This week was pretty good for being forced to spend more
time inside than we wanted. We're making progress though and are getting a TON
more support from the Branch!
Tuesday we had a nice District Meeting where we actually got
a lot of good input for one of the people we want to try to teach. He's the
brother of a member but just isn't super motivated to come to church or
anything. But we got good ideas to help him. Then we went out to Las 500s where
we had a few good lessons. As we were walking back into town, we actually ran
into President Boucher driving away from our house. So he stopped in the middle
of the road and got out and hugged us and we talked for like 10 minutes in the
road about our investigators and how things are going and he gave us some
really good reminders and advice about one of the people we had just taught. So
that was really awesome.
Wednesday we went out to Patillas and contacted a reference
that we have been trying to talk to for a long time. He's really nice and said
that we could come back and talk to him some more, he was just really busy and
had to go get his daughter from school. We ended up doing a lot of contacting
in Patillas, looking for potential investigators and such. We visited with a
less active and it was just a good time out there although we only taught like
one lesson. We have a few people we want to go back and visit though. When we
came home, we actually skipped Branch Council (with permission from Pres. Ramos
of course) to go visit a less active. And that was really cool. Kind of a new
experience for me because she's inactive for real reasons. Like she has real
doubts and stuff, it's not like she just stopped going to church. So that was a
cool experience.
Thursday we went out and tried to find more investigators.
It was just a really rough day for that though. Nobody was available to talk or
in their houses and such. So we went to Taqui, the lady who's 91 and gives us
crackers. Her daughter was there too and she explained to us that Taqui makes
her go out to the store and buy food for us so that we can eat when we come to
her house hahahahaa. When we left she gave us a whole 2 liter of sprite and
bread and stuff. She's a funny lady. She always tells us that we can eat
everything because she doesn't eat at all. Which is a whole other story but I
don't want to explain it. She's just old and crazy and can't hear and is really
funny.
Friday was a super good day! We went out to Las 500s again
and taught some really good lessons, really using the advice that President
Boucher gave us. We extended the invitation to 2 of our investigators to be
baptized, but they kinda, not really, but kinda said no. I say kinda because
they're just confused because they were baptized Catholic like at birth or
something so we just have to explain some things and work with them to have the
faith to make the jump. I think they'll come around. Then we had a good lesson
with a less active and got him committed to come to church on Sunday. Then Alex
came and picked us up and we went and played soccer with all our non-member
friends for awhile. That was a rough game but I still scored twice. I've still
got it ;)
Saturday was a looooong day for some reason. We went out to
the barrio that's like right before Las 500s and went to Jose's mom's house and
actually found Jose there. Our goal was to go out and find people from a list
of like 15 old investigators from that area, but we ended up talking with Jose
(the guy from Guayama who is going on his mission to El Salvador) and his
brother for like 2 hours about his family and how they're less active and non
members and stuff. Jose is related to almost everyone. Taqui is his
great-grandma, and his grandma's sister is a less active. So he's got contacts
with tons of the people we teach and talk to. He's being really helpful with
them right now. Then we came back into town and went to a Relief Society
activity where all 4 missionaries and Pres. Ramos were the judges in a dessert
bake-off. So that was awesome. We didn't eat dinner so that we could be good
hungry judges. There were like 12 things to taste and they were all really good
and judging desserts is really hard but we made it though and we were able to
choose one to win. It was a Tres Leches cake and it was really good. I remember
making a Tres Leches cake in like 11th grade and it was not nearly as good as
this one.
Sunday we had church and had no less actives or
investigators show up. So that was disappointing. And the power had gone out at
like 5am so the chapel had no power because the weather has been CRAZY. Like
for the past 3 days it's been raining really hard and thundering and lightning
a ton. Borries gave a talk in Sacrament meeting and President Ramos gave a
really good quick little talk about supporting the missionaries which was super
good and influential. Then we taught the combined Elders Quorum and Relief
Society lesson about missionary work and it was actually really good. We're
getting a ton of help from the Branch now which is going to help us soooo much
especially because our branch Mission leader, Orlando, is moving to Humacao. He
gave us so many rides places so it'll be tough without him but the Branch is
really stepping up for us. Then we went home and ate lunch and it like
literally got black outside at 2pm. Clouds just covered Arroyo and it started
to pour and there was soooo much thunder and lightning. It was kinda freaky
sometimes. It actually got kind of cold in the house too. So we didn't go out
because it was raining so hard and we didn't have any set appointments that we
were sure we could get to. Apparently there were flash flood warnings too.
So things are getting better in Arroyo. Although sometimes
it feels like as we take one step forward we take two more back, things are
getting better. We had 45 people in church on Sunday and opened another section
of the chapel for people to sit in, which was SUPER cool for Arroyo.
I know that this church is true. I know that our Heavenly
Father answers prayers. I've realized lately that my Spanish is pretty darn
good. And I know I can only attribute all of my speaking ability in the mission
to my Heavenly Father. As I continue to pray for help with the language, and
study my hardest, He is making up for what I lack and will continue to do so.
He listens to prayers and answers. Not always when we would expect, but He does
and He will.
Hope all is well at home and wherever you are!
Love,
Elder Nelson
AND IT'S ALMOST BEEN 4 MONTHS IN THE MISSION ALREADY WOWWWWW
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