Email cincuenta y seis

September 11, 2017 

This was a weird week.

On Tuesday I exchanged with Elder Sotomarino. We didn't have a car or bikes because Elder Merrill took the keys to the bike closet with him. So we were dropped off at R's house by the other Elders.

R has a kidney stone right now, and when we got to him, he said he needed to go to the hospital right then. So we drove to a Medical clinic to see if he could have his prescription changed, but they said no, so then we drove all the way to downtown to get him to the emergency room. He needed us there to translate for him. We ended up spending the whole day at the hospital. I didn't really know what to do because R was just laying there on the hospital bed moaning in pain. I felt so bad for him, kidney stones seriously sound awful.

There was a tv on in the room, and Judge Judy was on, so in a moment of weakness I decided to change the channel to ESPN. I watched a rerun of Georgia Tech playing Tennessee from two Saturdays ago. It was cool to watch football again, but I probably could have better spent my time calling investigators and setting up appointments. I'll have plenty of time to watch football when I get home. I was disappointed in myself because of that decision.

R finally was cleared to go at 9:15, so he drove us home. We decided to extend the exchange because we weren't able to do anything that day. The next day we went with R again to the hospital to fill a prescription that they wrote for him. When we got back, it was nearly 3 o'clock, and we still didn't have bikes, and we knew the day wasn't going to work without bikes, so we called the English Elders and asked if we could borrow their bikes. We ended up having to drive to a far away bike shop so Elder Green could fix his bike, so by the time we hit the road biking, it was nearly 5.

That night on the way home, I stopped at a Hispanic Farmers market to use the bathroom, and a worker came up and started talking to Elder Sotomarino, asking him about the church. He was around our age too, so that was cool, we got his information and hopefully we will be able to see him soon.

On Thursday we had the Zone Leaders drive us over to East's area to do service for some members. The plan was that Elder Anaya and I would then go back to the South area and work, but the members we were going to help pushed the service project back to Friday. So we stayed at the apartment while Elder Anaya packed and cleaned the apartment. It was incredibly boring, again, I probably could've better spent that time making calls, or anything involving missionary worked, but for some reason I never did. I'm also disappointed in myself for that.

Elder Anaya goes home tomorrow, so this whole week he was super trunky, now I don't know if I've ever met someone so ready to go home haha. He told us about all the things he'll be able to do that we can't. It was pretty funny. Oh Elder Anaya, gotta love him.

That night we went to Branch missionary correlation with Hermano Vivas. The Sisters were pretty mad at us for not teaching English class. They called us and asked why we weren't there, and I had to tell them we were in East's area. They had to make up something on the fly and teach the class because I had forgotten to call them and tell them that we wouldn't be able to make it.

By the time we got to the church for correlation, there were still some people from English class outside talking. They teased us a little for not making it class, saying that we got lost or something haha. I was able to talk to one guy named Amuaris, from the Dominican Republic, and set up an appointment with him so that was cool. I called President Hansen and asked if we could stay the night at the East Elders apartment so we could go do service the next day, and he said yes, so it was a ton of fun getting to sleep over haha.

Service the next day ended up taking way longer than we thought, we had to move a ton of stuff out

of a storage shed back to a shed in the members back yard, and all we had was brother Dunn's pickup truck bed. We had to make a lot of trips back and forth. It was fun service though. It was 9:15 when we left the members home, so we got permission to stay the night again. We played Uno and Phase 10, it was super fun, especially because everyone got super competitive about it.

The next morning Elder Anaya and Elder Sotomarino drove us back to our apartment. That night we had soccer night, and a lot of Hispanics came, so it was a lot more competitive this week, but I still managed to score a goal, so I was pleased with myself for that haha.

Then we received transfer news. I'm staying with Elder Merrill for a third transfer! It's crazy, we have served with each other longer than any other companion either of us have had. I was pretty pumped. The only difference is we will no longer have a car. Yup. From now on we are on FULL BIKE. This will be fun.

Last night we finally saw R the stone still hasn't passed yet apparently so he is still in a lot of pain. His baptism is on hold until he gets better. We also had a cool lesson yesterday with a man we found who let us in on the spot. His name is Manuel, and he really wants to know if this is the truth.

I finally came to a point in the mission where I decided that I'm simply going to do want I can, and use the Atonement constantly, and trust in my Savior. I'm done stressing over if I'm working hard enough or not, I'm simply going to go to work. I'm super excited for this next transfer.

Have a great week, love y'all!

Pics: The Civil Rights museum, and the site where Martin Luther King Junior was killed from last Pday; Elder Anaya's funeral; Exchanges with Elder Sotomarino, visiting our friend Edwin, who is black but from Honduras; The last District photo