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Sunday, August 13, 2017

Tamazula

July 31, 2017
    Well now I have to give a summary of the last 3 weeks and it has been crazy.  The last two weeks in Puerto Vallarta were cool, as in not hot. We taught and walked in the rain and that is pretty much it. A lot of the investigators we had were saying that they had lots of doubts about our message.  But V. is still solid in her desire to be baptized on the 5th of August.  This last Sunday we had 9 investigators come to Sacrament meeting which is a ton for this area.  I feel like I left that area with lots of potential.  Other little things happened in the end of my time there. 

  • The ward mission leader had a stroke and we gave him a blessing. 
  • Elder Anderson had a birthday and I gave him 6 jars of peanut butter for him to eat in the next 6 weeks of his new transfer. 
  • I made a deal with a member to buy us Costco muffins for the last week of our transfer together.  It was expensive, but I have been saving money in my reserve fund so I might as well use it. I will end up donating all of it as a fast offering in the end of my mission anyway.
  • We had a really good district class and I bought a cake for another sister who went home. She is the third person in the district to go home this transfer.  I have bought a lot of cakes this transfer! haha.
  • The hermanas taught an English class where they were teaching the students how to give and understand directions in English.  At the end of the lesson, everyone had to explain where they lived. The sisters wrote down their directions so that they could follow up with them later.  I just thought that was funny. 
  • The other sisters had a baptism but had to talk to the president and he said that they would have to wait a while before moving forward. 
  • And of course there were the transfers. 
     So that brings me up to now.  I am the district leader here in Tamazula with Elder Flores.  Tamazula is awesome, but rough at the same time.  It is super Catholic.  From our house we can see 3 giant cathedrals and several smaller churches.  There is a church in every colonia.  About 5 years ago, our church was very strong here too.  We had about 100 active members, but now it is about 20 and most of those are young children.  I don’t know what happened.  Right now they are trying to get the building relocated because lots of people can’t make it up the steep staircase.  Our goal is to have 100 people in attendance by December.  We don’t even know the area very well yet.  We have lots of work to do.  Luckily the few members we have are willing to work.  Sadly, our area book has not been updated in 3 months.  There was an investigator who came to church this past week and we can’t even find him in the book.  This week has been getting to know the members and trying to figure out which investigators have potential to progress and find new ones.  Our conclusion is that everyone and their dog is Catholic, but none of them actually go to church.  There are a few people who belong to other churches and we have had several experiences where preachers and such have tried to teach us the error of our ways. Tamzula isn’t that big.  It is really just a farming town.  There is a giant sugar factory and miles and miles of sugar cane.  The landscape is mostly a jungle of jagged volcanic hills. It is super rainy right now, so everything is lush and green.  But the BEST part is that it is NOT HOT!!!!! 
     I don’t have to worry about my agenda getting soaked in sweat in my pocket.  Our house is super nice, but we don’t have a washing machine.  That’s okay, washing by hand builds character. Our house is right in the center of town so all of our necessities are close by. 

    Elder Flores is pretty cool.  He doesn’t speak any English at all so I am very happy because I am finally learning a ton of Spanish.  He is 22, a convert of 3 years, and has been on the mission for 4 months.  He talks a LOT and LOVES to sing, but doesn’t sing very well. Overall, I really like him.  He has to have a surgery which will put him in bed for about two weeks.  Hopefully we will be doing some divisions with the zone leaders during that time so that I don’t get stuck in the house.  


    Sadly, the worst thing that happened to me in the past three weeks is that I lost or rather had my iPod stolen while I was on the bus.  It was my fault because I took it out of my pocket to read and then I fell asleep. I hadn’t slept the night before so I was completely out of it, like in a coma.  Honestly I don’t even remember what happened at all.  I keep trying to tell myself that it is just a thing and it isn't important. It's not working very well.   

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