its getting close, really close, i can hardly believe it, i feel really weird, confused, almost like my mind is trying to mentally prepare me for the blow before it happens. well as of today i am officially what they call a ¨valiente¨ which means i am in the oldest group on the mission, and will be going home at the end of this change.... obviously. we received our change calls last night and my companion, hermana lundskog, will be going to la paloma, a beach town a bit more east and north of here.......... and i will be staying here in pan de azucar........ but here is the catch, i will be getting what they call a corto plazo ( i think thats how you spell it). anyway, what that means is that the girl that i am getting is not a missionary, she lives here in uruguay and is getting the chance to experience the missionary life for six weeks............ it usually happens when they are short a missonary for that change, so yup........ she is going to be my companion for the next six weeks. i dont know her, no one knows who she is until tomorrow at changes. i am a bit nervous, but i know that whatever has happened before this moment has prepared me for what will come. it will all be okay, i just keep that in my mind. i have only had one other companion that had a corto plazo and she said it was rough but she learned alot. so i will take it like that, yet another learning experince. at this point i look at it as i can do anything for 6 weeks, right??
well so thats about it for the exciting news, its going to be a fun ride. i think we will get along just fine and that everything will pull along as it has. the only thing that is for certain is that i will be leaving after this change, and she is only here for a change so they will be doing what is called a white wash to the area after, meaning two completely new missionaries will come in, so we will work to leave the area as best as we can so that they have a smooth take over.
well this week has been really great, alot has happened and its amazing to see people come along and all the progress they make. on tuesday we had a family home evening with the couple, hector and laura, we are teaching, daniel and rosana, and andres and eugenia, another couple from the branch that has become really good friends with rosana and daniel. rosana gave the lesson, it was super creative. she had 7 little sheets of paper that each person was given and then they had to do what it said. anyway, moral of the story, each little thing that we had to do was in relation with a gospel principal and at the end she tied everything together. it was much to perfect for words, seriously i have never had something go so smoothly. so then at the end hector started to talk, and just came out and basically gave a testimony without even thinking of it. he told everyone how sure they were that they are in the right path and that they are so happy that they have found the gospel to bless their lives. i was screaming with happiness inside, its so amazing to see people really grasp what it is that you are trying to portray to people all day. its like you actually see a light bulb go on and they literally have more light to them.
we then on friday night had dinner with hector and laura, that is the first time in my whole mission that i have had dinner with people we are just teaching, it was really nice. did i tell you that hector plays professional soccer??? sweet huh??? he has been thinking about giving it up because that is what prevents them from getting to church on sundays, he knows that it is what makes their lives a bit more comfortable and less tight, but also knows that he will be blessed for doing it. so we will see what happens. during the dinner laura told us that hector has been undergoing much persecution at work for his beliefs, of course the things that people are saying are just misunderstandings, but hector is staying firm, despite what people are saying.
on saturday we were able to help with a service project at a little preschool that is down the road from the church. we painted the walls outside that surround the play area. it felt really great to be able to help with something in the community. not to mention it is really different to see how people change and how happy they become when they are helping other people, everyone really enjoyed themselves and were able to feel accomplished for what they did.
ohhhhhhh!!!! almost forgot about this!!! my comp and i were out last weekend knocking houses and have really been looking for ¨alfondo¨ houses, which are houses behind houses. many times there is a house behind a house behind a house if you catch my drift....... its crazy!!! we used to live in a house that was in front of a house that was in front of a house that was in front of a house!!! four houses piled infront of eachother. anyway, this man cezar lives in one of those houses. we found him and he was really amazing, he had for years been somewhat of a missionary for a church, and had some crazy experiences. anyway he is very religiously educated and has read and analyzed the bible twice all the way through, not counting study that he has done apart from that. so we shared a bit about our message and he was intrigued. this weekend when we went back to visit him he had read the pamplet that we left with him twice thoroughly and had marked all the questions he had. so we talked a bit with him and answered his questions and wrote down to study those that we didnt quite know or understand to go over next time. we talked alot about the life of Jesus Christ and his ministry and left him with the book of mormon, i am sure you know what that is, another testament of Jesus Christ, and left him with a chapter to read. ever since we left that with him he has been contacting us constantly to give him more chapters and verses to read. as he put it, he picked it up and now cannot stop. i guess i have never really been like that so i really admire that quality. it really is a miracle to find people like that who really grasp the message we are sharing, they are rare, but when you find them they are just that much more special.
we went to the hippies today and made mud art with them, i made a bunch of christmas ornaments.... we will see how they turn out, i am not very creative haha. oh and while we ate lunch there was a uruguayan man singing and playing guitar, he was singing elvis presley with a guayan accent of course haha.
pictures are of the service activity, well us at the service activity with some of the women of the ward, my comp and i, and ioham, the son of daniel and rosana
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