Week 100

What an absolute joke...this is my last email.
Monday, December 12, 2011 6:26 AM

Dear family,

Well I was going to send pictures for the last time, but it appears as if the computer is on strike. Sad day. Well, I guess you`ll only have to wait another week to see them. :)

So, this week was good, kind of strange, but good. We cannot apparently for the life of us get investigators to progress in any shape or form towards baptisms. Ok, that`s a lie. We have a tiny number that are progressing VERY SLOWLY. Bernard moves fast in comparison. Speaking of Bernard really quick, he`ll sadly be staying here as the house mascot because I can`t take him home. Hope everybody is okay with that. Anyways, the strange/cool experience for the week was on Saturday. We were walking towards an appointment and as we walk by this lady, we hear "excuse me." At first I was like, okay who`s the random Guayan speaking English to us. We turn around and actually met a lady from Washington. We start talking to her and turns out that she and her husband are Baptist missionaries. They sold their house and everything in the states and moved down here to do I don`t even know what for the Baptist church. Well, we started talking. She asked us what our purpose is....bad question. When everything was said and done half an hour later, we had basically taught her the restoration, the plan of salvation, and the 5 points of the gospel of Jesus Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end). Then we had to go to our appointment (to which we showed up a tiny bit late), but we got her number and we`re going to try to meet up with her again. Well the Lord works in mysterious ways...if this couple had to sell everything they had to move to Uruguay to receive the restored gospel, so be it. We`ll see what happens. It was kind of strange (well let`s speak seriously....really strange) because it was the first time I taught in English. It wasn`t too bad though...the Lord helped and only a few Spanish words crept in. She speaks very limited Spanish so yeah.

Let`s see...apart from that, the week was just routine. We`re having a terribly rough time finding new investigators. Poo. But oh yeah, yesterday we went by a reference the Zone Leaders had passed to us and we found a kid whose cousin just got baptized in their branch. He wants to get baptized as soon as somebody gives him a date and a time. So that`s pretty cool as well. The baptism we were planning on having this week doesn`t appear to be too committed. We`re not giving up, but my big focus now is to just not leave a destitute area for Elder Craynor. It`s super strange thinking that my next Pday will not involve me typing an email to you, it`ll involve me talking with you face to face. It`s super weird. I started working on my suitcases yesterday. Not too bad. I mostly did it because I have more time on Sundays and that way I`ll be able to focus the whole week on missionary work. You`ll probably be surprised when I tell you that I`m not terribly distracted. It mostly has to do with reality not having hit me yet, and powerful prayers.

Personally I`m doing well. I just finished up President Kimball’s Teachings of the Prophets book. He`s awesome. Curiously, those books have really strengthened my testimony even more. I`ve come a lot closer to my Heavenly Father in these last few weeks and months. I know we go through every situation for a reason, and evidently this was something I needed to learn. I`m just trying to stay focused and do my best because I don`t want to look back with any regrets (even though Satan tries to tempt me to think I`ve failed or not done my best or stupid stuff like that).

I got letter 98 this week. I don`t know how many more I`m supposed to be expecting. So yeah. I think I also got a letter from Chris (assuming he wrote one). It kinda looks like his handwriting, but I haven`t opened it yet.

Yes the Christmas conference is on Wednesday. I`m stoked. This week is going to fly by. I`ll also be saying good bye to different families this week. It`s all very strange. People keep asking me how it feels and what I think, but I don`t ever know what to say. In some ways, it feels like I just said goodbye to you. I`ve changed a lot and at the same time, I`m the same. Yeah, ok. Weird stuff.

I have nothing else to tell you. I might check my email next Monday (I`m not sure about my whole schedule yet), so if you have any last minute things to say, feel free to send an email. I`ll try to get it. Tell Nana hi...and tell her to take care of herself. She`s almost made it. :) Have a wonderful last week without me.

Love Always,

DJ