  She is awesome.

            The funny part of the day was when Elder T. invited M. to come to their baptism and she thought he was asking her if she wanted him to baptize her.  She said, “No, my baptism is going to be in November.”  That was cool for us because that means that she remembers her commitment and is sticking to it!  Another funny part of the day was  when the other elders filled the font they screwed up by thinking that they were turning the water off when really they turned it all the way to cold and left it.  Of course it overflowed and flooded the church.  There was a little panic and a LOT of mopping.  It was funny.  After that I got chewed out by the bishopric for doing their job in preparing for the baptisms next week.  Yeah it wasn’t very pleasant. I did their job because they I needed to make sure that it got done before I leave on Tuesday. 

 The dying missionary Elder Ahlstrom.

October 5, 2015

            Well today was the last day in this sector and it was so inconvenient.  My comp had to go to the new trainers meeting because he is going to be training a new missionary (bless this sector.)  My comp has not learned how to get around this sector at all because he just doesn’t try.  Today was a lot of goodbyes and especially awkward with our investigator M.  She gave me 2 hugs as we were getting ready to take pictures…my first real snake.  Good thing that I am leaving.

Saying goodbye to the Perez Guzman fanily.

familia cortez rubio

my flaite friend

Miracle #392: We had a really good last lesson with M who is committed to study and prayer in preparation for her baptism.

            The funny and really annoying part of the day was when the ZLs who are in a trio, asked us who also are in a trio since Ahlstrom went home, if we could do a division with them because one of them is sick and needs to stay in the house while the other two wanted to say their goodbyes.  It was annoying because we got home super late and I still had to pack.  Luckily the ZL gave us money to take a taxi back to the house and we made it home just a little late. 

Add caption

Georgina

 

 

byes to Maria

Violeta and Jorge

Vera Flores family

Soledad

perez sotelo

October 6, 2015

            I remind myself all the time that the mission isn’t real life. Today I got to my new sector (Portezuelo) and my new house is a little box attached to a members house.  My new comp is Elder Martinez from Uruguay.   My district has elders who I have lived with before and their trainees. (Elder Ware and Elder Valle), and also two sisters.

Miracle #393: My mission dream came true!  I got into the one of the 4 bike sectors in the mission.  This sector is huge! Too bad the bikes are all broken.

            Yep my bike is broken so we walked for about 2 ½ hours just chatting and getting to know each other.  My companion is pretty chill and nice.  You can tell that he is a new missionary, but he is stellar.  I am officially what is called a greenie breaker in the mission, but we are also so co-district leaders.  This tells me that he is a good missionary (usually) so I am excited to work with him.  Our house was a pigsty when I arrived.  The kitchen was the most disgusting I have seen and the rooms also need help.  My comp actually suggested taking some of our pday to clean it….whoopeee!  It is worth it to have a clean living space.  We ate so much today, that I think I might get fatter here unless we get our bikes fixed.  Tomorrow we are going to at least get the bikes functional so that we can ride them on Thursday.

Oh how I have missed the great outdoors!

Mostly Great Week

September 23, 2015

         Today was a good pday for me.  I got up at 6:20 and just started studying nonstop until about 9:30.  I did take food breaks and got dressed, but still it was a good long study session.  I didn’t do my morning exercises because we went to play soccer and I knew that I could exercise then (instead of wrecking myself with soccer.) It ended up working out perfectly because my insanity workout finished just as they were winding down the soccer game.  I did an army shower in the church, got dressed for the day, and went shopping and to the internet café. After all the lunch stuff, we went to do calisthenics and my miracle happened.

Miracle #380: For the first time in my whole life, I pulled off a muscle up. That, and my comp and I are getting along really well.

         The funny part of the day was probably the fact that all of our plan A citas fell through, but our plan B’s worked out really well.  We had the opportunity t visit a less active family that the elders are supposedly visiting that we had to hand off in the boundary change. Well, the family hasn’t been visited, but they are doing super well.  They are actually following through with all of the goals that we worked with them on.  I was super happy to see them again, especially because when we got there, they said that they had just been talking about how they missed the missionaries.

September 24, 2015

         Today was another good day.  My comp and I are finally working well together and having fun.  Pretty much all of our plans fell through so we walked in the rain to other plans that also didn’t work our to well  The dumbest part of the day was spending forever on these stupid Book of Mormon reading charts that didn’t end up working out.  The other funny part of the day was when we were in lunch with these 2 members and their visiting mother, the old lady was just saying ridiculous stuff all through the lunch.  The members where pretty embarrassed but we are used to it.

Miracle #381: We found a lady who we hadn’t seen in over a month and she told us that her sister is super interested in learning the gospel.

         The funny part of the day was walking in wet shoes all day long.  My once waterproof shoes are now slightly water-resistant. I am going to absolutely destroy at least one pair of my shoes before the year is out.  My toes may have been wet the entire day so I might not have been the happiest camper, buy our companionship is 1000X better.  The power of prayer is real!  Other than that, we are just frustrated how flakey this sector is this week. We have had over 10 out of 20 lessons fall through this week, and 7 out of 9 divisions cancelled at the last minute on us.

September 25, 2015

         Today we did divisions with some other elders an the division curse took effect.  The curse of the divisions is that when you do them, your day is either incredible or absolutely awful.  Today was awful.  We had tons of planned citas, but all but one of them fell through.  Honestly, it’s like Elder Corbo and I turned a new page and now we are really good friends.  It was almost a bummer to be without my comp today.  Elder Mollander, another gringo, came to the sector and we just talked all day long.  I came to an interesting conclusion, the most important character trait for leaders in this mission is to have a very laid back personality.  Work ethic has little or nothing to do with leadership. 

Miracle #382: R. actually read the assignment even though we didn’t pass by to check on him last week.

         The funniest part of the day was probably watching a group of ridiculously drunk Chileans literally falling over and stumbling around.  I have never seen someone so drunk that wasn’t either already passed out on the side of the road (quite common), or vomiting on the sidewalk (also common). I am really glad that public drunkenness isn’t allowed in the states because it is really ugly.  Anyways the other things that I thought about today was that I think that I am ready for a change of pace in the mission.  I have been doing the exact same thing for over a year, so I think that it would be nice to have a new challenge. 

September 26, 2015

         Today was a decent day.  This morning was lazy because I was exhausted so we didn’t really work until after lunch. My comp has a hard time motivating me if I am low.  When we finally got out of the door, we had a decent day.  We had a really great contact lesson where the guy was very interested.  Afterwards we went to pick up J.  She has a baptismal date for the 4^th of October after conference along with her little brother.  We took her to stake youth activity about country dances and food and stuff.  We had a cita at 7:00 about a 40 minute walk away.  At 6:30 I realized we had to go or find a ride to take us.  Elder Corbo didn’t care much, so I frantically tried to make arrangements so we could leave. 

Miracle #383: The 7:00 cita that caused all the issues didn’t fall and we had a good lesson with a 4 month old contact.

         The fun part of the day was going out with crazy Carlos on divisions.  I think that we found the perfect member friend for R!  Carlos can really help him because she knows the miracle of repentance. I really care about this guy and Carlos gave me a lot of hope for him.

September 27, 2015

         Sundays are quite possibly the worst days in the mission.  They should theoretically be the best, but in the end they turn out to just be full of disappointment.  No one ends up following though with their commitments and out of the 10-15 peole we teach, 1 person comes to church.  Today we were supposed to pan the baptism of Steven and Jazmin because it was going to be next week, but the bishop threw a fit because none of the other elders let him know so he said that we would have to postpone all the baptisms. Then he told our investigators that they couldn’t be baptized.  I was a little ticked that he didn’t let us talk to them first.  The other elders also have a baptism planned too. The hard part is that the other elders are going home this week and they will miss their baptism. The other elders are too timid to say anything to the bishop so I talked to him. 

Miracle #384: We talked to Jazmin and Steven and calmly talked to them about rescheduling until the 11^th.  Jazmin then chose me to baptize her and that is exciting. The other miracle is that the bishop agreed to let the other elders have their baptism on the 4^th before they go home!

         The sucky part of the day was being in a bad mood all day and having to deal with a really awful investigator.  It is so hard to talk to her because she makes fun of EVERYTHING that is sacred to me.  I ended up just playing around and ignoring her and trying not to lose it. 

September 28, 2015

         Today was rough!  I handed the reigns off to my comp today and he got pissed at me.  He resents me no matter what I do.  If I do everything, he complains, and if I encourage him to do stuff, he complains and doesn’t do it. This morning we visited R. and set up a family home evening for tomorrow that I am really excited about.  After that we had a lesson with M.(the miracle on the 24^th). She is crazy receptive so we invited her to general conference and are going to teach again tomorrow.  The whole time I was trying not to flirt. 

Miracle #385: Because I wasn’t leading the sector, I finally had time to study Spanish word in the street. I love this language and just want to dominate it by the time I go home.

         The funny part of the day was my companion acting much much younger than his 23 years.  There was one point in the day where my companion threw a fit because I was working on the area book…..What?!

September 29, 2015

         Even though my companion was incredibly mean to me all day long, it was a fantastic day.  This morning I did my entire part to be able to study on time and leave to work on time, buy my comp didn’t want to leave.  We were over an hour late.  This morning was good but not miraculous.  The afternoon was GREAT.  It started with visiting M. and being super impressed and surprised at what she had accomplished in 24 hours!

Miracle #386: For the first time, I found a person who not only reads the booklets, but also answers the questions in the back.  I asked her if she would commit to baptism and she said yes and set the date for Nov. 14!

         The funny part of the day was seeing my companions get mad because I was not upset with him.  I just decided to be unfazed and be happy so the work could get done.  The rest of the day just flew by. Tonight R. was too embarrassed by his situation to attend the family home evening.  We called Carlos and he came right over to R.’s house and we talked for about 30 minutes.  We didn’t teach a lesson, but I think that this friendship is really going to help R. 

I realized today that I have so many great things going on in this sector right now, even despite the fact that my comp hates me, that it would like to stay one more transfer.