6-6-11

Monday: We woke up this morning to a phone call from Elder Calaway`s
convert, who had traveled from 9 PM to 4 AM. He was like, "What time
do you guys want to meet up? I`m just chillin` here, at the terminal."
We went and he had just wandered around Concepciòn for 5 hours,
waiting for us to wake up and get ready. We met up and he and Elder
Calaway started talking up a storm. I got a letter from Alan. It made
me really happy, and I waslaughing so hard at the end. I miss him and
our inside jokes. Mom wrote me and said that her birth dad had called
her and they had talked. She was happy. The family went to Lagoon and
got rear-ended in the trailer. They`ll get some money from the
insurance. We had Elder Hickmans goodbye FHE with the Soliz family. He
wasn`t too emotional about it. Elder Chavez and Elder Wilde are
sleeping in our house tonight.

Tuesday: Today went pretty well for us. Today was the end of our
transfer. 9 out of 16 done! But because neither my comp. or myself are
leaving, went on as we would any other day. Actually, we did a major
overhaul on the house. We fixed the top bunk so that the boards
wouldn`t fall, before we moved the bed itself and we waged mortal
combat against all filth in th eapartment. The reward was a clean
house and the feeling that we should have done it sooner. Elder
Montalbàn`s new comp. is Elder Chavez. He`s a really cool guy. I was
really troubled on the inside, today. Various people have given me
advice that I need to change and I just feel like I was already doing
that, and doing a pretty good job at it. But now I just feel doubtful.
I hate that feeling, because I just feel like they`re looking down on
me and that I`m not good enough. We taught Jessica the book of Mormon.
We had given her the Introduction as homework, and she had read it
several times without understanding it. But she was receptive as we
went through it together. We answered a lot of her questions, and the
best part was when she said, "When you talk, you just seem so...sure
in what you say." I backed up my comp`s. testimony with my own, and
she said she`d read 3 Nephi 11. then we helped Hna. Teresa at her
house. She misses her daughter that`s on the mission. P.S. I got a new
pillow, because I didn`t like the lumpy mission one.

Wednesday:Today started out pretty bad. I woke up from a nightmare
where I`d given up on the mission early and had gone home. But I hid
from everyone and worked in the airport. Then I realized it was a
dream and that the lie I had told dind`t make sense. Then everyone in
my dream found out I had lied, and cheated. I woke up with a feeling
of regret and self-loathing, because there`s a big part of me that
DOES want to go home. those lies and deceit are all in me, in some
small measure! I just felt horrible on the way to Distrizona. But we
reviewed all the people we have and our goal for Sanctification Week
changed from 200 contacts to 25 houses entered. WEpve had problems
with that. but when I heard that, I got my soul lit on fire. I was
pumped and ready to go. I felt like we could do it, and that we were
toing to do it. In the streets, my comp. noticed it and told me to
keep it up. We taught Denisse for the first time today. She`s Hna.
Vania`s neice who`s 9 years-old. She understood the Restoration and
accepted a baptisimal date for the 25th of this month. We entered in 3
more houses and taught in the streets, too. One man had his son die
two weeks ago from stomach cancer. He was busy, but we gave him a
pamphlet of the Plan of Salvation and entered to offer a blessing on
his home an dfamily. We did good work and I feel great!

Thursday: We got up this morning and, for our exercises, did some jump
rope. Unfortunately, my comp. and I had shin cramps for the rest of
the day. In Helaman, I read about Samuel the Lamanite, and how he said
that man is worse than the dirt of the EArth. I wondered how that
could be, if we have spirits of God`s children, and dwell in Holy
tabernacles of flesh. But he said that the dirt, and the oceans, and
the mountains, and the clouds, all obey the voice of the Lord. But man
is opposite to God, and disobeys and needs to repent. AND WE CAN!!! We
had lunch with Hna. Soledad and she made us chaparritas. They`re like
home-made corn dogs, but with cheese and tomato on the inside, in
addition to the hot dog. I was pretty dang excited to go out and work
again. WE went out to talk with people, without a lot of success. But
we didn`t get down. Some people let us in, to bless their home. They
were pretty hard-hearted and we felt rushed the whole time. We tried
to talk to Elìas, but he was high from smoking marijuana. Never
expected to hear that excuse ont the mission. We read in the Book of
Mormon with Maca, trying to help her come to Christ. I hate seeing so
much pain. But I`ve really gotten used to it now. I looked around
myself while we were in the "Emergency" neighborhood, with all the
gangsters and drug addicts, and I thought "My siblings would be scared
if they were here." I would have been too, before the mission. I`ve
changed in that way.

Friday: I woke up and my eyelids were just so heavy. I had woken up
early, so I laid in my warm, delicious bed as I listened to the rain
pitter-patter on our tin roof. Elder Calaway ran with Elder Chavez
while I did sit-ups and worked with a dumbell. I finished Helaman and
the proophecies of Samuel the Lamanite. We went around, trying to talk
to people. My fire`s starting to dwindle as people are refusing to let
us in. While we were with the Sister for lunch, her son, who`s our
age, told us about a bunch of video games that had come out. I didn`t
get homesick...I mean it...don`t look at me like that. But it did make
me happy. :) We taught Denisse in the afternoon. She learned abou the
"gospel of Jesus Christ" and the steps of repentance. She`s such a
good little girl. We talked about being in the Kingdom of God with our
families and she said, "Oooh! I want that. It would be so nice!" She
said she`d prayed about the church with Hna. Vania, and that she`d
gotten her answer. When she said the closing prayer, she got choked up
as she aske dthat her fmaily could go to church together. She REALLY
watts to be baptized. We talked with Elìas after, telling him not to
smoke weed *snicker* anymore, and taught him about tithing. We said he
can get baptized after he gets married. He`s excited, too.

Saturday: I`m so exhausted right now, I seriously feel sick from it.
But, I`ve gotten such a testimony about how good is is to keep a
journal, and I haven`t missed a day my whole mission, why start now?
We all missed the alarm clock and slept in `til 7:30, cutting down on
our study time. But we still got `er done! we got into 2 houses before
we had lunch. I really liked the ajì that they served us there. While
eating, we watched a video summary of the Church`s activities during
the 2002 Winter Olympics in SLC. I miss Pres. HInckley. He was a great
and powerful teacher. My trunky thought today, was playing with Devin
when I get back. Mauricio Novoa, our Ward Mission Leader, got his
mission to the Kali, Columbi mission. We`re excited for him! I
remember, right before my mission, when everyone was saying, "We don`t
want you here. Get out there!" It was hard to hear, because I wanted
to be loved. I think I was selfish and lazy before the mission. It`s
easy to just be a memeber. Having a different perspective changes
things. Benjamin Silva left with us today. We got in a house with a
drunk, and the rest of our contacts were refusals. He said that it
must be tough to do it EVERY day. He wants to help more. I thought of
doing it before the mission, and only for a few hours. I would
probably have been counting down until the end. Doing it every day
makes it easier somehow. There is nothing better that I could be doing
right now.

Sunday: After this morning, it was a pretty slow day. We got out of
the house and went to pick up Elìas and Abraham. They didn`t answer
their phone...or their door...or when we threw rocks on their roof and
windows. They were just really tired. Yeeeeaaaahh...that`s it. We went
to pick up Mirta, and her dad came out. Uh-oh. But we saw a spark of
hope. He said that she had been behaving badly and he wants us to talk
to her about it. Well. That was unexpected. Instead of his original
argument, "She`s being bad, it`s your fault." It became, "She`s being
bad, can you help her for me?" See that? That`s what we missionaries
call "The Spirit." As we left church, Mirta came out of class with a
copy of the carpool chedule for 5AM seminary, every day. She had also
been told she could go with the WArd, to the Temple at the end of the
month! WHAT?! That`s crazy business! My comp. told me a story to help
me understand why we we should do things for the right reason instead
of just doing it. An inactive member was trying to come to Christ. His
Seminary teacher told them to read the Scriptures for 15 min. daily.
HIs friends, trying to impede him, hid his Scriptures one day. So he
wrote a Scripture passage he knew:"Jesus wept," and read it for 15
min. At the end, he, himself, was weeping because of the Spirit`s
presence. I know that this is the true Church of Jesus Christ,
restored to the Earth through a modern prophet and that the Heavens
are opened again. What a good message I have!