Dear Family and Friends,
This was kind of an interesting week. As far as work
goes, it was awesome. We got seven new investigators this week with 23
teaching opportunities - almost half of the total teaching opportunities
for all missionaries in Yuma. Things are going really well and it looks
like we could get four more baptisms this month which would be half of
all Yuma zones goal for monthly baptisms. It's all falling into place
now.
This last week was zone conference. I was going to
type up my notes and email them home but I forgot them so this will
mostly be from memory. President Howes came down and gave a great
training on extending commitments, following up, and addressing
concerns. There has been a lot of emphasis recently on 15-20 minute
lessons and stopping by about everyday for a little bit of time. Since
Sawyer and I started doing that we have had a lot more success. There
was also a training given by the Assistants to the President (APs) on
how to do street contacting, or OYMing, better. They emphasized bringing
up the restoration asap and focusing it around that and the Book of
Mormon. Sawyer and I have changed how we OYM'd too to fit that and we
have gotten 7 new investigators from them.
One of the APs came on exchanges with Sawyer and me
this week. We were a trio for the evening and ran into an interesting
man right off the bat. His view was that the authority was never lost
from the Earth after Christ died and that he was working on finding his
own apostles. We tried to get him to understand what we were trying to
say but he wouldn't listen. We gave some good apostasy scriptures but he
actually had some impressive rebuttals. When we got back in the car,
the AP was pretty upset at him for being so stubborn. I chimed in and
said that's like what we're like as missionaries; trying to help someone
understand a different point of view and getting angry doesn't really
accomplish anything in the eternal scheme of things. It also drives away
the spirit. That is something I've seen a lot on exchanges that if
someone we talk to disagrees the missionary gets angry and calls them
anti and whatnot. I put myself in their (the person on the street) and
that helps me understand how we seem to them. We come across just as
stubborn even if we don't mean to. They say contention is of the devil.
Doesn't accomplish much.
I got to go on exchanges with Elder Mackay this
week. He's an English missionary here in Yuma - a really good guy. We
went over to a dinner appointment the other night and, well, it was
interesting to say the least. Elder Mackay said it was the weirdest
dinner of his life. We walked in and heard screaming. Really, really,
REALLY loud screaming. Turns out they were Mackaws (spelling? The big
tropical birds?). She had three of them in a giant cage that was
directly adjacent the dinner table. As we walked closer, the wife said,
"that may look like Lasagna, but it isn't. It's spaghetti and (something
else I don't remember...a weird fruit) and cheese on top. It kind of
fell over in the oven so it looks weird." I dished myself a serving
first and she said, "oh no, more more!" I said, "I'll start with this
then go up." I took about a 3x3" serving which was already a lot. Saying
it tasted funky doesn't do it justice. She spent the entire dinner
complaining about the election and how she is broke now (two days after
the election) and how the country is ruined. I sat silently. But then I
got her talking about missionary work and she had a good time there.
After some time the Mackaw got out of the cage and started running
around on top making one of the loudest sounds I've ever heard. The
woman started talking to it and calling it one of her kids. Hm. Well, we
got up to carry our dishes over before dessert (you get those in
english work) and one of the other Mackaws jumped over to the wall and
reached its talon out and grabbed Elder Mackay by the shirt and tried
to, from where I was sitting, eat him alive. It was hilarious and he got
scared and jumped past. Hilarious.
There has been a ton of dust in the air these last
week. I was hoping for a dust storm, like a wall 300 feet high of dust,
but it just came in with wind and was spread out enough to make it not
impressive, just annoying. Our car is disgusting and our bikes are
pretty dirty now.
We learned this week that an apostle is coming to
the mission! Elder Cook is coming on December 7th as well as some other
relatively important people. It should be exciting. We're pretty sure he
is going to come and bash the mission for not having as good results as
we should. We are down 70 baptisms from last year and not living up to
our reputation as the highest baptizing in the southwest with the
highest retention rate. So I'm bracing myself for getting (more)
humbled.
The weather has started to drop in Yuma. It's
actually unbelievably nice. It has been in the 60s all week. While I'm
in heaven, the 'natives' are starting to bundle up in coats and hats and
walk around the house in blankets. We ran into an incredibly drunk man
stumbling around and he was going off and off about how cold it was. He
called us his angels because we came out of nowhere to him in his time
of need. He didn't talk to us anymore because he started running the
opposite direction yelling, "no mercy, no mercy, San Antonio!" but it
was pretty cool to show up just as someone needed us even if we didn't
really do anything other than testify.
We ran into the nicest woman in Yuma this week too.
She was ~50 years old and from Mexicali, Mexico. We talked to her on the
street for about 15 minutes and she asked how long we had been speaking
spanish. Sawyer said 18 months (as of yesterday) and I said more or
less 4. She was super nice and complimented my spanish. I could
understand almost everything she was saying - she spoke really clearly.
That was a cool experience.
One of our ward missionaries, Brother Borgerson,
volunteered to drive down to San Luis to pick up an English investigator
we have down there. It's about a one hour roundtrip drive. That family
is awesome. We taught our recent convert into the Yuma Valley ward at
their house every time and they have an amazing spirit in the house.
Just a great family.
Elder Sawyer and I started walking into a trailer
park this week and found a woman who has since said that she wanted to
get baptized. When we walked into her trailer, her daughter was there,
about 26 yrs old, and we talked to them about baptism and authority. We
found out that the 26 year old works with the above-mentioned recent
convert and has noticed her completely change her life around and is so
much happier. What are the chances! We find someone in a small spanish
trailer park who works with someone who lives 15 minutes away in a house
on a farm who has noticed her life change since baptism. It was a cool
experience and when we told the recent convert about it she was
thrilled.
Two nights ago at about 5 am a really loud beeping
sound went off in the house. It went off about once a minute for an hour
and a half and was probably the most annoying thing I've heard in a
long time. Neither Sawyer nor I wanted to get out of bed so we just
dealt with it. Apparently he fell back to sleep but I couldn't. At 6:30
when we got up, it was still going off and I hadn't slept since it
started. Dang I'm lazy in the mornings. Once I got out of bed I went to
find what it was and noticed it was the fire alarm. Apparently the
battery is running low. So I grabbed a chair and pulled the batter out.
but it kept going off.... I tried to unplug the wire but it was glued on
for some insane reason so I had Sawyer grab me a knife and we cut
around the wire to get it off. Who needs a fire alarm anyway?
Carne Asada is amazing.
I called the election. How much did he win by?
We
were talking to our recent convert into the Rio Colorado branch
yesterday and he was telling us about when he went to pick up food
stamps from DES and they made him wait 7 hours. He said that when he was
called, "I got up, started yelling, and ran over to grab them! It was
like I won the lottery!" Hilarious. He's so funny. His daughters and
wife are now taking discussions since they've seen him change so much.
They're going to pull me out of Yuma before we baptize his family of 5!
Bah!! Oh well, I guess it only matters that they get baptized.
We actually had breakfast with him this morning. It
was Menudo. So much for getting through my mission without having it.
The LeRoy family invited us over and his family and we went and talked
for a bit and ate. It was a great time and the LeRoy's are amazing
cooks. I think if I were to have had Menudo anywhere, their house was
the place to have it. Cow stomach lining soup with bones and corn and
who knows what else. Apparently sucking the bone marrow out gives good
flavor too. Let me tell you, it doesn't. The actual cow stomach lining
meat(?) has the weirdest most uncomfortable texture in the world.
That was the last week. For time's sake I'll quit
there but it was a great week. Hopefully they'll continue to get this
way. The Stake President said he wants to split the stake for the first
time since its creation in 1954. I joke that it will be because we
baptize an entire spanish stake down here.
Thanks Mom, Eric, Will, Doug, Cami, Jamie, Arlington
2nd ward primary!, Aunt Andra (penne and chocolate milk, they don't
sell penne down here), Sister Hines, and Katie! Thank you for the great
letters this week! It's fun to hear what's going on in all your lives!
How do copy machines work?
Can someone send
me the wikipedia article on Jehovah's Witnesses? We find their
literature all over the place and read it. Interesting stuff, I guess.
They all hate us.
How specifically were the first 12 apostles martyred?
Love you all, thanks for the support!
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