Wednesday, September 1, 2010

WE HAVE FLY PROBLEMS

SO there we were, ready to hit the hay, around that amazing time of 10:30 when all missionary activity comes to a 8 hour pause (aka sleep). We kneel down, ready to pray and thank the Lord for a good day. But, in the relative silence of the prayer, what do we hear? BZZZZZZZ.... as we say amen, we dive for the various sandals in our room. BZZZZZZZ... where is it? We've killed at LEAST 50 flies this week! WHERE do they come from? We took out the trash... we identified the weird smell was from a sack of rotting potatoes under the sink... we've covered up the holes in the window screens with Easter pass-along cards offering free dvds about Christ... WHAP!! Good job, Elder Sigal, nailed that one on the ceiling with his sandal, and didnt even wake the guy in the apartment upstairs... BZZZZZ.. dang it, there's never just one....
We have fly problems. Impossible to sleep with flies in the room.

Wow you all have a lot going on, school, braces, work, etc. Intense stuff! So glad I'm not going to school.... heheh. Its really annoying having all of our families we're working with wrapped up in activities now. Congrats on getting the braces off Heidi! Want to see pictures of how it looks! Hope all the classes go well for everyone, sounds like they are good teachers!

Hm, news this week is we got 29 baptisms in this zone! Which is crazy cool, a lot of miracles happened and people opened their hearts and accepted the gospel. Our mission baptized 220 people in the month of August!

Jeffrey glad your work situation got resolved. If it makes you feel better, we parked the car in our street the other day to run to our house and grab a form. Came back, and a little lady was ready, waiting for us, shouting at us. Something about how we parked in front of her driveway and inconvenienced her for 20 seconds. Some people are just silly, sheesh. How long does lifeguarding go anyway? Cant go through October, huh?

Sad story, ducks in our way, we honked the horn, they waddled out into the main road, and a car SPED UP and well, it was ugly. Sad story. Dont let Holly hear it.

Hugo sounds cool. I'm glad there are hispanics in Culpeper Ward, otherwise I'm going to feel out of place back home. The people here are just hilarious all the time. Elder Sigal says in Argentina there is no depression - people call each other fat without making people go anorexic. They laugh more than judge. Ha, he's getting used to the culture change, he called a sister missionary a "little fatty" (gordita) in the MTC, which in Argentina would be fine. He didn't understand why she got so angry till he got here and I explained it. Heheheh.

I want to here the 2011 Camaro talk. Hear, I mean.

Stefan... wow.

My birthday... uh, I really don't care. Candy, pictures, whatever that seems missionary like. hmm, CDS: any cool cds of music are super welcome, such as Inside-Out cds like the one I sent home - I thought it was kind of "too fun" before. I think I was too un-fun back then... Heavensong is a good MoTab Cd it looks like. I've been told all my music is boring. Really, though, I dont care, I dont feel I need anything for my birthday. I've got a mini-party of some sort planned with the Lambaren family,Dyana, turns 13 on the 6th, so we've had a dinner with their family planned for like 3 months.

Well, no other stories are coming to mind right now. Only other news is last night the APs called (hah, I was still driving home, 2 minutes late. First thing they ask is "so, are you all settled down in your house?" "uh..... " Elder Sigal tried to stall but couldn't in time so I had to pull over, haha) and told us that the English and Spanish zones up here in the North are serparating once again, and well, they called me to be a Zone Leader here. Big stuff, kinda nervous about all that. My new companion called, he's been a ZL for a long time, and said that we're going to be going on exchanges like EVERY day with other Elders, and they expanded our zone like 4 times the size, so we cover all of the Idaho portion of our mission. Huge. Whee... Elder Sigal is going down to my first area in Ogden, he's sad to go, I'll miss him, but that's how the mission is. I'm happy because this means I will very likely stay in this area for the remainder of my mission, and I love it here already. We already have talked to almost all the hispanics it seems like, tracted out all the likely areas, so I'm excited to see miracles start unfolding, such as people just popping out of the woodwork or hearts changing 180 degrees. Good stuff. Pray for us to be able to guide all these Elders.

Love you all a lot. I know the gospel is true, of course! I know the Savior is real, I've felt His love in lessons, and extending to other people. I've seen it reflected in people serving other people. The gospel is for everyone. We learned this past week how to find and fulfill people's real needs: some people are aching with loneliness after an ugly divorce. The gospel can fill that loneliness. Some people feel they've never felt God's love for them. The gospel can bring that reassuring love. As we've done this this week, it made a huge difference in the way I see missionary work. Instead of teaching a man a lesson, we just talked with him about his frustration at not finding work because he's not legal here, and his family depending on him and feeling desperate. The Spirit came as we just focused on how the Lord is planning to help him through this current challenge, and after he opened up more and said he understood, and gladly would read the Book of Mormon and pray to know if this is the true church and if he should be baptized in it. The gospel can fulfill all things that don't measure up in life. Put it to the test, it does work. I know it's true.

Love you all, be good and be safe! Love, Elder Chris

ps HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOEY! (so glad we belong to a church that approves birthday celebrating!!! There are some out there that don't!)

Pspsosp Hey Steven! Good luck, you'll do awesome! All the people that hear I have a cousin going to Cuzco are really impressed and excited for you, just rely on the Lord, and He'll guide you. Love you man, go get em!

Pspsps ok, I'm deciding that after the mission, the Lord will provide. I won't worry about jobs or anything yet. I just basically wanted to know if that sounded like a good rough sketch, staying in VA to earn money for fall.

Pshhhh THE CLAW descended on the group, and barbie and the Zerg minions started panicking (what a bothersome word). The girls and the gang (who all is in this gang now?) tried to run too, but the Claw grabbed them all. All the Zergs were left down on the beach front and the girls went up and up and up and up...

Added a little later in the day:

C ool story, we were invited to a youth activity at the ward mission leaders house, and we were supposed to speak with a kid that was leaving to Guatemala in a week. It was all going ot be outside by a fire with BBQ, BUT it was pouring rain. Poor kid speaking before us, he just kept on going even as it turned from damp to drizzle to pouring rain. After his talk we kinda figured to spare everyone and huddle all the youth under a small gazebo thing. SO with 30 some people in a 8'x8' square, the edge people getting soaked, we started to talk. Cool, because we told all the youth to pray while we talked for sun. As we talked and shared stories, the Spirit was there strong. There were recent converts and teenagers investigating the Church there, and it was cool. And, by the time we said amen, the sun was shining really strong. Cool miracle, prayer is real. We told the two Lambaren girls to pray extra hard, I'm sure it was their faith that did it. Sweet!

1 comment:

  1. You'll be a great zone leader! Thinking of you, and happy for all those successes.

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