Monday, August 24, 2015

Bible Bash, Birthday Blast, Boa Bake‏

First of all, HAPPY ONE YEAR MARK, COMPANION!! That's right, my companion, Elder Arango, hit his one year mark last Saturday. I bought him a cake, it was a good time. And in not very long I'll hit a year in the mission! Now everything's downhill - or so they tell us. We'll see. But now people will actually think we know something, maybe.

And in other news of eating delicious things today I ate BOA. That's right. Check that one off the list. The meat had the texture of fish, but was heavier and sweeter. But pretty tasty all in all! They just didn't serve it with rice, which was really weird for me, and getting around the bones took some work. I like how they gave us a fork, a spoon, and a knife. Just figure out how to eat it. I'm pretty sure there aren't any kind of established policies for eating boa so I just went at it with my hands. And I also ate huanta. I'm still not sure what it is, nor if I've spelt the name correctly there, but it was also good. Now I've just got to get working on the worms and the guinea pigs.

This week in the sector was a lot like last week - a lot of contacting, a lot of trying to find new people. We actually had less success this week in terms of the number of people we actually found, but we had some great experiences.

At first I was really discouraged, honestly. Long stretches of days where all the appointments fell through and I just wandered around listlessly, trying to contact but generally feeling bad. That was at the beginning. But I was able to apply some gratitude, like I talked about last week, and even see some great success!

The other day my companion and I were walking to an appointment with a contact when we saw some kids playing by their house. My companion said after we passed by them "I think I heard them talking about us. I think they recognized us. Maybe we should contact them." But I really wasn't in the mood, honestly. The appointment fell through and we were returning back that way when my companion suggested we contact them. Alright! So we did. And it turns out there was a family there that had been receiving the missionaries a good while ago. The parents didn't have any progress, it seems, because they never came to church, but the three little girls were coming all the time. And they came to church this week! We'll see how it goes with them! At the very least the husband was very receptive (he's who we ended up contacting) and so we've got the foot in the door.

We also had an experience with a guy who knew a TON about the Bible and was citing all sorts of scriptures to us. It was in turns frustrating and awesome. He was confused by the differences in religion but at the same time so stuck to the Bible I worry if he'll ever just get on his knees and ask God about his ideas. But I felt the Spirit as I could testify to him that this is the one true church.

One last story to close up that really helped me up. My zone leader was in an absolute desert of a sector a while ago. 4.5 months there with absolutely no fruits. How frustrating would that be? There was one member there and one less active. No support whatsoever.

But a week after he left one of the people he was teaching got baptized. A few weeks later, her kid. Now the whole family is baptized and preparing to go to the temple. This was about a year ago.

All thanks to the fact that even though it was 8:40 at night after a long day of no success this elder went to the store to buy some chocolate and talked to the kid. Miracles happen! But often depend on our work and faith.

Oh and I had a super weird experience this week running in to some members from my old ward in La Bota (speaking of desert-like sectors)! I can't believe that was like 7 months ago. Anyhow I was glad to hear one of the less-actives I'd worked with is still going strong. :)




Cake.

Lago Agrio.

THE BOA. THAT I ATE.

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