And I Will Die In This Area...!!!

Hi family.... well last week when I left you all I had changes... this has probably been the longest week ever of my mission!! Not because I didn’t enjoy it but because it has been an emotional roller coaster! Monday was a super hard day... I was not expecting changes... I was hoping to die in that area with Elder Garmendia but the Lord has other plans... so the whole day was spent saying goodbye to my converts, and members and some awesome investigators!! They threw us a going away party and they aren’t even members yet!! They are super awesome!!

That night there was a farewell for a missionary that was going to Panama, some members had a dinner and invited us, it was a good atmosphere one that I will never forget, I truly felt at home as everyone was saying goodbye to the missionary and me, I said my last words and for the first time I cried in all my mission... it was weird but felt good... I’m still not a good crier! But it was good; I will miss Barberena and the people! But am stoked for the adventure that is ahead of me! The only thing that I was dreading was packing! That has always been my enemy! I had my 2 huge suitcases stuffed full, plus my laundry bag full of clothes and such!

So the question you wanna know is where I am... it is like I said... I am in an area called Lo de Fuentes, in the Zone Bosques of the mission, but it is actually in a city apart from the city, like St. George and Washington... but this town is called Mixco! And it is huge!! Where I am is just residencials..... Again.... the ward had 186 people attend Sunday!! Bahaha talk about culture shock all over again! I didn’t know what to do with myself!!

But back to Tuesday.... I am with Elder Bracamonte from Lima Peru! He is a great guy... he honestly reminds me of Logan Terry, in everything he does! It is like being with Logan so we get along great!! I feel good about the changes and at peace, this is a great area to die in, however I am not going to try to get to know all the members! Our ward is split into 2 areas, so there are actually 4 missionaries here. Elder Ardon from Honduras, and Elder Cox from.....La Verkin!! Ha small world ey?

Wednesday we gave service, because that day is a national holiday so everyone goes to the beach again... so we built a house! The lady had a small little room for her and her 6 kids, so we built 2 more rooms for her, and reestablished the walls and roof and basically made it great! It was fun but HOT! I got fried.



That night Sister Stay called us and asked if they could join us for our companion study Thursday.



So Thursday they came and studied with us! Talk about intimidation! But after a while I wasn’t nervous anymore and it was a really great study session! We practiced for a couple of our investigators and I learned a ton! He is such smart man!! The biggest thing that I was reminded of was to teach people and not lessons! Many times we get caught up in teaching doctrine and not focusing on the personal needs of the investigators. I learned how to be more personal with them and how to apply the gospel personally to them; I am excited to apply this into my teaching for this last change.

Friday we had a mission counsel! It is no longer a zone leader counsel because there are sisters that are leaders now! It is a new thing that we are trying here, they are Hermana’s lider entrenadoras something like that, but they are just to help out with the sisters. We are making history here! Also Friday we found a killer awesome investigator called Nestor, he and his wife are listening to us! Pray for them!! He is just so chill, almost too chill but it is awesome!

Alright well to finish with my thoughts about the difference between the capital and outside cause I spent almost 23 months out and now my last change inside.... I am glad I spent my whole mission outside the capital... it’s not that I don’t like it but it is SO different from outside. The people here are so closed off, and in their own world and don’t like to let people into their world, and get mad when we try to enter their world. Also the houses are also very closed off, here is residencials and then once inside the residencial they have an intercom to call them... super hard to get in! Outside the capital we were teaching 20 lessons with members every week and 10 others, inside the capital we are averaging like 7 with member and 10 others, so it is a totally different way of working.

The weather here is crazier than St. George weather! It is hot in the morning cold in the afternoon and then rains or super hot and rains then super cold and cloudy it is weird and changes in a matter of hours.

As far as the zone there are only Latinos! Usually it is 50% gringos and 50% Latinos but here there are only 3 gringos, which is awesome to see the church progressing here!

Well I am so grateful for this opportunity to be a missionary! I love this gospel there is nothing better, I love helping people out with the Gospel, and there is nothing better than the gospel to help people with their problems in life. I love Jesus Christ and what he did for us, thanks to him we can return with our Padre Celestial. Thanks to the atonement we can find comfort with anything that we are going through, whatever problem, sickness, trial he has passed below all of that to help us out in our time of need. I am so grateful and in debt to him for his sacrifice. Something that I have been thinking about lately is the sacrament, and how if we take it worthily it is as if we are baptizing ourselves again, think about that! After our baptism we were clean, spotless! And we can be clean again every week if we do our part and take the sacrament worthily. Idk why but I really like that and have been explaining it to people lately. If we only put the same importance in the sacrament that we put in our baptism!

Alright family way out of time! Think of questions to ask me Sunday!! Love you!!! See you tomorrow!!