Week 13 (August 08, 2016)

This young lady just finished her mission at Salt Lake Temple Square and went home to Panama.  She took a care package back to Jayden for us,  He is serving in her ward.  It was nice to meet her and her mother before she went home. (Gary)

Well this week has been pretty good, we had changes. We have a new Zone leader. Hes a gringo which is pretty great. Our new zone is pretty boring though. They took all of the cool people out of our zone, and the other cool person, Elder D. died. Dying just means you finished your mission.  So now our zone is very boring. We only played soccer today for like 20 minutes unlike the usual 2 hours. Although I was able to score 2 goals in that short time. Not to bad for a gringo!

The mission work this week went pretty good. We had a bunch of lessons and found 7 new investigators. We had 4 investigators attend church yesterday and that isn’t including our 2 regulars who had something going on yesterday. As for baptisms we should have some this change. We have a 3 baptismal dates with our investigators, although I know one of them isn’t going to happen. She isn’t married and we didn’t know that before asking her to be baptized. I honestly couldn’t even believe that she said yes to being baptized. It was only our second time teaching her and the first time we taught her we didn’t really teach much, We only found out who she was and assessed the needs in her life, which we didn’t do very well at because one of her needs is to be married.

Other things that have happened this week:

•  I was wondering why I haven’t seen any spiders here. I’ve heard there were lots here and they were big but I didn’t ever see anything. So this week I’m getting ready for bed and look down and see a spider crawl under the door darting across the floor. It was decent sized, about the size of the biggest spiders we have in Utah. No big deal though, I grab my shoe and smashed it. I figure that the reason that we don’t have any small spiders is because the lizards that are everywhere and super fast are eating them all, and this spider was big enough and fast enough to get away. So the next day we are in a member´s house and I look over on the wall and there is a freaking gigantic spider. It was easily the size of my palm. It was a greenish grey color and it was pretty fat. I figure that this spider was alive because it has been eating the lizards. The people living there hit it with a broom but the spider just took the hit like a champion and ran down the wall to the floor, then ran into the bathroom where my comp had to step on it twice to kill it. Not exaggerating that story at all. That spider was absolutely massive!!!
• On Saturday we presented service to one of our investigators. We mowed their lawn. And by mowed their lawn I mean we hacked at it with machetes for 2 hours just cutting the grass. It was very ineffective and I loved it. It is so much worse than just mowing the lawn. 
• On Sunday at church I saw the family of Hermana R. and her daughter showed me the picture of you all. I think it is so cool that you were able to meet someone from my mission! Thanks so much for the package! I'm not really sure when to open your little letter because it seems like everyday I can feel everyone of those emotions. I just treat the mission like baseball. If you strike out your first at bat you still get to bat the second time.  It pretty fun to make baseball comparisons tho. I miss baseball so much. 
• I got my package from Sister R. this morning which I'm sure you know! Thank you so much! I'm so glad that you could get to meet her, even with the horrible google translate. Your emails to her translated very well. Her emails in Spanish made sense to me I'm not sure why the translation is so bad the other way. good thing you figured out how to get in touch. and good thing her daughter speaks English! Her daughter is super cool. She said that she wants to help us as a member and be apart of our lessons which is super cool because lessons with a member present are one of the best ways for investigators to feel the spirit, which is the way for conversion to happen. 
• On Fast Sunday me and my companion fasted, I chewed gum to not feel super hungry. Everyone told me it wasn't fasting because of the gum.  They said it was the sugar in the gum. I've never heard that before in my life. 
• During church on Sunday there was a crazy huge thunderstorm. And the thunderstorms here are insane.  Every time the thunder cracked the person bearing their testimony had to wait for it to stop before they could continue.  There was one point were the lightning was so close I could here it sizzle after it hit and the thunder followed it almost at the same time, it was crazy!! 
• Remember that ear infection I had in the MTC? I still have something wrong with my ear. It still hurts and pops all the time. I think I need to get it checked again. 
• The bishop here wants me to teach him English. He is always talking to me in broken English, which is harder to understand than Spanish, and always asks me how to say things. My comp has been the same way lately. He asks me how to say things in English, and when I tell him he remembers what I say every time. He knows lots of English sayings like "you want take a shower" or "I need to use the bathroom" or "I have hungry" and "Are you okay" He says those all the time but I tried to say one of them to him once and he had no idea what was happening. Lots of people here try to talk English and it is so hard to understand them. and they always want me to speak English to them but they don't understand me so usually I stick to my broken Spanish. 
• And last but not least I want to say thanks for that gringo package you sent me. the things in it are really useful. Melatonin in there is the greatest. I use the lotion as shaving cream because shaving cream here is ridiculously expensive.  The cheapest they have is 4 dollars for the stuff we can buy at the dollar store. I also still have the candy from it, I eat like one a day. and the water bottle is very useful for making chicha. which here means juice and any other Spanish country means alcohol. fun fact. 

Anyways that's it for the week. pretty fun and pretty packed with lots of work!!   Love you, Jayden