I Love Going to English Class

Hey family,

So this week has been going good so far. I am writing this on Tuesday night. 

So we had no money in the office for the last like 2 weeks because it is the end of the year and we have to close the accounts. Needless to say it is hard to run an office without money. We have all been avoiding doing any errands and it is really slowing things down.We have money now though so it is all turning around. 

I still have some hot cheetos and some gardettos and the littler snacks Santa gave me. 

Me and Elder Wright went out on Monday and all of our appointments fell through by like 7 o{clock. It also just so happened to be pouring rain. Which is perfect for contacting. When you are all wet from the rain it is a lot easier to get sympathy points. 

We contacted a whole bunch of people and Elder Wright had just turned to me and said his is some of the best contacting that I have ever done, right as we knocked on a door. The guy came up to the window and asked us who we were and I went to shake his hand and he just laughed and said "No les creo," which means I don't believe you. He then proceeded to walk away and ignore us. Elder Wright really jinxed us.

We have hit week 3 of this transfer which means that I am about to be calling families again. It got a little hectic trying to request flights and get them at the times we want. 

These last couple of days I have really seen how God chooses his leaders. 

President Whitesides never forgets ANYTHING. There are 4 secretaries in the office and he reminds all of us of things we had forgotten about in our one and only job. I don't believe there is any other way for someone to do that unless it be through God.  

 

This morning President Whitesides sent us a text to let us know that our beloved Prophet Thomas Spencer Monson had passed away the night before at 10 PM in his home.  I remember very little of President Gordon B. Hinkley and a little about the day he died. With President Monson it is different. He was the prophet that signed my mission call to send me here.  Do you guys remember the last words he personally gave to us in April?  It was about the Book of Mormon. That the time for strong testimonies in the Book of Mormon is now. If you don't have a strong testimony in the Book of Mormon now is the time to get one. 

God preserves his leaders until they can fulfill the divine nature of their calling. It is a sad day to see him go but it is also a sign that Thomas S. Monson served the Lord with everything he had and he gave us everything the Lord needed him to. There is no doubt in my mind that he is somewhere with his wife that he loved so much in a much better place.

Hey fun fact. I need glasses. I took an eye exam for free because Elder Pizarro had to go and do  some stuff so I went with him. After the test the dude explained to me that my eye sight is good but it is still failing me. He said that glasses will definitely make me see better and they will start to balance out my bad eyesight and make it perfect so that I wont need glasses when I am older. The mission doesn't cover that though so that is something we need to talk about.

We found drunk D again but this time he told us that he had a dream that God told him he needed to learn more about the Book of Mormon. He was drunk though so I don't know how much we can weigh on that. 

We had record attendance to our English classes though. There were 11 people. Elder Whiting had the class this time and he is a funny guy. He was from the first group I received at the office which means he has like less than 2 transfers in the mission. He is super happy and a good teacher he just lacked a little confidence that I made up for.  There is this little boy and his sister that always come to classes and their dad owns a pizza place and after the class he always gives us a free big pizza! I love going to English classes. 

Also, this week I have used a lot of taxis because I did a lot of errands this week.  I had a great experience though. Me and Elder Pizarro were in a taxi coming back from somewhere and he started talking to the taxi driver but he wasn't very talkative. He just answered questions very briefly. I figured I might as well make him laugh and get to know him so I started to talk to him and he started to open up a little bit more.  It turns out he is from Venezuela. He has been here a little over a year but his family is still in Venezuela. His two daughters and his wife. There are a lot of Venezuelan immigrants here in Colombia and they are usually some of the best investigators. 

We were getting close to the office so Elder Pizarro asked him a question. He said ¨If God and Christ were right in front of you here on the Earth and you had one question to ask what would it be?¨ He thought about it and replied ¨Why is there so many bad things in this world and why does he let it happen?¨ 

Immediately I thought of a scripture in Alma 14 when Alma and Amulek couldn't save all the people from being killed because it wasn't Gods will. I pulled out a Book of Mormon that I had ironically placed in my bag right before leaving for this errand. It was actually the first time I had taken my bag with us. 

As we pulled up to the office I gave it to him explaining what it was just a little and he seemed somewhat interested but then I told him that it was a gift and it was free. I will never forget the way his face lit up as I said that. He just couldn't stop looking through his new gift. He thanked us so sincerely. As we entered our building he was already reading the chapter I had left for him.

I don't know what has happened with him or what will but I know God put us in that taxi. 

So we went to the zoo today and I didn't take my camera so oops. Elder Sarnowski did though so I will send from his camera. 

Anyways that was my week! I love you guys! 

Con Amor,