Week 9 - January 9, 2012

Hi everyone!

It's super generic to tell you every single week that "things here are good," but they are. It helps that I'm happy to talk to you guys on P-days, so I think it makes my letters more positive and exciting. Haha. But really, things here are good. Earlier in the week we had a few really cold days where the high was in the upper 20s and low 30s. It really wasn't too bad with a pair of thermals on and a hat and scarf. Just wait for the terrible ice and temperatures in the single digits! Ahh! Haha. But everyone said that so far this winter has been mild and lovely, so I'm thankful for that. On one of those cold days we saw a frozen-over pond on a horse farm where a member family lives. It wasn't super thick (two inches, or so), and Elder S broke a little hole in it pretty easy, but it was still super cool! I don't think I've ever seen something like that before. I thought all of the frozen fountains were amazing last year in Tucson, but the icicles that stick out of rocks and frozen ponds here are pretty impressive. :)

We still don't have tons of work to do. Versailles and Frankfort really are small places. Elder S has been here so long that he's kind of tracted all of the places we know Hispanic people live. We're trying to find new places, and have started going back to all of the places he tracted at the very beginning to see if anyone new is there or anyone has changed their hearts.

I had my first real taste of super disappointing rejection this week. The Zone Leaders came down because they are soooo bored in their area (the singles branch in Lexington -- school was still out so no one is around). So we split up and went tracting. I was with Elder D, and we started knocking doors in an apartment complex. The third door we knocked was a girl named Sarah. She's a student at K-State here in Frankfort, and she seemed interested. She listened to our whole Restoration lesson. It felt so good. We taught. We testified. We asked her questions, she asked us questions, it all felt really good. She said, "Oh, that makes sense!" and "Okay, that's cool." And then at the end she said she wasn't really interested, she said she was happy with her church in Louisville, and that she'd call us if she had questions. What?! After an hour of a great lesson and conversation? So sad. But we gave her a Book of Mormon and a pamphlet anyway. And we didn't have much other success the rest of the day, although we had a few good conversations in doorways where we were clearly planting some seeds. Also, because Elder D doesn't speak Spanish, the one door where a Hispanic man opened forced me to talk the whole time. I understood everything he said, too! The sad thing was that he said he wasn't super interested. Oops. But he was nice enough, and we gave him a card anyway.

It was cold! But super pretty. Now that it's cold all of the grass is turning yellow.

We taught an English class this week, and that was kind of cool. Plus, I already know English, so I can actually help people with that! Haha. We're planning on teaching an English class two nights a week, and Yeny came and brought her brother. She already speaks good basic English, and her brother is good too, but shy. Jubileo, the man I baptized, came too, although he knows basically nothing, so he'll take more time to learn stuff. Since Yeny and her brother Gabriel were both there at the class, we gave them a quick church tour since they had never been before. It was perfect! We saw Yeny and Jorge a time or two this week, but no serious lessons. But they are fun, and have lots of potential, so we'll see how that all goes with them.

January 6th is a Hispanic holiday that commemorates the arrival of the Wise Men to visit baby Jesus (I don't remember what the holiday is actually called). They all discuss the importance of Christ and the gifts the Wise Men gave as a sign of their faith to him. Then they all get a few more presents! I had no idea that Hispanics (maybe just Mexicans?) get presents more than just Christmas! Anyway, it was kind of fun to spend some time with a less-active family, the Garcias. I like the Garcias a lot. They are friends with the Gonzalez family in the ward, and they are soooo coool, so they were there too, along with some  investigator families that they are all friends with. It was cool to see them all together, and it makes me want them all to have success in the church. Come back! Get baptized! You already have fun with these people, come have more fun in the church every Sunday! haha.

I've learned how to do all sorts of fun stuff doing service out here. Jigsaws, drills, drywall, putty stuff you put on drywall, etc. It's awesome!

I read the best article that made me think about all of this in a different way. It's in the January Ensign, and it's by Carl B. Cook. He talked about looking up to God to see that you have done the best you can in his eyes. We don't need to look sideways and compare ourselves to others, because other people aren't what is truly important. I loved that though, because I feel lots of pressure to perform well, have baptisms, etc. Yeah, I want all of that. I want to perform well. But even if that doesn't happen, as long as I have done my best it doesn't matter, because God sees it. That has made me so much more optimistic and feel better about everything that's going on. Y'all should read it, because it's excellent.

Español es bien dificil. La mision es bien dificil. Pero estoy aprendiendo. Yo sé que estoy aqui para que yo pueda ayudar otras personas encontrar la verdad y venir a Cristo.

Les quiero mucho! Gracias por todo, mi familia!

Thanks for everything! I love you guys!

Best wishes from the South,

Zac

Week 8 - January 2, 2012

Hi everyone!

Is anyone else weirded out that it's 2012, or just me? That's totally nuts. The other kinda weird thing is that for me, this whole entire year will be spent here in the Kentucky Louisville Mission. That is kinda trippy. But I try not to think too much about that.

The Christenson's. This picture doesn't do it justice either. Behind the house the hill slopes off and they look over a little tiny valley that is just amazing!

 Anyway, things have been really slow this week with Christmas and New Years. We did lots of service with members again, which is actually lots of fun most of the time. We spent two days with the Christenson family. They had us over for Thanksgiving (she's the one that gave us heating pads). They live way out in the sticks and have a gorgeous plot of land. When we come back to visit, we have to see them just for their place. It's amazing! Anyway, they have 5 acres, and a little stream runs along one side of their property. They want to build a picnic area along the stream, but the trees are too thick, so we spent two days using chainsaws and dragging tree limbs around. It was actually a ton of fun throwing the tree limbs has hard as you could into the giant pile. They fed us both days too, which was appreciated, and we played a scripture trivia game one night, which was lots of fun (only a missionary would say that, haha).

The stick pile where we threw the downed trees. This only shows about half of the pile, too!

We have some new investigators that are super cool! We met them on Christmas Eve when we were visiting with the Rojas family. Their names are Jorge and Yeny. They have been married for 9 years (we don't have to convince them to tie the knot! yay!!!), and are so cool. We have been by a few times to chat, and had a really good lesson on the Plan of Salvation with them. Yeny is especially interested, and has lots of questions. We are really excited to work with them. We swung by and saw them on New Years Eve, and she made the best tamales dulces ever (sweet tamales)!!! Wow. So good. The normal tamales were okay. I still don't love spicy food, although the anticipation and is kind of fun. The aftermath isn't. Also, I ate cactus and carne asada the other day with Jorge and Yeny. The meat was great, and the cactus was alright.

This morning I woke up and looked out and saw that it was snowing! Crazy! I wanted a white Christmas, but it's 8 days too late! Also, it didn't really stick, and it has stopped snowing now. But it's still super cold. The car said it was 30F, and the wind was blowing so that made it worse! But now I can put on all of my scarves and hats and gloves, I guess. Hahaha.

 Church was good yesterday. No investigators came, so no class in Spanish. :(  But that means we can sit and absorb more of the church meetings if we aren't worried about translation or explaining things that are a little too heavy for investigators/new members.

Things are good. I'm glad the holidays are over, because we've been really slow. Things should get moving a bit more now, so that's good. I'm learning and growing all the time. I know I chatted with Kyle pretty good in Spanish, but don't be deceived -- there is a lot of room to grow. Sometimes that freaks me out, and I put lots of pressure on myself. I just keep reminding myself that I can't do it all. God doesn't expect perfection right away, just the best that I can do with what I have. He fills in the rest.

I hope you all have a good year. Last year was great for our family, and I expect this one to be the same way, even though I'm not nearby geographically!

Have a good week!

Love,

Zac

Week 7 - December 27, 2011

Hey there,

We were so busy all day yesterday, so we're taking P-day today. We hung drywall in a member's attic because he's turning it into bedrooms for his daughters. It was so tiring. I think I'd rather be a landscaper than a home builder. Plants are way more fun to play with than all of that stuff, haha.

Bishop S and his Pulitzer Prize.

It was so fun to talk to you guys. I feel like I talked to everyone pretty evenly, so don't worry about not having talked to me enough. It seemed fine to me. Don't worry about getting emotional either. It was bound to happen at some point, and at least we were laughing about it, not crying because anything really sad happened. 

Christmas Eve with the Smart family. Their cat had just scratched Elder S, haha.

I'm glad Kyle said my Spanish was good. I didn't quite get everything he said, but I got most of it. I think it's funny he said I sound like a Mexican. I guess that's good, because I'm speaking more authentically that way, even though Mexican Spanish isn't as pretty as other Spanish. My teachers in the MTC spoke gorgeous Spanish, and they served in Peru. Kyle speaks really clearly, which is nice, since no one here does. Hahaha.

Christmas is totally fun when it falls on a Sunday. The program is extra good, to me. It's fun to see everyone too, and it sounds like there were lots of people there, so that's nice. 

New scarves and ties for Christmas!  And I got two more ties from members of the ward that aren't even in this picture!

Well that's all. I'm not writing a big email this week, but I will send some photos in another email. Thanks for everything!

Love,

Zac