February 27, 2012

I am going to answer your questions first:

Yes, it was a good week, Elder Rocha and I have been working out some kinks in the companionship and i am glad that we are going to be together another 6 weeks, transfers were yesterday. The district experienced a change...it grew! now there is only one district in the whole Zone, so i have the same dominion as the zone leaders...kinda strange. But this week I talked about using the members more, not just for asking for references, but teaching the how to become missionaries. The policy that President Hinckley established was "every member a missinonary", but many members don't know exactly what to do. We talked about how to teach them how to make a contact, what are the basics of the church that they can teach (articles of faith basically) and how to be a good fellowshipper and help their friends come to church. It went really well, I felt like it was succesful. 

     I was thinking about that the other day, that in reality, I feel like my shirts look the same as when I was in the MTC. We wash at a member's house, they have a washing machine, then we bring it all home and put it on a rack that we have to dry out.  I use 3 shorts sleeves and one long sleeve every week, the long sleeve for when I use my suit on sunday and if it is cold during the week, and the shorts sleeves I wear 2 days in a row. It is a good system and I still have many more white shirts in my suitcase. But there are some areas in the mission that are just hot and dusty and I heard most missionaries change thier shirts at lunch because of the dirt sticking to sweat...awesome.

       I love it here in the sierra though, so beautiful. The volcano Cayambe was making itself visible on sunday morning as we went around town waking up the sleepy investigators, it is so magnificent and snow covered. 

     I was talking with a guy at church yesterday about Iceland and that I wanted to serve there on my mission because I have some viking heritage, he was kinda confused because I am American...it's funny because most people don't understand that the gringos that they are familiar with are not native to north america...haha they all come from other countries.

     I would imagine that the Blackwelder cousin's house in Orem would be quite crazy, but it is sooo cool. They have a trampoline indoors and a climbing wall...and like 20 rooms too haha.

Today in the morning, we made cookies in the chapel from a Betty Crocker mix that Elder Challis got in a package from his grandma. Super good. We did a service project this week for a member, helping him build a new house out of cinder block and I got super burnt on my neck where my collar tan line is...haha so funny how different the sun is here. We got shirts as a zone with a drawing of each of us as an indigenous from our respective countries (U.S, Ecuador, Panama, Honduras) but mine came with my name mispelled, and a bit small, so I am going to send it home to Thom.

Well Love you all,

Elder Blackwelder