Changes!
It looks like I will be spending my last two weeks in Barrio Centenario.
My new companion's name is Elder Gómez de Guatemala, Guatemala.
I was glad to find they had a program here because this sector is known for
being kind of hard. They changed Elder "Arroyos" también (
Brooks also). He’s going to
Loja. He’s happy about that.
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| Elder Gomez. Doesn't he look like German from the District 2? |
Well, I wasn’t really expecting this, but I am glad to have one last
area. Elder Fares is taking over Solana. We left him a few good
people. I don’t know why, but for a few days this past week, I was just
really happy. One night I just went to bed super content. I just
felt really good about what I had done and what I was doing. The next
day, I was all smiles. It was weird. I even got this really grumpy
evangelica (
evangelical) who is
always brava con nosotros (
contentious
with us) to give me back a big toothy one. You never would have known
she had a pretty smile. I’ve since calmed down to regularity, but it was
a good lesson. It seemed like everyone was so much more willing to pay
attention to us when we were so downright cheerful. Smiles open doors.
This past week, we’ve been trying to get this elderly gentleman to get
married. He is the grandpa and father of some members in the ward and has
been attending forever but hasn’t ever accepted baptism. We finally got
him to accept, but then learned he needed to get married to a companion. He
doesn’t want to, but has been really interested another viejita (
older sister) in the ward, so we thought
we’d help them get together. While all of this was going on, these past
few weeks, Elder Brooks has been trying to get several pairs of pants
redone. The sewing guy we took them to took forever to get them
done. We later learned that he had also asked the very same viejita (
older sister) to marry him, but she had
said that he needed to join the church before she would consider it. We have suddenly found ourselves tangled in a very strange
love triangle. I’ve had lots of drama issues with converts and ward
members, but I never thought it would be a problem for people in the 60-80 year
old range.
Well, Elder Brooks still hasn’t gotten his pants back yet and
has been trying to make plans for someone to get them to him all the way out in
Loja. I think he is going to have to do the exchange when Elder Piño of
the Seventies comes to conference (he’s finally coming!) Anyway, Elder
Brooks and I had a good time
singing, "Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match" as we walked
through the streets these past few days.
As I’ve been trying to keep focused, I’ve realized I don’t think I really need
to worry about what I will need to learn or gain here in the mission in order
to be better prepared for the "after" life. When I just focus on getting
done what I need to do right now, then I will always have everything I
need. That scripture in Doctrine and Covenants 15 (vs 6) has popped into my head a lot this last week about what is of
greatest importance to thee, is to bring souls unto Christ. “…the thing which will be of the most worth
unto you will be to declare repentance unto this people, that you may bring souls
unto me, that you may rest with them in the kingdom of my Father.” That is
my anxiety-relieving thought for the week.
Well, love you so,
Love Elder Cordero Grosero (lewd-lamb)
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