Monday, April 25, 2016

April 25, 2016

     Well its been a very interesting week. First off, we had the changes. I got to the chapel pretty early, which was good because it meant that I got time to talk to other missionaries and mess around a little bit. After that, they made all the trainers go into a little room and we had to wait there for like 45 minutes without any reason. After that, they introduced us to our kids. My kid's name is Elder Beltran and he's from Mexico. He's a pretty cool guy.  He's a recent convert to the church, got baptized like a year and a half ago and is an old man.  He's 25 years old. We're reopening the area Oratorio, which is in Zone Cuilapa, the zone where Barberena is. I was so happy when they told me that I was going to be reopening an area here in Cuilapa. It's easily been my favorite zone and Barbe my favorite area. We got here and the missionaries that had been here before hadn't done anything and so we're starting from 0 and working or rebuilding the area. We spent a lot of time contacting this week but we've found some promising families and people to teach. We got lucky because I already knew a little bit about the area like where a couple of members live and recent converts so we weren't completely lost. We had interviews with President Saturday and that was an adventure because they told us we were going to have the interviews in our area. This was really weird because we've always had the interviews in Cuilapa. We were all sitting here in the church waiting for him on Saturday when President called the district leader and told him he was in Cuilpa and wondering where we were at. I just laughed and felt happy that I didn't have to deal with any of that anymore. The interviews went really well, President told me what I should to do to have success in my area and I was able to ask him about what I should do for college. He asked me what I was going to study and I told him I was thinking about studying psychology and he told me that it doesn't really matter where I go because getting a job will depend on where I get a PHD so it would be better to go to the school that pays me more. So mom I want you to look and if SUU has a good psychology program and other programs that I would need for occupational therapy. If it does sign me up to go. Today were going to go to Barbe and I'm super happy about that. I can't believe that in just two weeks its mothers day and I'll be talking to you guys. Love you all a ton. Love Connor

 That's my shower and let me tell you the water that comes out of here is far from warm! This is what my area looks like. Its so pretty!

                                                   My comp and a family from my last area
                                              Elder Rodriguez Elder Baldwin Elder Beltran

Monday, April 18, 2016

April 18, 2016

     I've got changes!!! I still don't know where I'm going to go, but I do know that I'll be training which means I'll be reopening an area and that this is how I'll finish my mission. I'm super excited to be able to train again and I know that it will help me finish the mission working super hard. Well this week was pretty normal. It was another Urgency week which means that President gave us goals and things we had to complete. It went really well. We were able to see lots of miracles and a baptism so that was amazing, Um  Tuesday was normal nothing really happened. We had the last district meeting of the change and then Wednesday we did divisions with Elder Santamaria, who is a very strange elder but a great guy. We had some baptismal interviews planned for Wednesday and we went and talked to the Hermana Sandra like an hour before we were going to have the interviews but when the time came she never showed up.  I was super sad because I thought that I wasn't going to have any more baptisms in this area but then Friday she called us and said that her son really wanted to be baptized even though she didn't really fell ready.  We got his interview done Friday night and then he got baptized Saturday which was a great experience. We didn't have very many members that showed up but the important ones were there. I'm sure that his mom will be baptized soon and Alison as well. Alison is just super slow and its really hard for her to understand but mostly she didn't get baptized because her uncle didn't let her because he says she doesn't know enough. Sunday was pretty good. We were running around just trying to finish up with the dats President Caffaro had given us. We were able to win the week again so our name was in the weekly email. This week I was reading in my personal study and I read in 2 Nephi 4. Its an amazing chapter and I was able to learn a lot about how we need to trust in the Lord and he will take care of us. I also decided that I need to read the scriptures in English. One to practice English again and other because I read in the Liahona about how the scriptures are translated and that we should read them in the language of our heart. Well that's about it for me. My shoes will make it the rest of my mission. Love you all a ton and hope you have a great week. Love Connor 

                                              Elder Santamaria 


                                                                         Baptism of Mario

Monday, April 11, 2016

April 11, 2016

      Dang it mom, you're making me think way to much about all this college crap but I promise I'll keep praying about it and let you know soon what choice I'm going to make. Well this week was pretty good. Nothing really crazy happened apart from my birthday which was really fun. Monday was soccer as usual and my comp got really mad while we were playing. I'm not sure why, but he did. I also bought this super cool Avengers shirt on the street that has all the Avengers and Spider man.  Tuesday,  we had the zone council, my last one as a ZL hopefully, and it went over really well. We just tried to animate the zone talking about how they're were all choosen to come forth in this time and that they have a great potencial as missoinaries. Wednesday, I was on divisions with Elder Baloy which was a lot of fun. We spent a lot of time contacting and not too much time teaching but some days are like that. Elder Baloy was flashing gang signs at me in the street and I was sure we were going to get killed because that kind of stuff can get you killed here.  Elder Baloy didn't understand that so I had to explain it to him. He bought me pizza for my birthday and it was a party.  Thursday was another really hot day where we did a lot of contacting.  Pretty much every day in our area is like that until like 6 when we actually have lessons. We had a dinner with one family that made us tacos and a cake and then we went to another family that was way better. We came in and they had their house all decorated and everything. Then when I sat down on the couch, they had their son hidden behind it and he hit me in the face with a plate full of whip cream. It was pretty dang funny and they got a good video of it that I'll try to get to you guys. With them we ordered pizza and they had bought Shasta soda. Other than that it was a normal week. I did division with Elder A on  Friday and he's a weird little Peruvian and lets just say it was an interesting day. Right now were working with Familia Robles and they will probably be baptised Saturday along with another girl called Alison that is living with the family that had the birthday party for me. So ya this is the last week of the change and I'm hoping, like I said that I'm going to train after this. Love you all a ton and hope youre enjoying your last months of school. Love Connor


                                     Birthday with Elder Baloy and above is my zone.

Birthday house #1 tacos and cake

                                                Birthday house number 2


                                                                    Ovalle Family

 This is a little girl that lives next door to us that always comes over and talks to us. She's awesome and then the zone did a surprise birthday party for me this morning that was amazing. Love them so much. Love you all a ton. 
                                                              Ashley

Wednesday, April 6, 2016

April 4, 2016

This week was great!! a little crazy but great. Monday was normal, you know cutting hair, eating lunch, and playing soccer. Tuesday we had the district councils and then I did divisions with Elder Bravo. He's from Guatemala and super funny. He's brand new in the mission and like I said always happy and joking around.We had a really fun day and then that night we drank some caffine free Coke that he had bought.Wednesday we did divisions again. This time I was with Elder M and once again it was a lot of fun. He's suffering with his comp so it was good for him to come with me and be able to have fun and work hard. In our comp study, he spent like an hour complaining about a bunch of different things his comp does and how he can't stand him anymore. We left with a member named Braulio that night who is the member that gives us food and he's super funny and this week he's going to have a baby and it's possible and probable that it will be born on my birthday.  Anyway he spent the entire night telling everyone about how he had seen this huge spider and how bad it had freaked him out. Thursday was pretty chill and then Friday  we had the mission council. It was a pretty good mission council. President wasn't very happy because we were supposed to have an amazing month this month but it didn't go so well for us. After the mission council, we had to go to the sealing of a couple that my comp reactivated and that turned into an adventure. We went with the secretaries because one of them had been comp of my comp and so they took the car. The sealing started two hours late and by the time we left it was already 5 o'clock and there was a ton of traffic. The assistants were super mad at the secrateries for having the car so long and then the assistants had to go drop us off in our area because its too dangerous to ride in the bus so late at night. Conference was amazing and I loved every minute of it. We ordered 8 pizzas for lunch Saturday and ate with the zone which was lots of fun. I was able to see all the conference in English this time which is a huge blessing. Anyway Love you all a ton.

                                                         -caffeine free coke and the assistants.

                                                                        Elder Bravo
                                                         Elder Gee Elder Gudiel Elder Galicia

                                                                           Elder Seriac
                                                              Pizza Party with the Zona Florida . 
                               
 Elder overcome by the Spirit (sleeping) in the conference Elder Kelson

Love Connor