I went up.

Well, for those of you who actually follow the whole 6 week mind set... you`ll understand that I just had transfers! YEAH!!! I’m staying in Villa Zula with Elder Kushlan (not too exciting). But the exciting news is that not only is Elder Trujillo receiving a Latino companion in our pench... but I went up. For those of you who don’t know what "going up" is... it means I "went up in the missionary power scale." I don’t know. It sounds like a whole lot of tish tosh to me. Pero... para que sapen: When a person goes up they first become senior companion, then district leader, then zone leader and then assistant. Somewhere in there there is training and going to the offices. Most people don’t make it up to Zone leader or even district leader. I just got moved up to senior companion. What does that mean... NOTHING!!! But it made me feel cool. Of the 20 some odd people I came here with only 2 have gone up. Elder Jones (he also jumped to district leader because he is amazing) and me. Really, I’m just excited about it because Elder Trujillo and Elder Kushlan were getting me all excited about it. The fact that I’m "going up" so young could mean X, Y or Z. It is pretty fun to try predicting the future mission life of missionaries. Well... now that you all know the gossip, we`ll return back to our program.


This week was amazingly... um... amazingly... a week. I don’t know how to give you a one sentence description on this week. It was a little all over the place. We worked a lot... and by a lot I mean a lot. We talked to more people this week then I’ve ever talked to in one week. We also taught more "other" lessons than any other week in my mission. We also bought bikes and took out a baptismal date. Things have not really been "oh my gosh did you feel that spirit crush over us" but more of... "We are working so hard that the spirit is the only thing keeping us alive". For those of you who know me well... you know I am loving it to death! I’m not so sure about the bikes yet. I’m surely not use to it in the rear area... if you know what I mean.


I’ve got some more stories though because I know you`ll all dying to hear them.


When I got here I looked through the ward list to find some likely people to go by. One named popped out at me and I read the description written next to in put there by other missionaries. It said "Sons have assaulted/robbed the missionaries and will do the same to you". That didn’t bother me one bit, so I mentioned it to my companion who flat out refused to go. The same thing happened when Elder Kushlan came. But the mother`s name kept on coming up and I just put down my foot and said we were going by... "Don’t worry, I’m big... just stay behind me (unless we are running away). So we went and found the mother. She talked to us for an hour at her door. It turns out her sons (all 3 of them) were taken to jail for supposed murder. Needless to say, she wasn't exactly in the happiest moods. We warmed up her heart and came back a few days later. We gave her another Book of Mormon and when we did she said, "I’ve been praying to God that he`ll send me his Church. That he will send me whatever church he wants me to have." We sang and read with her. She said that she`d pray and has been doing a little bit better every day. I love when God sends ME to places marked with a "you will be assaulted" sign on it. That`s why I’m here.

We`ve found some really wonderful people this week. People who have read what we`ve given them because they have been searching. People who know the truth without knowing where it comes from. People who just want us to come by. I don’t know. I’ll be honest. Things are getting exciting around here. But I really lost all ability to convey it to you all. I’m getting lost in the work... or at least I hope I am.

However, one thing that is pressing on my mind: The 10th would be Mother`s Day. That is not this Sunday... but the next. I’ll only be writing home once more before then. So... um. Just don’t worry about it. Don’t call us... we`ll call you. I’ll give you more details later. I’ll probably be calling home sometime around 2 and 8 here. So that`d be like 8am-2pm at home... SOMETHING LIKE THAT! I don’t know. Just letting you know. Oh, and another scary thought that hit me this week is that at the end of this transfer I’ll turn 21! SCARY!

Well, I love you all. I’ve really got to go though. I’m short on time... as usual. I’m sorry I’m writing so short. I’ll write more when something more firm happens

Take care of yourselves,

Elder Tommy