Week 12 - January 30, 2012

Hi everyone,

I can't believe my second transfer ends tomorrow! I've been in the field for three whole months now, which is crazy to think about. The big news this week is that Elder S is being shipped off to a different area until he finishes his mission in April, so we're driving to Louisville to pick up my new companion. Because the number of Spanish elders is soooo small compared to the English elders, it's pretty easy to find out who is being moved and stuff. So far we only know of one other Spanish elder that is being moved, so he is probably my next companion, although we don't know for certain. There could always be some crazy shake-up and I get an English companion or something. Who knows? Saturday was a pretty stressful day. We had our District Meeting, and we were doing our normal stuff, and we took a pizza break (as part of an inter-district challenge, losers had to buy pizza. We tied, so we all paid). Our phone started ringing, and it was President Woodbury! He told Elder S to come to Louisville on Tuesday. Everyone else was on edge, waiting for a call. Only one other companionship is changing in our district. We're sad, because we love our district, but it'll be okay.

Our district. It's pretty much the coolest.

We had a neat opportunity to go to Louisville for a fireside this week. Clayton M. Christenson, some crazy famous Harvard business professor came down and spoke to everyone. He's LDS. He talked for a long time about business and buyouts and undercutting. It was super boring. And then he talked about how a huge percentage of his classmates from Harvard are divorced (some many times) and are unhappy. They are rich, but unhappy. One of his classmates was actually part of that big Enron drama way back when. Anyway, that's when he started relating all of the business stuff to the good stuff of the gospel. He said that we have to understand what things in our lives are going to deliver the highest pay-out. When we have some extra time and some extra energy, are we using it to make more money at work, or are we investing it in our families and friends? The tricky part is that one pays out pretty quickly, and the other you might not see for many years. That long-term investment in family will be so rewarding many years down the line, and we need to remember that as we keep moving forward. I think our family had done a pretty good job of that so far. :)

Anyway, we're only allowed to go to firesides if we have a recent convert of investigator there. Irma and Agustin decided to come, and our rockin' ward mission leader, Brother Anderson, took us. We drove past the Louisville temple on the way to the stake center too, so that was really really exciting! It is so tiny. But hey, it's a temple. And it's beautiful. And I miss going to the temple every week like in Utah, but I'm excited at the thought of helping people get to the temple someday. That's kinda cool, huh? Also, Brother Anderson and I had some super good conversation on the way to and from the fireside (Elder S sat in back with Irma and Agustin). It was just a cool night.

Update on Sergio. His family all lives in Mexico, so at some point, when he was talking to them on the phone, he also talked to some preacher guy down there they have been in contact with. So he called us and said we needed to give him a week to think about everything, because he got confused with the two different messages that he had heard. We told him the only thing he could do was pray to know what was right. We're going to see him this week sometime and hopefully he'll have figured out what he wants.

We got to pie the district leader if we won the challenge. Since we tied, everyone pied him. Haha

I think I've written about Roxy before. She's a senior in high school. Her sister's fam is getting reactivated right now, and her mom is actually a member, but no one can find her records. Anyway, we have chatted with her a lot lately, and yesterday we watched the moving "Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration." It's a super good film, and y'all should watch it sometime. We talked with her for a bit afterwards, and we asked her if she thought Joseph Smith was a prophet. She wasn't super super animated or anything, but she said yes, and so that's something so great! We just know that she can progress and move forward. She asks great questions, so we'll see where things go. We're super optimistic for her!

One other thing we do is besides the English classes we teach at the church, we started teaching in this little Mexican store/restaurant. The owner and her gang of friends all come after the store closes on Sunday nights and we teach them English. They are all sooo cool. We pray before and after each lesson (we've done two so far), and for now that's all the gospel-y stuff we've done with them. We're trying to build friendships a bit before we sort of try to get the gospel going with them. But Elder S said he thinks the seeds we are planting with them are really really good, and though I haven't really seen a lot of methods of missionary work, I don't doubt it. They will always associate missionaries with good people that helped them. I don't know if I'll see them progress in my time in Frankfort/Versailles, but maybe the next batch of Elders will be able to help them out more. Kinda cool, huh? Also, the shop owner gives us food and Mexican soda after the lessons, and that's great. :)

Well, I think that's about it for now. Next week we're going to have our Spanish testimony meeting, so we're excited for that! Fingers crossed that goes well!

Have a good week, everyone!

Love,
Zac