Week 80

Bananas
Monday, July 25, 2011 8:07 AM

Hello family,

Speaking of hello. Have you noticed that we really don`t use that word much, especially when greeting people. We usually say "hey, what`s up" or "sup" or "hi" or some other random phrase. Nevertheless, hello seems to be the only English word that people know down here so we constantly get "hello" shouted at us all day. And people are funny, they`ll even say it to 2 Latino missionaries that don`t speak English. :)

Anyways, here I am. I have successfully finished this change. I have learned a ton and the Lord has blessed me. I am now being rewarded and will be training another new comp as of tomorrow (in this same area)! Woo hoo! I`m so super excited. Coming back to this in a sec...my interview with President was really good last week, super good. I went in intending to ask him why I was with my mini missionary. He started off by mentioning how I was in one of the most interesting situations and he more or less answered my questions before I asked them. But I verbalized the one anyways, asking why I was with him. And he said that it`s because he trusts me. Putting a mini-missionary with an iffy comp would be dangerous. He knew I`d be able to handle it and do good work. So that was good. It really helped me. I talked about how I had grown a ton because of what I was going through and he said that I should be at the point now where I continue growing and I just give it my 100% for the last few months (I`ve only got like 5 left. WOW). We didn`t talk about going home or anything. It just didn`t feel like the right time. I`m not going to worry about it. He said in April that we can talk about it later without any problems, so in my next (and last) interview with him in October, we`ll figure it out. Going back to the changes, training a second time means that the President trusts me. There are very few missionaries that get to train more than once, so I feel very privileged and blessed, but I also realize I have a huge responsibility. The other cool news about changes is that Elder Young is coming to be the other zone leader so I`ll get to live with him again...first time in 17 months.

My mini missionary friend is going back to his house to work and wait for his time to leave. His call should come in the next couple of weeks. He`ll be letting us know where he goes.

Since pioneer day doesn`t really exist down here, yesterday was just a regular day. I gave a talk in sacrament meeting. They assigned me on Friday night but didn`t give me a topic because they didn`t want to pressure me too much. I told them ok obviously and I mentioned that I always write 30 to 40 minute talks and then just adapt it to the time limits I have. I`m pretty good about that. So I guess they wanted me to prove it or something (or so it looked like) because I ended up with a 30 minute time block to fill. But it went really well. I had been inspired to talk about the ordinance of the sacrament and it was really good. Everybody seemed to love it, and I did too. The bishop complimented me and said that I brought a great spirit to the meeting and that he envisioned me as a general authority up there speaking. I had just been really praying that the Lord would let the Spirit take my message to the hearts of the people. I think most of us don`t realize the importance or the impact of the sacrament.

That`s really cool about Patrick getting the Melchizedek Priesthood. Speaking of which, we actually gave a blessing of health (is that how you say it in English) last night to a recent convert. I`ve given only a handful of blessings in my mission but they`ve been good experiences.

I did not receive any mail this week, but I should get some tomorrow at changes. Okay, so as of Wednesday I will be the only full-time missionary from our ward. Wow. That`s kind of strange, and I`ll be home fairly soon. July has more or less disappeared. I`m just going to be tearing it up for the next little while. I`ll probably have only one more area after this, so we`ll see what happens.

Last thing, Uruguay won the final of the America Cup last night in soccer. Super crazy. Imagine 4th of July plus BYU vs. U of U on a nationwide scale. It was nuts. :) But super cool too. I`m going to try and buy a newspaper as a souvenir. :D

So, this is my email for now. I`ll let you know all the new details about my comp next week. We`re going to have an awesome change. And we should have at least 2 baptisms as well, hopefully more obviously. This ward here has really grown on me. I`m grateful to be staying another change. Have a wonderful last week of July. Say hi to Calvin for me when you see him. That`s weird that he`s going home in 2 days. Anyways, love you all. Give Grandma a hug for me. :)

Love always,

DJ

ps....no pictures this week. next week there should be some. :)

oops
Monday, July 25, 2011 8:08 AM

I forgot to tell Dad last week that there are 3 missionaries from Spain in the mission right now.

Loves, Deej