May 23, 2013

Alex acting as though he is working.

Elder De Haro (Assistant to the President) and Alex acting goofy.

Nine of the ten elders staying in an apartment for four.

From left to right - Back row:  Elders Torres, Gonzalez, Argyle, and Perkins.

From left to right - On chairs: Elders Forrest, Veintimilla, Bauer (Alex), and Lyman

Seated on the floor: Elder Wride - Not pictured Elder Perez (probably taking the picture)

Mother and family!

This week has been pretty crazy as far as training and transfer stuff goes! We know transfers and I know where I´m going too, so it will be fun to go where I´m going. I don´t get to tell though, sorry. Everyone has tried to get out of me transfers and my answer always is, "You´ll know on Friday." Super fun to annoy people like that!!! So yeah, I know where I´m going, but I don´t know anything about my new area, so it should be super cool!! We were just informed of some changes just now, and nothing too big, just some few things that changed so yeah. Anyway, here´s my week in a nutshell starting with Thursday or Friday of last week.

So we were contacting out on the street and we went into this small plaza park thing. We then talked to people sitting on the benches there. Awkward, but it was pretty cool, especially the second one that we did. This lady named Isis investigated the church about six years ago and when the day of her baptism came around, she left to go back to her country. I wonder how the missionaries felt about that. Anyway, we found her again and set up a time to meet with her the next day and she accepted! When we met with her, she brought one of her friends over to talk to us too!! She just found him on the street and told him to come and listen, so he did. We shared with him that it wasn´t a coincidence that he was sitting in front of us listening and the lesson, in all, was amazing! We invited them to go to church Sunday, and we all felt good at the end!! We´ve also had some lessons with a less active called Yoanna, from the Dominican Republic. A few weeks ago, she called us wanting a Book of Mormon, and we´ve been passing by ever since. She eventually told us that she was a member and it was crazy!! We invited her to church as well and were pretty much hoping that she and Isis would show up!!

On Sunday, Elder Argyle called everyone to make sure that they were still coming to church. We then went off and picked up Javier to come to church with us! While we were walking over, Elder Forrest was talking to him on the phone and telling him that church was important and that we wanted to walk to church with him. When we got there, Javier looked tired and didn´t want to go, but we eventually got him up and going to come with us. We got to church and Elder Argyle and I were waiting for others to show up. We called Isis again to make sure that she was coming and she said that she was, so it was all good with her. Farah Portas, a member, called us to ask us where Yoanna lived so that one was taken care of too. Luis, the Mexican less active guy, came to church too as a great surprise!!! He sat right next to me in Sacrament Meeting and it was pretty cool!! He had to leave early because of work at his home, so it was fine. Yoanna came too, and stayed for all 3 hours!! Super coolio!! Monday we found out transfers and it was super cool!

I´m moving, as well as some other people, and that was fun to find out. Elder Argyle is a bit overwhelmed with what he has to do, but all is well. We did a bit of organization with who´s leaving and who´s staying and getting the transfer tablas [tables] with all of the faces crossed out and marked up. We also had to write on a different sheet of paper who was leaving, who wasn´t, and all of that crazy stuff!! Monday ended and Tuesday began. Crazy sentence I know, but...LIKE IT!! Anyway...Tuesday we started organizing trips for transfers, as well as for Zone Conference in the Islands, and it´s been crazy!! We looked up different trains and flights and boats (for the Zone Conference) for travel and stuff. We´re still trying to figure everything out about that because of the recent changes. Nothing too big, but still enough to make us think again, but nothing should be too hard. At the end of the day we had to go pick up Elder Perez so that he could go home to pick up his residency card, and hopefully that will be over and done with for him. We also had 10 missionaries in our piso [apartment] because of exchanges. Elder Perkins, our Zone Leader, and Elder Wride, our District Leader, did exchanges and decided to come back so that they wouldn´t have to travel too far to get to the mission home for the activity today; so it was crazy in there. There were Elders Forrest, Argyle, me, Veintimilla, Gonzalez, Wride, Torres, Perez, Perkins, and Lyman. A full house in a piso made for four people.

Today for P-Day we started off by taking Elder Perez to the airport early in the morning. Elder Argyle, Perez and I got up at 4:30 am, and went to the airport so that Elder Perez could be there two hours early. We got back home at about 6 and I couldn´t go back to sleep until sometime before 7:00 at least. We then woke up at 7:30 and got ready for the day. We did our shopping, me not so much, and went off to the mission home for the activity. I couldn´t find my regular clothes so I didn´t get to play any sports so I just sat outside and got a bit tanner than I used to be. Now we´re in the office to e-mail and change a boat for the Canaries. Later on I´m going to buy new suitcases since the last ones broke on my way down from Valladolid so yeah. I´ve got to buy some new ones from a chino [convenience store] later and repack everything in those. How has everything been over there? Take care and I´ll talk to you soon!! Love you all.

Elder Bauer