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| Elder Guevara |
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| The shoes are from just like 2 hours of walking in my area. They were black and polished and pretty, but now I have to clean them again. :P |
Ok. Here we go. I
havent had a very good week. Spanish is still impossible as of yet, but
looking back on the week, I feel like is better than what it was. I have
felt terrible and discouraged every single day this week, but I cant
remeber. it just blurred by. We started a contacting techique that our
President gave us. Its called "Mini-Zion" (Mini-Sión). Basically, or an
hour every dy we just walk around the block and say hi to people.
eventually, they will feel something good when we comeby, and at the end
of the week, knock on every door in the block. People will open the
doors and let you in. Thats the idea, at least. So we did that, and we
are going to knock tomorrow. I am exited to see. Anyways, I didnt miss
home as much this week, either. I was only discouraged a lot. Spanish
is hard, and different. I have found that the District videos can help a
little with the teaching, or the idea of teaching. I wish that there
were videos about learning spanish. :P Oh well. On Saturday, something
incredible happened. I told Elder Guevara that I wanted to go a certain
way on the street. I dont know why. But we ran into somebody (I
contacted him, meaning: "¡Hola! Somos misioneros de la Iglesia de
Jesucristo de los Santos de los Últimos Días. Mi nombre es Elder Olsen, y
este es mi compañero, Elder Guevara. Tenemos un mensaje para usted
sobre la familia." Then, I gesture to him, and he takes over.) He was
interested, and taught him a lesson right after at his house! Later
that day, we were about to end Mini-Sión, and I wanted to stop by a
family who we had taught once, but werent home when we went back for the
second lesson that we had scheduled, or any other time (3 or 4 times
during the week) that we knocked. So we stopped by, and they were home!
They let us in, and we taught the restoration to them, which ended up
being the best lesson that I have taught, because I understood
everything, and even was able to "Ping-Pong" our teaching of the lesson.
I taught like half of it, and bore testimony. At the end, I even asked
the commitments, including reading and praying about the book of mormon,
invitingthem to church, and most importantly, inviting them to baptism,
with a date. The accepted all of them, but didnt go to church. :(
Anyhow, it was a great lesson, and I was confident for the next 2 hours
of the day, until bed. That feeling didnt carry into Sunday, and my
Spanish was terrible again that day, but whatever. It is improving. Just
a little, but there is some improvement. Now to answer questions. Mom,
Yes, it is the only room, and there is a bathroom down the hall. The
walls and floor are stone or concrete or something. The bathroom is
s,mall, has a curtainless shower that is just a little corner of the
room (actuall like a fourth of the space) a toilet, and a sink. Air
conditioning doesnt exist in my whole mission, save one stake center
about an hour from my area, that all mission meetings are held at,
besides transfers. We eat at a "pensionista"s house every day for lunch.
She is paid by the church, and doesnt ever talk to us. We eat alone. We
are not alñowed to eat at members houses because of safety reasons, and
I have taken dads advice to drink the juice literally, and drink the
juice that is offered by just about anybody. I didnt do it at first, but
when I did, dad was right, and I could see that they were more happy. I
shop at corner stores when I am thirsty, and want a drink, but on
P-Days, there is a supermarket called Metro, which is like a run down
Wal-Mart. Our church building is A chapel and really small cultural
center, a hallway connecting them to a building with like 6 rooms and a
bathroom, and a big scary fence around the builing. All churches here
have them, not sure why, but whatever. It is a smaller ward, but it
still has the 3 hour block with all of the different age groups and
stuff. Our ward covers 2 areas, so us and the district leader share a
ward and see eachother alot. His name is Elder Huish (pronounced like
Jewish, but with a H sound at the beginning instead of a j) He is
gringo, but never talks in english for some reason. Haha. Right now, my
schedule is Study, study, study, lunch, more study, then from like 2:30
or 3 until 9, out teaching. Uh, I dont see any more question right now
in my inbox... So... yeah. All food is rice and meat, we are not allowed
to eat ceviche, or anything raw or uncooked, there is a lot of candies
that are close to US candies, but not as good (Exept for one called
Tentación - Temptation in English - that is super cheap and super good. A
sugary cracker with orange, chocolate, and vanilla flavors, but I
obviously get orange.) All soda is the same, exept they have a little
bit more of a variety with Inca Kola, its ripoffs, and Guarana soda.)
The food is always the same. At least it is good:) I love you guys, and
miss you a lot, but se que debo estar aquí. Se que la Iglesia de
Jesucristo de los Santos de los Últimos Días es la iglesia verdadera. Se
que José Smith fue verdaderamente un profeta de Dios, y que el
evangelio de Jesucristo ha sido restaurado a la tierra mediante él.
Estoy muy muy agradecido por esta oportunidad para servir una misión, y
quiero decir que aunque es difícil, es una grande experiencia. Tengan
una buena semana! Les amo!! (Y Brady, felicidades en recibiendo el
sacerdocio Aarónico! Estoy feliz para usted! También, FELIZ
CUMPLEAÑOS!!!!!! -- Translation- And Brady, congratulations on recieving
the Aaronic priesthood! I am happy for you! Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!) Oren para mi, por favor. Necesito este mucho. Otra vez, Les AMO! :)
My
area map, and my planner on friday. Still getting used to using it, but
I am getting better at it. I also tried taking a picture of one of the
freaking 5 daddy long legs that are hanging out in my room. Yeah, lucky
me! But they just sit there, so I am not afraid of them. :) HAHA
