Really Awkward

Buenos Dias familia!!!!

Well this week was kind of weird!  Mainly because of what happened! We were working hard all week and we saw a lot of success!  Until we got to Sunday and all of our investigators used their agency to not come to church!  That was depressing!  But what are you going to do!  That was the toughest part!  However we did have a new less active family come so that was so nice!  

Me and Elder Hernandez in the trunk.  He is from the Dominican Republic and he is one of my favorites.  I hope to get a chance to have a companion from the DR

Our new ward mission leader is a stud!  He is so excited and the good thing is we get food every Saturday night out of it haha!  Dinner appointment!!  This week we are having a movie night and we have gone all out!  If members want to get in they have to bring an investigator!  We are hoping to get tons of references out of this!  He has already set up our next two months activities and he is doing awesome!

We baptized again this week which was good!  However it was really a weird awkward week with the investigator!  We were teaching her about the word of wisdom and that was a funny lesson!  We talked about what we should eat and then what we shouldn't consume! She ends up going, no you guys don't have to worry my marijuana plant died a few weeks ago so I won't be doing it anymore!  I just started busting up laughing.  I thought I was going to die it was so funny!  But then we ask who she wants to baptize her and it got really awkward!  She fell in love with Elder Lee the one I replaced!  Well she said she wanted me to baptize her so we were like well whatever sounds good!  And then she said she wanted to get married too and asked if I would come back for her.  So basically I got proposed to this week!  Really awkward!  We will be letting the other missionaries teach her from now on!  

Baptism

This weeks word is going to be rado. It means weird!  Esta semana fue bien rada! This was a weird week!

I love you guys have a good one!

Elder Orchard

Cat in the church that was just found one day

Me eating a new weird fruit.  It was good!

I don't know what was worse...me buying this or that it only has 50% milk.

This dog ran next to us the whole car ride!  It was the member's dog and I was cracking up laughing.

Me and Elder Ybanez at the temple.

I Broke Into A House

Me and Sebastian on a motorcycle.  He is one of my favorites!

Just by the title you guys know we had a good week!!  I don't even know where I should start!!  haha I feel like a lot of things happened and so I am kind of excited to tell you about it!!  I don't know where to start but ready or not here we go!

This week we started just to try and go crazy with all the people we could find!  And we didn't find anyone haha it was kind of funny!  We did some contacts but didn't have any news from these!  So by like Thursday we were like okay this isn't working lets look at the area book!  So we start just writing down everyone that seems cool to go visit and see what can happen!  Well we found some really cool people and it was awesome just finding some people to accept us!  We found two really really cool families we are hoping to work with!  One of them got married just so they could get baptized so it is weird why they left the church!  Cita with them in the week hopefully more to report next week!  And then we found a family of five or six we aren't sure that already has four of the five Sundays. We need also working with them this week!!

We baptized Lizbeth which was really cool!  Poor girl though!  The zone leaders didn't drain the pila before and so she had a cold water baptism!  Well if you call brown water water!  haha!

And then at church Sunday one of her brothers came!( this is the family of 12 people) So we hope to work with them all!  Also cita with him with hopefully more to report!  And so things are really good!  This is the family we baptized two weeks ago and then this one on Saturday!  

This week we will be baptizing someone named Patricia!  She finally came to church again! Halelujah!  (or however you spell it!)  So her baptism should be on Saturday!  However this is where the good story of the week comes in!  We went to teach her one day!  Well she wasn't there!  Well good news is that her bathroom is outside! ( I really had to go okay)   Well I was waiting for my comp and I saw her downstairs and I was like Patricia come up here so we can teach you! She came up and she was like well we can't go in.  My daughter lost the keys and so we are locked out!  I look at her door and I notice there was like a little area that was open and I was like we are going to help her break into her house!  So I was thinking what are we going to use?  Well I first scaled the house to try and get in through the window, that was unsuccessful!  So I was like look there is a jumprope lets try and use that to get it around the lever you pull and we will get in!  Well that also was a fail!  However then we found a hanger too and we were able to get just enough pressure to open the door!

I am sure that we had a lot of divine help so we could get this important lesson in but regardless we broke into her house!  Two white guys getting it done and breaking in!!  WHoot WHoot!!

This weeks word is cajuela or the trunk of a car! My favorite picture of the week was me and a member riding in the trunk of the car!

Me in the trunk with Usiel

WE had 11 people in this little Ford Focus!  

Usiel y yo nos subimos en la cajuela!  Me and Usiel climbed in the trunk!

I love you!  Have a good week!

Elder Orchard

Typical chocolate ad.  At the bottom it says, "Do exercise".

I made a shake

Eating with the Sagovias, a really cool family!

Feliz Dia De las Madres!!

my favorite of the two dogs

me with some cute dogs

So I don't really know what else to say at this point! (We spoke on Mother's Day and it was so good to hear his voice and see him!)

I think it would probably be easier for you guys to write it for me but here we go I will give it a shot!

This week was full of success and had a ton of miracles!  We started working really hard and just decided that we were going to find some good people!  Well we started out with faith and we just started pushing through and trying to do a ton of good contacts!  Well we found four new investigators this week!  And we started to pass with some old investigators to try and find even more people!!  We ended up working all week and by the end we were kind of sad like man we aren't seeing very many fruits!  Well finally Saturday we had a guy contact us!  His name is Guillermo!  He has had a really really difficult life!  And he contacted us because he thinks that we will be able to help him better than any psychologist could help him!  He wanted to know why he was here where he was going and what is his purpose in the earth!  Well if that isn't a golden guy I don't know what is!  We taught him the Plan of Salvation which was really weird because I have never taught that first and the spirit was really strong there!  It was really awesome being able to testify to him about how he would see his wife again (she died a few years ago when she was pregnant)!  He said after that this is exactly what he has been looking for!

Hmm We also got to go see Patrick's baptism!  That was awesome!

(He found Patrick in his last area.  This is what he wrote about him... Alright so last week we had someone show up to church just by himself! Well needless to say is that if they show up they usually are super super chosen!  Well this guy is no exception! He is progressing sooooo good and he just wants to learn!  We pass with him like four or five times a week and it is awesome!!  He is soooo cool!!  He is explaining to his dad everything and he just really understands!!  IT is awesome! He is 18 and he is one of the cooolest people I have met! And I am hoping we can teach him good and then he can go on a misison! That would be cool!! )

He was sooo cool to teach and I am so lucky for that time I had to teach him!  He is awesome and he will be a great example to his family and help bring them the gospel one day!! I am hoping that they give him a really good lesson about missionary work and then he can go on a misison too!!  That would be awesome!!

Alright so now to report on the ward!  We have officially got a ward mission leader!  That is going to help us so much!  He has a lot of desire to work and it will be awesome to just put him to work!  He has tons of good ideas and he wants to help us not have to knock doors!  We are really excited to see what will happen!  I think that we are going to have a ton of success!!  

I think that should be about it for now!  I can't think of anything else and it is hard because I feel like I have already told you guys! So I will finish with the word of the week!

Feliz Dia De las Madres!!

Happy mothers day!

I love you guys have a great week!  

Elder Orchard

(I got a clarification on the water situation.  They do have pipes for running water but sometimes they turn it on and nothing happens.  The water gets delivered a few times a week and when it is gone it is gone is how I understand it.  Douglas said he had water almost the entire last week so that was good.  I guess there is a place they go to fill up buckets when it runs out.)

What the water is kept in

Elder Ybanez climbing up a ladder to get into a house

English class fun.  Douglas told us they are now teaching an English class.

Some things I remember from our conversation with Elder Orchard on Sunday:

*He said he always walks uphill, never down:)  We are still trying to figure that one out but he insists it's true!
*He encouraged Stockton to acquire some basic plumbing and electrical skills.  He's fixed a lot of toilets and has wanted to do some electrical but doesn't know how.  We didn't know he knew how to fix toilets even.
*He also encouraged Stockton to learn how to do some cooking.  I think Douglas is pretty good at that but is sounds like he wishes he knew a little bit more.
*His grey suit does not fit well at all but luckily his black one still does.
*He has a TON of fun with his companion, Elder Ybanez!
*He emails his Spanish speaking friends and the President in Spanish because it is so much easier for him than English.
*He told us he is very happy and I believe that is evident in every picture he sends home:)
*He misses Sunday dinner.  He misses dinner in general.  They eat a big meal at 2:00 each day and then there is nothing after that.
*He has learned to eat SO many things.  Before his mission he ate very little veggies and did not like oranges or peaches.  He says he eats them all now.  He's not a big fan of the vegetables but can do it.
*He told us a cute story of some kind of bet they had in English class.  If the Elder's lost, they would have to sing a song and dance.  Since that is not completely within the bounds of mission rules he said they thought of Once There Was A Snowman.  Those that attended the class absolutely loved it.  He showed us a video and it was really cute to watch the 3 American Elders singing and acting out that primary song.  Everyone in the class pulled out their cell phones to video them.
*He noticed how much Stockton's voice has changed since we spoke at Christmas.
*When the water comes out of the shower it is split.  If you stand in the middle of the stream you won't get wet!
*President Stuzznegger wants them to have another purified water container in their apartment (2 instead of 1) so they can be prepared in times of emergency.  This is a mission wide thing.)
*There are 2 churches that share the same property.  This last transfer his new ward attends "the other" church.
*We had a chance to discuss MLB and he misses baseball too.  He wants to play again when he gets home.
*Douglas said he reads this blog and knows I have made a few edits:).  I've been caught!  It seems to me if someone wanted to leave a comment he would get that as well.  I am certain it would make him happy to hear from you!

We Take Bucket Showers!

I am now in a ward that is called Xalpa!  It actually touches my old ward!  I am just a little higher up on the mountain!  That is the only hard part!  Paraiso is basically on the base of the mountain!  Xalpa is the rest of the mountain so the whole day I am just climbing the mountain!  I am going to lose all the weight I have gained!!  No more ripped pants!!  yay!!  However higher up on the mountain also means a lot more poor!  I have already been in a lot of really really poor houses!  Also since I am now more poor than I was before I have a new and fun experience!!!  We take bucket showers!!  Whoot whoot!!    To top all of that off there was worms floating in the water that I showered in today!!  Kind of sketchy right!!

Water I use to shower.  Welcome to Xalpa!

I have gotten kind of sick out here.  It is okay we got the good medicine from Sister Stutznegger!! I am pretty excited for the time I am going to have here!

Pills to kill parasites

Elder Ybañez is my new companion.  He is from California and has three months in the mission.  He just barely finished his training and so I am his second comp!  He didn't speak Spanish before the mission.

The Elders in our ward (Elder Ybañez is to my right)

Alright so besides being in the hills we have actually had a lot of success but a long ways to go!  We baptized two people on Saturday!  I didn't really know them that well but the good news is we are going to try and get to the whole family!

Saturday's baptism

There are ten of them that can get baptized and we have already got two of them!!  The third will get baptized on the 16th and then if we can find more of the kids at home eventually we will get the whole family baptized!!  I got into the area and I talked with Elder Ybañez and said look we are going to baptize every week this cycle!  He told me okay lets do it!  So we are working hard for that! The only tough thing is that the fecha we had for Saturday fell since the lady didn't go to church!  However we are determined to baptize every week this cycle and will do whatever it takes!  This week we won't be able to but we will baptize every other week!  As of right now we have fechas for the 16, 23 and the 6th we are just missing the 30 but we are going to pass with all the old investigators that stopped investigating for whatever reason and we will be guided by the spirit to a family for the 30th of this month!  I know that will happen!

Our area has a lot of potential a lot a lot but the problem is we need to work with the ward!  They are kind of struggling especially in the fact that we don't have a ward mission leader still!!  However we told the bishop we need one and he asked who we wanted(the church is really really different here).  So we will have him called on Tuesday (he is a stud and has a ton of good ideas to help us find some people) and so we can start working really good!  We pull a lot of weight here as missionaries and so we can basically make callings here, just something else to add to the list of things we do!

This weeks word is desparasitarse!  Esta semana tomé unas pastillas para desparasitarme!  This week I took some pills to get rid of the parsites!

I love you all have a good week!

Elder Orchard

Four missionaries and three bags in one bug

I didn't have a hammer so I used a dust pan

Elder Hammond's birthday party

Amazing food someone made for us this week called chiliquilis