Elder Soriano, or Elder Spongebob?!?
You guys mentioned that transfers should be coming up soon, and guess what, you´re right!! This Friday I will get all of the information on transfers for my district and be able to tell you where I go/if I stay!! But anyhow, on to my week!!
Thursday we had weekly planning and it was pretty good. Same old same old pretty much. We then went to eat with a member called Vanesia, and she´s a convert of about a year and is preparing her mission papers to go on a mission!! Pretty exciting for her, but also stressful. I´m sure that all will work out for her. We then tried to visit Jose y Yolanda, a less active family, but they couldn´t that day. So we did contacts and called references and that´s it. Not the most exciting day, but oh well. Friday not much either, but it was a bit better than Thursday. We went to see Carolina just to see how she was doing and just talked to her for a while. We also shared a video from the D&C seminary videos about Light and Truth. She really liked it and helped her out a lot. She said at the end of the visit that it was something that she needed to hear and that was cool!!! Not much else happened except for Noche de Hogar [home evening] and more contacts.
Saturday we had a piso [apartment] inspection!! The Ovards came, with their trainees, Elder Forsythe and Elder Johnson (temporary replacements until the senior couple that is supposed to replace them comes) and it was the funniest inspection ever!!! It´s something that you should have been there to see. So I followed Elder Forsythe around the piso [apartment] (taking over Elder Ovard´s position of piso [apartment] management) and when he entered a room, he would go through the routine. He would look at his paper, read what it said, and ask us if things were working/check if it was working. He would say, "Does the light switch work" switch the light on and off various times and say, "Good. Do the windows work, they look like they do. Do the outlets work?" Someone would say, yes and he´d move on, "Good. Is the floor broken or cracked?" he´d then step on the floor a bit and say, "Looks like it´s good. Is there any crackage on the ceiling? Looks like it´s all good...wow, there´s a huge mosquito there on your ceiling!! Just huge!!!" Hahahaa!!! He did the same thing with the bedroom, but there were two mosquitoes in that one! Hahahaaaa!! It was great!
When the Ovards and the two new office Elders left, the day was full of fijando citas [setting appointments] and then all of the appointments we made failed the same day. So in the morning we called Ibeth to see if we could visit her, and she said that she could! Later, she called us back and said that something came up so that idea just died. We called Marcelino to see if we could pass by, but he said that it would be better another day. Then Gerard called us and told us that he wouldn´t be able to see us at 6, and to move it to Sunday. So in all, we had a ton of NOTHING. More contacts...yay (with an unenthusiastic voice).
Sunday was pretty good! We went to church, and there were quite a few new faces that I haven´t seen before!! Lots of less actives came and some investigators too so yeah! We then ate with Carmen, a Spanish member, and she always makes good food, and a lot of it. I left feeling like I would never eat again, haha. Later we went and saw Gerard to get to know him and talk to him a bit so that we could relate to him a bit more so yeah. It was pretty good!! We then went and passed by some former investigators and it rained a bit too!! Miracle of the week: It rained in Parla!!!
Rain in Parla!!!
Temple from the CCM 6th floor. This was after the meeting Monday.
Monday was super good!!!!! All of the leaders in the mission had to go to a leadership training meeting so that meant that I had to go to that. It was really cool!!! The assistants to the president, all of the zone leaders, and all of the district leaders were there and it was really edifying. I can only say that I am more motivated to do better and become a better missionary!!! Super coolio!!! Later that day we went to see Yolanda, but she wasn´t there, so we did a few contacts. One of the contacts was a guy named Jorge, and he was from Peru and an Evangelist. He has a bit of interest in our message, but for the most part, he was the one talking the whole time. We stood talking to him for half an hour, and when he told us his name, and gave us his number, and then told us that some others had talked to him already to see him during the week, I told my companion that it sounds like WE are the ones that have the cita [appointment] with him. So we went to the piso [apartment] and looked at some of the registros [records] that we have, and sure enough, we were the ones that called him and set up the appointment with him. So we called him and told him that we are the missionaries that talked to him a few minutes ago and that we have the appointment with him Thursday so that was pretty fun!! Later we went to see Ibeth and had a pretty cool lesson with her. We showed her a Mormon Message about moving on and not giving up considering she´s had a hard life. Pretty cool!!
The Zone!!!
Me with Elder Lopez! He´s super cool and I wish I could be his companion, but he´s leaving at the end of this transfer. We became super good friends in a heartbeat!
Tuesday we had zone meeting (not zone conference, that´s different) and it was also really edifying and awesome!! We learned a lot about obedience to the horario [schedule] and it was really good!! The zone leaders then got up and talked about the meeting on Monday and all of the things that we learned! It was pretty cool!! We then had a visit with Yolanda and her family and they are doing really well!! We taught them about the importance of reading, praying, and going to church. We then committed them to pray every day and then when we come back. We´ll see how it all went. We then took both of my suits and one pair of pants to get dry cleaned and then went to Erick and Yulliana´s house. We taught them about baptism and the Holy Ghost and it was all good!! They´re a great family!! We then went home and during the night it rained some more!!Today we´re planning to go to the Toledo store and that´s it. Has the stress level gone down a bit? How´s everything? Take care and I´ll talk to you guys soon!!! Love you all!!!
Elder Bauer
