Burning in the bosom

November 28, 2016
    It was a kind slow day today to be honest.  We thing that one of the members that we go out and teach with is doing drugs so that is disappointing.  We taught some less active members today and we made some Santa Claus nano block figurines.  My Santa is the one riding the bike…

    Our zone leaders were here this morning and we had to feed them something, so I made a ton of pancakes and they were a hit!
November 29, 2016
    I got to teach English class today in the district lesson.  We just played hot potato and whoever got the hot potato had to say something that they or their companion likes to do in English.  It was pretty fun, that’s mission life for you, just playing games in district class.  Today wasn’t super great for lessons, but we did teach another lesson to J. Man, he has a lot of problems.  It is so hard for me to think that I am actually here in a foreign country trying to help people with huge issues when I know nothing.
    We also taught another family night with the Ramirez family and they invited a less active member family to join us.  I taught them how to play mafia and it was super fun despite the fact that it really stretched the limits of my Spanish.  The bonus is that there is always food when we teach there and they are super cool.
November 30, 2016
    Wow, our new investigator has a ton of problems.  We were sitting outside of his Mom’s house, just barely started to teach him when his Mom marched out and just started arguing like crazy.  I couldn’t understand her very well because of her choice of vocabulary (not words they teach you in the CCM.) Despite my lack of comprehension, I understood the tone.  Our investigator ended up walking away and we were left with his angry mother.  She started telling us that we could not change him and that she has had him in a bunch of different drug rehab programs and nothing has worked.  She didn’t want to listen to us at all. We even had a member with us whose entire family, himself included, was addicted to drugs but overcame them through the gospel of Christ.  This member testified to her in a super bold and powerful way. 
    We taught another investigator and less active member before going to a member’s home to get them to accompany us to a lesson. They couldn’t go with us because there was this big school event going on.  We ended up just talking with members at this event while random kids ran up to us to ask us to say things in English.  We really stand out here as both missionaries and foreigners much more that I thought we would.  It is both a good and a bad thing.
December 1, 2016
     Today was kind of crappy actually, but I still feel good about it. We only had one lesson with a less active today but it was really a good lesson.  I feel that more than anything, we helped him have some hope in overcoming his addictions.  Truthfully, it was a very cool experience. Then later the hermanas called and told us that they needed us to come to the chapel for a last minute baptismal interview.  So our whole night was shot.  But this kid was originally our investigator so he was excited to see us and then he asked me to do the baptism and Elder Long to do the confirmation.  So that was cool!  It will be my very first baptism, but technically it is the sisters investigator.
December 2-4, 2016
    Okay, so the last 3 days I have had not time to do anything. We were on divisions with the zone leaders on Friday all day in Barra de Navidad and then came back on Saturday.  

     The baptism was on Saturday originally at 6 pm, so we went early to prepare the font for the Sisters.  Anyway, we got there and the font was already filled by the branch President.  The Sisters didn’t show up until 6, but that didn’t matter because their investigator didn’t show up until 7:30.  So then after starting late, the doors to the font were locked and we had to find the keys to unlock it, then the kid hadn’t been prepared for the immersion part of the baptism and that was a struggle to baptize him.  Then during the Sisters lesson, the other little kids in the family were running around screaming and everything. It was the most unorganized chaotic baptism that I have ever been too.  The next day the new member showed up late to sacrament meeting and had to be confirmed at the end of the meeting. 

     I had a memorable food experience on Sunday when we ate lunch with a member.  They gave me this long and thin green pepper.  They said that I should only eat a little or bad things would happen.  I tried just a taste and it was good so I ate the whole thing.  MISTAKE!  I mean it was hot but not the hottest thing I have eaten. But afterwards for like 3 hours I had the worst stomach pain, like there was a hot coal in my stomach.  I couldn’t walk more that 100 ft. at a time, but I survived. 

    Then later that day, we had the longest choir practice known to man with the entire zone.  The practice latest up to the Christmas devotional (which was super awesome!)  Elder Mora and Elder Sanchez stayed with us. Son chidos.