Our part of the city of t-bo is super super tranquilo. We’re almost out in the sticks, but not quite. We’re just outside of the road and our area is composed of roughly 5 neighborhoods. You can see at least two of the other neighborhoods from each area so they’re really not spread out that much but there is at least a couple of blocks between each area and lots of fields in that area.
Our ward is really good. They love the missionaries and are willing to help us. The catch is, church attendance has steadily been dropping for about a month now, so we’ve got to reverse that trend and by doing so that should help us to be able to find new investigators, something that we’ve been lacking. Sunday here was a tough day for the ward. Attendance was pretty low for some reason so that was one of our main concerns in ward council. We’re really trying to stregthen the ward with reactivation and solid investigators. Last week was the primary program. There was a little boy who was just full to bursting with energy…..we’re talking Spencer Lewis-esque antics here. Quite enjoyable. Lil’ Spencer Lewis is a legend, so this kid really has nothin on him, but I thought about him anyways. Hello to the Lewis family :)
All that being said, I’ve been pondering and praying and studying a lot as to how the Lord wants me to be working here so we’ll see what this week brings. Which brings us to "The who" which is the real problem actually….. we’re almost pretty much starting from zero with investigators because we really didn’t have any when I got here. We’re doing a lot of looking and trying to activate memebers and find through them. Our most promising investigators, Daianna and Victoria have been …..complicated lately. Daianna has had to reschedule every single day of the week for some reason or another and didn’t come to church. Victoria…..well turns out she wasn’t interested in Jesus Christ, just my companion. So we left her rather quickly. Don’t want problems in that area!
There are really no mosquitoes here and the weather is just…..hot. Just plain hot, but there is usually always a breeze and the temps really haven’t gotten that high yet, so whenever I even pause to consider if it’s hot or not, I just tell myself that I’ve passed through worse. Today is pretty humid and it’s been needing to rain all week long to get rid of the humidity, but thus far I don’t think it’s rained since my second day here.
Elder Mar is great. We get along really well and he’s really happy to be out here a lot. We laugh and joke a lot, but we’re still very focused on helping and loving the people. We get along really well. He’s still really new so I have to be careful not to dominate lessons because he’s not a very aggressive teacher. That means we’ve been doing a LOT of practices to sharpen up his blades. Problem is, he’s always using the same moves, or rather he says a lot of the same things and uses a lot of the same examples, which means we have to boost his arsenal. I like to use a lot of tools when I’m working, which means my knife belt is full and always growing. You know how I like to paint pretty pictures with precise words. ?
Not only is my companion great, but my district is GREAT TOO!! I love them all a lot. This last district meeting was fantastic! I wish you guys could have been there because I really don’t know how to describe it. We talked a lot about the spirit and helping other people by being powerful vessels of the spirit. There was a lot of…..stunned and heavy silence. The spirit was very very strong and I know we all left feeling pretty animated.
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| The Elders in the District |
This last Friday….we did service…..and I just can’t believe it still. We get there and the brother says, you boys ready? Yes….Good. Lets go. We arrive at his horse pasture. Alright, what you’re going to be doing today is gathering raw organic materials to aid in the fertilization of gardens. Yup. That’s right. I was pickin up horse poop. With my bare hands. And the fresher the better. I picked up some pretty warm turds. And hucked a couple at my comp, just to say I’ve flung poo. We got back to his house with some rather dirty hands….well he’s a nurse and had a good scrubber and gnarly soap and told us to scrub our hands down until the smell was gone so it’s all good. Then…I fell off my bike on the way home. We were coming down a big dirt hill to a sharp turn and so I knew I was gonna fall and put my foot down and did a slow split and then sat down. Pretty darn funny. People came running to check on my and I just sat there and laughed and then stood up and we left.
Elder Mar and I got the Christmas tree up on Saturday night, so we’re both pretty excited about that. We had a strand of Christmas lights in the house, but it doesn’t work which was pretty depressing, but we had a good time. We listened to Christmas music and decorated our tree. And got a little bit of the Christmas spirit flowing here in South America, where the sun is hot and the fireworks are cheap and easily found. Lots and lots of fireworks….all the time….kinda obnoxious but hey... Whatevs.
I’m going on divisions tomorrow after zone capacitation (not to be confused with zone conference , that’s next week.) We’re always working super hard here, racing around to each appointment trying to talk with people and help them out. I’m happy and tired….I'm currently trying to figure out how I can have a greater appreciation for the Atonement of Christ and what it means for me personally… Just something for each of us to think on during the week. Have a great week.
Elder Simpson
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