June 23, 2014

this week was a bit tough, with a lot of ups and downs. during the week, we were able to get to 4 people with a baptismal date for this saturday, but on saturday and sunday all of them lost their date. we were teaching guillermo throughout the week and everything was going well. he told us that he fights a lot with mariana so he wasnt sure if he wanted to get married, but we were able to visit them with a sister whos husband just got baptized in may and she reactivated, and she gave her testimony of how the gospel had changed their relation. they both committed to getting married and guillermo to getting baptized on the 28th. everything was going great, but they never read or prayed together so they didnt stop fighting. on saturday they went to a baptism that the other elders had. they got their late but everything seemed tranquilo but at 1 in the morning that night we got a text from mariana saying that they had fought and separated. neither one came to church and when we went to visit guillermo yesterday he said that he had wanted to get baptized and everything because he had wanted to change with mariana but now theyre not together and he doesnt want to change anymore. it was super lame. but earlier in the week we were talking about terere (a popular herbal drink) and we told him we cant drink it cus its a rule we have as missionaries. in his prayer to end the lesson he asked that we could have the chance to try terere and that it wouldnt give us diarrhea. that was quite funny.

francisco is gonna get baptized next saturday cus he has next saturday off work.

we also went and taught a less active member and his wife and daughter accepted a baptismal date for this saturday but he went to work on sunday and they didnt come to church.

and the highlight of the week - we have an investigator that elder huntsman found before i got here thats called analia. she has two kids, but all of her sons friends are almost always in her house, so weve been teaching all of them. on monday we went to talk to her (we havent been able to teach her much cus she works a lot) and while we were talking her friend was inside and asked us where and when we have church. we invited her to come to the next appointment we had with analia, and a bit surprisingly, she showed up. that lesson was a bit weird - we went with a few members and basically just had a lesson telling them that there wasnt any reason to feel uncomfortable about going to church as a last attempt to get them to go to church as we've been teaching for a few weeks and they still havent come (erwin, the son of analia, has some scars on his face and doesnt really like new people seeing his face) - but after the lesson we invited everybody to go to church and to get baptized, and analias friend, angelica, accepted. we asked why, and her response was pretty funny. it was funnier in spanish so im gonna write in both. she said porque me gusta! si no me gusta no lo voy a hacer ¡pero me gusta!. (because i like it. if i dont like it im not gonna do anything but i like it). on sunday morning we were standing outside church waiting to welcome people and we decided to call analia as the meeting was about to start. we called and she answered and hung up, and after that her phone was turned off and we basically lost all hope. but then we walked outside the fence and saw her and angelica walking up! they only stayed for sacrament meeting as yesterday was the birthday of analias husband but they said theyre gonna come next week too.

also this week and last week we did divisions, and both times i stayed here in obrero to direct the area. it was a bit hard the first time (as i only had one week in the area) but with the map i more or less survived, and the second time was a bit easier, although a few times we did start walking in the wrong direction.

cant think of anything else but here's a few pictures

dinner on friday

me and elder peralta (we did divisions on tuesday)