Monday, February 24, 2014

Feb 17, 2014 and Feb 24, 2014

This week was a pretty good week! We worked hard to get a baptism this week, but it didn't quite work out, but we have 3 ready for this week so, Vamos Arriba! It's been hard to visit all the people we have to visit because we don't really have a lot of help from the members, but they are doing a lot better now, I think they realized this week when we didn't have any baptisms the members realized that they like having baptisms and they want to help more so that's pretty awesome!!!

This week has been super hot and pretty chilly in the nights, so it's cooling down, I hope!!!

We've got a lot of really great investigators and it's just incredible to see all of their progress!!! It's super cool what the gospel does to their lives!

This Friday we took a little trip to another Zone for a short little Conference and it was pretty good! Our temporary mission president is a super capò!!! He's been president before and he's been a temporary here before!

But after the conference at the house we had 6 other elders staying the night, so like always, we bought pizza, the same pizza as always. The next morning was awful!!! We were all fighting for the bathroom and it was just an awful day, but yesterday and today were a lot better!!!

Oh I also thought I had lost my wallet, up until the point I called the financers and cancelled my church card, but I found it this morning so it's all ok"!!! Other than being sick though, this week was super good, we just need more time in the day to teach everyone we want!! Today our PDay only goes till 3 and not 6 because WED we get to go to the temple!!!! I'm super excited!!! I'll finally get to see the new video, and it's gonna be a great day!!! LOVE YOU ALL TONS!!!!



Feb 24, 2014

This week was a great week!!! We ended the week with 3 baptisms on Sunday and was super awesome!!! Luis Miguel, Kevin and Romina. Luis Miguel I had to baptize him 3 times because he's a big kid and I couldn't get his head all the way under the water!!! It was so hard!!! I think the reason I got it on the third time was we started to fill up the water so that there was more agua in the font!!! It was a super awesome experience!!! We went by there house later that day and it's just incredible to see the difference in there faces and knowing how much better there lives are going to be!!! Our zone is going crazy with baptisms!!! Our goal was 14 and we have 24!!!! Our district has 15 and our area has 10!!!!

 I've learned so much from my new comp that I wanna see if I can do it with a different comp! The weather has still been crazy like in Utah, but pretty much every night is chilly so we can sleep super well!!!! The members still aren't helping a ton, but they are slowly getting to the point of helping us more with all the baptisms we've had. It's super incredible everything that I've learned in the mission and I can just look back on it all and see how the mission is preparing us to be the most successful people we can possibly be in our lives!!!! The changes I've seen is just incredible and I will continue to work as hard as can for the people in this country, so that they can live with their families for eternity like we can!!!! But first I have to learn how to understand them!!!! No, I can understand them pretty well, but they definitely talk a lot different than in my first area!!! They're all from farms and fields here and my other area was more city so its super different here, but I like the challenge, not really, I'm just used to it by now!!!

Oh yeah and now I'm doing this promise from Pres Hinckley that if you memorize 1 scripture everyday for 40 days you willl have a photographic memory, It's super hard, I almost quit yesterday, but now I'm on day 12!!!! It's actually helped a lot in charlas and stuff to have scriptures memorized!!!!

The temple was incredible and the new video just blew all of our minds!!!! We packed that little temple literally to the limits! But even though the video was in Spanish, i feel like I understand everything and I didn't even have to try and translate everything in my head, so that was awesome!!! The only part not so awesome was the 4 hour bus trip their and then 4 hours back, but other than that it was great!!!

(For all of you following Elder Oliver, I think we should count the number of times he says SUPER, AWESOME, and GREAT and then encourage him to strengthen his vocabulary when he gets home:)  I am so glad that he is happy, healthy and excited to be sharing the gospel!

Monday, February 10, 2014

Bailey is having a bit of a rough time

Those of you who know and love Bailey, please keep him in your prayers.  This is the first bit of "negativity" that we have heard.  I am sure that he is fine, but your prayers and any snail mail letters or emails would certainly be appreciated!

So this week was incredible and incredibly hard and annoying!!!! First off, we had our 3 baptisms!!!!! That makes it 10 in the past 3 weeks!!!! I have no idea how we are finding all of thes people, but we just work and work and then work harder!!!! We reached all the goals for our numbers this week as an area and were at the top of the chart!!!! It's not a competition, but it's definitely good to see the fruits of your labor. Especially when your leaders don't believe in you... But what are we gonna do...?

I think it was Wed, the assistants showed up at our house to do an intercambio with the zone leaders, it was actually divisions. That day I was with E' Ipson from my district on an intercambio and I challenged the Assistants with our Zone Leaders to see who could find 10 new investigators first, which was a very high goal for one day!!! They only needed to find 5 each, but we won, it was awesome to have a little friendly competition to help the people here..... especially when you win!!!

Even though we baptized, it's been kind of a rough week... Our Mission Pres and the Assistants want us to baptize, but then our Zone leaders, Stake Pres and bishop and members aren't happy with us. I don't understand why, we baptize, they're all mad, we don't baptize, they're all mad, but who cares, as long as were baptizing!!!

My comp is awesome and he helps me a ton have patience and figure out what we should do! He's  helped me more than you can imagine this week! And then today we didn't have the other missionaries at the house helping us clean and I was kind of upset, but then my comp starting singing "put your shoulder to the wheel" (in English even) and I remembered all the crappy days doing bounce houses with dad, when everyone was screwing up and we had to fix all the problems and we would sing, "Put Your Shoulder to the Bounce House"! It's really incredible the things you remember from the past! It's pretty much what you've learned and time spent with the family (that matters), it's pretty awesome. That's why I'm glad we're helping all these kids here get baptized, they're going to remember the experiences in the church their whole life, but probably none of the other stupid mistakes they make outside of church, its super awesome!!!

Oh the weather has sucked this week, it's been hot and rainy, hotter and rainier or just super hot. I think Thurs night here it was 89 degrees in the house at like 11:30.  Lets just say it was kind of hot! But Over all, I'm doing great and I love seeing people learn about the gospel and hearing from you guys!!! Love you tons!!!!

Monday, February 3, 2014

Feb. 3, 2014

Hello friends and family--- Could you please help me out by emailing me pictures of yourselves so that I can mail them to Bailey in a small photobook?  Cary--- ilovetobecici@gmail.com

Wow, this week was another incredible week!!!! The mission had the goal of 130 baptisms in January and we reached it! We heard that one day Elder Anderson called the mission president and said, "President, how are you guys doing with your baptisms?" And president said, " Well it looks like we going to reach it and more", Then Elder Anderson said, "President, are goals, limits?" And then he put the goal to beat the old record, 152, we reached 155!!! It was an incredible month!!!!

Our President went home last Monday and our new President, Pres Cook from Idaho, isn't going to get here until the third week of March. so I think we have a 70 or someone as our Pres for a little bit.... But this is going to be an incredible month!!! I don't know what the goal is yet, but we are going to reach it!!!

For our area our goal is 8 and we had 4 this Sunday!!!!!! And 3 more this upcoming Sunday!!!! We're doing super awesome!!! We've been working a fool, but we are definitely seeing the fruits of our labors!! This week we reached all the normas de excelencia, these are the standards of excellency the mission has for every week and it's a task to reach them, but I finally did it for the first time and now I want to do it every week!!! Our baptisms names were, Marcos 9, Micaele 9, Pablo and Ismael 12. They are hopefully going to be the only 2 deacons we have in the ward in the next 2 weeks!!!! It was incredible this Sunday to be in a ward with only 8 priesthood holders in the whole ward, well this Sunday, and they all have the Melchezidek Priesthood... That's including us as well!!!

It's because here if it's hot, rainy, cold or between 2-5, everyone has a nap!!!! and nothing is opened!!!! They are super duper lazy down here!!!! They wonder why they're poor, it's because they sleep all day..... and the funny thing is there is a super rich member in the stake that has like 4 pharmacies and this little food car and it is by far the most successful food car here!!!! Why? it's great food, cheap and opened during lunch hours....

But the past 2 weeks have been super stormy and rainy and we here that this whole month is gonna be like that.... Oh well, OH yea I've learned that water proof shoes aren't that helpful... My pants get wet, which gets my socks wet and then the water gets in your shoes and never leaves. It's been super hard to dry my shoes and clothes, but I like the rain it's fun!!! I've learned the trick to missionary work and really to life is just the attitude that you have about everything!!! That's my week!!! Love you all!!!!