Week 81 Viva la Vida and a Presbyterian Church

Good morning,

Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying some warmer weather if you happen to live in Utah. I'm a little jealous of those high temps. Send some of that this way?

Tuesday 

We were on exchanges and had a really good day! Elder Chafin came here with Elder Nelson and I and we went hard. We got into a lot of doors that we needed to and it just went really well! Best part of the day was a split with Bro. Stoddard. The beauty of a trio is that if you find a team up you can split off and be in two places at the same time. I've been wanting to take advantage of this and it was great that it finally lined up. The trio gets work done! 

Wednesday 

Went with Bro. Stoddard to help Sis Reyes with some family history and that woman's life could be a movie... She has some crazy stories and dreams and just all sorts of stuff. It's all really interesting and she bore a solid testimony of how she's ready to go to the temple to do baptisms for her deceased mom. I'm so excited for them! Days for Girls was awesome and Reverend Karie gave us a tour of the Presbyterian church! It was cool to see another church and it was really nice! They have a sanctuary that can fit 1,000 and it was pretty amazing. She let us play the piano and we definitely got a verse in of Praise to the Man. 😏 As we were leaving Karie let us fire up the organ and Elder Condie and I played a little tag team Viva la Vida. It was a crowd pleaser and definitely cool to play an organ in a huge Presbyterian church! 

Thursday 

Solid district meeting in the morning and I just really felt the spirit. The zone leaders did a good job talking about testimonies and overall I really enjoyed it! We saw Iris in the afternoon and that woman is going a little crazy lately. She hadn't slept in 48 hours and she was honestly hysterical. She was going 100 miles an hour and I swear was on something. We shared a little message but it was just a little hectic. She's on the path to reactivation so let's hope she keeps going! Wilbur is doing well and plans on coming to church this week if all goes well with work. I really do love that family! 

Friday-Saturday 

We did some service Friday afternoon with Raymond helping him with his house. He had some roommates that left the place in shambles and he wanted to fix it up before his mom comes to visit next month. We ripped out the carpet and started painting and it ended up looking a lot better! Raymond is definitely my favorite Peruvian, such a solid guy. We also had a lesson with Jorge that went really well! He's the guy we met a few weeks ago that has been taught a ton by other missionaries in Guatemala! He's really solid and we have high hopes for him. 

Sunday 

We had a lot of people commit to coming to church throughout the week so we were pretty pumped for an awesome day! However, by about 10:45 when we were wrapping up companion study it was pretty obvious that no one was coming... Everyone bailed. Excuses ranged from work, to it's too cold, to no reason at all. It's pretty frustrating to teach what you feel like are good lessons and then they commit and don't follow through! It's a work in progress for sure. I did have the chance to give a talk though so that was cool! I like preparing for a talk, and I don't get as nervous as I used to with public speaking. My subject was "Armados Con Rectitud" (Armed with righteousness) which comes from this month's Ensign. I learned a lot about how in the world we live in today we have to protect ourselves from the enemy. We can't expect to survive the "battle" if we don't put our armor on every day. I felt like it went well! It was the first talk I've given in church in over a year and my first talk in Spanish since the MTC. It was nice to have a bigger vocabulary this time than I did when I first started, things have changed. 👍🏽

Random thoughts 

• We made some shrimp tacos this week and they were good! We're learning stuff out here ladies and gentlemen. 
• We saw a house with an American and Ecuadorian flag flying so we knocked it out and a white lady answered the door not looking super happy to see us. We were super honest and just said: "Hey we were driving around and saw your flags and wanted to come meet you guys, we're the missionaries that speak Spanish." Turns out she spoke Spanish like a Latina and was interested in us coming around. It was sweet to see her whole demeanor change! 
• Elder Chafin was on a bus and heard people some people speaking Spanish so he texted us asking what he should do... Chafin wasn't called Spanish speaking but knows about as much as you learn in High school. Anyways, I called him and told him a few words and said all you need is 20 seconds of courage, go do it! 2 seconds later I hear "Hola, como está?" 😂 he did it. He did pretty well but got stuck and then gave the guy their phone so we could talk to him. After a little convo we got his contact information. 😜 We love the walk Elders and need to teach them more Spanish! 

We'll everyone another week is in the books. It's cold and gloomy most days but I really am just happy overall! Yes there is stress and disappointment but it's all part of the fun. I love my mission and the teachings of Jesus Christ and I'm grateful to serve him every day. 

Hasta luego, 

There's a famous rapper from Pittsburgh named Mac Miller. He grew up in a place called Squirrel Hill and one of his albums is called blue slide park. Well, we found the blue slide at the the park!

Elder Halls