Angels

Monday

Lots of fun. We spent the morning filling up five different buckets of water balloons. The games we played with them started civil, and then war ensued. Pretty normal pattern that happens with water balloons, but it was tons of fun. The only other exciting thing is remembering hearing about the Mr. Beast games finale drops (or has dropped) this week. I'm glad I'm on the mission, but very jealous that I can't watch it.

Tuesday

Today was wild because, at district council, the mission each received two phones for every companionship. Kinda wild that our mission was one of the very last to do so, but I can guarantee that whoever says one phone isn't enough to do work efficiently is lying. But two is a lot more convenient. The day ran pretty slow. At night, a giant group of kids came up to us because we're white. I just handed them Jesus cards, wrote a phrase in English for them, and passed out candy. I kinda realized that when I hear the phrase "Don't take candy from strangers," I've become the stranger—not the kid. I should be a little more careful passing out candy, haha. We finished the night with Susan. This was really our first time talking with her, but she's been visited by the missionaries before. We had a really awesome lesson with her after she told us that she does want to change some things in her life, so I'm hyped for her.

Wednesday

Today we had exchanges, and I got paired with Elder Panduro. He's a native from the jungle (not sure which part, though). We had a super productive day, literally running from lesson to lesson. Most notable was with Amalia, who is awesome. She's already familiar with the church and took the Restoration like a champ and told us she'll start reading the BOM. We also visited the Borja family. Mau and Cristina are getting married next week so that they can be baptized really soon! Then we ended the night by having two other Elders sleep with us so that Elder Hone and one of the other Elders could collect their carnet together early that morning. One of the Elders there was named Elder Wadsworth from the middle of nowhere, Nevada. He was desperate to sleep cold that night, so we fixed our two broken fans in the most redneck way possible. It was hilarious.

Thursday

While Elder Hone was grabbing his carnet, I was with an Ecuadorian named Alviño for the morning. We then got called to do a service for these members doing construction for their house. It was a really hot day to carry bricks and buckets of sand, but it was still fulfilling to do (up until halfway through the sand, then Elder Aviño gave out). Eventually, Hone came back, and we got invited to the family home evening with an inactive member named Barbara and her family. We connected with them super well, so I'm stoked to keep helping her and her family out.

Friday

Exchanges (again). This time I was put with Elder Nelson. When we went to lunch, there was an old crazy dude who came in, started twerking on people, then left. Super random. The exchange was a lot of fun, though, and he's got cool people in his area. There was this one bro in particular who went from almost slamming the door in our faces to accepting a Book of Mormon and a follow-up appointment. Awesome. That night we tried to grab lunch with the ZLs, but the place was packed for Valentine's Day. I honestly completely forgot the holiday existed, and it was already too late to ask that old dude from lunch to be mine. Shoot.

Saturday

Woke up still being with the ZLs and Elder Nelson, so we played spikeball for exercise. Lit. For lunch, Marco and Pilar invited us to eat with them, and we got fed this really good cooked chicken and sausage. Bussin. Later that night, we met with Basilia, who told us that she has to travel the day we set her baptism, so we offered to move it up earlier, and she was so excited about that! So we planned for it this Wednesday, which we're hyped for.

Sunday

We had a good group of people pull up to church. It was awesome! The rest of the day was chill. We had lunch with a member whose daughter-in-law likes to listen to us and isn't a member. After that, the day slowed down a lot with appointments canceling left and right. As we were leaving this area, I had a feeling to turn around and knock on this inactive member’s door. The inactive wasn’t there, but as we were leaving, this dude named Carlos came up to us crying and explaining he wants to change his life and has been looking for the missionaries for a long time. We got to his house and taught him a really good lesson about the Atonement with his son. His son speaks fluent English, by the way! Wild. And they ended up being awesome people.

Spiritual Thought: At times, I've been struggling to recognize the promptings of the Spirit, and it feels like there's so much distance sometimes. But as I was walking with Carlos, he explained that we were put where we were by angels just so that he would be able to find us. As he said that, I immediately got the craziest feeling confirming that that was true. God sends His Spirit to help you—just be patient.

This was pretty long, but thanks for making it to the end! We receive transfer news tomorrow, so I'll give y'all the updates on that next week. Also, congrats, Luke! I'm so happy for you. Read your scriptures. Say your prayers. God loves you!

-Elder Mitchell IV

Fotos:

Me and a big boat

Elder Panduro

Me and Elder Alviño after the service

My Valentines

Elder Nelson y sus amigos

A dog I found

The top of Los Cedros