Week 38 (Feb. 6, 2017)

So this week was probably the hardest week physically of my entire mission but I absolutely loved it!! I should start with Tuesday. We had to wake up at 1 in the morning to leave for the city for migrations. I tried to sleep on the bus but it didn't go so well. We got to the city had our migrations, then got lost trying to get home, but eventually we found a bus and got home at 10:00 am. So we still had the entire day to work. We went out, fighting sleep the whole time and taught 4 lessons. Pretty decent day!! 

Then on Wednesday we woke up early and went out to the mountains to do some service. We cut the grass of this super old guy in our ward for like 4 hours. Cutting grass here means hacking at it with a machete. So we did that for 4 hours and I have more mosquito bite than I have skin on my legs, but the service was super awesome and it felt good out in the mountains. 

Then Thursday me and my comp had a way awesome experience. We were doing cosechas, which is where we pray and then follow the guide of the spirit to know which door to knock on and then talk and ask if you can bless their house and their family. So the spirit guided us to a house, but I knew that if we asked the guy in that moment he would say no. So I told my comp we had to wait 10 minutes. So we kept walking down the street and we found nothing. So we went back to the house and two guys were standing at the front gate. One inside and one who looked like he was just saying goodbye. So I told my comp we needed to pray again. So my comp starts praying that we can get in this house (we are just standing out in the street) when the guy who was inside the gate comes out and yells to us that we need to come in and offer our prayer inside of his house and not out in the street!! It was great!! That was what we wanted to do anyway. So we go in his house and we start to talk and we explain that the spirit led us to his house and then he tells us that he felt like he had to talk to us. Then he told us that he has also read the Book of Mormon!!! This dude was so prepared!! He had so many great questions for us, and he told us he would have a questionnaire the next time we showed up so we could help him more. We also taught him the restoration and he seemed really intrigued by how we have the priesthood restored. It was just a crazy awesome experience all by the power of the holy ghost. 

Then Friday night I had to interview 2 baptismal candidates for the sister missionaries so we went and took care of that. The first one went great we had no problems, but the second one had a drinking problem. He went 7 months without drinking, but then had a relapse on Monday. The missionaries worked with him and cleaned him up and he is doing so much better so I let him pass his baptismal interview. It was a good interview, but he only passed for the 7 months dry, and his strong desire to be baptized and to have the holy ghost. So after the interview we left and got a call not even 10 minutes later. He was on the phone crying because his family wasn't supporting him in his baptism. (this guy is 40 years old, can't read, can't write, and doesn't have a job or girlfriend) so we went back to give him a blessing. I got to offer it and I said words in the blessing that I didn't even know, then we had a killer lesson about how he will be an example to his family and the ward will support him and it was just super awesome!! Then the next day I had the opportunity to get in the font and do the baptismal ordinance for him. This man had smiled maybe once in the 2 days I had talked to him, but his smile was so huge after his baptism!! It was so great!! 

Then Sunday when both me and my comp were dead from the week, and fasting, we told each other that we had to go get at least 3 lessons for the day. So we did. We fasted for 24 hours and got the lessons and I am praying that 2 of the people from those lessons will be baptized in the next 3 weeks. 

Also I put a picture of our apartment building in there

Such a great week!! Sorry for the super long email!! I love you all!!! 

Elder Hamblin