Week 59

 Unfortunately, I don't really have much to share this week. See, what happens is that I share things that are out of the ordinary for me.  However, Miracles are now ordinary, so I forget to write about them.  The work in my area continues to get better. We are inviting more people to be baptized but we still do not have any set dates.  We are finding more people to teach, and I am so busy I can’t describe it. Sometimes having an additional hour of comp study to train is really annoying because it cuts into proselyting time.

We don't actually leave the apartment until 1 on a normal day, but only Wednesdays and Fridays are normal days. Monday is P-Day. Tuesday is District meeting, which takes an additional 2-3 hours out of our day. Thursday is weekly planning so we don't get out until 3 o’clock. Saturday we have coordination meetings. Sundays we have church. So what ends up happening is that all those days we are stuck inside until 3 or 4 o’clock. That means that on the two normal days we have to go do additional things for training new missionaries on the computer. That is one of the two free days. And the other we have to go to look at mormon.org for 30 - 60 minutes to update our profile or to look at how to use it with our investigators. So, even on those days we have free we still don't get done until like 2 or 3 o’clock.  It just takes up too much time.

This last week I had mashed potatoes made out of cauliflower. It tasted exactly like mashed potatoes... well really close. It was just a bit too liquidy.

I think that is everything I have to share to day. I love you all and hope that everything is going well.

week 58

 I have been in the area a long time now. Anytime any Hispanic knows any other Hispanic that lives in my area, I already know about them. Recently, we found two people that we did not know were Hispanic, but they both spoke English fluently as well and the English missionaries were already stopping by. It has been this way for weeks now.... well actually months. I sure hope I don't know everyone already, but I think I might have actually spoken with or know of every single Hispanic in my area, except maybe in falls brook neighborhood because that neighborhood has a lot of Hispanics. One thing I know is that if I don't know about them it is because they belong to the other Spanish elders that share that area with us.


However, that does not mean we are not having success. Since I have been senior companion, my companion and I have changed the way we do things in this area and we are having a lot more success.  Now if we find someone and they say they don't have time to talk, we try and share a scripture with them in less than 5 min. So far, every single person we have done that with is still opening the door when we stop by. Normally, they start acting like they are not home or something when we know that they are actually home. But we are able to keep our thoughts short enough that they accept us back again and again especially because they can feel the spirit with the message we bring.

week 57

 As a senior companion I often feel the burden that I need to be the one that knows what to do. My Trainee knows well that I am willing to listen to any suggestions he has. I recognize that when I got to the mission from the MTC everything I had learned I was not able to use, either because my companion was unwilling to listen or because there was no work in that area (note: my first area has still not had a baptism in over 2.5 years). So, I am very willing to listen to what my trainee has to say because by now I have forgotten everything from the MTC... well a lot from the MTC.


I find now that this new missionary is saying things word for word the way I said them with regard to my opinion about doing work. I very quickly had to get rid of the way of thinking that I need to know everything. I knew this was how it was going to be when I finally trained, so I have been preparing myself mentally for the last little while to be able to make changes in the way I do things. As of now, we have made many changes to the way the missionaries in this mission normally do things (having lessons that are an hour long) and doing things in a way that are better (sharing short messages at the door or having lessons that are much shorter) because then all these people we teach are far more likely to accept us the next time we pass by instead of acting like they are not home.

Now the work is picking back up in the area and we are able to teach. However, we are still trying to get a hold of everyone that we used to teach so they know that they don't need an hour of spare time for us. We can share things in a much shorter period of time.

Week 56

I don't think I will get nearly done with everything I have to say today. So much has happened. I am so excited to be training. Everything has been going great. This trainee is amazing. He listens but yet he speaks as well. He listens to the spirit like a pro. He is pretty much already at the point I was at when I first got Elder Calderon as a companion. Maybe that is just because he already speaks Spanish and English. He is learning English but he can speak it about as well as I spoke Spanish when I first started with Elder Calderon. He is from Guatemala City. I have been so busy as a senior companion and as a trainer, but I feel great. I only get stressed every once in a while.  He was held up in the MTC for dental work. He had to get 5 crowns. When he was in Guatemala, they told him the best dental service that he would need would be in the United States so they sent him to the MTC and started getting all his dental work done as he was learning English for 9 weeks. But they did not finish in time.

So, I was looking at the map the other day and I noticed that the Tyhee Stake in my last area, which covers all of the Fort Hall Reservation, goes very far north. I then looked and noticed that the tip of my current area and the tip of my last area are 8 miles apart.

I am not going to tell you every little story that I have had since being a trainer,

but one thing is that my companion told me that I am the first Gringo (white person/ person who is not Hispanic/ from the United States) that has ever been able to carry on complete conversations with him in Spanish. He was surprised. He thought I would not be able to speak Spanish so well.  When he first met me and heard my accent he was really excited, because he heard that I spoke Spanish as well as I did.  EVERY SINGLE MEMBER AND NON MEMBER has told me that I now speak amazing Spanish as compared to when I came to the area.

Week 55

 This whole last week we were covering both areas. However, Elder Sewelen was sick.... the whole week-long... and is still sick... a little. We went back to the doctor and they found out what the problem was, he has a parasite. He lost almost 20 pounds during that time. When he went into the doctor, they shoved a quart and a half of IV into him. He could hardly eat anything or drink anything for 3 days straight. Now they have got him on a pill so he is feeling much better. We have now been able to do work in both of our areas for the last day or two. However, pretty much nothing has happened since then. We were not able to make it to any of our appointments. In addition, for this mission we are not allowed to go on splits. So, we could not leave the sick elder behind, and I could not leave them two to go with a member to work in my area.