Translating At Stake Conference

So I'm sending my letter a little bit later than normal today.  One the members asked us if we could come translate for her.  Her son needed to go to the doctors, so we helped her translate while she was filling out paperwork, and that actually took a lot of time.
 
Yesterday was stake conference.  It's kind of crazy that I've been in this area long enough to be here for two stake conferences.  They asked us to translate again, and this time it was just me and my companion that translated.  It was pretty difficult to do.  There were some talks that were fairly easy, but I translated a talk by the temple pres., and he taught about the doctrine behind how the sealing power was restored, and he was ready scriptures from D and C (without referencing the scriptures, and if you've ever tried to translate scripture, just know that it's not easy.)  We asked one of the members how it was at the end of the conference and he said "mas o menos, pero estuvo bien" [more or Less, but it was good].
 
So I told you a little bit about [investigator], and he has been passed on to the english elders, but he's having a hard time switching missionaries... From the sounds of things when we talked to him at stake conference it looks like things are going well for him.  He has a testimony of the book of mormon.
 
We Taught [investigator couple] this week and they are doing awesome.  We taught the word of wisdom and took the coffe out of the house with us!! (not to mention that, he hasn't drank coffe since we talked to him last. 
 
That's about all that happened this week, I'm never sure what too write about in my letters.  I feel like I'm always just giving you an update on my investigators, but I'm not sure what else to write, so if you want to here anything let me know.

Bicycle Maintenance

This week was a fairly busy week, recently we've been really busy teaching people, in fact this week we taught in total 14 lessons, It's getting to the point where it's adnormal when we have to go tracting at night.

 

We were teaching someone named [Investigator] (I think I told you a little about him before.)  He's really starting to progress, he wants to know if our message is true really bad, and so he's been praying about that, so let's hope he receives an answer soon!  Also he was smoking and we talked to him about that and we got him on this program that church has set up to help people quit smoking, and he's doing quite well, he's gone about 3 days without smoking!  However, unfortunantly he is english and so we had to pass him on to the english elders, so on sunday when he came to church, we let the english elders take over (but I expect to go to the baptism if I'm still around)

 

Transfers are tomorrow, and I'm staying.  This is going to be a long area, it looks like I'll be in this area for about 7.5 months by the end of next transfer.  But there's a lot of work here, and I was getting kind of sad that I was going to have to leave some of our investigators.

 

Last week I told you about the brake pads that I needed to replace.  Last monday I worked on my bike a little bit.  I tried adjusting the gears, but they just didn't want to get adjusted right.  So on wednsday during lunch after district meeting (district meeting is in fayetville, and we never go to fayetville because there's no hispanics in fayetville and the closest bike shop is in fayetville) I took my bike in to the shop to get brake pads (I bought them and just installed them myself)  but I asked them to try to adjust the gears on my bike, and while they looked at it, they found out that my chain had worn out and that the rear cassett needed to be replaced.  They said that it was just because of normal wear and tear, because I have probably put 2,000-3,000 Mi on my bike by now.  but anyway, that kind of burned a hole in my pocket, because in total it turned out to be $90.  But the good thing is that my gears shift really great now.

 

We're still teaching [investigator couple] ...  [They're] still progressing quite well, and they have been coming to church consistently for the last 3-4 months.

Dusting Off The Bikes

This week was quite a busy week, but not too much out of the ordinary.

 

On thursday we had a training meeting with our zone.  Their still working on teaching us the new stuff that they are teaching the new missionaries at the mtc. 

 

This week we pulled out the bikes for the first time in a while.  Our area is so big that at times it is difficult to use the bikes, and it's better to use the car.  But I didn't have such good luck on the bikes.  On Friday We started out riding our bikes and I got a nail in my tire, so we stopped and patched it and then tried to refill it with air, but we realized that the nail had gone all the way through the tube and popped the hole in both spotts.  I only had one patch on my, and so we had to walk back to the appartment to put a new tube in the tire.  Then on Saturday we had an appoinment with the [investigator] family, and we biked about 2.5 miles, when I got another flat.  So we had to walk about another 2.5 miles to get to their house, which was another 2.5 mi (we barely got there on time ) but it turned out that they weren't there, and so we started walking back home and there house is about 5 mi from our apartment, so we spent a lot of time walking (oh, I didn't mention it, but I had forgotten the bike patches, so we couldn't patch the tire, and we were in the middle of the country so there was no store to stop at.)

 

We taught [investigator couple] this week who are doing great. 

 

We visited the [Investigator] family this week, which was kind of depressing.  The havn't been to church for nearly 3 months now, and when we passed by to visit them they had a completely different attitude.  They were telling us that they felt that they could still do good things, like reading the scriptures, praying, etc, while they are at home and that they don't need to go to church.  But I know that they know differently but they still are set on not coming to church.  It's kind of hard to watch their family do so well, and then fall like that.

 

It was kind of interesting/fun this week, because there is a pastor that lives in Raeford that a lot of the missionaries in the past have known.  Elder Chupin (he's our district leader and he also served in raeford before, so he knows the pastor), when he came on exchanges with us introduced us to the pastor and he got a dinner with the pastor set up.  The fed us a lot of food and it was really good.  They are a really great family and were really nice to us.  They've had a deal with the previous elders and the told us this also that that we'd not try to teach them anything and they won't try to convert us either, so their great people and it was fun to get to know them, but I don't know how often we'll go back.

 

I think that pretty much sums up my week

Biking In The Rain

 So we talked to [investigator] this week and he came to church!!  However he's still a little bit hesitant about baptism.  I think he's worried about band, because he plays the saxaphone in the school band and he will have to play in competions on sunday during band season, and he knows that if he gets baptized that he wont be able to do that.  We have an appointment with him tonight, so were going to talk to him about that, so we'll hope all goes well, and if not we might have to drop him.

This last saturday we stopped by a potential investigators house.  we were going to teach them on sunday, so we were confirming the appointment with them.  They were getting ready for a birthday party for one of their children, so we asked them if they need help, and they had several things they needed done, so we helped them out and then right before we left we got to eat some Mole.  I don't know if you ever eaten it, but it's some really good chicken cooked in a sort of chocolate sauce (chocolate with chiles and other seasonings).

District

Caught in the Rain!

Companion

A Missionary's Best Friend!  Food!