Buuuueeeeeennnoooooo,
Well since y'all already heard from me on Thursday I know all of you are just pumped to hear from me again... Hah I hope everyone likes to read these things! They're kinda fun to type out and remember what happened! So here we goooooo:
Thursday
I had the awesome opportunity to go to the Palmyra temple!! Wow it was amazing. The sacred grove, Hill Cumorah, and Temple are all within about 3 miles or so of each other so you're just driving a long and it's basically like BOOM. There you are. Hah the temple is awesome. It's tiny but has so much meaning behind it. Apparently before the temple was built, the church owned all of the land around the sacred grove except for this one spot where they wanted to build the temple. The guy who owned the land was not interested at all in selling it. The church I guess didn't give up and he agreed to sell them the land on one condition. We build him a big old house right in the middle of this property. So the church agreed. A week later this guy died of a heart attack, the church tore down the house or moved it and bang bang now we have a temple. Crazy story but I couldn't help but think of this scripture: 13 Behold the Lord slayeth the wicked to bring forth his righteous purposes. It is better that one man should perish than that a nation should dwindle and perish in unbelief. Haha this hombre probably wasn't wicked but you get the point! Anyways it's also the only temple in the world that has a window you can see in and out of. President Hinckley wanted a window so you can see the sacred grove from the temple. Ahhh it was so amazing! Anyways we were able to do an endowment session with a recent convert and later her and her husband we're sealed! It was so great to be there. You could feel the excitement. Terry joined the church 37 years ago and his wife was baptized a year ago. He is on dialysis and she has stage four cancer of some sort. Needless to say I think their days are dwindling... She got special permission from the first presidency to be sealed early because of these issues! Anyways it's hard to put into words everything I saw and felt today but really it was a very special day.
Friday
We had an appointment with my favorite homie. I call him Schizophrenic Scott. I mean not to his face but ya know. Hah I get a kick out of this guy. He always tells me something where I'm like woah. Did he just really say that? This time he told me the spirit gods have been talking to him again. Ohhhh Scott, I hate when that happens. Hah also we were talking about how weird people are in western New York (which is 90% true) but he's like "yeah there's a lot of just weird looking people out here." Keep in mind Scott is wearing an elf hat, has glasses with one side broken, a massive beard, and is rocking a leather jacket with sweat pants. Oh man you can't help but grin a little.
Saturday
We had an appointment with Lourdes! For those who don't remember she's the one who we're super pumped about that we found on the street. Anyways we get there and her daughter answers the door saying she's in the shower so she'll be down in a few. We're thinking alright sweet, we'll chill out here and it'll all work out. Oh no. This woman is dyeing her hair! Ahhh man... It was sad because we had this awesome lesson planned and I was super pumped, but it was not to be. We ended up sitting on her porch for 45 minutes just waiting until we finally had to go to our next appointment. All I can say is next time we see her, her hair better be made of gold or something cool. Anyways that night we headed to Jamestown. We always have sleepovers there on Saturday before Fast Sunday because we have ward council at 8. (S/O to mom who never let me have sleep overs before the mish ) Sleep overs are bomb, I love my district and we all get along super well. This night was especially fun because we weren't allowed to proselyte after 6 because of Halloween. Sooooo we went to the church and played some good ball. Basketball is so fun and it's fun to watch my Colombian comp try and figure it out. Hah he finally drained a three and the look on his face was priceless. He wants to be an American so bad, haha he's learning.
Sunday
Holy cow maybe the most exhausting day of the mission. So my companion and I teach this Puerto Rican family named the Matos, I feel like I've mentioned them before! Anyways they're less active but they came to church! This is great, but they don't speak any English. Sooooo..... Guess who got to translate!? Meeeeee. Hah at first I was super pumped but then I realized just how hard it is to do. Holy Moses, props to anyone who does that for work. My comp translated all of fast and testimony meeting, but by the end he had hardly any voice. So I ended up taking over for gospel principles and priesthood. Man it was tough! Hah I gave it my best and I know it really helped my Spanish, but I had a killer headache after the meetings! But wait, there's more. Hah so one of the guys that needed the translation is this 86 year old Puerto Rican named Efelino. He wanted to get his temple recommend renewed which is super awesome and we were so happy for him! But yet again we needed to translate! Hah it was SUPER hard cause he can't really hear that well.... So I was translating English to Spanish and my Comp was going Spanish to English. Hah looking back on it it's kinda funny cause I'm practically yelling at this guy "¿Vive la ley de castidad?" Which means: Do you live the law of chastity? He's like ehhh? My companion says the same thing. He says ehhhh??? Hah this is how most of the interview went... Hahaha eventually we limped through it and he passed haha. I swear I'll never forget this day. At the end it was so worth it because Milagros came up to us and said about 10 times gracias por todo, gracias por todo. Little things like that keep you going out here.
I hope all is going well back home!! Thank you so much for all of your thoughts and prayers!! Our area has really changed this transfer, and I know that's from the faith of all of you!! Love you guys!
I. Am. Fly.
Elder Halls
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