2011 July 11

2011 July 11

Hey Guys!

This week was packed with a bunch of exciting stuff and now that I have gotten into the habit of writing everything down that I want to tell you guys on Monday, I am not going to forget ANY of it!

Something that is pretty crazy to realize is that this week is the 6th one of the changes. We are going to be having changes again on the 20th! Something crazy is that in this change, I have had 3 companions: Barboza, Cuellar, and Hernandez. Crazy! But it’s been really great.

Last week, Ryan sent me a letter about how to be a good missionary and I liked it a lot. The first part of his letter, he gave me a bunch of really useful ideas to do missionary work but at the very end, he said "One last note. If you don´t love your companion, that is your fault. Serve him until you love him." And then we went on a little bit more. And I felt pretty grilled, I must say but only because the spirit was burning it into me (2 Nephi 33:5). But it was really good.

On Tuesday, we got to have interviews with the president and there was a lot of good stuff that happened there. One thing is that I got to talk to Elder Ronfelt. He kind of goes everywhere now that he is an assistant and he told me that Everaldo, an investigator that we found and were teaching back in Canquixaja has already stopped drinking and he and his wife want to get married and baptized! And that is awesome because when we were there, it didn´t really seem like they were very positive but, now, they want to get baptized! And that was super awesome to find out!

On Tuesday, I also had an interview with the president. And he was like (in a nutshell), "As the mission president, God has blessed me with the Gift of Discernment and, because of that, I can tell that you are a great missionary...." (and then he told me some more stuff but he told me that to keep it confidential so this is me keeping it confidential) but, needless to say, that he is a great guy. And then I went in with the Mission President´s wife, Hermana Bautista and something that was funny was that I couldn´t speak English at all. Haha, I was actually getting really frustrated with myself because I couldn´t express myself in English anymore and she doesn´t know any Spanish. It usually doesn´t matter because whenever I talk to someone in English here, they also speak Spanish so it doesn´t matter if I use Spanish words. But I guess that that is what you get when you have only had Latinos as companions for 6 months of your mission.

Something else cool that happened is that out investigator who is going to get baptized I think on the 23rd of April, Mynor, has to get married first, but when we talked to him he said that he didn´t want to get married anymore because he was upset with his girlfriend and so my compa and I gave him some marriage counseling and it was really good, because I have had some problems with some comps so we were pulling out scriptures and experiences and it was great. And the advice that Ryan gave me on how to have a good companionship was really helpful too!

This week was pretty good but given all of the things that happened, you wouldn´t really think that it would have turned out well. But what happened is that we were walking in an area of our area named Chuscaj and my compa was like "Dude! My knee hurts!" (In English because we are practicing English together) and I was like "are you okay?" and he was like "don´t worry about it--it´s nothing" So we just kept on walking but then on Friday morning he woke up and could barely walk so we called the mission nurses and they told him that he just needed to stay in the house all day. You´d think that that would have been devastating, which it was kind of was because that meant that I would have to stay in the house all day and not be working hard to bring souls to Christ, which it did but it was a way miraculous 3 days (it was on Thursday that he said that he knee hurt and Friday through Sunday when we were told to stay in the house). We couldn´t really leave the house, but, for example, we still left for a cita that was about a minute walk from our house with a menos activa and because of that cita, we now have 5 new investigators because we ran into someone who asked us to come and teach their family. And then we also have this other family who are references and they are so prepared for baptism that it isn´t even funny. And then there is this family where the mom is less active but the kids’ aren´t even members and there was a freak event that made them have so much more trust in us. So it was such a miraculous week! SOOO that means that as long as we do as much as we can do, God will bless us with success (kind of like salvation--we are saved with grace after all that we can do). So it was definitely really great to see the Lord´s hand in the work so potently this week. So thanks for putting our name in the temple!

One of the menos activos that we were visiting was named Emma (I think that it was last week when I told the story of when I gave her a blessing) and she told us when we went to visit her that she loves us like her own sons and we have been over to her house, seriously 2 times. And she also just handed over a jug and cups and bread and pineapple to us like it was nothing. Haha, she said " I would give you guys more but I don´t have anything else to give." And she, honestly, hardly knows us! What an amazing example of love. I think that if I can develop half of that love by the time I end my mission, I will be set for life. But good, good lady.

Something cool that happened is that I tried spending some money with a Q50 bill and they lady didn´t accept it and said that it was fake! My first fake bill experience! It was a wayy good fake though. It had a watermark and everything! I taped it in my journal so that I could remember it.

And I also asked Ronfeldt why the packages were taking so long to get to us and he said that it is the mail system´s fault. So I don´t know! And my hymnbook is awesome! I still haven´t had an opportunity to really use it because the chapel of Chiantla is really small and doesn´t really have a piano. But I am excited to use it!

But thanks for all of your prayers! I love you guys!

Love,

Elder Froelich