Week 33 Stung by a scorpion!

So this week was a good week!! We are just killing it out here. My companion and I are not the missionaries that everyone expects. The whole mission just focuses in contacting. If you had 30 contacts and nothing else everyone would worship your feet. But if you do like 10 lessons and visit 10 members and contact 1 time in the street, everyone would think we are plancheros. So I'm pretty sure everyone thinks we are plancheros. The only thing is that I don't care. Turns out that our baptism was the first one since August. and we have 2 more for this Saturday. What the mission needs to focus on is progressing investigators. I could contact my whole mission and I could end up being the AP but I would rather have success in my mission and actually have converts so that's what we are doing. And little by little the rest of the zone is following our lead. At first our DL would get mad at us. This week even he got mad for teaching 12 lessons in one day and only contacting 8 times.... and now no one cares. Our ZL called us and asked how we are having so much success and we just said we are focusing on our investigators and not trying to contact and contact. They were really surprised and didn't really congratulate us or anything but I know that what we are doing is that right thing and I'm way excited for all of the success that we are going to have here in the weeks to come.

So another wild thing is that on Wednesday morning at 1:30 in the morning, I woke up in a pure panic and with crazy pain in my thumb. I ran to turn on the lights and started screaming in English and my comp was like que que que!!!! So I explained what happened and he was like something bit you elder!! So we started looking through my sheets and pillows and I had my bed sheet in my hand and IT STUNG ME AGAIN ON MY POINTER FINGER!!!! I'm basically screaming because it hurt so bad and we are looking and probing with pens and pencils and a selfie stick to find what it was and I had a scorpion sting me 2x!!!!!!! I would have photos but I don't really have a camera haha so we are like what the freak do we do!!! We start poking it and we just make it mad!! We finally got it off the sheet and I caught it with a glass cup and the way that I caught it was that the whole body was in the cup but the tail was out of it. So we cut off the tail and the scorpion got ANGRY! Like it was flipping in the jar and stinging the cup while we were chopping off the tail. Then when we had the whole tail off, he lifted the cup and I stomped that mug so hard!!!! Then when the adrenaline of stomping a scorpion went away, I realized that my hand was killing me and that my lips and tongue were completely numb!! I panicked again and my companion gave me a blessing and right when he said amen all of the pain went away. I was calm, and I had feeling again in my mouth. It was incredible. In the moment, it was the worse day of my life but now I have a sick story about a scorpion and the power of the priesthood!!! Then we had to go back and I was so paranoid that I couldn't sleep almost all night.

A funny story that I had this week was that I was with our recent convert and his sister and we had just got done sharing a message and we were just kind of talking. So she was eating a food called tajaditas. Which is basically nachos but with fried platinos. super delicios. So I wanted some so I said hey prestame sus tajaditas. which means like hey lend me your tajaditas. Then the whole room exploded in laughter. like they couldn't even breath how hard they were laughing. So I was like well maybe I said it wrong so I was like ohh sorry sorry sorry I meant to say lend me your tajaditas. And thy just went bananas again!! So I was like what the heck! What did I say wrong so I asked and it turns out that tajaditas is like slang for butt cheeks. And if I say it like that it means like I want your butt cheeks. So then I started to get super red because I'm a missionary that just asked a 13 year old girl for her butt cheeks...... its a funny story but I was like in a panic of oh no.... what if she thought I was serious. I dont want your tajaditas!!!

So just in all I love being a missionary. I have learned that the reason the pastors never want to talk to us is because they are afraid. The Church is so true and this really is the priesthood of God that we have. It is powerful and only those who are worthy can use it. I love this Priesthood and will always strive to be a worthy Poseador(I don't know how to say that in English. like holder? beholder?? you guys know). Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I don't just believe these things but I truly know them them to be true.


I love you all so much!
Elder Garry

Week 32 Baptism!

So this was another good week. My companion and I are killing it out here. I love that guy so much. I understand everthing that he says. Like everything. And he told me that he understands everything that I say and that I am almost flawless!!! SPANISH BOIII. After about 7 months I feel like I got it. Like we go shopping and I don't talk like a 3 year old. I have real conversations and everything. It's going very well. I still love my area with all of my heart. I work hard with my companion and it's just wonderful. Life is good.

So lets hit some highlights of this week. We had a baptism!!! His name is Fabricio and he is 18 going on 19 and is a stud. I mean I know I'm a missionary and should always be like a missionary but I talk to him like he is just one of my friends. He is absolutely high-larry-us. I was crying when he was talking to us about how he thought his baptism would go down. He was just killing me. Just seriously funny. He wants to be a missionary and he wants to stay in the church forever. He is just awesome. Elder Solis baptized and I confirmed him. It was my first time and it was incredible. This whole priesthood thing is a huge power and I'm slowly understanding how incredible it is. I was so nervous that my legs were shaking and my hands where shaking so hard that his head was shaking. He came back to me and was like "what the heck!!! why where you shaking my head??" I was just like that it was the Holy Ghost and we started laughing super hard again haha love that guy.

We did have 2 baptisms lined up for Saturday but only Fabricio was baptized. The other is named Marlon. Who I also love. Like he is also a stud. Very spiritual and just understands it all! I guess he smoked the day of his interview and didn't tell us so he didn't pass his interview so we have to get another one for him in like 2 weeks. He still wants to get baptized and even went to church yesterday. We left a scripture story about Saul and how he was a scrub and persecuted the Saints and then Jesus came and then he changed his life and his name to Paul and then he became an apostle. We made him study the scriptures and he came to church and showed us what he learned. He had scriptures highlited and showed us a scripture that said that Saul needed to go to a city where he would take refuge (something like that) and he was like "when I was reading that I realized that I am like Saul, I need to change and take refuge and I think that my refuge is the church" this guy is a stud. We gained his trust with magic tricks. I've become quite the magician on my mission haha

Another thing that happened this week is that the bishopric made the whole ward stay and they talked to us for 2 hours about how we need to love our neighbor. I guess what happened is that a member and another member got together and started fighting and one of them is completely moving to go to another ward. She was telling us all this junk and I was like well if you leave, who is going to feed us on Tuesdays..... I hate conflict and its so dumb.

So this was just a good week. I love this area and I feel so blessed to be here. I've been losing track of time and the days go by so fast. I wonder how it is going on the other side of the world. time is fast? or bien despacio???

I love you so much!!!
Elder Garry

Week 31 New Area New Companion

So I am here in Danli!! My companion is Elder Solis and I love him! We get along perfect and we just laugh and laugh. He and Reinoso might be tied for first. It has only been a week so I'm excited for this change. The only bad part is that we are opening an area.... so we know nothing. Like less than nothing. We literaly just walk around all day and contact and try to find the members. He knows the ward because it was his ward before. He was in an area called Jacaleapa which is super crappy. Then they gave us the area of the Hermanas(not sure why) and so know we basically have 2 areas. About 6 months ago, there were 3 sets of missionaries here in our area. Now just us. I mean it is a bit ridiculous haha it is huge!!!! But I like it a lot. We have 2 baptisms for this Saturday already and I'm pretty positive that they will happen so I am way excited for that. And the members are great. They all want to feed us and they all want to give us references. They all want to work with us. And the bishop is way cool. I already just love this area. And Elder Pickron is in my zone. He was in my district in the MTC and it is way nice to have like a real friend in my zone. Its so cool here. I love it

My last day in Cantarranas was a nightmare. Like I just stared at the clock the whole day and prayed that time would go by slower. I basically cried like a little niño with my favorite family. They were all crying and I was trying to be strong but I couldn't do it. Super sad day. Like it makes me not want to be friends with the members because now I know that eventually I will have to leave then all behind again. Which is hard because the bishop is already my friend.

Alrght well I love you so much!!
Elder Garry

Week 30 Transfers

Well this is a first in my whole mission. I am getting transferred out of Cantarranas and I am headed to Danli.... literally the last place that I wanted to go haha I am headed up there on Wednesday and my companion will be Elder Solis. From Nicaragua I think. It is amazing how just serving a mission and I will have friends from all over the world. Guatemala, Mexico, Columbia, and Nicaragua. How cool right??
It is super sad to leave my area. I gave my going away talk in sacrament yesterday and a few people were crying haha so it is nice to know that they really did like me here and weren't just lying about it hahaha it will be a weird few days. Not really sure what I need to do. I need to pack!!! oh no. This sucks super bad haha

So other than changes this week was good. We have been working our little butts off over here. I'm trying to leave this place better than I found it. We found 10 new investigators this week and like half are golden. We need to marry two families, we have another family, and like 4 other investigators!!! They should all be getting baptized this month!! Only bad side is that I will be in freaking Danli haha Oh well. my converts and their baptisms.

That was basically my week.

I love you all!
Elder Garry