We’ve only had Tinkerbell for 5 days

las fotos de la zona Villa Elvira Bis

We have had a really long week... and I don’t know why... perhaps it is because Mother´s Day is around the corner, or because I’m going home soon... but I don’t have any desire to write home anymore. I’m sorry if my letters are really lame, but I just don’t feel it anymore. For that very reason I wrote down a few things this week that I wanted to share with you all. But none of them are very good.

We were supposed to baptize again this week, but she got super attacked by her family and ex-pastors. She had a really rough week and on Saturday when we went to fill the baptismal font, a member met us there and told us she had decided to put it off. BUMMER!!!! But we talked to her and everything is good again. In a few weeks she will be going through with it. It was really cool though because she asked me to give her the Gift of the Holy Ghost. We asked her who she wanted to baptize her and give her the Holy Ghost. She doesn’t know many male members... so she looked at me and said... you seem to have a lot of experience with the Holy Ghost, will you give me the Holy Ghost? I laughed inside but was really highly happy.

A little note about the church... it is in the middle of the most ghetto city ever. It is funny because on one side there are these old smelly houses and the other side is a construction cite... and in the middle is a house of God.

 Sorry... no time this week. Next week more.
Love ya

__________________________________________

Turns out I do have more time.

Here is a tidbit more about what we are doing. My life has been so overwhelmed with the mission standards that I don't do much else but focus on getting the standards. We put the goal to get all the standards this week... we were so close. I don't know why we call them standards, because they are so high that only one area in the entire mission has gotten them... and only once! We of course want to be cool too... so we are working for it. But with all the meetings we have as zone leaders and all the other... "ish" we need to do, it is hard (is "ish" used in the states?). So we are super tired. It is funny because at the end of the week we just can’t do anything because we are so tired. It is obvious with our words. We are often found teaching on any Sunday afternoon in a weird Spanglish slur that people don't understand. We mix up words and don't get doctrines across right. That is why God sent us out two by two. Elder Chatwin and I are having a great time together.

This week we were able to find some really super awesome families. We found this one lady who has 10 children... 9 girls and one boy. She is just waiting for the truth. She was a reference from one of the members. We simply asked her what her neighbors names were and what she knew about them. This member is not very social but had lived there in that house for about 10 years. So gave us a list of names and we visited a few. Some were good, others not so much... but this one lady is simply prepared. Her name is Mari. She lives in humble circumstances and works diligently to keep up their home of 15 people. We’ve only visited her twice, but she is wonderful. She already believes the Book of Mormon is true and wants to go to church. Not many people are that prepared in one week. She is just lovely. The truth is that finding people like her and so many other prepared people is really what keeps the excitement of the work up. We love our work because the people here love God. It is hard to explain, but I'm really happy to see so many of God’s chosen children become closer to him through what the true church has to offer.

I’ve also got some other news. Some interesting news. It all has to do with animals. Our pinch here is huge! And has been rented by missionaries for forever. There are some things that go so far back no missionary in the mission knows where it came from. For example. There is a dog that lives in the yard. Her name is Margarita. She is a short, long, fat, deaf dog with few teeth. Everyone assumes she is the house owner’s dog. But we don’t know. All we know is that we don’t feed her, and no one ever has... but yet she lives on... fat¿! She is funny. She knows not to enter the house and is truly a nasty dog, so gets very little love. But she is always around when we get home. Also, people here don’t get their animals fixed. So there are a lot of unwanted animal pregnancies. So there are a lot of unwanted animals in the streets. Most die... it is the sad truth of South American countries. I’ve often found kittens or puppies in the street and helped them out. We clean them up and find them a nice home before anything weird happens to them. This week we found the cutest little kitten. So we brought her home and cleaned her up. We even named her... Tinkerbell. We have been trying to find a family for her, but 3 member families have recently had kittens in their homes and don’t want them or any other cats. So, I don’t know what to do. We have a precious kitten that we can’t let outside because of the dog and we can’t find a home for her... I’m totally unsure as to what we are going to do with her. I’ll keep you updated. The truth is that she is adorable and super friendly. We’ve grown really fond of her. It makes us happy to come home and see her there waiting. The more time that goes by and we can’t find a home for her I get the feeling that the same thing happened with Margarita... but we’ve only had Tinkerbell for 5 days... so I’m not too worried yet.

I finished The Book of Mormon again this week. I then re-started Jesus the Christ because I’ve only read a few chapters. It is good reading. I wouldn’t say that it is as good as the Book of Mormon, but it is good.

Well, I’m out of here.

Love you all,
Tommy

PS Like I said earlier... I’m dying out on my letter writing. Can you please send me some suggestions. Like questions or whatnot.