April 22, 2014 Didn't get Transferred

So!

To start off. We had transfers but we didn’t get transfer. I am still here in Grand Bourg with the same Companion Elder Micanquer. We didn’t think that we were going to get transferred. Well this week was an interesting one. The best part was that on Friday we had a talent show to look for new investigators. It brought me back to my performing days. It was fun! We were thinking the Ward was going to be more involved so we didn’t plan or prepare very well. But when we got there, there was a lot that wasn’t ready like the program and who was going to perform. So during the show I was running all over asking people if they were going to perform and when they could. Our ward mission leader was going to do MC but when he got there he pulled out his guitar and started practicing with other people. It was awesome because they pulled together some really cool songs. But it made us have to do everything. So it was fun and annoying at the same time. While we were waiting it got quiet because all that was left was the ward mission leader and he was almost ready. And it was like in Fast and testimony meeting when no one goes up and it’s super awkward. And so I told my companion I would sing. And then the ward mission leader walked in. So I said awesome I don’t have to sing! Haha! Then he went to set up and my companion said, while Patricio is setting up Elder Olsen is going to sing a song.... oh shoot! Haha! So I sang I´ll be your Crying Shoulder. I always got that song tucked up my sleeve. And it didn’t matter if I messed up the words because no one understood! Haha! They said I did really well. They were impressed. I have a video but I can’t email it. Maybe ill ask someone to upload it on FB.

Well. Other than that, On Tuesday we had exchanges. I was with Elder Damitz. It was nice. We always have good conversations. We went out looking for new investigators, but no one listened to 2 gringos. Haha! Then on Thursday we had to go back to the hospital to do a little check. Everything is fine and we don’t have to go back out there! So that’s good! On Sunday we had Ward conference. It was good and there was a lot of people there! We didn’t have any investigators though. After the meetings we had a ward council type thing with the stake where we talked about how the branch is doing and how we can do better. It was good because there is a lot of things that the branch isn’t doing which will help us out. After I was feeling really bad that I went home. Laid in my bed and woke up at 830. Haha! I felt like throwing up a couple times. Im doing fine. Just a giant head ache. Sneezing and running nose. Sore throat. And my whole body aches! Haha! It stinks because there is no time to be sick in the mission! Haha! But I am having fun and I will beat this flu! I take my vitamins and I try to eat healthy, it’s hard because the members don’t feed us healthy and they make us eat a lot. And then when we need to buy food. Buying healthy food is so hard because there is no time to cook and they give us so little money. Not that I am trying to justify myself. Haha! But yeah! Right now we don’t have any investigators. We are still looking for new investigators. We have been reading about the diligence and how to find new investigators. And so we will see what happens! We have some potentials. We will see if they do their commitments and want to progress. Because after we do everything we can, it’s up to them to do their part, and if they don’t we have to drop them!

But yeah. Easter here. They don’t really do much! There is a lot of Chocolate eggs. They don’t know why that it is eggs and bunnies. But they just eat the eggs. Haha! They don’t hid or give presents or celebrate anything. Well. I think it’s one day they actually go to church but that’s about it. Haha! But I was sick all day. Asleep in bed. So nothing happened! Haha! Well Love you! Hope everything is good! And glad to hear you guys are having fun!

You always see random fires in the streets like this Everywhere 

 We had a talent show. Prizes

 Linkin Park.

 Everyone is jealous of my camera because it takes pictures like this of the moon. 

This was the night of our Eclipse

Arent we cute in the mirror. 

Someone played a prank and put up a picture of a kid in the Ensign that looks like Elder Micanquer. and then they printed out a picture of me and put it on the board in the church 

These are some pictures around our church building. ITs a little different. We had ward conference this week and so we had a luncheon thing after. They made chicken nuggets and Little pizzas and french fries in the shape of smiley faces. I felt like children. haha! 

April 14, 2014 Elder's Surgery

Wow!

Sounds like a busy week! Super sad that they are leaving Idaho! But I guess its time to move on in life and start building the family! I can’t wait to get my soapbox speeches from dad about Girls. But I’m doing well! Here it is starting to get cold! I got my jackets out and sometimes I wear my beanie. Yesterday I wore long johns because I really don’t want to get sick. Stupid humidity. I’m just not used to it. But sure enough last night I started sneezing. But I feel fine. Well let’s see. This week my companion had to have operation on his eye! We went to the hospital to run some tests and take his blood and stuff like that and then Saturday was the surgery, it was really weird because we didn’t know when or where we had to be there. And so we called in the night on Friday and they said we had to be there at 7 in the morning, we had to cancel some lesson that we had scheduled and we woke up at 4 to be able to get where we needed to go. It was funny because when we left the house at like 5 there was a ton of people outside in the street and there was loud music. Apparently there is a night club really close to the house. It was freezing but girls were walking around in the skankiest outfits. And they were all drunk kids, like 18 19 year olds. Super sad. But we headed out on the way to the hospital. We got there all good and everything. They had him change out of his clothes and put the hospital robe on. He was confused if he should take off his garments! Haha! And then they took him back and said that I had to wait in the waiting room. I was confused because I had to be with my companion always! But they said I couldn’t go in so I went and sat on the couch. I found a vending machine and bought a coke. And got myself situated. I thought it would be long so I brought study material and was going to make some calls but before I could get anything out they called me back in. He was sitting on the chair. One eye was patched up and the other was closed like he was exhausted! Haha! And then said okay. You can changed back in normal clothes and you have to be back on Thursday to do a follow up and then they sent us on our way. We got there at 730 and left at 930. We thought we were going to be there for at least a day. So we went home and he rested in his bed and I got a little studying in. We had to go look for food. He was fine he just said that his eyes got tired fast. But we went to church the next day and we worked like normal. Haha! So everything happened good and it all went well!

And well as far as Investigators we are lacking. We are still in searching mode. We have found someone new named Constanza. And her son is named Alan. She is a Best friend of a member and she was going to investigate the church when she was younger but her parents didn’t give permission. But now she is! Haha! We have had one lesson with her, she had questions and was sincerely trying to learn. Haha! She was worried about the baptism because in the Catholic Church (she said) to be baptized both your parents have to be members and they have to have a ´´blessing´´ from the church. And so she was worried because she divorced her husband. Or is going to something like that. But ya! And she didn’t come to church this week because she ended up in the hospital. We don’t know what happened but the member friend told us that she had to go to the hospital but we have a cita with her on Tuesday. So well see. Haha!

This Friday we are going to do a ward activity. We are going to have a Talent show to find more investigators and to excite the inactives to come! And then on Sunday we have ward conference, and so the leaders really want a big turn out! If we can get 100 at church that would be really cool. We will see! But yeah! Super weird that it’s already the 6 week. Next Tuesday we have transfers! And 14 months from Wednesday I will be at home! Super weird! It’s okay... Im not trunky though! Not even a little ;) haha! Love ya! Hope everything is well!

 All you can eat Pizza from last week.  Thank you President!

Toretto's Car Wash - Fast and Furious 

 DL's and ZL's watching TV 

 We always send Connor pictures of Taymay, so he sent back a picture of a little girl in his Ward.

He said, "I have a baby, too!"

 Elder Micanquer's Surgery

April 7, 2014 Conference Weekend

Hey!

Sorry. Time passed by really fast and I don’t have much time! With the recipes yes you can email them! Haha! That’s what I wanted. But that’s my fault for not making it clear!  Conference was so awesome! I learned so much! I really liked Holland’s talk about how God is a tough God and that we need to be tough when we share the Gospel and talk to others about what we believe! Christ has an unlimited capacity to forgive sin! But he never condoned sin. (I think condone is like tolerate.) Haha! But yeah super good! We watched it at the stake center about 30 minutes away! It rained ALL WEEKEND LONG! I said all of sat that no one was going to be there. We got there a little early and there was 4 members. When it started there was about 10. Haha! And the 2nd session there was more! Well. On Sunday there was more people. A couple from our branch so that was good. We got there late because we went out looking for investigators to bring with us and since it rained it was super muddy and we both destroyed our shoes and got there in the middle of the talk of the lady. So we missed Uchtdorf and Ballard!!!!!!!! So I have to go back to listen to those! Luckily they had a seperate room so that we watched it in English. And conference was from 1-3 and 5-7 and 9-11. So we couldn’t see priesthood but we heard we will watch it with the zone one of these days. I want to download them all on to a disc so I can listen to them in the apartment. Haha! That is what I did with other conference talks! Oh and for the month of March we broke the record of Baptisms in the zone and President paid for us to go to an all you can eat pizza restaurant. We went today. We thought we were going to play Futbol after but we didn’t. We went in normal clothes but everyone else was with ties. Haha! And we got there late because we got bad directions so we were the butt of the joke for the lunch! But it’s okay. There was a TV on in there and the zone leaders and district leaders were sitting there watching the TV. And I got a picture of them all just sitting there watching. Haha! Then we quietly asked them to turn off the TV. And they did. It was super funny. They got mad. And asked them to turn it back on! I thought it was super funny! But even then I was super shocked that the zone leaders and other missionaries would just sit there in public watching TV like. But oh well... All I got to do is worry about myself and make sure that I’m doing things right! Haha! Love you! Glad to hear everything is going well! Also can you send me pens! I like that multicolored pen you sent me! I lost the cap so I can’t use it!!! Also I like the zebra pens. If you can. If not I understand. Love you be safe be good!

March 31, 2014 I Found Bacon and Abigail

Well this week was a good one! I’m glad that everyone had fun with their birthdays and that you had some cool experiences this week! Well. The most exciting part of the week was the Baptism of Abigail Figueroa! She is a little 9 year old girl. Really special! Her family is all members that she was waiting to get baptized by someone in her family. And her brother just turned 16. So her brother Willy baptized her! She is a little timid but is really great! The baptism went great, I felt the spirit so strong! I always do! Now that I know what it really means for them! And I know that these people wont just be apart of my life here but they will be apart of my life for eternity! I’m not sure if I mentioned it but for the confirmation of Santiago a couple weeks back I got to confirm him and Elder Micanquer did the one for Claudio. And then I again got to Confirm Abigail! And so the same day that Elder McStraw was confirming Noah there, I was also confirming here! That’s kind of cool! The best part is. I saw a picture of the baptism of the brother (who baptized her) and on it was the email address of the missionary that baptized him. And so I wrote it down and sent him the photos! He already responded and said I made his day and he is very happy to see that they are going strong! So that was pretty cool! A lot of this week was preparing Abigail for her baptism and so we didn’t really do much else! Obviously we did other things. But a lot of our investigators weren’t progressing so we had to drop them! There is a lot that aren’t married and its super hard to get married here so we just basically have to wait till first they make the decision to get married then wait to have them do it! So we are in finding mode! We had some other investigators but we will see.

There is a kid named Lucas. 15. He likes to play soccer and the church is having a tournament soon and he has been coming to church for a while. His brother is a member. You have to be a member of the church to get into the tournament and so he started coming more. We were told that we got permission to start teaching him the house of a member and so we started talking to him, He is really cool. And has real desires to follow Christ, Well we went by and talked to his mom who is a pastor in another church and she basically yelled at us. She said she felt offended and said we lacked respect for teaching him without her permission and behind her back. She said that she would be sinning by letting her son join the Mormons and that God will say to her, what you have done! You let your child get away! She got mad at us and used the example, ¨¨in our church we go to the street and help the boys on the Corner and pray for them we go to the sea to fish. We don’t go to the fish shop to fish. They already have their place¨¨ basically she was saying that what we do is go around and try to ¨¨steal¨¨ the child of the other religions. I was getting mad and wanted to yell at her so I didn’t say anything and my companion handled it really well by teaching about the authority and priesthood and that families can be together forever. And so we lost our investigator but hopefully he continues coming to church and gets baptized when he is 18 like his brother did.

We have some others but we will see. We really got to focus on Finding! And they are going to have a broadcast right before conference because here conference is going to be at 1 and 5 and so they will do the women’s broadcast at 11 or 9 or something like that! Haha! So that they don’t have to get together a bunch of times. Because it’s hard you have to go pretty far. And we won’t get to watch the priesthood session. It’ll be too late! And the eye is getting better but he still has his little thing. Haha! Well, Love you all! Take care! Recipes I need Pancakes. Teriyaki sauce. French toast- cinnamon rolls!!! And ya!

 I found bacon!!!! it wasnt the same.... haha! but its okay!

  And we had alot of ants in our apartment and when we went and got Raid. We sprayed EVERYWHERE! we killed the ants! the mosquitos! the Spiders and everything! well. Thats night when we got home there were two giant cockroaches on the floor! they were already dead, We think that they were used to coming out and eating what the elders before us left out during the day and hiding at night or leaving. and this time they were unlucky and died from the poision that was on the floor! haha! 

We had a baptism this week. Abigail F. Her brother Baptized her!  

 This is Abigail and Santiago. 

 And at the baptism they had a giant cake that was really good! And little gift things that are like a memorial for her baptism and they are little clay things of her, and I got one! haha! 

Isnt my companion cutE!