tropical storms and stuff

Well, another interesting week as always.  We put baptismal dates with the Briceno family, and we went back to teach the Nino family again, and they look a lot more positive than they did before, but they have some big problems in that their daughter is angry with her father and hasn’t talked to him for a long time so he feels uncomfortable in church.  We also got another sister, Sister Joselin, to finally go to church this week… now we just have to figure out why she doesn’t want to get married when she already has two kids and her companion treats her really well and loves her a lot (he’s an activating member) so I don’t understand why… not?

The challenge as always is finding the time to teach everyone.  It’s insane.  We need to update our paperwork like crazy.  I filled out like 5 progress reports for like 5 weeks last week because we kept forgetting to do them and putting them off.  I know.  Terrible missionary.  We haven’t even updated the area book again yet.  It’s… a nightmare…But I’m very happy.  I’m still stressed, but I’m happy because this family is going to get baptized… I just always have this horrible fear every time people are about to get baptized that I haven’t don’t enough for them, and what if they go inactive!?  I heard that Jeni and Fernando already aren’t going to church and they were hiding from Sister Ellis. 🙁  Not happy to hear that.

BUT REINA AND ROXANA GOT BAPTIZED!!!  So… Sister Ellis’s last day in El Salvador (yep, she’s here in Belize with our district now!) they put together the girls’ baptism.  I can’t even tell you how happy I was to see the photos.  If I didn’t have any baptisms but Reina and Roxana in my mission, it would be worth it.  Because one of them is probably going to be Relief Society President or 1st or 2nd counselor or something… and they’re probably going to serve missions too! 🙂  P.s. Reina and Roxana are the orphans in the catholic orphanage!

Um…. oh yeah.  We saw an amazing movie yesterday for pday: 17 miracles.  Go watch it.  It’s amazing.  I cried a lot.  I’ve always wanted to know better the story of the Willie Handcart Company, and I feel like I finally know the stories now!  It’s… amazing.  And it also made me feel bad for whining about my bug bites.

Yep.  This email is not from Rachel.  I’m pretty sure we had fleas.  Yes.  Fleas.  I have/had large red itchy welts all over my torso and legs, and I’ve NEVER had anything that ITCHED SO MUCH.  I keep imagining The Other Side of Heaven where he runs and starts screaming because of the mosquitoes.  Haven’t quite screamed in the streets, but there has sure been a lot of howling in the house.  But they’re getting better finally.  I finally figured out to have cold instead of hot showers.  We washed everything in the house because of what Rachel was saying about the bed bugs (which I was thinking is what we had).

Questions

It sounds like your branch has enough people attending to become a ward. How many priesthood holders are there (roughly)?  Um, probably 15.  The problem is that they don’t pay tithing. 🙁

Where did your bike come from? Was it just passed down from a previous missionary, or did you have to buy it?  Caroline is a hand-me-down.  Poor thing.  I popped the tire… wrecked the back tire… dont’ know why the tire keeps getting flat now…

I noticed on the news last night that a tropical storm was passing through Belize. What was/is that like?  Yet to see.  It’s passing through today and tomorrow.  Not supposed to be a problem where I am.