Heellllooooo my family!
Another P-day has come! This week is transfers week too! This means that 6 weeks have passed since I’ve been with Elder Lima. Honestly, I cannot believe how fast this transfer has gone. It’s absolutely crazy how fast time is flying here for me. It actually kind of freaked me out a bit the other day when I thought about it, about the fact that really, my mission is going to go by like the blink of an eye, and I really feel like I haven’t begun to really kick into action and become the super missionary that I felt I would be. I definitely thought that by 6 months in I would be totally running things and baptizing like crazy, but the reality is that I feel like I’ve only recently gotten to a comfortable level of fluency in the language, and while I’m happy and having fun and working hard, it does seem like this transfer with Elder Lima will end like it started: without a lot of people to teach, and without prospects of anybody ready to be baptized.
What I really want is to be able to be that type of scriptural missionary that prays and fasts and works diligently every second of every hour, have visions of where and who to contact, know exactly what to say to every person to help them gain a testimony, do a bunch of miracles, and just convert the entire area just like Ammon and Aaron did with the Lamanites. That’s what I want. And while I know that, yeah, I guess it’s possible, I can’t help but hold back a little bit, and settle for the vision of the modern missionary: a young person who’s in a strange place, who messes up a bunch, learns a bunch, makes a bunch of friends with companions and with the people, does his work, but has fun and every so often has a couple really cool spiritual experiences.
See the difference?
It’s the difference between Jack and Locke in Lost: Jack woke up confused in the jungle, and started to act like anyone would expect a good doctor to do in the same situation, sharing the same fears and desires of everyone else on the island, and people looked up to him because they identified with him. Locke, on the other hand, woke up among the wreckage and destruction with an air of destiny, and everyone was surprised to see him become completely at home on the island, hunting, exploring, trying to find out the deeper meaning of things. People looked up to Locke, because he was different, because he didn’t share the same fears and desires as the rest of the people on the island. Both guys are good, I think, but it’s different. So basically I want to be Locke, but it’s a lot easier to try to be Jack. Unfortunately, right now I feel a lot like Boone or Charlie, just kind of bumbling around and doing a lot of cool things, but nothing REALLY amazing still. It’ll come.
Okay, I won’t continue on that thread more; just a peek into my mind today. :)
So the work is kind of going the same: we have a couple families we’re working with, that are making progress but many still have not yet come to church, we’re trying to contact every day and find new people, and we average maybe 2 new families per day, but at the same time we’re cutting families that don’t show or don’t progress. I’ll describe our most promising families:
Celson is a nonmember husband of Katcha, a member who was inactive but is coming back to the church. Katcha lost her sight suddenly about 3 years ago, and because of this, her last husband committed suicide, and she was depressed for a long time but is finally getting better and getting used to her new mode of life. Really sad story. Celson is catholic and works in construction and has lived a single life of work, bars and football games. But he’s starting to ask questions about what he really wants out of life, and we’re helping him. He really has promise but because he smokes it might be a while before he’s baptized.
Lila is a mother of 5 who has a member friend Carla, and has been reading the Book of Mormon regularly every day. Really awesome! She loves visiting with the missionaries and just conversing and shooting the breeze and asking about America and our lives and I think she will be baptized, which will probably lead her 2 youngest children to be baptized as well, but… she needs to stop smoking which will take a while.
We have a couple other families which we haven’t met with very much, but seem to have promise, like Cristina who has two young boys, one which reminds me of Zach, actually. And Guilarme and Juliana, who have 2 girls, the oldest of which is undergoing cancer treatments.
Hmmm. Right now I’m on a division in Ereshin, with two other missionaries. The problem is that they’ve finished (quite quickly I think!) writing, and want to go bowling. So they’re waiting for me to finish. Elder Lima usually watches cartoons for hours while I type, so it’s a bit different this week. I think I’m going to have to end it early this week. Sorry :(.
I am going to make a quick video to send to you to quickly wrap up everything else that I wanted to say.
see my video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_9OWJNKkgY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYXI7RuM9zU
Okay,
Love love love you guys sooooo much! Wish I had more time to write this week, but I promise I will next week.
Dad, good luck with work man, you’ve got this! I believe in you!
Mom, again, Happy Birthday! You have no idea how many huge parties you really do deserve Mom, (hint: it’s a lot).
Lyns! You asked for some advice, and I wish I could be more detailed, but just make a plan of all the things you want to accomplish, when you want to accomplish them, and don’t go too hard or too easy on yourself, then just focus on every step one at a time, and make sure you stay happy and pray every step, just love it as it comes!
Kait kait! Love you sis! I loved seeing our pictures together! Send me a Japanese word to learn! Big hug for my Kaitlin!
Brendon, love you buddy. Go for it man! I love that we’re having such different adventures here. Really miss ya buddy. Congrats on the 6 month mark! It’s gonna be so fun to hang out together in a year and a half!
Lacey, I did get you card! Thank you so much! Loved it! And your letter! Hope all is well in your beautiful little fam.
Jody! Thanks for the quick note! Good plan! I love you dearly my good aunt!
Grandma Imogene, thank you for the letter and the update!
Judith and Grandpa, thanks so much for keeping in touch and helping us out here! It really helps a lot!
Well, wish I could have an hour or so just to write to each one of my relatives individually, but I guess it’ll have to wait until a calmer P-day…
Have a good week everyone!
Love love and lot more!
Tchau!
Elder Con
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