So, surprise!! I’m with another Gringa!! What the–Hna Ellis?? I am now in an area called Modelo, with my gringa companion from Miami, Florida. I thought maybe they were kicking me out of Candelaria so that I would be with a Latina and speak Spanish, but I guess not. She has 10 months in the mission, so I’m still the Jr Companion, and I had my 9 month mark yesterday, so that was cool.
We have three baptismal dates for next Sunday with a little girl named Blanquita and her sister Evelyn, and another young girl named Michelle (16). She’s ten-years-old, but she’s about the size of a four-year-old because she has some kind of disorder, so that’s really sad. I actually haven’t taught her since I’ve only been here a couple days, and yes, my pdays are now on Friday because I’m in the zone with all the district leaders. Anyways, Blanquita and Evelyn are daughters of an inactive sister and brother, so we are going to try and reactivate the parents, but the girls have been going to church by themselves so that’s good.
It was hard to leave Candelaria. I put pictures in the triples for Adan, Edith, and Abigail. And I also left some ctr rings for other members and stuff. One of them I wanted to tell you about, he’s a young boy named Walter (15). He was baptized five years ago (when he was ten) and I talked to him like my first Sunday, and I was like, “Hi, how are you?”
“I’m really good. I’ve decided to come back to the church.”
“That’s great! How long ago were you baptized?”
“Five years ago.”
“And… how old are you?”
“15.”
Wow.
I asked him if he had a Book of Mormon a while later, and he didn’t, so I gave him one and he’s been reading it ever since. Last week after church I asked him if he’d like to go visit with us. It was so great because he bore his testimony, and it was so simple and sincere that you can’t help loving this kid. He was like, I used to be rebelious with my dad, but then I started going back to the church and it’s helped me be better, and I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that he saw two angels and that this is the true church.
Amazing kid.
He told us when we were walking in between citas (appointments) that he had prayed to God to have the chance to serve a mission and talk to the people. We were like…. Well, now you’re doing it! And then at the end of the day when we were walking him home he said, “I’m very happy. Today God has given me many blessings.”
Wow. I mean, really. I admire that little kid a lot.
So, I can’t really tell you that much about the new stuff cuz honestly I don’t know. It’s the nurse’s old area, and I’m in the zone with all the office elders, so now I’ve got connections! The house is crazy nice. It’s really weird… because it’s huge… and we have warm water… two floors… a washing machine and dryer (which we’re not supposed to use because of all the energy it uses)… but wow. Never expected to live there. Never. It’s the nurse’s house. It also has really nice table and couches because President bought new ones for his house and gave his old furniture to us.
Please just keep praying for me that I will figure out how to have lots of success here, and that I won’t get distracted from the work. And pray that I will be able to always have the desire to work really, really, really, really hard.
