69 - Apple Pie!

Haha Well funny story about my strep throat. I went back and the shot wasn’t working! The first shot they gave me didn’t work. It was penicillin, and it wasn’t strong enough to kill the virus so they gave me 3 more shots! And then pills for 10 days. So I had to pay about 30 bucks on shots. It kinda stunk. But whatever. It’s life I guess! I do not feel good. Poor little booty hurts. But we’ll make it through!

So now the pictures, we made apple pies for a family here! They are literally like my second family. They act a lot like our family and they are super funny!  I actually really like them and they are really nice to us and they always want to help us out! 

 

And now to my numbers problem. I have thought a lot about if it’s just my pride or if it’s a real thing. I found the problem. I don’t mind when people tell me I need to do better, yes it hurts, but I need to hear it sometimes. But the problem when it all comes down to numbers. You still have to care about the people that we help or about getting better personally. You can’t expect a complete change in 2 minutes. We are trying a lot harder to do better but it’s an everyday thing. It doesn’t just come. It’s changing little things to get better little by little. That’s what me and my comp are doing. We have changed little things every day to try and get better. It’s frustrating that we were trying so hard, but you can’t see the changes because it wasn’t exactly as much as they wanted. That’s my problem. I think it is more about the things we learn but some people just want the numbers. So that’s my explanation. I don’t know, maybe I’m wrong. And if the lord says I’m wrong, I’ll admit it completely. But I’m more worried about getting better, not just going out to get the numbers. 

The doctors told me I wasn’t allowed to leave the house to work. But I still went out and did the important lessons. And no mom, you can’t get mad at me for that! But we live outside of the area so we actually went to a member’s house, (the family that we did the pies for) and they let me sleep in their house. Because it’s not very good to go to the area, go back home, go back to the area, go back home and etc. so yeah. But we actually had a really good lesson with K.. She is 23, has 2 kids and is married (kind of a miracle in Panama) and we gave her a Book of Mormon. When we explained it, we asked if she had any questions about it. She actually told us she has always been curious if the people here ever heard about Jesus. So that was pretty cool! But she promised she would read it. We will see if she actually did it! I really hope she does. She is really nice and would make a really great member. 

Nothing more happened. It was a slow week but it was pretty good. We got a little bit of work done, so I tried my best! I love you! Good luck on the house! I’m glad you guys had a good week. Thank you for everything you have done. And I can’t wait for the derby next year! Only had to miss one in my mission! I love you!

68 - My Work is for the Lord

Haha yes mom! She is the smarty, the one we baptized! She's a cutie. 

That's cool about the new Bishopric! And I'm glad you guys are having a good summer! 

But this week was really slow, like really slow! It kinda stunk! But it's just how things go sometimes I guess. Some weeks are better than others. But our investigators are good. We found one that kinda fell off the planet for a while and that was awesome! We gave her a Book of Mormon and she said she would read it. So that was really cool! She works Sundays. so she can't come to church, but we will talk to her about that. But we have found 3 new people to start teaching and it is actually really good. We have 3 people reading the Book of Mormon regularly and they are all enjoying it. But the only problem is getting them to come to church so we will see if that changes! I'm trying my best to be even more obedient. It's hard, but I have noticed some changes so it's good!  

We have changes this week so we will see what happens, but we are expecting to not leave. 

But this week was rough mom. Really rough. It was rough because no one was home. We had problems with our numbers. I work my hardest and I try to do what's best for my area. But the leaders always say it's not enough and our numbers aren't high enough. I kinda got upset and said I'm just going to work my best. My work is for the Lord, not them. It might not have been the right thing to say but it's what I felt! So yeah that's my little rant. 

Today was pretty cool! We went to brisas del golf. I wanted to play soccer or basketball so badly and I took my knee brace. But I decided not to. It would have just made my knee feel worse and that's the last thing I need right now! I had to go to the doctor because I got strep throat. The doctor gave me a shot in the butt!

CH emailed me, and said he goes to church with his girlfriend every week! It's soo cool! I really hope he can change some stuff and figure out what he wants.

 

Things are good. I'm sorry that this week isn't very good on the whole writing thing. Really not much happened this week. it was kind of boring actually. Sorry! Next week will be a lot better. I love you mom. Thank you for everything. I learned a lot from you and from dad. I love you!

67 - Baptism

Okay, I will start with answers. Today I bought McDonald's. It was so tempting! 

I did go talk to president the other day. He asked me about the area and all that jazz. It was good. I really felt like he cared about me. Now I gotta explain. All my time in the mission I always felt like I was just another person that he is in charge of out here. And it kinda stunk. But in this meeting I actually felt that he cared about me. It was good!

Yes we did have the baptism! It was awesome! She was super funny! But things are going great. It's practically like we are opening the area. The members didn't like missionaries, we didn't have investigators. Nothing! And now we have 3 baptismal dates and about 15 investigators! So it is going good here! And we still have R. She is 18, and we went to pick her up for church on Sunday. We get there, and it seemed like they had a party. There were beer bottles everywhere and the doors and windows were closed. So I guess they weren't in the right mind set to go to church. But whatevs! We will teach her the word of wisdom this week. We have taught the restoration, evangelio de jesucristo. and castidad. She has been progressing. She is really positive, she just doesn't know the details. I was really hoping she would come to church but maybe next week. Funny you mentioned it, I actually read about that the other day in 2nd Nephi and it was really good! 

But this week was rough because we didn't have a lot of time. We went to the office this week, so we lost that day. And then we went to go contact out in another area. We lost a lot of time with unexpected things and we didn't have many lessons. So yeah, that wasn't fun! We have completely changed this area. When I showed up there really was nothing going on. We are visiting members and everyone else because we need to build relationships here. We are trying to change all that and teach our investigators and reactivate the less active members. But we are going to do another movie night this weekend. We hope it will be just as good as the first time! But we will see. 

Other than that things are going good. Thanks for saying I'm a good brother! Made me get the feel goods! haha I love you mom! Keep the patience up and have a good week!