The blog of me: October 4, 2010

Hoooooooola!

Well that was an insane first week of a cambio for us here in San Martín and Los Angeles South - we're totally kicking trash! Every single sector in the zone had people with them in general conference and we've got oodles of baptismal dates :) President Swenson said he can feel the momentum picking up with this zone, so we're really happy to see some fruits of all the hard work we've been putting into the zone for the last 7 weeks. We had one especially cool experience in general conference on Sunday - the first session finished, and we had to run back to the house quickly to pick something up, head to lunch, and then RUUUN all the way over to the other side of the sector to pick up an investigator to go to the last session with us (her name is Abi). So when we were in the house our phone starts ringing - it was an investigator we have named ¨Patricia. I had called her that morning to remind her about conference, and she said that she had too much studying to do and wasn't going to be able to make it. So that was poopy, but then she called and said two words, ''Vincent! Vine!'' In english, ''Vincent! I came!'' So we raaaan back to the chapel and talked with her for a minute. MIRACLE! Haha.

We also had a really cool thing happen this last week: We were talking to people in the street on the way to an appointment, and we saw a nice couple and decided to talk to them (I think my english is starting to sound really bad...). The first thing the lady said when we shook their hands was ''Hola, Elder!'' So my first thoughts were, ''DANGIT! MEMBER!'' (I imagine the missionaries in Utah get that a lot, haha). After that she said, ''Quiero que pasen a visitarle a mi hijo'' ''I want you to visit my son.'' Next thoughts: ''Great...another mom wanting us to put her wayward teenager into line.'' Then she said this: ''El se quiere bautizar'' ''He wants to get baptized'' Curiously...I asked her how older her son was (if he's 8 years old then we have to tell the ward to teach him, because we're only in charge of convert baptisms which is 9 and up). Crossed fingers....''Tiene once años.'' SCORE! Hahaha, that was a little present from heaven. So we went over the next day to meet her son (she's a less-active member that wants to be active again) and he's a really good kid.

Here's a funny thing that happened last night:

So we were talking to people in the street (we do that a lot, haha) when we found ourselves with two women and their daughters. Come to find out that they are inactive members and had stopped going to church because somebody offended them like a billion years ago and they're still bitter about it. They said that they were even about to baptize their son, who has 10 years, but decided not to because they got angry. At first I was trying to just smooth things over and tell them that everyone makes mistakes and that they have to forgive and stuff, but then I just got sick of her garbage haha. So I said something along these lines: ''Look, lady, you can go your whole life being mad about stupid things, or we can come over to your house, help you come back to church, be happy, and baptize your son. If you want to keep being mad, fine, we'll be on our way, but if you'd like to help your family we'd love to come over.'' She thought for a minute and then said...''Come over on Tuesday.'' Haha, so that was a fun experience for me.

Ian - thanks for the shout out. Let me know when half time is over. And remember, if I'm not back in five minutes...just wait longer!

Kelton - don't cut your neck dummmmmmmbbb face! Collars are for dogs :-p

General conference was amazing - I hope you all got to see it. I've decided that when I get home I will be asking work off MONTHS in advance to be able to go to every session of both days every year. Spiritual refills are great. Let me know which talks were your favorites! I must have taken about 7 pages in notes, but I left my binder at home so I can't share what I wrote, haha. Maybe next week.

I still haven't seen the package, but I haven't been to Concepción since I was there last week. This week on Thursday we have a conference, though, so I'm hoping to get it then. Oh yeah, while I'm talking about that, here are the letters I sent out today:

Lauren Berry

Serena Lever

Margot Crandall

Chauri Thurston

Jasmine and Joel

It took me awhile to send them out because...well, I have very little time to do anything. Since becoming a zone leader I haven't really had too many regular p-days. They're often spent in meetings or doing something for the zone. But that's ok, I love the service.

Well, that should be just about it for this week. Thank you for the letter and the updates - I always enjoy reading about the family. For those who have not yet written me, do so through snail mail! I want to hear from everyone. Alrighty, I'll get some pictures attached now. I love and miss you all very much!