whats up whats up!!!
I just read all of your emails you guys sent me! Thanks so much for writing me! It makes p-day super fun when i know that i get to hear about everything that’s going down back in the states! haha you all sound like your doing super well, which I’m glad to hear, cuz I pray for each one of you individually each night!!
So this letter might be all over the place cuz i have less time then usual, so forgive me.
This week...was definitely one of the harder weeks of my mission, but probably one of the most rewarding. So last Monday was actually a really hard day, I remember I didn´t have such amazing news, specifically from the sky-man, and it kinda made me down a little bit, haha, but i tried not to let it bug me to much. haha after walking away from the ciber (where we shoot the fam emails) we went shopping, and the most awful thing happened to me, haha just cuz i was down...we walked in the store and i grabbed my basket to start shopping, and i started walking by a shopping aisle and literally a quarter the aisle in the store tipped over, and i was the only one standing by it!! haha I didn’t even touch it, but everyone thought it was me, hahah some guy came running out of his office and just started freakin’ out at me!!! It was so awful! haha but i explained to him that i didn’t even touch it and that it just fell over on its own....then after that we took a 45 minute train ride to go play some b-ball of the only basketball court in Argentina... haha its still super ghetto. Well we got there and I started to change and then I realized that i forgot my basketball shoes!! I was so mad so i just played in my dress shoes. Then that night when we were proselyting nothing was going our way, we just had door after door slammed in our face... i went to bed hoping the next day would be a little bit better.
On Tuesday, i had intercombios con elder L. that’s just where we switch comps for the day. Elder L is from Uruguay, and doesn’t speak a word of English, so i was pretty nervous for it, but i know a lot more Spanish then I thought i did, it was so fun just kicking it with him the whole day and being able to just talk in Spanish. We taught lots of cool families in his area, its called, San Jose, in fact we taught so many families, that we finished teaching at 9:45, and we are suppose to be back at 9:30, so when we finished the lesson, Elder L just told me to start running back for home. I thought he just wanted to be back on time, but he told me after we got back home that the real reason we ran is cuz he was scared to be out late with me! haha he said that cuz i was white and had red hair that it freaked him out, haha so we ran home... If he´s scared to be out late with me, then i should be freaked to go out at all when the suns gone down...but I’m not...haha he’s kinda a wimp, but awesome! That night we pillow talked until probably 12:00. haha it was a blast cuz i was learning all sorts of new Spanish words, and he taught me a lot of slang! Then that morning when we woke up, we were making pancakes, and i cracked an egg, and literally found half a bird in there! I kid you not! There were bones in there, and you could totally see the skin forming around it and everything, haha and the worst part is it reeked! But that’s how you know you’re in Argentina i guess!
Later that day, i met the worst chef in all of Argentina, we went back in his kitchen to teach and talk to him, and he was like farting a bunch, and coughing into the dough, haha and he was dropping it all over the cockroach infested floor, on top of that he was super skinny, so ill live by the saying never trust a skinny chef...while i was in his house i remembered something that dad told me before i l left... he said to be sure to study the architecture... as i looked up i studied his cardboard roof and the wires hanging out of it...haha the wires had spark juice flying out of them all over the food...i think he was braking a couple codes there dad. :) But I studied it, just for you, and the bread he gave us after was pretty good! The rest of that day was literally every door slammed in our face, people shouting at us, and really no success whatsoever, it really started to get me down. i went to bed that night (i think it was Wednesday) pretty sad tired and beat, and then i closed my eyes and the alarm was going off again in what felt like seconds, but in all reality it was 6:30. I remember just not wanting to get out of bed. It had been a pretty tough week for missionary work, but i remember just rolling out of my sleeping bag onto our gross dirt floor, and i just felt too weak to stand... but i learned something really valuable in Washington, and that’s when you´re to weak to stand, kneel. So that’s what i did, I just prayed with all my might that i could have strength to just make it to the end of the night. I was drained emotionally, physically, and spiritually.... I just prayed my heart out ... and when we went outside to start teaching...the biggest rainstorm i think I’ve ever seen in my life hit, and we were walking around in it. I was cold, tired, miserable and wet, but I kept sticking one foot in front of the other, and kept praying my heart out... but that day was the same old story, lots of rejection, lots of walking around, and around 8 o’clock at night we were walking to one last house to teach, and it was probably raining the hardest it had all day and, my comp totally biffed it into something called a songhaw (spelling) but pretty much its all this sewer water, and garbage, and dead puppy juice...and he just laid there!!! I picked him up and tried wiping all the crap off him, and then gave him my coat, cuz he was stupid and didn’t have one, and I just remember looking up in the wet sky thinking...why is this so hard? Why is all this crap going on? Why am i so far away from home? I’m so completely drenched I cant see straight, I’m cold, and miserable. What am i doing!! And then in that instant elder Hollands talk came to mind " good things to come¨" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nczw6xHJ0I He says “Don’t you quit. You keep walking. You keep trying. There is help and happiness ahead.” Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don’t come until heaven. But for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come. It will be all right in the end. Trust God and believe in good things to come.” And so that’s what I did I kept walking, and i felt cold, wet, weak, and tired, but I kept walking, and i didn´t give up, and i put my trust in god. Well later that night our last appointment let us in. And there was a little miracle that happened there for me, I opened my mouth and my Spanish had never been more clear, and crisp. I was using words that i didn’t know i knew, and i truly felt that it wasn´t me speaking, but that God was speaking through me. I felt powers from heaven in that small apartment room. As we walked him in the pouring rain, I thought about how sometimes, God waits until we are at our lowest and most humble state, before he picks us up. And as i walked home that night in the pouring rain I felt warmth and peace inside my chest, both me and my comp knew that i had had power from on high in that lesson. And the only words that were ringing over and over in my head as we walked back that cold night were “Don’t you quit. You keep walking. You keep trying. There is help and happiness ahead. Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don’t come until heaven. But for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ,they come. It will be all right in the end. Trust God and believe in good things to come." And good things did come. We reactivated a family that was sealed in the temple and has been less active for four years, and we baptized their nine-year-old little girl this last Saturday, and gave her the Holy Ghost yesterday. When ever you feel that life is just to hard, that you can’t take one more moment, that the pains and stings are just too much, remember and believe in good things to come.
Well sorry if that’s all over the place!! Love you all! Pray for you constantly!!! Keep the emails coming! And mom don’t worry about me, I’m okay, I’ve only really feared for my life once here, and that’s cuz I saw a guy getting jumped in a dark alley that me and my comp happened to be walking down. But I always keep money on me to give away to them if I do get jumped! Thanks for the letter!!! But seriously, I’m okay. I’m a missionary :) and I really do feel that God protects me down here!
STAR!!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! YOU ARE NOW AS OLD AS MY COMP!!!WHOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! HOW OLD ARE YOU 25???? WHOOOOO!!!!! YEP CONGRATS! I’LL WRITE YOU A LETTER TODAY!!!
Hey sky, what was the one song about the loneliest and longest walk called by like Donnie Osmond’s son called?? I want it!!!
Dad I love you! If i can survive Argentina, you can survive a toilet in lake Powell!!! haha love you! And I’m pretty sure that I’ m gonna get to see you on the 19th!!! I’ll send you a list of things i want!!!!
Sorry if this letter doesn’t make sense! I literally have no time, and I didn´t re-read over it. Sorry for spelling to!
k I’m out!
Elder Holman
No comments:
Post a Comment