Subject: If it can go wrong, it will go wrong
So this week was SUPER crazy.
Maybe you remember last week I talked about my new companion Elder Flinders how he had some medical problems so they moved him from way outside the captial to here with me so he could be closer to the hospital. Well yeah so I basically just had a companion for my birthday which was super sweet but he also is back home now. We were companions for less than 72 hours. He's gonna come back out and finish his mission though. Whether here or in the states I don't know but he's gonna finish his mission. So from Tuesday to Friday last week were probably the craziest days of my mission so far. On Wednesday after pday was over we mostly street contacted and also had ward council so not nearly as much walking around as we normally do but all through out the night his spasms were getting a little more frequent and he was feeling light headed and was having a little bit harder of a time speaking. So after we got home he called Hermana Shumway and the new symptoms kind of scared her so she got a taxi called and we were on our way to the hospital at like 10:00 at night. So Thursday we spent almost all day in the hospital and it was super boring. It's a nice hospital though. When we finally ended up being able to leave at about 5 it was because we were going home to get all of his stuff packed (and my stuff packed to go back to Nueva Vida) because his plane took of at 9:00 the next day which was Friday. So we got our bags ready and were able to do one visit that night but only because the bishop went with us and gave us a ride. When you're traveling it feels like everything that can go wrong will go wrong. And this isn't to complain but that was totally the case with us. When we got home the lights wouldn't turn on. That's when we noticed a little yellow paper that said aviso de corte on the ground.
So turns out we forgot to pay for the light so they cut the electricity from the house. So we packed in the dark with flashlights hahah. Elder Flinders put a flashlights in a headband so he could pack with both hands.
This is what it looked like
And this is what it looked like with the flash
So we finished packing and the next day had to wake up early to go to the migration offices. We planned to waken up at 5 because the taxi was going to be there at 6 but we slept in until 5:50. So I didn't have time to take a shower but I was okay with that because it would have been in the dark and the water would have been super cold anyways because without electricity we don't have hot water. We also couldn't charge the phone so it had low battery. So we got in the taxi with our suitcases and headed to the central american area offices where we were meeting up with other missionaries and going from there to migrations. But traffic was SUPER bad. We were supposed to be at the offices at 6:30 and were running super behind. So we called the secretaries and he told us to just head to the migration offices now and we would meet the other missionaries there. He also told us that we were supposed to leave the suitcases at the Lo De Coy house. My bad. So we get to migration at about 7:15 and are both a little stressed because we had a super tight window. The flight did get pushed back though. It used to be leaving at 9:00 but they pushed it back to 2:40 so we would have time to go to presidents house so Elder Flinders could have his final interview. For international flights you need to be at the airport 3 hours early so he was supposed to be there at 11:40. The migration offices opened at 8 and so we went up there and waited for a while. The other missionaries came and left but we hadn't gotten our papers back yet. Oh while we were waiting I talked to this mennanite guy from Canada and tried talked to a guy from China but he didn't speak Spanish or English so we didn't talk that much. We were there at the migration offices for like 4 hours in total because they messed up on his papers a couple times and so they had to go back and redo it and it reminded me a lot of when my family was trying to leave Chile a few years ago (Part 1 and Part 2 of that crazy story!). Anyways eventually we were leaving a little after 11. But remember how my phone didn't have much battery left? Yeah so it had died at about hour 3 at the migration offices. So I used the phone of some other missionaries that showed up to tell the secretaries that we were done so they could call a taxi. The taxi that all our stuff was in went to the mission offices so the suitcases were taken care of. But since it took a lot longer than we planned to go through migrations and get his passport we were running super behind. After we finally got out I used a public phone to call the taxi guy (it's this guy named Rolando that always drives missionaries places for stuff like this) and when he got there we went straight to presidents house. We got there at 11:40, 3 hours before flight time. He had his final interview and I ate a bunch of cookies that Hermana Shumway made and then we headed to the airport. At this point it was a good thing that we came with the suitcases that morning because there wouldn't have been time to go all the way back to the house to get them. They sent Elder Flinders' suitcases in another taxi that followed us to the airport but they forgot to put some stuff in so they had to send another taxi with the stuff they forgot. So we got to the airport, helped him get through and sent him off. Then I went with the secretaries, who had been with us since we left presidents house, to the mission office which is where my stuff was and guess who I saw there! My trainer Elder Aquino!!! So that was cool.
He's comps with my first district leader Elder Benson who is also super sweet.
Then we met up with Elder Erickson and Elder Gates in Nueva Vida putting the trio back together once again. So all that happened on Friday and it was just an insane day. But we survived and that night we had dinner with some members and they gave us Ben & Jerry's!!
Also because I'll only be in Nueva Vida till the rest of the change, on the 22nd, we didn't want to move my bed and closet and desk again since we just moved them back over there. So I am using a random table they have at their house for studies and an air mattress to sleep on.
It's not guaranteed I'll be in Lo de Coy for a whole nother change but is totally possible. But if I go to a new area I'll know by next Wednesday. Either way though I am excited to have a companion assigned to me because going on member divisions all the time has been hard to do but I've definitely learned a lot.
Anyways so the people we are teaching right now include the Familia Castillo who are really progressing, Frank, Brenda, and Griselda. The Martinez family also came back from their trip so we are teaching them again now too. We are hoping to have a lot of people in church this next week. We also got a new ward mission leader named Samuel who is a super cool guy. He's left with me on divisions almost every day on divisions this week.
Also the Biggest news this week is that I have a new baby brother!!!! He doesn't have a name yet but just looking at the pictures I can tell he is going to be a great missionary in 18 years. He is kid number 12 and something funny is that my first name is Joseph and Joseph of Egypt was in Egypt and didn't know his little brother Benjamin (number 12) and I also am out of the country. So I think he should be named Benjamin. That's my vote.
Having gone out with the members so much more this week I am really learning how much of a difference member missionary work is. Both gong out with them to lessons and telling them about your friends and nieghbors and even inviting your neighbors who aren't members over to have a family home evening and then inviting the missionaries. I am convinced that if we do a better job with member missionary work more people will join the church and they won't go inactive. You have no idea how much of a difference members can make so that is your invitation this week. Do missionary work somehow and involve the missionaries. They will really really appreciate it. That's it for this week. Love you all!!
_______________________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment