Week 16

My companion and I have kind of slowed down on investigators... In fact its been a pretty rough stretch for me just because I haven´t been feeling like i´ve been working. Granted I´m a little harder on myself than I probably should be but still think that there´s so much more that I could be doing right. My language skills are still just barely on the verge of adequate and because of that I´m finding it harder to express my personality and act the way I normally would with people. I still can joke around and have fun in that sense, but I want to bring that same aspect of myself into my lessons and make them more interesting than always just talking in my "Spirit Voice"...

Although I really do have to admit that this Saturday I saw some huge mission miracles happen. I first went to a family that I just reactivated with my companion and shared a really great scripture/lesson with them and as we were leaving they offered us a freshly baked loaf of bread. But we couldn´t eat it because we were fasting, so we accepted it and put it in our backpack to save for after the fast. We then headed over to a lesson that we were supposed to have with another resent converso family that is struggling a little, but they had left for the campo and our back-up lesson for them wasn´t there either. So we were both like "Chuta, what are we going to do?" and decided to pass by a menos activo family that we´ve been working with for a long time and had never shown any desire to progress or assist the church, but none the less we decided that´s where we should go. When we got to the door we were welcomed inside and from the start of the lesson we both noticed that things had changed in the house and they were missing some big things like their TV (which everybody has cable here... it´s crazy), and also their couch. And we had passed by here husband earlier in the day and he had told us that he wasn´t staying in that house anymore. But anyway as we started the lesson, her 6 year old daughter kept saying all these little things that hinted at the fact that they were faulting, and innocently saying over and over "We have no money". At the end of sharing the scripture we felt like we needed to share the daughter asked her mom for food but they didn´t have any in the house, so we were able to say ¨Hey! We´ve got a gift for you!" And left the bread with them. The next day they came to church for the first time in over 8 months.

And on a related note of that, we are going to start reactivating a family that has been inactive for over 6 years and told us that same day that "OK. We´ll start coming back..." And they want to have almuerzos and family home evenings with us now!

If there´s one thing that I´ve learned since being out here is to always love the people and appreciate the little miracles, because they happen if we can recognize them.

Hasta Luego,

Elder Mundell

The Photos:

There´s this restaurant in Traigen (The city next to Victoria that I went to on an intercambio) That makes these gigantic Churazco Sandwiches (a ton of steak, guacamole, tomatos, etc.)

The branch took a trip to the temple and I had to ask a member to buy me a bunch of gifts that I´ll be giving out to all my conversos and menos activo families that I reactivate

Week 15

I had to get back to my roots this week... Fotos and Stories

So two weeks ago, after our crazy 18th party, I must have ate something bad because I got really sick. I was throwing up all night, and my laziness paired up with my sickness and I slept in the bathroom so that I wouldnt have to run downstairs to throw up. That night and the following day was miserable... And then I had my first experience in my life with laxatives too! Hahaha

Then like a week later a huge part of my tooth chipped and I had to go to the dentist to get it fixed. Thankfully the medical care here is suuuuper cheap but fairly good.

Then this week we went contacting in the campo and found a few new investigators... The cows and horses.

Ive also developed an obsession... Something that Im sure every missionary goes through, but Im hooked on ties. I cant stop collecting them. Haha

I know there has to be more but I really cant even think right now. Aaaaand I didnt restart my journal until last night so now I should be able to remember more or less whats been going on.

This week was also really weird because I was SO PUMPED for General Conference... The first time ever that Ive looked forward and anxiously taken notes and studied the conference talks. I was so excited and so nerdy at the same time. Even after the hymns it was like "Oh YEAH! BOOM, REVELATION!!!" hahaha, like I said dorky in every mormon/missionary sense of the word. And the older missionaries only told me that it gets worse over time.

On the more spiritual side of things, I honestly learned so much through conference this session. Not that so much of what they said was so profound but just the thoughts that came to mind and then wrote down were really surprising to me looking over my notes after it all. The messages have given me so much desire to find anything that I can improve first in myself, then do whatever I can to help the people I am sharing all this with. 

Elder Mundell