So one down two to go... or just one (years in the mission). Weird.
This week was interesting, difficult, fun, but also disappointing. What should I start with?
Disappointing - So my district that I'm in charge of sucks. Hahaha like the other four elders I'm not really sure what they've been doing for the last like two months in their areas, and the zone leaders are like why don't they have investigators or lessons. I'm like I'm doing my job in my area, and inviting them to do the same in theirs. Idk, I understand I need to help them but honestly there is only so much I can do.
Also disappointing, Diana the 15 year old girl that told us she wants to be a missionary and a virtuous Young women like stood us up during the week and the weekend too, and isn't answering her telephone.
And Alberto and Pedro didn't come to church, but I'll explain that when I talk about them.
Interesting - So like a week-ish ago the Elder from across the Street gave me the names and direction (address) of a family of four that he had been teaching for about three weeks that lives in my area. apart from the blatant pirating, he passed the reference and so i was happy. he told me they had gone to church 3 times and were super cool and that they were-are going to get baptized. so in my head I'm thinking SWEET, i call on like a Thursday and they are like look we work all week long and this weekend we are busy so like come visit us not this Saturday but the next. bummer. so that Saturday was two days ago. we go over and Elder Brown who gave m the ref. told me her name was Monica. its Delfina-by the way is a dumb name, who's named dolphin?-so first thing Elder Brown was mistaken about, then she proceeds to tell me that she has been catholic for 36 years and she's not going to change her religion in three days. OKAY. and then we taught because either she doesn't understand anything or Elder Brown doesn't know how to teach, which is probable. so we started over teaching the restoration and, to explain we got their at 1230 because the appt. before fell through, and we talked, explained that the church doesn't judge us on the size of our bank account, and then we taught the restoration the dad came into the lesson halfway through we continued teaching very clearly and simply using the bible to explain simple stuff that i don't normally teach. then it was 330 in the afternoon, oops we totally skipped the food appt. haha so pretty much we found these really cool people who like don't really understand the gospel really like talking to the missionaries and want us to teach english to the daughter, who looks like 16 but is chloe-my sis- age. weird. on Sunday we went over to strictly teach english, that went interesting cause teaching english is weird and I've never done it before.
difficult because, pretty much the majority of our inv. are like available only on the weekends. so that make the weekends really successful and exciting and occupied but it makes the week drag a Little, i did divisions with one of the elders in my district, and his area is so dead, pretty much everyone we visited was like Elders, you haven't been to our house since like before jan 6th? umm what? who else have you been visiting? and Elder Reyes the Elder i was with has like 6 months in the mission, almost. and every like other Word is "?verdad?" (truth) which means like "right?" ex. "So we now that the sabbath day is important right? And we want blessings right? So what do we need to do? Church, right? Okay.... Right?" He's from El Salvador and I try really hard not to laugh at how he talks because I understand I have problems with my Spanish too.
Why else was it difficult? Oh remember the story how I said I shouldn't judge people? The guy that called our name and I thought he was going to rob us and it turns out he was a member?
Did I tell you he has a baby, and that he and his "wife" are both 16 and they are like literally the most irresponsible people I've met? What I thought was a lesson in not judging has turned out to be a lesson in patience. They haven't been home not even once when we put an appt. with them. Ugh.
What else. Oh so like we got Word form pres. who said that the movie meet the mormons was coming to the visitors center and that we could go watch it with members and inv. sweet. So we went to the visitors center where we had planned to meet an investigator, and she never showed up. That sucked so bad. And then we asked about the Schedule of the movie and they told us that they might put it in theaters here in Mexico too, so they aren't going to show it in the visitors center anymore. (Why Not?) Por que no? So that like crushed my hopes and dreams of seeing that while on the mission.
Also Alberto super sick dude, investigator.
Before I forget GO BUCKEYES!!!!!! hahahahahaha showed them Little ducks whats up. 42-20 don't worry I didn't watch a second of the game but boo-ya!
Alberto. he didn't come to church. ugh. but he had a good reason, i think his wife was like sick-has problems since a surgery she had in the past. but super cool, we taught law of chastity and were like okay get married already, and they were like okay. and then the next day we taught the Word of wisdom and pedro Alberto's father in law-kind of-was like so i Heard you guys mention like two weeks ago that we shouldn't drink coffee so i stopped. oh pedro you don't know how much i love you and your willingness to do these things.
Pretty much it, but today we played soccer and then volleyball in the sun all day and so I'm tired.
AND thats it. BYE. Still no packages mom. Nor letters, anyone else who cared enough to send a letter.
loves
Elder blotter.
Thursday, February 19, 2015
Monday, February 16, 2015
Week 56 - Part I
So this week was normal, kind of.
On Tuesday we married a couple, so that the brother could get baptized. That took forever, like all morning long. We got back to the area late, so that means we got back to the food late. We ate food like at 4, two hours late, and we had an appointment at four o'clock that we missed. But, they got married, so progress was made to help them into the kingdom of God.
Then, on Wednesday (or maybe it was Thursday) we had the interview for Diana, the 15 year old that we were teaching. She is a super super cool investigator, like literally. After her baptism on Saturday she was like "I'm really happy because I just got baptized and thats what i wanted." And her less active mom came to the baptism with her sister and a friend I'm really hoping that we get to teach.
Tuesday got absorbed by the wedding, then Thursday got absorbed by the interview, and Saturday we had the baptism and then stake conference meetings,and Sunday also was absorbed by stake conference then we report on Sunday afternoons. so this week blew by.
We baptized 3 people on valentines day.
The bad part about this week is that with all the activities we didn't have as much time to find new people or like other stuff and so, now I have no one new to teach. hahaha so this week will be of finding and putting goals and baptismal dates with the new people we find. cause we don't really have anyone.
This upcoming week I'm going to do divisions (splits) because my elders like are sucking it up, haha, and the zone leaders are getting on my case cause they aren't having success. So lets see what I can do help them.
What else... not much! I've like gotten better at studying and I'm learning how to be better at listening to the spirit. also me and my comp are getting better at like being idk more unified I've got hope that its going to be a good time.
idk. the liahona this month is totally great. hahaha i hope you read those....
love you guys BYE.
Elder Blotter
On Tuesday we married a couple, so that the brother could get baptized. That took forever, like all morning long. We got back to the area late, so that means we got back to the food late. We ate food like at 4, two hours late, and we had an appointment at four o'clock that we missed. But, they got married, so progress was made to help them into the kingdom of God.
Then, on Wednesday (or maybe it was Thursday) we had the interview for Diana, the 15 year old that we were teaching. She is a super super cool investigator, like literally. After her baptism on Saturday she was like "I'm really happy because I just got baptized and thats what i wanted." And her less active mom came to the baptism with her sister and a friend I'm really hoping that we get to teach.
Tuesday got absorbed by the wedding, then Thursday got absorbed by the interview, and Saturday we had the baptism and then stake conference meetings,and Sunday also was absorbed by stake conference then we report on Sunday afternoons. so this week blew by.
We baptized 3 people on valentines day.
The bad part about this week is that with all the activities we didn't have as much time to find new people or like other stuff and so, now I have no one new to teach. hahaha so this week will be of finding and putting goals and baptismal dates with the new people we find. cause we don't really have anyone.
This upcoming week I'm going to do divisions (splits) because my elders like are sucking it up, haha, and the zone leaders are getting on my case cause they aren't having success. So lets see what I can do help them.
What else... not much! I've like gotten better at studying and I'm learning how to be better at listening to the spirit. also me and my comp are getting better at like being idk more unified I've got hope that its going to be a good time.
idk. the liahona this month is totally great. hahaha i hope you read those....
love you guys BYE.
Elder Blotter
Monday, February 2, 2015
Week 54 - Mission Stories
Last week Elder Blotter asked his Dad to share a few mission stories. I’m including this little excerpt in here for context and for posterity sake :)
You wanted to hear some of my mission stories…??…. Ha that’s funny. Each week you write and say…oh same old stuff this week. Nothing exciting….! Well guess what. Most missions are just like that. So here goes. I remember my first month in the field. We were In a suburb of Montreal on the island. It was mostly french, but there were some mixed areas. We would concentrate the mornings and afternoons in French parts and the evenings in the English parts. I remember that first day, my companion would give the first few approaches and then he said this one is yours. It’s funny that after thousands of approaches that I remember that “fear” on those first few. Needless to say, we got lots of rejections. Mostly the French Canadians are Roman Catholic. Their standard response was I was born catholic, raised catholic and I will die catholic. So we would try to engage them….but do you actually believe the catholic teachings? Usually they had lots of problems with that stuff. But it never mattered. It was like they were stuck in the mud and didn’t care a hoot. You could point it out but they wouldn’t care. Cause religion really wasn’t part of their lives. I think that is the hardest thing. To get them to even have an interest in any religion. The English people were much more willing to listen to us. We averaged one first discussion in the day and one in the evening. Any more was a real reach. I remember sitting down each week and thinking about goals….so Elder how many baptisms this week… Zero. How many …..you get the idea. I always found it difficult to set goals that were totally dependent on the free agency of others. But I knew each day, the Lord could count on me to search, and if he was willing to show us where to work, we would listen and follow. If he was preparing someone, we would be worthy hardworking Elders, and he could count on us. Sometimes I think that’s all that matters. You read the great stories of Ammon and the sons, but the main focus is on the success…not the days sitting naked in prison. Or the rejection the cities that reject and throw the missionaries out. It’s all part of a great whole. Some fishers catch lots and some catch few.
Whatever, not just same old same old. even like knocking doors for like 12 hours a day I'm sure you saw like weird stuff in the street, cause like the little amount of time I'm in the street i see the craziest stuff. hahaha
AND yes I totes understand the living and dying a Roman Catholic problem, and its not like they actually believe in being catholic, its just that they don't really care or like give importance enough to religion to do their part as investigators. hahaha less active roman catholics don't believe anything in or about their religion only that they are to be catholics when they die.
AND idk didn't do a lot this week, taught this 15 year old girl who wants to get baptized so bad everyday this week, she's gonna get baptized 14 of feb, and Alberto and pedro are going to get baptized this Saturday the 7th, its just going to be super stressful getting them, Alberto and Cecilia, married before their baptism on Saturday, cause she works from nine to nine every week day. So, Saturday is gonna be busy.
idk had a good week I'm learning to speak less and listen more.
So - I honestly don't have a lot to talk about this week we have been teaching an inv. that lives at the opposite side of the area that i didn't really spend that much time in and we have practically passed the entire week over there so that was interesting.
We have two baptisms planned for this Saturday and another planned for the next Saturday and I ran out of time. Because we had a zone meeting, then we played sports and so i didn't have a lot of email time, ill write you a better email next week...... sorry
love you tons. i liked the quote...... grace is great theres a talk called his grace is sufficient by Bruce C Hafen, I think thats his name great talk also about the same thing.
I read one of the letters that Geoff posted as my blog..... i didn't even sound like my voice, like he thoroughly was changing lots of stuff.
AND i don't have changes I'm going to put in like at least 7 and a half months in my area,..... sweet. actually I'm super glad to stay with my comp, my area not so sure but I'm really loving my investigators which rocks.
we're getting a bunch of new goals as a mission and a redirection.
bye!
love ya,
Elder Blotter
Week 54 - A Surprise Message From a Church Member
Hi Sis. Blotter!
My name is Sis. Colette Armsworthy from Okotoks, AB, Canada. My husband and I have been on a Book of Mormon Tour with Blake Allen and his wife in Central America. Yesterday we had the opportunity to visit the Mexico City Temple as we spent a couple days there in the city and we were able to meet your son! I thought you would enjoy a picture of him with his companion Elder Padron. It was a pleasure to meet him and he seems very happy to be serving there and having a great experience.
When we travel, I like to send home pictures of missionaries to their moms when I can and let them know they are doing GREAT! What amazing blue eyes he has! Our son is serving in Argentina at this time as well and so it's kinda cool when they can see and talk to someone in their own 'neck of the woods' so to speak.
Just wanted you to know your son is looking well and is very happy!
As one missionary mom to another!!!
Colette
My name is Sis. Colette Armsworthy from Okotoks, AB, Canada. My husband and I have been on a Book of Mormon Tour with Blake Allen and his wife in Central America. Yesterday we had the opportunity to visit the Mexico City Temple as we spent a couple days there in the city and we were able to meet your son! I thought you would enjoy a picture of him with his companion Elder Padron. It was a pleasure to meet him and he seems very happy to be serving there and having a great experience.
When we travel, I like to send home pictures of missionaries to their moms when I can and let them know they are doing GREAT! What amazing blue eyes he has! Our son is serving in Argentina at this time as well and so it's kinda cool when they can see and talk to someone in their own 'neck of the woods' so to speak.
Just wanted you to know your son is looking well and is very happy!
As one missionary mom to another!!!
Colette
Monday, January 12, 2015
Week 52 - Thankful for 3 things
So this week was super cool. This week I'm grateful for three things:
Number one: I really enjoy having an english speaking comp. hahaha that's like one thing I'm truly grateful for.
Number two: it was my birthday; I am now twenty. Yippee! Hahaha weird though I felt like I was never nineteen. Haha birthday meant birthday cake, I apologize for not having photos, but my comp took them and forgot his memory card, and.... Honestly the internet is sketchy and the computer probably has viruses so I wouldn't have sent them even if I had the memory.
Number three: the work has like exploded in my area. hahaha finally my effort pays off too bad it took like almost 6 months to do it. like a couple weeks ago we found Alberto and pedro, family members to a super less active. super escogido peeps that we just put the baptismal date for the 7th of February. honestly like instead of like deadbeat inv. that you ask if they read and they say like "ya, didn't get around to it" Alberto and pedro we get there and they say "so i had a question, when Joseph smith restored the priesthood the original apostles came down to give it to him?" hahahaha. It's striking the difference. so from like a couple weeks ago with like one or two investigator that didn't really progress, we have them. apart from them we have another person that's just waiting to get baptized. she is a 15 year old girl, her mom is a less active member that honestly wants nothing to do with the church, but Diana has like friends at school that had given her the Book of Mormon and she started reading it. her dad is like a super catholic, and her parents are split up, she lives with the dad but comes to her mom's house on the weekends so that she can go to church, when we like got to know her we presented ourselves who we are like a normal "hi I'm elder blotter I'm from the united states blah blah blah'' it was her turn to present herself and she said something like "I'm Diana blah blah blah I'm really interested in being a missionary when I'm older like you, and i want to be a virtuous woman'' ........ get baptized already please. hahaha and she has gone to the church for like a month and a half where her dad lives because he went on vacation in December and she had to stay at the dad's house to take care of grandma, but she went to church every Sunday.
oh wait there's more, as well as Alberto pedro and Diana, we also have Emmanuel he is like the nephew or something of a member that lives in our area, that we'd visit the member and Emmanuel would ask about us after we left, till Raul says like hey i'll present them to you, Emmanuel is a good kid of 17 years with a baby, so he really likes the idea of the family and like getting organized and setting his life straight because he wants to be like a good dad and husband, the only disappointing thing in that was that Raul a member who was like bishop, high councilor more than once, is less active and so Raul didn't come to church and so Emmanuel didn't come either.
Don't leave still more new people, the elders crossing the major like highway from me that are in a different stake/zone had been teaching a family of 4 that lives in my area so they passed them over too, I've only talked to them on the phone though, we have an appt. Saturday they went to the church 3 times already, and the elder who gave the reference to me said they are super cool, so I'm excited for them too.
also we were walking on the street and some guy was like hey elders, and i looked at him then at my comp and said "do we stop, I'm not really in the mood to get robbed'' we stopped and it turns out he was a member, oops, haha and that his "wife" isn't but that they were listening the missionaries before. i think i have a big lesson to learn with them, to like not judge or to like work super hard cause they are going to be difficult. they're both 16 and they have a 2 month old baby. they didn't even finish junior high, and he`s looking for a job. but still they showed up out of nowhere so that we could help them, i just hope they do their part.
So like from the week before we had two at church I'm waiting/praying for 10 in church this Sunday.
Did I tell you that I bought a super cool searsucker tie? Hahahaha. We'll call it a Christmas present from me to me. Hahahaha.
Ooh also I don't know if I explained the bishop — ward council here in guelatao, like super dead. Hahahah no one did anything and they were all okay with it. Finally. I don't know why, but the bishop like brought everyone into ward council that like honestly he`s never held before, and like started saying new year let's get to work. FINALLY!!!!!!!
Hahaha idk I think that's about it. I also have to like give the first district meeting since I've been DL because practically every Monday we were having zone meeting. I hope that goes well.
Was this email to serious? Hahaha I don't know if I told this story, hahahahaha I think it's really funny. So we are waiting for a bus at like the spot the bus comes to go back to my area from the stake center. It's like kind of not that frequented of a bus route so we sometimes stand there on the corner for like 15-30 minutes that leaves some time for funny things to happen. So as a person i pretty much like make eye contact with everyone, in the halls in high school instead of being like focused on walking to class i look people in the eyes, here in Mexico i might have taken it to the next level, but we are standing on the street corner and like a group of four people are walking by in the street and i make eye contact with some dude and then he gets a crazy look in his eyes and then like stops walking and comes over to me. then the eye contact changes from just looking someone in the eyes to like a like a dog trying to sense fear or like get me to back down.... which was interesting cause i didn't say or do ANYTHING, hahaha and the dude was like crazy looking so i couldn't just look away, and he walked over to us and got into my face like super close, and he was like ya I'm right here what do you want, I'm right here ya like wanna go? haha he was about to like take his backpack off so he could like fight me, haha i was like hey like i don't know what i did but I'm sorry like bye.... haha after like this really tense moment of this i like turn and walk away and he like politely says goodbye to my comp, who looks like Mexican.
super funny but i guess it's that kind of story that makes more sense telling in person. hahahahaha
Love you guys.
elder blotter
Number one: I really enjoy having an english speaking comp. hahaha that's like one thing I'm truly grateful for.
Number two: it was my birthday; I am now twenty. Yippee! Hahaha weird though I felt like I was never nineteen. Haha birthday meant birthday cake, I apologize for not having photos, but my comp took them and forgot his memory card, and.... Honestly the internet is sketchy and the computer probably has viruses so I wouldn't have sent them even if I had the memory.
Number three: the work has like exploded in my area. hahaha finally my effort pays off too bad it took like almost 6 months to do it. like a couple weeks ago we found Alberto and pedro, family members to a super less active. super escogido peeps that we just put the baptismal date for the 7th of February. honestly like instead of like deadbeat inv. that you ask if they read and they say like "ya, didn't get around to it" Alberto and pedro we get there and they say "so i had a question, when Joseph smith restored the priesthood the original apostles came down to give it to him?" hahahaha. It's striking the difference. so from like a couple weeks ago with like one or two investigator that didn't really progress, we have them. apart from them we have another person that's just waiting to get baptized. she is a 15 year old girl, her mom is a less active member that honestly wants nothing to do with the church, but Diana has like friends at school that had given her the Book of Mormon and she started reading it. her dad is like a super catholic, and her parents are split up, she lives with the dad but comes to her mom's house on the weekends so that she can go to church, when we like got to know her we presented ourselves who we are like a normal "hi I'm elder blotter I'm from the united states blah blah blah'' it was her turn to present herself and she said something like "I'm Diana blah blah blah I'm really interested in being a missionary when I'm older like you, and i want to be a virtuous woman'' ........ get baptized already please. hahaha and she has gone to the church for like a month and a half where her dad lives because he went on vacation in December and she had to stay at the dad's house to take care of grandma, but she went to church every Sunday.
oh wait there's more, as well as Alberto pedro and Diana, we also have Emmanuel he is like the nephew or something of a member that lives in our area, that we'd visit the member and Emmanuel would ask about us after we left, till Raul says like hey i'll present them to you, Emmanuel is a good kid of 17 years with a baby, so he really likes the idea of the family and like getting organized and setting his life straight because he wants to be like a good dad and husband, the only disappointing thing in that was that Raul a member who was like bishop, high councilor more than once, is less active and so Raul didn't come to church and so Emmanuel didn't come either.
Don't leave still more new people, the elders crossing the major like highway from me that are in a different stake/zone had been teaching a family of 4 that lives in my area so they passed them over too, I've only talked to them on the phone though, we have an appt. Saturday they went to the church 3 times already, and the elder who gave the reference to me said they are super cool, so I'm excited for them too.
also we were walking on the street and some guy was like hey elders, and i looked at him then at my comp and said "do we stop, I'm not really in the mood to get robbed'' we stopped and it turns out he was a member, oops, haha and that his "wife" isn't but that they were listening the missionaries before. i think i have a big lesson to learn with them, to like not judge or to like work super hard cause they are going to be difficult. they're both 16 and they have a 2 month old baby. they didn't even finish junior high, and he`s looking for a job. but still they showed up out of nowhere so that we could help them, i just hope they do their part.
So like from the week before we had two at church I'm waiting/praying for 10 in church this Sunday.
Did I tell you that I bought a super cool searsucker tie? Hahahaha. We'll call it a Christmas present from me to me. Hahahaha.
Ooh also I don't know if I explained the bishop — ward council here in guelatao, like super dead. Hahahah no one did anything and they were all okay with it. Finally. I don't know why, but the bishop like brought everyone into ward council that like honestly he`s never held before, and like started saying new year let's get to work. FINALLY!!!!!!!
Hahaha idk I think that's about it. I also have to like give the first district meeting since I've been DL because practically every Monday we were having zone meeting. I hope that goes well.
Was this email to serious? Hahaha I don't know if I told this story, hahahahaha I think it's really funny. So we are waiting for a bus at like the spot the bus comes to go back to my area from the stake center. It's like kind of not that frequented of a bus route so we sometimes stand there on the corner for like 15-30 minutes that leaves some time for funny things to happen. So as a person i pretty much like make eye contact with everyone, in the halls in high school instead of being like focused on walking to class i look people in the eyes, here in Mexico i might have taken it to the next level, but we are standing on the street corner and like a group of four people are walking by in the street and i make eye contact with some dude and then he gets a crazy look in his eyes and then like stops walking and comes over to me. then the eye contact changes from just looking someone in the eyes to like a like a dog trying to sense fear or like get me to back down.... which was interesting cause i didn't say or do ANYTHING, hahaha and the dude was like crazy looking so i couldn't just look away, and he walked over to us and got into my face like super close, and he was like ya I'm right here what do you want, I'm right here ya like wanna go? haha he was about to like take his backpack off so he could like fight me, haha i was like hey like i don't know what i did but I'm sorry like bye.... haha after like this really tense moment of this i like turn and walk away and he like politely says goodbye to my comp, who looks like Mexican.
super funny but i guess it's that kind of story that makes more sense telling in person. hahahahaha
Love you guys.
elder blotter
Monday, January 5, 2015
Week 50 - Birthday time on the mission
Well, I totally could have written to you but we got super busy and I really ran out of time to email you guys. My bad.
I have no idea what to write about. I've been having a lot of fun with an English companion. He still wakes up late and does stuff that bothers me, but it's cool. I've been teaching and stuff like normal.
So the weeks from like the 12th of December till the 6th of January are hard because like everyone is busy and no one is home. So not a ton of stuff to talk about.
We found a new investigator that I'm not sure if I've mentioned or not, his name is Alberto. He is the husband of a super less-active member that we found who had, like, zero interest. So, we contacted her husband. He was super interested, which is awesome because his interest will help his inactive wife out a ton. We taught about the restoration, I think. We didn't invite him to church or something, my bad. The next time we went, we went and taught about the importance of going to church and the commandments, and we committed him to go to church. We went by his house Sunday morning and we didn't find him and at night we like couldn't go visit him so we didn't see him all week, which is like bad cause he can't progress. So we went by his house, on like Friday, and he like saw us and came out invited us in and was like why didn't you guys come by to take me to church, I was waiting and then I tried to find the church and I couldn't. So we committed him to come to church and we went back to his house to teach him after church. super cool investigator he has the desire, there are many investigator who like what we teach and everything but like only think about the gospel when we show up. we show up in his house and he was like so the three original apostles gave jose the priesthood? tell me about that? he also called me like thirty minutes before church started and told me his wife was sick and they were going to the hospital so i can't come to church, then he like thought about it and came to church. super cool. THAT NEVER HAPPENS!
Anyway it's super exciting finding new people to teach. I honestly don't know what to write we went to the mall today and I bought a super sick tie and a sweater, birthday presents to me. The tie was a little expensive but worth it.
Last Sunday we had like 25 people at church, not one investigator and like 5 less actives. This Sunday there were like 50 people 18 less actives and three investigator New Year's resolutions I think cause like working this past week was difficult and we didn't even have that many lessons.
Anyway love you tons. My packages haven't gotten here yet. You made some comment about you didn't think it was going to show up, I think it's going to come it just takes forever. Hahaha also about packages I was worried Fedex was super expensive. I think there is a service similar to"Dear Elder" for packages that look like they don't take forever.
I'm going to try and have a good birthday here in the mission; eat some cake for me at home.
Loves!
Elder Blotter
I have no idea what to write about. I've been having a lot of fun with an English companion. He still wakes up late and does stuff that bothers me, but it's cool. I've been teaching and stuff like normal.
So the weeks from like the 12th of December till the 6th of January are hard because like everyone is busy and no one is home. So not a ton of stuff to talk about.
We found a new investigator that I'm not sure if I've mentioned or not, his name is Alberto. He is the husband of a super less-active member that we found who had, like, zero interest. So, we contacted her husband. He was super interested, which is awesome because his interest will help his inactive wife out a ton. We taught about the restoration, I think. We didn't invite him to church or something, my bad. The next time we went, we went and taught about the importance of going to church and the commandments, and we committed him to go to church. We went by his house Sunday morning and we didn't find him and at night we like couldn't go visit him so we didn't see him all week, which is like bad cause he can't progress. So we went by his house, on like Friday, and he like saw us and came out invited us in and was like why didn't you guys come by to take me to church, I was waiting and then I tried to find the church and I couldn't. So we committed him to come to church and we went back to his house to teach him after church. super cool investigator he has the desire, there are many investigator who like what we teach and everything but like only think about the gospel when we show up. we show up in his house and he was like so the three original apostles gave jose the priesthood? tell me about that? he also called me like thirty minutes before church started and told me his wife was sick and they were going to the hospital so i can't come to church, then he like thought about it and came to church. super cool. THAT NEVER HAPPENS!
Anyway it's super exciting finding new people to teach. I honestly don't know what to write we went to the mall today and I bought a super sick tie and a sweater, birthday presents to me. The tie was a little expensive but worth it.
Last Sunday we had like 25 people at church, not one investigator and like 5 less actives. This Sunday there were like 50 people 18 less actives and three investigator New Year's resolutions I think cause like working this past week was difficult and we didn't even have that many lessons.
Anyway love you tons. My packages haven't gotten here yet. You made some comment about you didn't think it was going to show up, I think it's going to come it just takes forever. Hahaha also about packages I was worried Fedex was super expensive. I think there is a service similar to"Dear Elder" for packages that look like they don't take forever.
I'm going to try and have a good birthday here in the mission; eat some cake for me at home.
Loves!
Elder Blotter
Monday, December 1, 2014
Week 45 - Changes and Challenges
So this week was pretty good. Idk. wasn't anything out of the ordinary. We had a lot of appointments with investigator that fell through, so thats always fun.
I'm begging that I'm with Elder Hernandez, he has 20 months but he is pretty darn obedient so thats a breath of fresh air. The only thing is he's new in the area and he's semi-quiet so I talk a lot in the lessons. He is from Guatemala, not Mexico, and he is also another key indicator that he's not dead or frito.
Mom you asked if I was senior comp. yes. I've been senior since, like, September or more. Not that it really means anything. But no I'm not training anymore either. My child got changes and I got Elder Hernandez.
What else? Oh, my investigator, named Roque (pronounced rocky) is a super, super cool guy he's having a lot of desafios (challenges), which sounds better in Spanish. He is super escogido (chosen), this guy, but in this past week he got his wallet stolen. The next day he fixed it all, re-did the paperwork to get his drivers license and all that jazz, and then he gets in a car accident. He's a taxi driver. Over the next day or two he got car-jacked. Ya, tough situations! I don't really know whats going on in his family life but I think his unmarried daughter got pregnant too, we promise blessing for going to church and by beginning to live the gospel and Satan steps in and throws a bunch of trails and someone mentioned to him that everything bad is happening because he stopped praying to the virgin de Guadalupe, don't you just love catholicism.
But I have a baptism this Saturday, finally. It's been long enough.
the other day we were teaching a less active family that I've grown to love them but they are so frustrating. we teach a good lesson about the scriptures and then challenge them to keep it they all say yes. we go back in three days and no one read anything. we challenge them to go to church and they say yes. then no one goes. so we {went over there and we talked for a while about the importance of all this stuff and i finally got fed up and righteously called them out. And told them they have a lot of problems as a family and if they want to apply the gospel to change and fix their problems they can but what are we doing here teaching if you guys don't want to change. did we waste the past hour challenging you to read or whats up? i hope they can understand that the gauntlet was thrown not because i don't like them, but because i do, and i want them to change and live the blessings of the gospel.
What else can I tell you? November blew by so fast, honestly so fast. It's already December and it feels like mid September. It is hot in the day with a cool breeze and cold at night. Everyone is like dying from the "cold"!
Welp, I think thats all folks.
Love you guys, have a great week.
Elder Joshua Blotter
I'm begging that I'm with Elder Hernandez, he has 20 months but he is pretty darn obedient so thats a breath of fresh air. The only thing is he's new in the area and he's semi-quiet so I talk a lot in the lessons. He is from Guatemala, not Mexico, and he is also another key indicator that he's not dead or frito.
Mom you asked if I was senior comp. yes. I've been senior since, like, September or more. Not that it really means anything. But no I'm not training anymore either. My child got changes and I got Elder Hernandez.
What else? Oh, my investigator, named Roque (pronounced rocky) is a super, super cool guy he's having a lot of desafios (challenges), which sounds better in Spanish. He is super escogido (chosen), this guy, but in this past week he got his wallet stolen. The next day he fixed it all, re-did the paperwork to get his drivers license and all that jazz, and then he gets in a car accident. He's a taxi driver. Over the next day or two he got car-jacked. Ya, tough situations! I don't really know whats going on in his family life but I think his unmarried daughter got pregnant too, we promise blessing for going to church and by beginning to live the gospel and Satan steps in and throws a bunch of trails and someone mentioned to him that everything bad is happening because he stopped praying to the virgin de Guadalupe, don't you just love catholicism.
But I have a baptism this Saturday, finally. It's been long enough.
the other day we were teaching a less active family that I've grown to love them but they are so frustrating. we teach a good lesson about the scriptures and then challenge them to keep it they all say yes. we go back in three days and no one read anything. we challenge them to go to church and they say yes. then no one goes. so we {went over there and we talked for a while about the importance of all this stuff and i finally got fed up and righteously called them out. And told them they have a lot of problems as a family and if they want to apply the gospel to change and fix their problems they can but what are we doing here teaching if you guys don't want to change. did we waste the past hour challenging you to read or whats up? i hope they can understand that the gauntlet was thrown not because i don't like them, but because i do, and i want them to change and live the blessings of the gospel.
What else can I tell you? November blew by so fast, honestly so fast. It's already December and it feels like mid September. It is hot in the day with a cool breeze and cold at night. Everyone is like dying from the "cold"!
Welp, I think thats all folks.
Love you guys, have a great week.
Elder Joshua Blotter
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