Okayyy so this week's been good, naturally. Carlos, yeah.. Carlos.. apparently he didn't want to be baptized this week because he told us he was getting married. Then he said it was a surprise who it was to. Then he finally told us. It was Lizbeeth!! What the heck? His old wife that left him for another man! We checked up on him 3 days later.. and she apparently isn't coming now.. ugh.. women! Stay away from them. But he is going to be baptized on the 22nd of this month and probably his daughter that we didn't know about, who is 10. We'll see what happens, because he didn't come to church.
Juan is doing really good. He really loves our messages and is really intelligent even though he can't read. But he didn't come to church these last two weeks. The first week he had family over from out of town and the next week he went to Trujillo and just forgot.
Tuesday I was having a hard time in the morning. The night before, I took Nyquil because I've been having a small cold somehow, and so I was super groggy. Also I was having a few hard times with my companion. Sometimes he doesn't have a lot of faith and isn't 100 percent obedient. He's always just so close but never 100 percent and I always feel bad. Also he sometimes complains about certain things and doesn't help me with my Spanish as much as I was expecting. It's kind of hard sometimes. Maybe I'll bring it up this week if things don't get better, but I'm not sure how to. I pray for him every day though and pray for help.
I liked the story of the brother of Jared that you told me and how if I feel like I'm losing my Spanish, that maybe I should ask myself if there is more that I should be doing. A lot of the times it can do with my attitude also. When I don't have a good attitude I can't feel the spirit or be happy. Definitely true! I'm hoping to have the best Spanish I can! When I start learning more and more words and become more fluent I really want to study the grammar! I want to become as fluent as possible and take advantage of this great oportunidad (opportunity)! And yes, I am as happy as I look in my pictures. I'm loving it here! Some hard days but that's natural. The good days outweigh the bad days, that's for sure! And teaching investigators always is great.
Anyway, we weren't having success for about 2 days. We have been looking for new people to teach because we had a lot of people we were teaching that weren't progressing. It finally paid off! We just kept working hard and pushing through and praying for people who have been prepared and finally on, I think it was Wednesday or Thursday, it paid off. We found a bunch of new people and got citas (appointments) for this week. We killed lessons and I was able to actually participate more in lessons. I have actually been participating a lot more, not just giving my testimony, but actually teaching them. Flor said she is very impressed with how much I participate in lessons! We took her to a few lessons and she brought that up this week. It made me really happy!
On Friday we had an interchange in our District so I went with Elder Portillo and Elder Ortiz went with Elder Harper. I learned a lot from him. He's from Texas but looks Latino. He's super cool and funny but he goes home this change so at times he's a bit trunky haha. I learned to be persistant with people a lot and to have fun and make them laugh. He said that when he had fun and focused on making them laugh but also making them feel the spirit when he taught lessons, his mission started getting a lot better! It's crazy what a good attitiude will do for you.
Then, like you said you noticed from a Facebook post, we had service! That was a lot of fun and good to get out for a bit.
Then it was my favorite time of the month, Fast Sunday!! I love Fast Sundays because everything always goes better haha, except we started the fast off with liver.. I hate liver.. liver is worse than papia!! Haha but it's okay, because the fast was amazing and things went really good with Carlos. We told him not to drink anymore and explained the palabra de sabiduria (Word of Wisdom) more and he said he would never drink again! I think he only did it because of the hard time he went through with his ex wife this week. But yeah, my Spanish was super good in that lession (lesson)! And the other lessons we taught.
In testimony meeting, I thought I would be a good example missionary and share my testimony.. haha well I screwed up! I said the Book of Mormon is the clavo not clave. Clavo means nail, clave means key.. people started laughing but I didn't care haha, I'm sure they understood! Then Flor kept making fun of me for it haha. Oh well, life goes on! It was funny though. Other than that, it was a great Sunday!
Today was great! It started off this morning, we got up to go on a run and workout at this park. On the way back a dog started chasing me and wanting to bite me! Haha at least he made me sprint. It was nuts! I actually almost got bit but then I stopped super fast and picked up a rock. Whenever you pick up a rock they run because they know that they're about to get hit, so it ran away.
We had consejo (advice, counsel) today, which was weird, but apparently it was because President Rios was supposed to come but he didn't because he was in Chimbote. He is coming next week to consejo though. We usuallly have it on Wednesdays. but there's been a lot of drama apparently with some of the leaders and just not good stuff.. not like I could understand.. it always seems happy and great to me!
Then later today we got to go to the beach!! It was so much fun! Just got to run around and have fun and play with the crabs and stuff. It was a great time!
Well, I love you all! Love the gospel, it's great! Also, Amber, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for the Book of Mormon you read and underlined for me. It has been the best thing ever in my mission! There is so much help! During my studies when I don't understand stuff, I know where to go and I read it over and look at the notes and stuff you wrote in there! After I read my Book of Mormon all the way through, I'm going to read this one all the way through!
I love you all! I have to go! Besitos (Little kisses)!!
The view of our city.
Me and Elder Harper overlooking our city.
Doing service. This is a big trash can with a bike attached. I'm sitting on the bike seat.
Cleaning up the sidewalks with Elder Greer.
Sweeper patrol.
Service with some of the other elders.
Keeping the streets clean.
The beaches of Peru.
Having a great P-day with Elder Harper, Elder Ortiz and Elder Portillo.
