January 7-13

Jan 7, 2019

Today we got up at 6 to clean again, we then headed to Bauga Grande, we had zone conference and right now me and E. Espinosa have the highest goal for the month and bring 4 souls unto Christ! we then went out and played soccer and i scored probably 5 times, it was a good day! then we went to queen burger and had lunch! we ended the trip to Bauga with that, and i ran out of money for the month.. i learned im really bad with money! haha but i have some left over from home so i will use that and make a plan for next month to be better! we headed back to the good Bauga and in the car E. Walker asked what i did when i did the interchange with E. Montellanos, because one of their investigators had a flesh eating disease on his legs and he has been going to the hospital for years trying to slow it down before it spread through his whole body. Well when I was in the innercambio we gave him a priesthood blessing and he said his rash was gone within a week! For those who might not know what a priesthood blessing is, the priesthood is the ability to act in God’s name, it’s the main aspect that sets the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints apart from other churches. Well he said after his blessing it was gone, and hearing that today and helping the paralyzed kid yesterday, my heart was so happy! But one thing I have really learned is never joke quickly... we taught a man with no big toe, and I was like where’s your toe did a dog eat it? and my companion looks at me and says he had cancer in his toe and they had to cut it off... I need to get to bed, I love you!

Jan 8, 2019

Today was a great day! We taught a lot of lesson one, which is God is our loving Heavenly Father, families are the core building units of his plan, prophets receive revelation from God, Joseph smith, etc... we had some awesome lessons! And we met a family who is just perfect! We made more progress with Dora, and the chicken was good tonight! All is well with me, my companion, and our family of cockroaches! I love you goodnight!

Jan 9, 2019

Today was an amazing day! I am on an innercambio with E. Walker’s new companion but I’m in my own area, so my mission trainer is gone and I have to take lead on the area with lessons, investigators and all! It’s so nice because I’m able to spread my wings and really see how much I know without my trainer. Well E. Salles is an amazing missionary! He knows so much, talks faster than anyone I have ever heard, but I understood everything he said along with the investigators in the lessons! We taught a man named Edgardo, he.... tries really hard! We taught about lesson 2 about how we all lived together before this life as spirits and we come to earth to learn, grow, and be tested on how to correctly use agency. It’s similar to a big scale mission, I lived with my family before my mission, I chose to serve a mission to learn new things, be tested, and experience difficulties. Along with the never-ending happiness of knowing I brought a soul unto this gospel! After this life or my mission we return to live with our families. Depending on our actions here determines our degree of glory. For the analogy of my mission I think of how perfect my wife will be if I work hard in this mission and use my agencies correctly my wife will be Scarlet Johansen, if I do most things right but I could have been better my wife will be Taylor Swift, and if I just don’t do anything here and waste everyone time my wife will be judge Judy. This is reference to the degrees of glory, celestial, terrestrial, telestial. Well I had a blessed day using the gift of tongues! I love you a ton! Send sour patch kids or water melon! Goodnight! 

Jan 10, 2019

Law of chastity day, feel free to skip this read. Today we ended our interchanges and me and E. Espinosa had some really good lessons! We taught the ley de castidad the entire morning, 4 lessons back to back! This is the law of chastity, it is the teaching of not having sexual relationships before marriage, because if this mission has taught me one thing being in the homes of families every day it is that I can wait a long time before kids! Like dad always said the best form of birth control is to give someone a kid. Haha but I don’t know many of the words for this lesson so I just say marriage first then kids. It was awkward this morning. Many people live with their spouses and are not married, but also are not intimate. I don’t have an English copy of the pamphlet so I know the doctrine of how it’s a really spiritual thing between a man and his wife, but I don’t know the principles to teach people and I have not worked up the nerve to tell a gringo because I do not want the talk from another Elder. Haha but it went great! Other than that today was pretty low key, lot of walking, we have a girl named Jacory but you say it Jacordy, she tries to learn from us. I would teach something and instantly after knew nothing... it’s stressful because she has a baptism date for Jan 26 and I don’t think she will be prepared! well that was today sorry for the awkwardness! I love you goodnight!

Jan 11, 2019

Short type today because it was 99 percent zone conference where I sat in a meeting to better learn how to teach people, listen to problems more carefully, and ask questions that will both get them to self-reflect and open up about deeper emotions. Because the better we get to know the people the better we can help them. The best news of all.... I GOT MY CHRISTMAS PACKAGE! Awe I love my CTR ring and my scriptures, llama shirt, hot coca, wow it made my week! Thank you mom and dad! we also got mosquito nets and a white board! Oh and the racket balls.. nice! Awesome day! I love you goodnight!

Jan 12, 2019

Well today was... a day. We are changing cooks, so now we go to a member that’s only a 10 min walk instead of a 15 min walk! And she’s way good! Haha well we had some lessons this morning and we decided to cancel one of them so we would have more time for Dora. Dora has a baptism date for the 26th of this month. We have only taught her one of the 5 lessons because she’s really old and does not have a good education background. My companion said we are teaching lesson 2 no matter what, because we have tried many times. Well we got there and the relief society was there, turns out her daughter moved out of the house today and took the granddaughter too. So now Dora lives alone. Well we sat in her living room while she cried for many minutes, and I looked at my companion and held up the lesson 2 pamphlet and my companion was whisper shouting, no not now read the room! It was actually really funny looking back on it! I bought superglue so I need to go! I love you goodnight!

Jan 13, 2019

Well another day another dollar! We had 3 awesome lesson! Dora is doing really well, Christina was full of excitement with the law of tithing, and Jacory... tries really hard! It’s been a rough time here in Bagua, we have not had water in 4 days, I have a ton of water bottles in the fridge but we went through all the water so none are full. I got a bucket shower today and it felt soo good! I have also been filling out my scriptures and keeping them looking good! I glued 2 grapes together and put nails in it to made a dog, I asked my zone leaders if it broke the strict no pets rule, E. Norman was like... ahhhhh.. does it shed? I said no, and he said I get to keep him! Also there is this company online that sends packages to missionaries. It’s something like my missionary package .net or something and I think it’s a lot cheaper, but they only send candy, so mom if you want to send a holiday care package this is a good source. Well all is well here! I love you, goodnight!