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!

The pix of the tortillas look good.  I actually made tortillas on my own for the first time yesterday.  It's kind of hard as a missionary, because I don't have too much time to make them, because even though they do tast better homemade I just don't have the time.  However, I'm going to have to teach you how to eat with them.  You don't eat them like a taco.  just put the rice and beans and meat (or whatever  your eating on the plate.  Then take a tortilla and tear a piece off big enough to scoop up the food and eat it.  the Idea is to not use silverware.

 

[Picture eating taco made with homemade tortilla that we sent Jeff.  We made the tortillas with the tortilla maker that Jeff sent the family]

 

 

This last week I went on exchanges with our district leader..  It's been a lot of fun this transfer, because he as become our new district leader, and he is the only native missionary.  There are other natives, but the all speak english best.  So we've had district meetings all in spanish, and on exchanges I learned a lot from having to only speak spanish.  It was a lot of fun also, because Elder Chupin had served in Raeford before, so he showed me several new places to knock, and he intoduced me to a bunch of people he knew.

 

We're also teaching [investigator] still, who is beginning to progress finally.  We almost got him to come to church.  They fixed their car on saturday so that they could come to church (I'm sure coming to church wasn't the only reason, but either way it made it easier for them to come).  And they put a new battery and alternator in, but the put a used battery in, and it was dead when they tried to leave in the morning, so they didn't come.  But maybe next week.

 

This week we got to eat with a bunch or members, which is extremely rare.  We ate a lot of good food, and also have a couple of potential referrals (one that we will teach tonight)!

 

Hey, how is everyone doing?

 

So, this week as well as the week to come have/will be quite busy.  Since about fri/sat, the evenings for the coming week have literally been booked.  From mon.- tues..  Which is great, however it has been a little difficult trying to get appointments set up with other people.  But either way, it looks like there should be a lot of good things coming in this area.

 

This last week we had a zone conference, which was really good.  We learned about learning to recognize/use the holy ghost in our work.  as well as planning (which was all very similar to what we learned at timberline, just applied to missionary work.  In fact there have been a lot of things from timberline that have been very helpful as a missionary.)

 

Also at the Zone conference I was finally able to get in contact with someone that was in Raleigh, because I still hadn't heard what had happened with the people we were teaching there(fernando and lucia).  Unfortunantly I found out that they never did get baptized, they just didn't want to get married.

 

Yesterday was a really busy day,  We had meetings at the church from about 9 am - 3 pm  and then we brought the sacrament to [Branch President] at the hospital (who is doing quite well.  I told you last week that he had a brain hemmoriage, but we found out that when the bleeding started in is brain, it almost immediatly clotted/sealed off.  So he is recovering quite well, and it is anticipated that he should make a full recovery.)  then had our companion study and ate dinner.  By the time all of that was done we had time to go by a potential and then we wen't to a fireside.  The fireside was a recent convert fireside.  It was held at the stake pres. house and several recent converts were invited to tell about their conversion stories.  and Investigators also came so that that could hear the testimonies of the converts.  We had one convert that came (she was baptized before I got to Raeford).  [My companion] translated what [she] said, and I translated for one of the recent converts of another branch.  But it was quite nerve racking to translate.  It is one thing to translate into headphones, but another thing to stand up in front of a bunch of people to translate.

 

i told you last week about [investigator] and how he bailed out on his baptism.  We talked to him one more time, and he still was pretty noncomital about being baptized.  Me and [my companion] have talked about it a little bit,and at this point we don't know if there's too much more that we can teach him, so we might just have to drop him for a while, and maybe he'll decide to be baptized later on.

 

So, kind of random thought.  Yesterday I was trying to translate sacrament meeting in my head (from spanish to english).  But there came a point in one of the talks when the speaker said.  hay una diferencia entre querer y amar.  (Sorry, I'm sure you don't know what that means, but I bet dad could explain it.)  At that point in time I realized I that that line doesn't really translate very well.  It's kind of funny, because there are some things that I can say in spanish, that I honestly have know Idea how to say in English.

Baptisms Fell Through This Week

I was traveling for work all last week and didn't get this posted.  Here it is now.

I'm sure you figured this out already, but yesterday was a holiday which is why I didn't write yesterday.

So I got my new companion, his name is Elder Reimann.  We actually came out together, we were in the same district together at the MTC.  Things are going well with him.  It's been a change though, not doing nearly all of the teaching like I was doing before, it's kind of a releif.

So the two baptisims that we had planned for this saturday both fell through, it was kind of a dissapointment, but I think they'll still get baptised, they just need a little more time.

[Investigator] was one of the people that was going to get baptized, but he didn't come to church this week, and he hasn't been coming very steadily (as in once every month or so), so we decided that it would be best if we gave him a little more time.

[Other investigator] was the other person that was going to be baptized, but we talked to him on sunday night and he told us that he didn't feel like it was something he wanted to do yet.  It was quite the interesting discussion, we spent nearly and hour and a half talking with him trying to figure out what was up.  We reviewed all of the baptismal interview questions with him and he answered in the affirmative to all of them.  We talked to him about baptism and why it was important, and he gave us all the right answers, from what he says, it sounds like he understands baptism as well as most of the basic doctrine.  I afraid that he's just looking for a big sign of something big to let him know that he needs to get baptized.  But, either way were planning on teaching him still, and we'll see if we can get it figured out.

Sunday was a crazy day, finding out that [investigator] didn't want to get baptized, and then on top of that, when we went to church on sunday, [The branch president] wasn't there.  We found out that he had had a brain hemorrhage sun. morning (I think that's how you spell it, but a stroke).  So he's in the hospital right now, and were hoping he does alright.

It's only been a couple days since I last wrote you, but this and knocking a bunch of doors pretty much sums up my week.