That's how I'm gonna start this email, with that short word, woah.
I feel like so much has happened in this past week. Whirlwind kind of week of life-changing moments. But isn't that what the mission is all about? Also, let me include one other phrase that is something I will tell myself for the rest of the mission, which is this... listen up everyone: "Deja que la misión te cambie." Which really means, "Let the mission change you." This is what I have done in the last week, and what I will do always. I have let the mission change me.
In my weekly letters from my mom she always sends me my friend, Max Tarver's email of what he writes for his blog. His blog entry that I just got recently was all about illegal downloading, or torrenting, of music, videos, games, etc. Well in this letter he said that he is NEVER going to download music or anything again. WOAH (there's that word again!). He's the one that taught me how to torrent, way back when, and now says that he was reading in the scriptures and says that flat out that IT IS STEALING. Which really is what it is, stealing. He said that he took his mp3 player and erased all the music and stuff that he hadn't bought, which only left him with the Book of Mormon audio in Spanish! It really got me thinking, why? Why am I always downloading music illegally, for free? So I, like him, decided to get rid of all the music that I had gotten for downloading like that. It really has changed my life. I have a lot more movies and TV shows back home and music and everything that is sitting there in my room. As soon as I get home from my mission, I'm going to get rid of all of it. Like Max said, It is a COMMANDENT, and it doesn't really matter why God gave it to us, we need to obey it. It's hard to describe how I feel exactly, especially writing it in an email, but I feel great! "Deja que la mision te cambie." It really strengthened my testimony of prayer, repentance, and reflexion. I feel great and I promise you all, friends, family, loved ones, that I won't be doing that crap anymore.
Ok, what else this week? Oh, it's been raining and thunderstorms a lot lately, it's great! I love hearing these monsterous thunder bangs here, it's crazy loud. (And you all know the trick about when you see the lighting, then you start counting seconds, and apparently for how many seconds it takes to hear the thunder, that's how many miles away it is.) Well we were walking home at nighttime a few days ago, and I saw the lighting, RIGHT in front of me, like it almost hit me, I'm not joking or exaggerating. Less than a quarter of a second later, I hear the thunder louder than ever before. SO terrifying, I almost got struck by lightning!!!
But not only that life-threatening stuff was exciting this week, it's been exciting this week because like I said, it has been a week of changes. Saavedra and I are getting along a lot better now, working pretty hard. We now have 5 baptism fechas with people for the 22nd of June, and it's gonna be great. They are really good guys. 1 is with the guy, González that works at the telephone tower, (don't know if you remember him), he's the guy that really believed that God is Jehovah, or Jehová in Spanish, haha. We've explained to him a lot about that; but to prepare him more for his baptism on the 22nd, we need to clarify even more. But the first thing that the person needs to be baptized is the desire, and he certainly has the desire to be baptized. The other 4 are guys ages 14 to 16, Teachers and Priests, baby, building up the priesthood power of our rama! I'm really looking forward to those. They're great jovenes and they will be good faithful members, come to church every week and have for the past like 2 months.
Now, tulamasi... sounds like a type of sushi right? WRONG! It is a Kuna soup, that the Kunas cook in their houses in a pot like a giant witch's cauldron, boiling and toiling, and it tastes disgusting! Let me describe what's in it: Plain platanos, hot water, a bit of salt if you like, plain yucca, and maybe, if you're lucky, a piece of fish. That's it. It is just so boring and terrible, and the Kunas eat it up like we Americans do hamburgers, haha.
Old Testament reading is going well, just read about Moses and all of the Lord's signs to Pharaoh to let the people free, it's an awesome story. Also, I'm helping Saavedra learn a bit of English, because he wants to "Go to Utah, then BYU and find a wife", haha. The plan of all the Latins, is to marry gorgeous LDS American girls! :) I taught him a very useful phrase that many Americans use, and his accent for that phrase is practically perfect for how much practice he's done on it. The phrase is: "Whats up dude?" Haha, it's great, very useful in the US.
Great week, working hard in mi pueblo de Veracruz, terminando esta area con exito. 2 scriptures for you all this week. First is in the Old Testament in Genesis 39: 7-12, which is the story of Joseph and Potipher's wife. It is a great example to all of us that when temptations come, sometimes we actually need to, RUN away from them, without hesitation. He is a great example to everyone of obeying the commandments and escaping temptations. Lastly, Alma, in the Book of Mormon, Alma 5:26, 27, it talks about and has the question for us, "Have you experienced a mighty change of heart?" That's how you know that repentance is real, when you "no longer desire to do evil". It is a wonderful, wonderful chapter.
Love you all very much, Happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there, this Sunday is your day. I love my dad very very much, thank you for all you do, dad :)
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