October 31, 2009
Hey hey hey!
Well, let me begin with Julio. It is quite the experience to look into the face of a truly repentant child of God. That was the experience that I had last week, when 46 year old Julio and his son Benjamin were baptized. My experience with Julio is definitely one that I will be remembering as one of the best during my mission. I first met and interviewed him for baptism a couple weeks ago, and had quite the struggle in deciding what to do. Making a decision for baptism, telling someone yes or no, just seems so surreal to me. Does that make sense? (Ím just trying to use big words, because I seem to have forgotten most of them.) Between the time of his first interview and his baptism, it took lots of reflection and prayer, lots of phone calls to check up, and a second interview on Saturday. On Sunday, we had the baptismal service. A few minutes before it started, I decided we needed a special musical number, because that always makes baptisms so much better. We didn’t have anything ready – so, we played “I am a Child of God,” with the guitar of a song that Dutch and I wrote a long time ago. So if Dutch doesn’t read these emails, you’ll have to let him know that our song (or at least the guitar part) is a big hit down in the Southern Hemisphere. Oh, and I guess you should also tell Dutch it was “Just for You.” I had the opportunity to perform the baptism of Julio and his son. When Julio came up out of the water I saw the face of a man that had truly repented. Later, when I asked him how he felt he responded: “I feel free.”
I think my time here in the office is quickly coming to a close. It has been a long time, but wow, the time has just gone so fast. In about a week and a half I will have completed five cambios in the office, or about seven and a half months. That’s incredible! It feels like I arrived here a month ago – it’s just going ridiculously fast. I had an interview with the president earlier this week, who told me he is still lost trying to figure out who will replace me – but he feels an urgency to get me back into the field. So…I guess that means I could be leaving here at the end of the cambio – if there is a replacement, and if not, well it will be soon. If it is this cambio it will be kinda hard to train someone in so little time, but we’ll see what happens I guess. This past change has probably been the best, as we have the most united group in the office since I have been here. Elder Gale is my new hero. He is going home in December, and is just an All-Star example of a good, focused missionary. And aside from that, we are pretty much identical with our music tastes, and decided that we’ll just go home and start the best radio station this world has ever seen.
And here’s a quick shout out to cuz Cody, Elder Bringham, for making himself look like a fool by calling his president’s mother a hamster. Oh my goodness, I laughed so hard when I read that. I was pretty pleased with the fact that we both had memorable moments in the same week by doing something dumb related to something we said to our mission presidents. Good stuff. Elder Bringham and Royal really are Siamese cousins.
We stayed busy here in the office this past week. The end of the month is always fun for me, just getting all the payments ready for the next month. All that is squared away. Thursday and Friday were interesting days. Elder Escobar and I were in the center sending out some suitcases and other large items needed in Chachapoyas, when we got a call from the sisters in our district, reporting that they were having problems and needed us to go over. I spent about the next two hours with them just trying to resolve their companionship conflict. It’s a very unusual situation, though. Not like your normal petty situations that usually go on in between missionaries – but just that one of them is a bit harder to deal with, the other can’t figure out what’s wrong, and no matter how hard she (one of the sisters) tries to love, it just doesn’t work, and - wow. I thought by the end of the night it might have been okay, but then I spent the entire afternoon with them yesterday along with the zone leaders – there are things that need to get worked out…and I just love being put in the middle of this stuff. (Ha.) I’ll miss that when I leave the office. I am just so accustomed to dealing with problem after problem here for the entire mission, and that will probably cut down considerably when I leave. Good ol’ drama.
Okay, I’ll finish this up with my shout outs – one to Marcus Yupanqui (Elder Yupanqui), my trainer, who is getting married today in Bolivia. Hooray! To the Payton family, and for sending me individual letters! It’s always cool to get one fatty envelope, but boy they sure went the extra mile and send me like six individual ones. That was a good sight. Thanks! And, if I remember right, I think my good buddy Mike Taylor had a birthday this past week, I wanna say October 26th? Correct me if I’m wrong, if not, happy birthday! Also, congrats to Tara Jex getting married, Andrew Hunt for his mission call to Dallas, Texas, and Michael Flagg for his mission call that he received 10 or say days ago but, according to Dad, will not open until tomorrow because he’s been hunting with his uncle. Okay, well, I received a few phone calls just now and it sounds like my Prep-day is to be short lived - again. But, it’s all good! No, it’s great. Alright, the Church is true, the mission life is awesome, and I love it here. Be gospel centered, draw close to the Lord daily, and pray for the missionaries!! Everyone have a safe and happy Halloween, but more importantly… HAPPY NEVADA DAY!
Elder NEVADA DAY IS AWESOME Royal
Represent ya’ll!
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