Week 20 - Lo De Coy - Practice Makes Perfect

In an email to me Joseph said a family in Guatemala is coming up to Utah next week, and he gave them some letters to deliver to us, so we're looking forward to that! Here's his letter this week.
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       Subject: Practice Makes Perfect            

Buenos Dias amigos!

Well this week was awesome. Well it's  getting better. Elder Gadea and I have really turned things around as a companionship and are getting along super well now. We are also making a lot of progress here in Lo de Coy.

Last Wednesday I went on divisions with Elder Bywater! He came here and we had a really great lesson with Mario. We also ordered pizza that night

We've been trying for a while to get him a date for baptism but he's not wanted to accept a date so with him we read from Mosiah 18 and ended the lesson with him praying to know if the 18th he should be baptized. It was just him praying in his head and after about 5 minutes he stood up and said that he would do the preparations. He has all the lessons and has come to church 3 times. One was conference and the other 2 were with the elders in the area panorama where the chapel is super close to his work. But the thing is we need him to come to church with us. Well he said he'd come this past week and we were also expecting Frank. Well neither of them came and we only had one in church again which was a bummer. But we have 9 that said they'll be coming this week. With Mario we have another lesson with him tonight and are going to put on another date for baptism and set a date to go to the temple with him so he can feel even better about his decision. of the 9 we have coming to church this week 6 are from the familia martinez who are super pillas! We also have a lesson with them tonight. They are the reference we had through merecen ser recordados and they are really going to progress a lot! Then the other 3 are from a family who aren't super pillas but they said they'd come to church this week and I really hope they can progress too. Haha funny story is that yesterday we were in a lesson with them and the door was open and some little kids passed by and said "los mormones!"and the lady Maribel said "they aren't the mormons"and we didn't quite know how to respond because really we aren't. We are missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. With Maribel so far we've only taught lesson 2 so we haven't mentioned the Book of Mormon yet. But so we just kind of ignored it when the kid said that and kept teaching. So if all goes according to plan we'll see those 9 in church, and hopefully Mario, Frank, and a guy named Emmanuel who is also really progressing a lot. He's reading the Book of Mormon and said that he really feels the spirit while reading it after just 2 chapters!

Practice makes perfect

This Monday we had to come to our district meeting early to practice singing! It's apparently something the missionaries in this stake do every year, singing in the malls and stuff as a way to light the world and do missionary work. So monday morning was the first practice and we had started with a warm up that totally made me feel like I was in Madrigals again!! It was so fun! We also practiced this morning before writing our families. We had to be at the stake center at 8:00 to practice and as we knealt to pray Elder Gadeas pants ripped and we were already running behind, and then I forgot something as we were leaving the colonia/residential we live in so we had to run back and were running super behind. We took a different bus than we normaly do to go to the stake center and had to walk a little further after we got off. But the bus didn't stop at the street that leads to the stake center so we were going to have to walk farther. The bus still wasn't stopping but was slowing down so Elder Gadea jumped off. All I am going to say is I believe it takes a little bit of practice to jump off a bus...

So I got a little bashed up this morning but we went to a tienda to get gauze and alcohol and some other disinfectant stuff and cleaned it up and wrapped it up really good. I'm gonna live.

It also ripped part of my pants by my pocket and my shirt pocket of the same shirt I fixed up last week! But on the other side so I'll have to stitch that up too.

 There apparently a very specific technique to get off a bus that is moving. Elder Gadea has had years of practicing getting off like that and said that the first time he did he was 10 and got bashed up worse than I am. He felt really bad though and feels like a bad companion for setting the example and jumping off the bus without asking if I knew how. My fall looked like the way I fell when I let go of the bar while barefooting at lake powell. But I feel super blessed because the worst part is my elbow and I didn't break any bones or anything! Just a deep elbow wound and a some scrapes on my knee. Really a miracle if you ask me. And we got it all cleaned up so really no need to worry. I'm just super happy my plaque didn't get scratched up!! But just a tip is wait until the bus is stopped before you try to get off.

And here's some pics of me and Elder Gadea with his first time ordering Dominos to his house in the mission!!

Have a great week!!