Email cuarenta y siete: don't eat the chicken

July 3, 2017 

Well folks this week was pretty interesting. Between three popped tires, and 3 days of food poisoning, not a whole lot was accomplished, but many lessons were learned.


Monday night we went over to Hermano Benitez's house and asked him how we can get more involved with the current Branch Mission Leader. We got some awesome advice.

 On Tuesday we had District Meeting. Elder Sotomarino is the District Leader (I have been demoted to junior comp again haha). I don't mind. There was some debate last transfer about who was going to be the new Zone Leader after Elder Sweeten left, a few people thought it was going to be me. I'm glad Elder Larrain is the new ZL, I definitely don't feel prepared for that responsibility. Elder Sotomarino instructed about the story of Alma chapter 8, of Alma preaching in Ammonihah, and related it to our ministry here.

 Alma had just come from the land of Melek, where he had baptized like crazy. Then the Lord called him to Ammonihah. I imagine he wasn't too thrilled about that transfer news. The people were very wicked and hard hearted, so Alma prayed. Verse 10  describes his prayer like this: "Nevertheless Alma labored much in the spirit, wrestling with God in mighty prayer, that he would pour out his Spirit upon the people who were in the city; that he would also grant that he might baptize them unto repentance." So this guy is just praying his heart out, and he goes out and preaches the word. And what happens? He gets cast out. They kick him out of the city. So Alma thinks "Alright that sucked, hopefully I can find somewhere else to go preach." But the Lord calls him again to Ammonihah. Alma obeys. And what happens? He meets the greatest junior companion of all time: Amulek. They preach the Gospel together, contend with the judges and lawyers, are tried, beaten, and imprisoned. With continued faith, the prison gets absolutely destroyed and those that persecuted them are slain. Zeezrom is converted, and Alma and Aumulek go and baptize like crazy in the land of Sidom. The Lord will always test our faith and our obedience before giving us success.

 On Tuesday night I made a foolish decision to eat some food an investigator gave that I had accidentally left out overnight. It passed the smell test, and tasted good still, so I thought I was fine. Well Wednesday morning I woke up with a tummy ache and I knew that that had been a terrible life decision. We were on bikes all day, so I pressed through it. My back tube exploded when I tried to clear a GIANT pot hole, so we to walked all the way back to the apartment to fix the tube. That took a big chunk out of proselyting time. We had dinner with Hermana Trejo, and I still ate the food even though I was suffering the whole time. I didn't want to offend her haha.

 Thursday morning when I woke up I knew I was going to have problems. I went right back to sleep, woke up 20 minutes later and then began the longest day of my life. It was a never ending river than ran both ways. It was so bad that Thursday night we pulled my mattress into the bathroom so I didn't have to keep walking to it. Friday morning was pretty bad too, but throughout the day I started feeling better. So much in fact, that we went out to eat, because I was starving. We had our good friend Randy take us to a BBQ spot in Midtown. Randy is a funny guy. Elder Merrill and Elder Spencer met him last transfer, and he fell in love with the missionaries. He takes us out to eat basically whenever we want. After we got back I realized I was not ok.

I woke Saturday morning still sick, and spent most of the day in the apartment, but we were finally able to get out and visit people at 4. During all this down time I had a lot of time to think to myself. I was thinking about how stressed I get sometimes because I feel such a huge responsibility as a missionary. I feel sometimes that I am never doing enough. As I thought about this I almost heard a voice say: "I only require two things of you: that you trust in me and that you love me." That brought me a ton of peace, and made my responsibility seem a little less overwhelming.

 I also watched the face to face events with David Archuleta and the Piano Guys. They were really good, but almost made me a little depressed. Their talents are so evident, they are world class. One thing I have struggled with for the past couple years is feeling like I don't have any talents. When I was a kid, I was really good at drawing and singing. I never really worked to develop them, and I eventually lost them. So what I am I good at now? I devoted so much of my life to basketball at didn't even make the team. I've decided that my talent is speaking Spanish. It's not much, and I don't even speak that good, but it's something. Heavenly Father has blessed me with the gift of tongues, and I'm not going to let another one of His gifts fall by the wayside. I'm going to try to get as good at speaking as possible.

 Understanding Spanish is another story...hopefully that will come haha. Anyways I had good week even among all the...setbacks. The Church is true, the Book is blue, DONT EAT THE CHICKEN WHATEVER YOU DO!