Wednesday, October 14, 2015

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 4th 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 11th.  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 4th 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 24th). 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. 

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