Hey all–
I now have one month in the mission field! That’s not really a huge milestone, but I’m down 2.5 months now!
Brother Renken, if you get this, thanks for the earplugs! I might not get them for a while, but I REALLY will need them because not only does my companion snore, but the people that live in the apartment above us have a freaking ROOSTER and I keep waking up at 5:00 AM because it starts to crow and doesn’t stop until around 6:00! Who decided keeping a rooster in their apartment was a good idea?!
I have mixed feelings about this week. Monday was really awesome: We did the sketchiest service project yet — Lifting couches to the third story via ropes while standing on the roof! (I took pictures!) — and also had the best lesson yet! The baptism for Magaly and Marisol didn’t happen 🙁 because Magaly had some problems (and Marisol is only 10, so she’s kind of just following Magaly). So we went and met with them and I was really surprised. When we started the lesson, one of the first things Magaly said was she didn’t want to be baptized and my thought was, “Oh, no. This is exactly what I feared.” See, I thought that Magaly didn’t really have a testimony and was just getting baptized because she felt like it, and now she was going to change her mind.
But I was really surprised — And EXTREMELY happy! — to find that she didn’t want to be baptized because she didn’t feel worthy. It turns out she has a VERY strong testimony and actually understands the commitment she’ll make by being baptized, and she didn’t want to get baptized without knowing the stuff she needed to and changing the things she needed to. That’s how I knew she WAS ready, because she really understood. We resolved her concerns about being ready and then spent another TWO HOURS answering her questions about what she needed to change. She was willing to change just about everything in her life to be prepared — her clothes, her friends, her language, her boyfirend — and I was stunned by how much she was willing to change. Changing all of those for me would be HUGE (Yes, I know I’ve never had a boyfriend OR a girlfriend!), but she was willing to do it!
IT… WAS… AWESOME!!!
…Then came Thursday. I was dreading Thursday because it was the day Elder Terrones was going to go to the temple with some recent converts and I would be left with people from the ward to teach the lessons. And, since I can’t really understand or speak the language and the people don’t know our investigators very well or know how to teach the lessons, I was seriously worried. But I had enough confidence in myself that I was pretty sure I could do it.
… and THEN Elder Chamorro was my companion for the day. At first I thought, “Yay! He’s actually an elder and not just a member!” He’s serving a mission here too… but he’s got an interesting situation, as I learned. He’s living with his family, he’s only been here two months — same as me — and his mission is in Institute. I don’t know why, but I think a part of it is he’s… different and doesn’t speak very well, and the only lessons he really teaches are in Sunday School. He’s really great and can understand well, but that didn’t really help when I couldn’t understand him! I didn’t learn any of this until during our first lesson.
At first I was trying to converse with the investigator, Luisa, and Elder Chamorro said nothing, which I thought was strange, and then during the lesson when I asked him to share an experience he hadn’t been paying attention (CRUD!) and didn’t really bear testimony (He said about 20 words!)! I had asked him before the lesson if he knew how to teach the lessons and he said he did, but when I asked specifics… yeah, he didn’t really teach much other than Tithing and the Plan of Salvation (And pretty much all our investigators are learning Lesson 1, the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ…).
Soooooo… yeah, we had to have an emergency training for Elder Chamorro and afterwards he STILL didn’t talk much, but… yeah, it was tough to teach basically the whole lesson by myself while struggling to understand what the people were saying. I actually did pretty well, though!
On Friday, we contacted four drunks, soooo… that was interesting! One of them, Victor, actually accepted our message and we talked with him the next day. He really has a strong faith in God and REALLY prays with sincerity, so he has potential!
I don’t have a lot else to report except that the baptisms for Magaly and Marisol ARE happening this Saturday (without unforseen problems, which always seem to come up)!
I’m still looking for recipes you can make in a frying pan. The ingredients I have to work with are veggies, maybe meat (we don’t really have a freezer…), rice (Of course!), and things like butter, eggs, and wheat. Pancake recipes, egg recipes, and stir-fry recipes are my focus, but I want whatever else I can get, too!
Oh, and the Word of the Week: “dragonear”: “to flirt”! (Now you know why we Elders call teenage girls “dragons”!
¡Chao!
Elder Schroeder
