Week 42 Drama

First things first this week was just full of twists and drama.  It was thrilling to say the least.  So lets begin.

Lets talk about us working before the drama to build the anticipation!!
So you know we talked to some people... we taught some people.  Normal.  I wouldn't say that we found anyone fantastic but we did find some good people who could progress.  We did a lot of contacting this week just to find some people to teach because right now our teaching pool is like 3.  It is getting tough.  But we did have a really cool activity within the entire stake.  60 people showed up to go and contact in Jacaleapa because we want to make them a branch.  So we went and we were contacting and we all found a total of 35 people who are actually pretty positive.  And it counts as our area so we have a total of 35 people we need to contact this week!!  And they are all supposedly very positive!!  So I mean that could mean a lot of success and baptisms we could be having here!!!  I'm very excited to work this week and see what all happens!.

Are you now ready for the drama!?!?  Let's just dive right in. So it all started yesterday at 5:30 pm. We received a phone call from our zone leaders and they were like "what are you doing right now!?" and we were like well we just came back to the house to go to the bathroom.  And then my zl asks to speak to me.  And so I was like what the heck!  They are sending me home. What did i do???  So then he starts asking me questions like "how are you guys doing??? like are you being exactly obedient??" I was like yeah we are great.  We get along well. We work hard.  I thought he was just asking because we haven't had very many investigators recently.  Then he goes on to ask me about my companion Elder Juarez.  He says that recently they have been getting a lot of complaints that he has been flirting with the young women.  Then I realized he wanted to talk to me so that my comp didn't know and we were speaking English.  Then I was saying that we literally never visit the young women.  There is only one that we visit and it is because her family gives us dinner on Tuesdays.  So I explained it all and he was like "are you sure elder??? You can tell me!"  And I said I was sure.  Then he said "and we also have gotten complaints that he has been saying a lot of bad words"  I just laughed and said that even if he was I wouldn't know because I don't know the bad words.  Then he said what they were and I was like I didn't even know those were bad!!!  So I said that yeah he says them sometimes but just with me and never with members or investigators.  And he was like "okay I understand.  Is there anything you would like to confess to me then???"  And I was like "Elder I don't know what you have heard or who told you but I promise you we are working hard and not doing any of those things."  He said okay thanks and hung up.

Fast forward now to dinner that night with this family.  He and his entire family went off and started saying that the way that my companion acts and speaks is terrible for a missionary.  I was like ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I know where all of this came from now.  So yeah then we went home.
Lets go ahead and fast forward AGAIN.  To today in the morning.  We are talking with the zone leaders again at the activity and he tells me "Elder Garry, I just want to say that we spoke to the family after we called you and asked directly for examples.  And he couldn't give us a single one.  So we believe you guys 100% and don't worry about what happened."

I wrote President Bowler and told him everything so I'm sure everything will be all good and dandy now.

fun week!!!!!!!!
I love you all so much!
Elder Garry

Week 41

This week was a lot like the last one.  So as I said last week,  Elder Juarez was sick and so we weren't able to do very much last week.  Then this week I was sick.  I don't even know what I had.  It was like a cold on steroids with body aches and headaches.  Our nurse just basically told me to rest and take tylenol.  So from Thursday until like Saturday that was basically the life.  A lot of rest and not a lot of working.

So it has been like 2 weeks of nothing because of our sicknesses.  It sucks because you get used to doing nothing and all you want to do is be lazy but lazy isn't something you can be in the mission. We had a ton of investigators with a baptismal date but because I was sick, we weren't able to visit them this week and because of that no one went to church this week.  So we had no investigators in the church, and all of their baptismal dates fell through because they didn't go to church.  Kind of a bummer but this week we will actually start to work and get some stuff done.

On the bright side!!  We had been working with a less active family.  The family consists of a mom dad and a daughter.  The parents had already been baptized and we had assumed that the daughter as well because she was 8 and just turned 9, 2 weeks ago.  Turns out that she was never baptized and because she was 9 she counted as our baptism.  So Saturday we had a baptism hahaha and through her baptism the whole family got activated again in the church.  They had a problem with the bishop and didn't want to go back but because the niña got baptized they all went to church and are reading their scriptures together and praying every night.  The dad now goes to church with a suit and tie.  He was even able to help give her the Holy Ghost!!  He was all smiley and happy and just full of the Holy Spirit!  So good to see!!!

I mean that was about it.  OH!!!!! and this week I found all of the Dragon Ball Z tazos!!!!!!!!  There are 130 and I have all 130!!  There are 100 normal and 30 shiney and this week I found the last shiney one and now I am the only missionary in all the land to have all the tazos!!  You can call me a niño but I dont care.  I'm proud of myself! I'm proud of my diligence! hahaha

I love you all!!!
Elder Garry

Week 40

So what a week!!!  Let me just tell you how fast this week went by.  Maybe because my companion was sick and we didn't leave the house starting on Thursday.  This kid has something strong haha he had to get tested for dengue and it came back positive.  With dengue it literally is a week free card.  You just need to tell the District Leader and he is like ohhhhhhhhhhhhh I understand.  Have fun suffering and dying.  My companion and I just kept playing "what if".  The best was what if I turn into a zombie and try to eat you.  And that just turned into an on going joke that we had.  I told him I would kill him out of self defense.  And it would be worth it because there is a rule that if the companion of a missionary dies, the other one gets to go home with honor.  So if he died I could go home haha  I'm not sure if the rule changes if I were the one to kill him but I think if hes a zombie it would be a special case and I would just head on home.

I mean that was almost all we did.  That and my favorite member, and when I say favorite I mean my least favorite, kept calling us and asking why we couldn't leave and work with him.  I guess the word dengue doesn't mean much.  So we finally called him and told him we could leave on Saturday night, and he canceled on us without calling us on time so we showed up to this appt and it was crazy.  It was like a bunch of 16 year olds and they were just flirting it up with us.  And as a missionary that is uncomfortable.  I guess there is a setting on our pone to call ourselves so as I'm talking with them I see that my companion is doing something on the phone.  Suddenly the phone rings and he gets up, tells me its urgent and we gotta go.  My companion is so smart haha we will not got back to that house without a member because those girls were so giggly and flirty and crazy.  But I mean when two guapitos walk in, how can you not be like that?

Something fun this week was on Wednesday, we had planned to go to an área a little far.  So we hop on a bus at 2 and the driver says we will leave at 2 30.  We are okay and then 2 30 comes and he says that we wont leave until 3.  Then 3 30 then 4.  We were literally waiting for 2 hours on a bus.  But it gets better.  We start to leave and were rolling and suddenly.......... the bus breaks down in the middle of no where.  Everyone on the bus hops in the back of a pick up truck and off they go.  We are not allowed to like hitch hike so we walked... on the freeway for 2 hours to get back..... and it was super hot.  We got back at like 6! Had time to go to dinner and then teach like one lesson.  How fun.

But here is a fun highlight.  I got to play basketball with the zone and with my old zone!! I saw all of my old pals!  And in the game I was on a fast break and I dunked it! It was pretty legendary.  Only the gringos appreciated basketball.  Everyone else kind of complained and went to go play soccer outside.  I loved this p day!

I love you all!!  Maybe next week I will have something fun and exciting related to teaching happen haha
Elder Garry

Week 39 New Companion and Conference

So this week was a LONG one!!  It was full of transfers, and general conference and I just feel like it should have ended like a month ago!
But it was a good one.  So lets get started......

So my new companion is Elder Juarez from El Salvador.  He has 22 months....... so I think I will be the one to finish him off.  He comes from the South in Choluteca and just talks about how hot it was and how happy he is to be here.  I guess he was already in this zone and was so excited to be back.  He already knows where everything is at and how to get there so it is cool that I don't have to like drag him around and teach him where everything is.  He is a great teacher!!  Like excellent.  The only problem is that he LOVES to teach.  So I have to fight to get a word in haha he just wants them to be on the same page as he is.  So to teach the Priesthood he would teach the entire life of Jesus Christ, The apostasy, Joseph Smith, just to answer a small question.  All while I am chillin on the couch waiting for my turn to speak haha I get to rest a lot more though so that's cool. He is the first companion that wants to speak since Elder Reinoso.  Everyone else just chilled so I had to teach everything so I guess now it is my turn to chill out.  But I love him.  He's funny and super willing to go work.  We found a ton of new people to teach this week and we have a lot of great investigators.

This conference was a really good one!!  We watch every session so Saturday and Sunday were like mini vacations where we just chilled and bought snacks and watched conference.  I watched it with the Gringos in English until the last session.  I watched that one in Spanish.  I still understood everything though!  Gift of Tongues.  Even though Pres.Monson didn't speak very much, what he said on Sunday was so inspiring.  The quote "The decisions that you make today, will determine your future".  That one was so awesome.  It is so true.  SO many people have addictions and problems and they all come from one decision.  We all just think in the now.  When we make a decision we have to think about how it could affect us in a week or a month or even a year.  So I will apply that to my life and will just see the blessings that come from it.

Just a good week.  It was really really long.  None of our investigators went to conference.  So tonight and tomorrow we are ready to go and shave them all.  It is frustrating when we have like 10 people but none want to put there part.  I imagine that we might be dropping a few people and just working to go and find new ones!

I love you all
Elder Garry

Jon's Birthday Cake... Chocolate on chocolate. 

And his favorite family Erica and Samuel