November 23, 2009
Hey hey hey
So I completed my first full week as a zone leader. I made it out alive, just barely - that was one big dog. Haha jk. But seriously, we went to an investigator’s house this past week and when we knocked on the door, the biggest dog I have ever seen in my life came barreling at us and tried to jump through the window of the door. If he wasn’t the size of a small bear he probably would have squeezed through pretty easily and bit my head off. After that our investigatoŕs mom told us to go away. I was ok with that, though.
We have been working a lot with the zone – and results are slowly coming. We started the cambio with 10 of our 14 missionaries completely new to their areas, so everyone was a bit lost for the first week and the numbers last Sunday were kind of embarrassing. This week was a lot better. However, I still was not able to report much productivity last night to the president. That’s two weeks in a row, and . . . wow. I wonder if President is having second thoughts about putting me in as a ZL. I doubt it. I think he put me here mostly because I’m good looking. Maybe. (Ha) But the missionaries are definitely putting in a lot of effort, and I am expected at least a few baptisms to go through by the end of next week. The number of lessons and nuevos found last week was much higher, so I believe that the results will start showing quickly. We had our first zone meeting last week too, which also went very well. Elder Guerra is a really good missionary and is helping me a lot. I am learning a lot from him.
Our area is pretty interesting. Brenda did not get baptized last week, but we are still working with her. We went around visiting a lot of the members last week. There are A LOT of less actives. One of them hasn’t been to church in about 15 years, and asked how to have his name remove from the records. We talked to him for about an hour. That was pretty frustrating, to be honest. We were pretty direct with him – he had some problem with a member or two, blames them, hasn’t gone back, is completely miserable and doesn’t think that happiness exists. We told him to forget about something so little and dumb that happened so long ago, forget his pride, and remember his covenants. He said that God knows why he stopped going to church, and that he had very good reasons. I told him very bluntly: “You’re right, God knows why you stopped going to church, but that doesn’t mean he will justify it.” It’s interesting to see how easily someone can throw away the gospel, to become so blinded and then wonder why they are so miserable. He said he might come to church, but he did not. I wasn’t really expecting him to, but I’m gonna keep visiting him. Surprisingly enough, he was not the only person I met with a very similar story. In fact, there are several (fast approaching the double digits), and we still have only visited about half the listed ward members. I just find it so very sad that people can throw it all away and decide to walk down such a miserable road. It’s so easy to walk down that road, but very difficult to get off.
Everything is going great. I am having good experiences and loving my time as a missionary. I received a letter from Elder TJ Gibson this week. That was cool. And I heard about Kevin Fouts getting a call to serve here in Piura! That is crazy. He should arrive here in April I think, if he is starting in February. So…that means I’ll have about two transfers left when he gets here. Maybe I’ll train him! Oh, I would own him so hard. ;) I’m gonna ask the president to let me train him, and oh boy . . . he’ll let me (because President Chipman loves me). ;) Mom, I’d love a dog whistle if you can find one that’s not too expensive. There are so many dogs around here - I just wanna drive them crazy. I could use some new CDs or something - just some more piano music or whatever. Great music is just so sweet. Good to hear that BYU beat Air Force. Have fun at the BYU/Utah game this weekend. Congrats to Elder Cuz Cody with his new assignment. I’m sure he’ll tear it up. And how is Elder Cuz Jason doing? I haven’t heard much about him lately. Hope he is doing alright. Ok, well I’m out. The Church is true. Live it. Oh and have a mighty fine thanksgiving. I would tell Cody to eat all of the turkey for me...but he isn’t with the family, either. Soooo, I’ll turn that assignment over to...Brad. And Jordan can finish what Brad doesn’t of my plate.
Elder Real Turkey and Mashed Potatoes Royal
Posts
