Wednesday, January 10, 2018

December 4 - Wow seriously weeks are just flying by here its insane

Wow seriously weeks are just flying by here its insane. Transfers are this week and I have a very strong feeling I'm gonna be leaving.

Alright, so where do I start?  To be honest this week flew by so fast I cant remember much. so the 'v' on this computer doesn't really work so I apologize if it doesn't make sense.

Well it really sucks to lie in oxk cause I have used all my allowance in one week. I literally only bought one thing and it was cereal. And the rest of my allowance went to traveling. It really sucks. I got 800 pesos at the beginning of the week and I used it all. So yeah by Saturday I had 4 pesos and so I had to go to the bank and get money from my personal account which sucks. So sorry Mom and Dad. It was only 500 pesos. Still sucks. I'm gonna ask for more cause we travel so much and to get around in our area we have to take moto taxis or we wouldn't be able to go places. 

Well its honestly beautiful here. There's so many palm trees and so much nature. Everyone has chickens. There's dogs all over the place that bark at you. You just act like your gonna get them and they get all scared. I did it to one dog and it charged me and I just started running and a natie saw and he just started laughing. I wasn't about to get attacked by that dog. So scary. Well I saw my first scorpion since being here. We were in Ticul and long story short I hear my new ZL say,  'ven ven ven', and so we all run out there and this thing was huge. So we grabbed the broom and we hit it down onto the ground into the yard. Not totally sure where it went after that. I think it died.  I got a picture though, so that's good.

Well its blazing hot here but, I've come to get used to it. I used to soley wear short sleeves but some days I can wear long sleeves cause its cooler and its just more comfortable and I don't get as many bug bites. I think I walked out of this week with only 6 bug bites--which is pretty good from last week. 

Hey, so when I get home I want a palapa. Look it up. Its about 50/50 here with the houses--half of them are just concrete and then the rest are palapas. The pictures of oxk on the internet are a lot different I imagine then what its really like. They're pretty cool. 

I have lots of stories from this week so here we go :

Story one: So we had to go to Peto this week. It is in our district and we had to go for an entrevista and so we left around 3 and its about an hour from oxk, so we have to take mayab. Its a bus service. Kinda like bolt, but more people use it. Anyways, so we got on the bus and I've been trying to work on my contacting this week, so I was like I wanna sit by someone and teach them. So I sat by this one guy and he looked a little down. Smelt a little weed, but not sure if it was him--I don't think it was. I got super nervous all of sudden. I just couldn't talk and I couldn't get the strength to talk to him. I got super shy. But the Holy Ghost told me I needed to talk to this man. I got super shy again and super nervous. Something told me that I needed to talk to this man a second time. And I said 'No I cant'. I thought that in my head and I got super shy. And then I got a feeling that I have never gotten in my whole life, and it said you need to talk to this guy. And I feel a lot in the scriptures when he has to tell you three times to do something you should probably do it, so I just swallowed and I just said I'm gonna do this; I can do this.  I know my Spanish sucks but I can do this. And so I talked. and I cant remember his name and I asked him where he was headed and he said Takash, so I knew I only had like 15 minutes to share something. So I asked him about his family and all that jolly stuff. Then I whipped out the ole folleto and I taught him the Restoration and taught him about Joseph Smith. and I bore my testimony and this guy was like solid. I don't know how much he could understand but he like listened so hard. Not many people do that around here. A lot of them just say I'm fine, I'm catholic, which is fine, but its like 'Bruh, just let me teach you.'   Anyways, we arrived in Takash and I let him get up but I wasn't done teaching, so he was walking towards the front and I was still teaching and he was still listening. Well I gave him a Book of Mormon and told him to pray about it and to read it cause I know its true. Well he said he would. The worst part was I couldn't get his address. but I'm telling you guys when the missionaries in Takash find that man, he's gonna be an awesome member of the Church. 

Story Two: Welllllll, on that same bus ride we arrived in Peto and I went on splits with an elder from Peto. And so we went to this one investigator's house that's getting baptized, and we gave her a blessing and the elder asked me if I had my oil.  So I went to go check my bag, and I couldn't find it. Luckily he had a tiny bit left in his little thingy and so I set it apart and I couldn't really think correctly, and I was like,  'The keys are still on the bus and the bus was going to Cancun, so there's no way we were gonna be able to get them!'   And so we went back to meet up with the other missionaries and I told them about it and my comp was just like, 'It's all good we can figure it out,. We're fine'.   So we started heading back and we just stayed in Takash for the night with the other missionaries cause we had district meeting the next day. The next day we got extra keys made and it ended up turning out fine and we were able to get into our house. Kinda fun--kinda stressful.

Story Three: Well I ate a habanero. They eat habanero with everything down here. So I just say I can't eat it. But I decided to be a little rebellious this week and kinda put too much on a taco I ate. My mouth was on fire. I drank some orchata and it turned out to be fine. Or I thought so........ welllllllllllllllllllll, not so! hahaha   We were in Takash for an activity and we stayed the night . And I felt super hungry and like my stomach was cramping cause I was so hungry and hadn't eaten basically all day and it was 9 at night.  So I was like,  'Pizza on me--I need something to eat'. So we got this garbage pizza and I downed half of it with a big loaf of french bread. It did absolutely nothing. I was still feeling hungry so I concluded I was not hungry. I brushed my teeth and just thought maybe laying in my hammock would work, so I set my hammock up and tried laying in it. I couldn't lay down, but everyone else was going to bed and so I just went to where they study and I sat in the chair with my blanket curled over, because that was the only half way comfortable way to sit. It still hurt insanely bad. So one of the ZL came in the room and he was like, 'Do you want a blessing?'  And I just said yeah just please hurry, I didn't really feel too good. And so they gave me a blessing. I just waited like an hour and a half more and it didn't go away. So they were still awake and one of them went outside, and he said 'en en ren' and we went and the scorpion was there. Then I just tried walking to get my camera to take a picture and oh my my stomach hurt so bad. I had to get a picture though, so I got my camera and got a pic. Anyways, I waited till like 12:30 and nothing really happened. So I was like, 'I need meds'.  So the elders ran and got me some mexican medicine, which I didn't really care cause I just needed something to make this pain go down. So I popped one of these pills and drank this leche stuff and literally no more than ten minutes later I was perfectly fine and I slept so good that night. Sometimes the look of medicine doesn't matter, as long as it works. All I care about! haha

Well I went on exchanges with Elder Nielsen. He has the same amount of time in his mission as me. But he spoke Spanish since he was 2, so he's super good. And everyone is super impressed. Well we taught a lot of people and we taught so good together. Everyone we walked passed just laughs, I think its cause we're white. Its kinda funny to walk past the little kids cause their all like whispering to each other, but they look at you, so you just smile and laugh with them. 

We had a stand at the Feriade Naranjas. Fair of the Oranges. We showed the 'Light the World' video. We got lots of people and taught lots of people. We got 3 new people that are futuro. One of them is in the area where no missionaries have gone before. In Teab. So I'm super excited to go there when we visit him. 

My language has come a long way this week. I told Elder Garcia at the beginning of the week I wanted to speak only Spanish. So we did, and if I didn't know we tried to figure it out with the dictionary or having him put it in other words in Spanish. I carry a little notebook in my bag that I write new words in. Seriously its coming so fast. I can't really describe it. Its not a whole lot better but I feel its a lot better.

I bore my testimony yesterday in Church about opéning our mouths and talking to people. and I challenged the ward to just invite--all you have to do is invite and God will take care of the rest. He can't force the Gospel on someone.

So my challenge for each of you this week is to simply invite. Invite someone to read the Book of Mormon and to pray with real intent and a sincere heart to know its true, then bear your testimony about it. Invite someone to watch the Light the World video. The video is not soley for the members of the Church, but probably more importantly its for the others. 

And to my friends that aren't LDS, here's my invitation to you. I'm gonna count how many of you are on this list......5 people on this list. I invite you 5 to listen to the missionaries, one time. ask them to share the special message of the restored gospel to you and your family. Ask them to show you the Light the World video. and if you're scared to talk to them talk to me and go to YouTube and watch the video. 

Well its been a good week here in oxk. I love it. Its hot and its humid but the work will go on. Transfers are next week so that's pretty exciting. Well I'll send pictures. 

K peace

Elder Hall
























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