20 May 2019

It's not been too terribly rainy here, which has been nice. It would just make the humidity here even more unbearable. We just hit 95 degrees a couple of days ago, and the humidity is pretty bad too. I checked the weather for Mesa, and it's going to be hotter here all week than there. And again, the humidity. I'm just glad I don't have to deal with a second full summer here. Come to think of it, I only had to spend one August here. Not bad, huh? 

As for the tracting, I've done almost none of that recently. It's weird. President Holland is really encouraging us to move away from it as much as possible and use other ways to find new people to teach. It is still going pretty well, we started teaching a member's boyfriend this week. Come to think of it, I'm still not 100% sure that the member knows about it. We found him (Gio) trying to talk to his mom who had been taught about a year before, and he really is open to learning a lot. He was the one who told us that his girlfriend was a member, and the daughter of the first counselor. We also don't think that the dad knows, so we're trying to figure out our next step with him. It's an interesting situation. 

We're also teaching Nino and Maria, which is a very interesting situation. Nino got injured at work a few years back after falling and hitting his head, so now he has the approximate mental capacity of a six year old, according to Maria. Basically, we teach Maria and try to keep Nino out of trouble. A member named Brother Centeno lives in their neighborhood and has been helping us out with them. We tried to visit them last night, but Nino was trying to "fix" the hose and didn't want to come in, so we're just going to go back on Tuesday. Their 20 year old daughter is home from college, so we'll try to start teaching her as well. I'll be on exchange in another area on Tuesday, so I won't have too many details on how well it goes, but I'll do my best to get them. 

Also on Tuesday, (but before the exchange) we're going to have a second Spanish Summit. That's where all of the Spanish missionaries in the mission get together and basically discuss how to best do Spanish work, because President Holland is recognizing that it is fundamentally different than English work and wants us to have more specific training. So, you'll probably get some pictures from that as well. 

The only thing that I really have pictures of this week was an exchange with the Spanish Training Leaders, two experienced missionaries who are basically the Assistants but for just the Spanish missionaries. I went with Elder Crowton, and it was pretty fun. He and I go home together, and we spent a little time just talking about how to not get really, really trunky. And then Harry Potter. It was a mixed bag. 

Elizabeth is still doing well. I was on exchange for her last appointment, but they were talking about temple work and baptisms for the dead. She asked them about if her 6 week old daughter was in heaven, and they read Moroni 8 with her. She started crying and was super happy to know that she could see her daughter again. We talked with her the next day and she was still pretty emotional about it. I love seeing how much the restored gospel can bless people's lives, and I know that the Book of Mormon teaches us the truths that we need! 

I think that's about it for the week, see ya! 

(The picture is just us and the STLs petting a horse that's in our backyard. Ish.)