December 12, 2011

This week was half bad and half good. On Monday night, Elder Jolley and I were preparing to give an object lesson to one of our investigators, Pablo. Pablo lives in his Dad's house with his girlfriend. Pablo knows the church is true and wants to be baptized, but he can't get baptized until he either lives separate from his girlfriend, or marries her. He wants to get married and baptized, but not until he has his own house. His plan was to wait two years, while he constructs his house, and then get married and baptized.

The plan of the object lesson was to fill up a container with sand and then give Pablo the container and about 4 golf ball sized rocks and have him try to fit the rocks in the already full container of sand without having the sand overflow. The plan was to then fill the container the opposite way than we did the first time, first putting in the rocks and then the sand on top. The bottle was to represent us, the rocks=the important but simple things the Lord asks of us (i.e. keeping the commandments with exactness, reading the scriptures, praying often, attending church weekly) and the sand represents all the little tasks we have to do in our lives such as building a house and so on. If we put the little tasks first on our lives, we will not be able to push in the things that the Lord asks of us. But, if we first make the simple things the Lord asks of us as the base of our lives, and then do the little tasks, we will be able to do all we need to perfectly.

As we were walking to the lesson, we started gathering all the things we needed for the lesson. We used my water bottle as a container, scooped up some sand from a sand pile in the street, and found four little rocks on the street. We did the example, and it went perfectly. Pablo finally understood that he needed to get married first, and then build his house. It was great. Pablo proposed to his girlfriend that night. Then the whole week kind of went bad. As we were leaving, Pablo asked me if he could wash and fill up my water bottle that had been formerly filled with street sand. I said, "Sure, thanks!" He did, and I drank out of my water bottle right away. With just a little swallow, our whole week was hosed. The next morning, I was feeling not so good, but we left and worked anyways. While we were in the street, I started to have tunnel vision and it felt like there was litter of puppies fighting in my stomach/intestines/bowels. I started to sweat real bad and felt weak. We were a least an hour or two walk from our pinch. Elder Jolley noticed that I was feeling bad and we started heading to the church. I don't really remember the rest of the night very clearly, but we got to the church and I puked and used the toilet for the next hour or two. I don't really remember much after that, but Elder Jolley said I started to say lots of things that didn't make sense and asking a lot about Tim Tebow. haha Poor Elder Jolley was pretty scared and shaken, but luckily the Bishop arrived at the church and he called us a taxi. He said I had a bad mixture of sun exposure, dehydration, and food poisoning. We spent the next three days in our tiny apartment, and more specifically in my case, the bathroom floor. It was so bad. I have never been more sick in my life. It was almost comical. I had to use the bathroom every 15 minutes for about 70 straight hours. I spent one and a half nights sleeping on the bathroom floor. (Good thing we just washed it and it is clean =) hahah It ends up that Pablo did not wash the water bottle very well, and little bits of the sand stayed in the water that I drank.

The thing about the sand that I drank is that it was from a pile in the street that was probably 54 dogs and 23 cats bathroom. In result, I lost more than ten pounds and none of my pants fit anymore. But now I am better now and I have learned my lesson to be more careful with my water consumption.

We have a baptism of a complete family coming up this Saturday and I can't wait. I am happy and love what I am doing.

December 5, 2011

I can't believe it is Christmas time. Sometimes I try to close my eyes and feel the Christmas spirit, but then a drop of sweat rolls into my eye. I have never sweat more in my life. I feel slightly wet all the time. It is SO hot and SO humid. I can't believe just a few months back I was wearing three coats and a scarf every time I went out. Every time we say, "It's so hot!" to anyone, they laugh and tell us that it is just the beginning. I hit 10 months this coming week!

This week was really tough, but really good. I don't have tons to talk about this week because most of the week was taken over by Elder Aidukadis. Everyone in the mission has been pretty scared ever since we heard that Aidukatis was coming. His name was kind of synonymous with Voldemort. Actually meeting and talking to Elder Aidukadis was a little bit different. The lesson with Aidukadis was six hours straight. During these six hours, I don't think it was hard for me, or any other person in the room to pay attention. Aidukadis ended up being so so funny and so so good. He is just so excited all the time and wants everyone else to be as excited as he is. In the process of trying to make everyone as excited as he is about missionary work, sometimes he is just a little too truthful. At one point during the lesson, he asked us to pull out our agendas and open them to the page where we write our weekly goals every week. He walked over to an Elder an asked what is goal for baptism in the next week was. The Elder told him excitedly, "Three!" Aidukadis then asked, "And the next week?" and the Elder less emphatically told him "Zero." Aidukadis then asked him "So you don't wan to baptize anyone?" The Elder started to tell him that he did and Adukadis, still smiling, kept on telling him that if you don't have a baptismal goal for a week, you don't want to baptize anyone and then said to the whole room, "This Elder does not want to baptize." Everyone was just scared that he would come to them next. Aidukadis just ended up being really crazy and inspiring and a little scary. At one point he would be shouting and laughing good-naturedly, and the next he would be whispering mean things in your ear. He kind of reminds me of a Brazilian Jim Carrey. At the end of the meeting, I walked out feeling like I don't do everything I can to be a good missionary, and can do so much more. That's a good thing. As a missionary, I am constantly re-evaluating the things I am doing and trying to figure out if there is a better way I can do them. I feel that same feeling 100x ever since Elder Aidukadis speech. I can be so much better and have lots of hard work in between being the best I can and right now.

At this point Elder Jolley and I don't really have any progressing investigators. Just a few weeks back, we had a ton, but we either baptized them, or dropped them. So at this point, we are doing our best to find new investigators. Finding new people means clapping a lot of houses. We have been walking a ton (all day, everyday) and finding a lot. We are being so blessed and really guided to the people who are prepared to hear our message. We have been having so much fun, but are exhausted all the time. Walking in the streets a lot involves a lot of laughs and a lot of getting to know your companion more. I am so thankful for Elder Jolley. He is such a good companion. All of my companions have been good companions, but I feel like Elder Jolley helps me be the very best I can be. He makes me laugh all the time and LOVES the gospel so much. (More than anybody ever) Today he wanted to spend P-day reading the scriptures and I told him "No." haha