Thursday, April 21, 2016

New Gringo Comp!

March 23, 2016
    Today we wen to the temple, which was really nice for me. I learned a lot of things in the temple based on spiritual impressions. I don’t honestly feel much better about everything, but that is my problem.  We were short on time today because of the temple trip, but it ended up being a decent work day despite the lack of time.  I set up a double division but on of the people fell through and we could only make one of the two visits.
Miracle #592: We finally were able to visit S. She has been having some tough week, but the lesson today was very good.
    The funny part of today was being with an investigator who was in a super good mood.  She has had some very hard weeks and has been depressed.  Changes come in just 3 days and I can’t decide if I want to stay or go.  I love the people here, but I am ready for a change.  What I really want is a companion who wants to work hard.  I have talked to my companion about how tired I am of making all the calls and doing the area book, he just says, “Well if it exhausts you, then just don’t do it.”  That is just the pervasive attitude here and that is the opposite of how I was raised.  You’ve just gotta do what you’ve gotta do. 
March 24, 2016
    Today was alright. This morning my comp got up late but just in time to be late to a lesson we had scheduled for 9:00.  After returning to the house, we had the normal daily routine and just talked.  This afternoon was almost a nightmare.  Elder H. got sick and had to lay down and sleep for hours on end.  I tried to make call to get a member to leave with me to teach while my comp stayed with the member we live with.
Miracle #593: For the last 3 hours of the day, I was able to teach with my favorite member, a Columbian named D.H.
    The funny part of the day was talking to this member about exercises.  He is really super fit and we visited a Brasilian who is also into fitness. It was a fun day despite getting stuck at home for most of it. 
March 25, 2016
    Today was SUPER boring.  My comp was sick all day long which meant that we were in the house all day long.  I read a ton and did at least 2 hours of exercise.  My comp wanted to try to work a little bit so we went to our lunch appointment with some less active and he just sat there like a zombie for over an hour.  We didn’t work for the rest of the day.  We played a few card games and anagrams.  It was the first time I have been able to convince someone to play anagrams with me and we played a bilingual version because Elder H. knows English.  Very Fun! I am getting along great with my companion these past few days…because I don’t have to try to get him to do any work.


Miracle 594: From our lunch appointment we taught an actual lesson today.
    This afternoon I got a call letting me know that I am going to be a district leader again. Tomorrow we will find out who stays and who goes officially, but based on what the President said to me today, I will be staying.   There really wasn’t anything funny that happened to me.  Being in the house all day, I started thinking about stuff and home kept popping not my head. 
March 26, 2016
    Well the house is probably cleaner that it has ever been since its construction, or at least since the missionaries started living here. I was in the house for the entire afternoon, but at least this morning I had a break when I went to a new leader meeting that lasted forever (thankfully). I spent hours reorganizing our house this afternoon.  I have officially been stuck in the house longer than at any other point in my mission and it is driving me crazy.  I killed it in Sudoku for way too long, I cleaned, I read A LOT, and I was really really bored. The good news is that the house is super clean for the new missionary. The bad news is that we won’t have much work to do for the first week because of this set back.
Miracle #595: President told me for sure that I am staying and he also told me who will be my comp.  My comp is going to be Elder Bushman, a super good football player from Arizona.
    It was pretty fun getting to know Elder Bushman because President also told him that he was going to be my comp.  I guess that he is horribly out of shape and wants to work out with me so that he will be ready to play football when he gets home.
March 27, 2106
    Well today was our last day together and it was another huge waste of time.  We didn’t teach a single lesson today, but we visited tons of people.  Even though I suggested that my comp share his parting testimony for people to remember him by as a last impression, he didn’t do it. We had a BBQ with the R. family for lunch today and I ate so much MEAT and it was wonderful.  By far, the best part of my day, or even my week!  After that we just went around saying goodbye to people that my companion wanted to say goodbye to.


 Miracle #596: Because of all the goodbyes, I was able to set up a lot of lessons for this coming week that I wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise.
    The funny part of the day today was talking about the Latin culture and their take on R rated movies.  The adult members of the church here do not follow the counsel of the prophet when it comes to watching R movies. I found that to be a little bit worrying because they teach the youth to only seek after good entertainment and then they show hypocrisy by watching inappropriate movies. 
March 28, 2016
    Changes were pretty interesting today. I think that Elder B is going to be a great companion.  It is really hard for me to speak in English now, but today I gave it a try so that I could speak to my family on Mother’s Day.  Elder Bushman is a football star from Tucson, Arizona and is going to play for BYU on a full ride scholarship.  He is very laid back, friendly, BIG guy.  I feel super small next to his 6’5” frame.  There were three repeating comments/questions that people asked us today: 1. Wow Elder you are really tall! 2. Elder Bushman, are you related to President Bush? 3. They must have sent you here to control Elder Colvin.


Miracle #597: We called our ward mission leader so that he could leave with us sometime this week and today turned out to be the only day this week that he could go out with us.
    The funny part of the day was when the ward mission leader’s mom asked us to give her a blessing and I told her that her son could do it if she liked.  She said that our priesthood was better than his…WHAT????  I am not sure why the people here genuinely believe that the missionaries have more priesthood or different priesthood than other members. 
March 29, 2016
    Today was pretty interesting.  We had to spend the entire day n the house because it is a day of protests here in Chile and there is a lot of violence in the streets.  So Elder B and I talked all day long.  We got t know each other pretty well.  Throughout the day we did a total of 3 hours of working out and it wrecked Elder B.  He is 100% willing to train with me and give it his all.  It is way more fun to actually exercise with someone else.  We are going to hurt tomorrow.
Miracle #598: I felt an immediate friendship with my comp, which is only the third comp on my mission that I felt that friendship with.  All three are gringos.
    The funny part of the day was learning at 9:30 tonight that tomorrow is a district p-day.  Really Zone Leaders, couldn’t you have told us this a little earlier?  You have got to just go with the flow.  We just found out today who is in our district and I am super excited because it is a great district!

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