1 Week til Transfers

Hey everyone!

This week was really awesome and it was super busy!! But, the good thing is that this week it has really cooled down here. It kind of sprinkled here a couple and has been pretty cool outside for the most part, so I´m hoping that it stays this way and that we are making our way towards fall.

So, this week had a lot of fun and cool things. We have still been teaching Manuel and he read over 30 chapters in the Book of Mormon this week and knows that this is the path that he needs to follow. But, he can´t walk more than one or two streets and the church is about an hour away to walk for him. And, the only person in the ward that has a car or a bike that could take him refuses to go over there because it is too far away (even though it is only 5 minutes out of the way). So, we really want to help him and are going to try to think of a way to get him to church this week. Then, we did service this week and we spent almost 2 hours one morning hoeing the front yard of one of our investigators and that seemed to really help them since there isn´t a man of the house. Then, on Friday, Elder Warth and Elder Gates had to come to our area to do the baptismal interview for Raul, Eduardo, and Mauricio since Elder Gates is the District leader. So, that day was really fun and that night Mauricio´s family wanted us to stay and show them how to make American Pancakes so we made pancakes with them and they loved them (especially the maple syrup that we made with a maple extract from the States). But, Elder Warth and Elder Gates missed their bus back to their area so they had to spend the night with us and we don´t really have any extra things in the apartment so Elder Warth and I offered to sleep on the floor that night, which was really uncomfortable since carpet doesn´t exist here. But, it was nice to see Elder Warth again and to get to talk to him for awhile. And, the next day, Mauricio´s family invited us over for lunch because his parents really like us and that we are trying to better their lives and help their children be better people so they straight up told us that they want us in their house as much as possible and they are always sad when we have to leave. But, that day was a little stressful because the Dad of Raul and Eduardo changed his mind like an hour before their baptism and he wasn´t going to let them be baptized. But, we went over there and talked to him and the spirit touched his heart, so we ended up having all three of their baptisms and it was awesome (even though our President left town and only trusts himself with the key to the baptismal clothes so Raul and Mauricio were baptized in our shirts haha.) But, it went well and I got to baptize Eduardo! And, I got to do all three of their confirmations the next day, Sunday, and those went well. But, the confirmation of Raul was especially cool and he had some really cool blessings and a really strong spirit in his confirmation.

So, that´s pretty much it for the week and this is the last week before transfers. So, I am getting excited to see if I will leave or if I will stay again, and this time I would really be happy with both for different reasons. I would like to go, because if I stay then I will be here for 6 months and that´s kind of a long time and I would like to get to know some other areas, but I would like to stay because I really get along with Elder Cannon and we are having some good success this transfer. But, we will see. And, today and tomorrow we have to be in the apartment at 7 at night because there is a giant carnival festival/holiday thing that is going down and the Mission President doesn´t want us outside at night. So, I´m kind of excited to get a little bit of a rest because Elder Cannon and I have been going at 100 mph this last week and we are really hurting for some rest. But, I think that´s pretty much it.

The only other thing I wanted to add in was a quote from James E. Faust (An Old Apostle) about honesty. It reads, "Honesty is more than not lying. It is truth telling, truth speaking, truth living, and truth loving...Do not rationalize that dishonesty is ever right." It´s pretty clear. I feel like I don´t have to expound on it too much. We should be honest in all that we do and be the type of person that others can trust. I hope that we can all think about that a little more and be a little more focused on being an upstanding and just citizen. I love hearing from everyone in the emails and am grateful for all the support. I hope to hear from everyone soon!!

Les Quiero,

Elder Joshua Clarine