August 12, 2013

Hello!
Today we went to the church for an activity for P Day and it wasn't soccer... we played card games and ping pong. We also tossed the football around - was fun. Toward the end Elder Cabarera and I stood across the gym and threw a tennis ball at each other as hard as we could - I didn't hit him once. I'm losing my dodgeball skills. I got hit 3 times, but Elder Cabarera doesn't throw that hard so it wasn't that bad - no bruises. I think if I'd have hit him it really would have hurt so perhaps it was best I didn't. Fun missionary stuff!

Last Tuesday we had a zone meeting - a bit different than what we were doing because President Dalton is changing things up. Every month the zone leaders go to a zone leader conference to meet with the President and see what his focus is and what he wants to see happen. So the Tuesday after this council, the zone leaders come back and report to everyone on what was covered. There are a lot of rule changes, or more so a renewed focus on rules that have always existed. The meeting was 2 1/2 hours, but it dragged on a bit after the first hour or so.

This week we decided we were going to make a change with how we do our contacting. It worked really well the first day, but not so much after. We did find a couple new people so that was good.

Every Saturday we're supposed to meet with our Ward Mission Leader at 11am. This week we came a bit early and played the piano and I learned to play Sweet Hour of Prayer. Just with one hand, but I can play it. I know how to play Sweet Hour of Prayer! It really wasn't that hard. I honestly think video games made my hands more agile for playing the piano - you may dispute that, but I think it's true.

The Solar family didn't go to church this week, but there was a very specific and odd reason. There is a lady that works for them, worked her shift and all was good. At the end of her shift she left and went home, but on her way home she fell over and broke her arm. Obviously that was very unfortunate, but the odd thing was that Solar's, as her employer, are responsible for her. That's just so dumb - she wasn't doing anything work related or even near work at the time. I don't understand some of these Chilean laws. It was kind of funny when we were there, but not really. They've had a pretty challenging week since attending church last week for the first time in a long time. The lost one or two big clients at work, their car broke down, their employee's broken arm, his phone broke, and their oldest son is being a bit rebellious. But... they are planning to come back to church this coming week.

An interesting thing about one of the less actives we visit named Rodrigues. He's a super cool guy and we both really like him, the problem is he just doesn't go to church. However, since we've been going to see him more, he's started to read the Book of Mormon. He's reading in both Spanish and English so we're really happy about that. He even had a question, which is awesome. I love questions - this is good for you guys and everyone in general. If you're having the missionaries over for supper, have a question in mind to ask them. It's good for you to think about things and it also gives them a good lead for their message. If you don't have any questions, start reading the Book of Mormon again. If you're reading and don't have questions, think about searching the scriptures more than just reading.

This week we went to Jocelyn's house with members, because we're doing a real push for member present lessons. The first time we took Hubert. He's the one I mentioned before who is a great guy. He has a learning disability of some sort and struggles a bit in social situations so he didn't really connect, but he really likes to go out to do visits and we needed someone so it worked out really good for us. The second time Armana Campos (Armana with an 'a' is Sister and Armano with an 'o' at the end is Brother - generally that's how they indicate gender). We thought we'd teach about some Family History, but that fell a bit flat.

This Sunday we gave talks - mine was really long. I felt a little bit bad. Also, Lorensa, Jocelyn's grandmother stayed for Relief Society for the first time and she said she liked it, so that was really good.

That's what happened this week. Talk to you later.
Caio!