Birthday Present: Scripture Covers Back
Birthday Present: Scripture Covers Front
Hey fam!
Well I've been promising you guys a long email for a while now, so here it goes!
We had a pretty good week this week. Monday was P-Day, no zone activity so we were able to relax. Finally. We had a FHE with the Balbi fam, that was lots of fun. Tuesday we didn't have district meeting since Wednesday we had Zone Conference. That went well, we had a temple session with the pres and his wife. Then I splurged at the distribution center buying books for the 6 new members we have in the ward. Thursday we didn't have anything noteworthy... Friday a companion exchange with our DL. Elder Mendoza (the DL) worked here in El Pinar with me, and Elder Davies worked with Fajardo in his area. It was alright...Saturday we did service a large part of the day with Nicole Moreno and her family. It was good, we were ripping down trees. Before we got there, they were clearing the tops o the trees of branches so they would come down without doing any harm. Just as we got there, they pulled off a branch and it nudged the power line. Nothing bad happened... it was just a tap. But the neighbor came out and started a big fuss that he saw the line move, blah blah so he called the police about it because they were cutting trees not on their property (which they weren't, the base of the tree was inside the property line) so they ended up having to go to the police station to make a statement. It was a pretty exciting day.
Sunday was rough. Nobody came to church. Well... Lots of people came to church, I guess they heard that we have a new bishop and they decided to come to see. But nobody that we wanted to come - the Balbi fam, Raul, Soledad... it was pretty rough. We don't really know why either. Bah. But we finished off Sunday with a good charla with Claudio's family. Today we have a FHE as a zone, should be interesting. We are doing it in our church, definitely the nicest in the zone. I'll have pics next week.
Oh hey speaking of pics, I finally got my birthday present! I don't remember if I told you guys, but the guy that made the scripture covers made them too big (as if to fit spanish scriptures) so I had to send them back to him, along with my scriptures to get a good fit. Well I got them back Wednesday, they are basically awesome. Here are pics of the front and back. No other pictures for the week. Sorry.
Okay, back to the good email. Here is the area report.
Balbi is doing okay, I guess. We are having a FHE with them and the Puyol fam on Tuesday. The Puyol fam is awesome! :D I really don't know what is going on with Agustina. Puyol keeps telling me that we have the right to inspiration and we'll get it worked out, but I'm just lost. She says one thing with us, and her mom tells us differently, then she ends up doing something completely different. It is super frustrating. Elder Davies just has so much faith that she will get baptized in the future that he isn't too worried about it, I'm freaking out because I want her to get baptized NOW. It's hard loving the people so much that you want to take away their agency. (Wait... maybe that's what lucifer was thinking! Nah just kidding. Don't let anyone in the High Priests Group know I said that, it just might become doctrine! Haha) so yeah, that's a frustrating situation.
Raul is struggling. We can tell that there are some legal issues as far as the house he is buying - he is worried about getting kicked out because the landlord is changing the contract or something. But there's something else going on. But he didn't come to church Sunday either.
Claudio is a convert to the church, he was baptized when he was 12 and is now preparing for a mission. For some reason, his family has taken interest in the Gospel. So we are now teaching his mom, Claudia, his 8-year-old sister Micaela, and his mom's 9-year-old sister Romina. (Yes, I know that's called an aunt, but it sounds weird calling a 9-year-old his aunt!) They are pretty cool. Yesterday was our second charla with them, we watched the Restoration movie and Claudio gave her a Book of Mormon. She cried when we told her that Claudio wanted to gift her a new BoM, and she said that when she was watching the first vision she felt that it was true. So she (Claudia) and Romina accepted soft baptismal invitations ("Will you follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of God?") but we didn't feel like it was the right time to put a date. Claudia said yes if she receives answers to her prayers. For Romina a simple "yes" was enough. So they are rocking.
We haven't seen Marcela again. She's the one that lived in Boston.
We've got a kid named Darío, he's pretty chill. He's like 20 years old, finishing up high school. He's really thinkative (man my English is terrible. Thinkative = pensativo) and has been through various religions. He's excited about the BoM mostly because it is a solid proof, which other churches don't have. We've only had one charla with him though, so we'll see how he does.
Other than that, we've just got contacts or references to go back to, so we are slowly progressing here.
Alright, that's the report.
Dad, I don't know if you have had any luck with the hotels, but I'm going to make a last minute change. Mon, Jan 3, get a hotel in Salto. It's a four hour drive out there, but that's 1) where we'll need to visit the Balbis and 2) some scenic stuff we can see up there. Everyone talks about Salto. That will be a good way to wind down the stay - We'll be up in Salto Monday (get there in the afternoon) look around, visit the Balbi fam, and stay the night, since we wouldn't be able to come back down to Deo in time. Then we come back down to Deo on Tuesday, do lunch and trunky shopping downtown, then temple and dinner, then to the airport. What do you think? I didn't really have anything planned for Monday anyways, so this will be good to fill up that hole.
Mom, my Student ID (well my SLCC acceptance letter) should be in a ziploc baggie that was in that mail sorter thing on the wall in the kitchen. It might have been moved to the safe. Or you guys put it in a box. But check with dad first because I don't think he would have packed away important papers in the storage unit.
Alright, say hi to Tina for me, and Corry if he calls again. I'm rooting for Tina in her basketball tryouts, good to hear she gave the big girls a run for their money! Oh also say hi to Uncle Sterling - it is his birthday Friday. :D
Well love you guys! Have a wonderful week!
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