Tazer, Pepper Spray, and a Seventy

Well with what an interesting name comes some interesting stories. Well as we all know a lot of teenage boys in one room can cause havoc, well maybe it happened at this time. Well, our zone leader has a flashlight and we were like okay cool, until he pressed a button and it sent out volts of energy. Uh oh, not what a room full of missionaries needed. So after moments of pondering and thinking, the other zone leader sparked an idea, lets grab each other and stand in a circle and I will shock one of you guys! Well...we tried it, but it took awhile until someone was brave enough. He went around to everyone and they backed out. So he came to me and I was like, well, how bad can it really be? So he got me in the arm, but it wasnt strong at all, only I felt it, but was more of a burning than anything. I got a circle imprinted on my arm haha. Then he shocked everyone, but what was funniest is when he tried to shock the other zone leader who is Japanese, he let go of all of us and he shocked him and he fell to the ground squirming. Then we were like yeah, we're done haha. He tased him in the butt. So like a couple days before that, the same zone leader looked through that cabinet and found a can, it was with all the shoe polish and stuff. He thought it was a like a shoe freshener or something and he sprayed it in his shoes. We were all around him and all the sudden one of the missionaries started to cough, then we all did at the same time. We all coughed for like 10 minutes until one of them picked up the bottle and read, "Police Mace" haha. So we all got pepper sprayed but indirectly. It was all funny. 
 Wednesday, Elder Alonso came to San Miguel to speak to us. He's the 2nd counselor in the Area presidency. He was very inspirational and there was one question he had for us: Which is better, if a person goes to church and takes the sacrament but their thoughts are somewhere else, or someone that is at work and takes time out of their work time to sit down and pray and think about the sacrament and jesus' sacrifices? Thats really powerful and makes me think that we need to focus on what's really important in church and focus on the true meaning of the sacrament.

Week of powerful conferences

Week of powerful conferences multi areas with Elder Alonso and his wife.

Ew what's that smell?

We had changes, I got a new companion named elder Jones, hes that trainer of elder brinkherhoff. Our zone got even bigger because they combined la union and rio grande together so now we have la union, santa rosa de lima, gotera, and rio grande in our zone. We recieved sister missionaries in our zone so they took our old area and we got a new area. Now there are 3 areas in la union. Our area now is a little bit of our old area and a chunk of the zone leaders area. So Its all practically new to me. We had to 2 baptisms this saturday. That will be 9 baptisms for me. Our goal is 4 baptisms every month. Last month we achieved it and this month we have 2 more. Next month we have 5 planned baptisms. My companion is an old zone leader, and elder brinkerhoff told me that I am in district leader training, thats why they lowered a zone leader to a senior companion was to train me. Which is fine with me. I hope I do well this change. We changed houses and this one is surprisingly gigantic. So much room for just missionaries. We have like nothing. Our pila doesn't work so we can't wash clothes and half the lights in the house don't work. I think there is a problem with the drainage system because it always smells like poop when I get home, ew. Our area is so far away from the church. We have to take a bus to get there. What also stinks is that the market is also so far away and we have to carry all of that stuff back to our house. other than this there was not much more this week.

Time is going by so fast

Well this week was very interesting. So much news. Well in 2 days is changes, and today we get to know who has changes. Im pretty sure my companion has changes because he has been in this area for 6 months.

Well the good news is that la union is opening up a new area, and we are getting sister missionaries in la union. The area that we have right now will be the area that they will get because its the safest area. We are being moved further away to a place called bella vista, beautiful view. Its like the rich neighborhood. We will be working in a new but a little bit dangerous area. We will have Huisquil, belen, and bella vista. Huisquil and belen we cant enter beyond like 7 because there are no lights and its dangerous. But Huisquil is my favorite place because theres a lot of success there. We are very far from the church and the center of la union, we will have to take buses to church and a tax from grocery shopping. If my companion leaves then its going to be really hard because I don't know those areas except for huisquil and the new companion wont know la union. Its like starting from scratch haha.

Well all of thursday, friday, and saturday, I spent with one of the zone leaders. He was sick so I was like babysitting him. His house is gigantic and has air conditioning, the only house in the mission that does. It was fun but boring. Friday I had to go to San Miguel for a zone leaders meeting with stake president and mission president. I put in a little input but not much because im not a zone leader haha. I wasnt able to shower for 3 days nor shave because my stuff was in the house and my companion has the keys and he was with the other zone leader doing interviews in a different town, called perquin. Que chuko.

almost in my 7th change, time is going by so fast.

Trip to the temple, general conference, and a new workout video

The most exciting thing this week were 3 things, trip to the temple, general conference, and a new workout video.

Well the temple trip was amazing. But different than most, we didn't actually go inside of the temple. This was all for the investigators. They were able to walk around the outside of the temple and see its beauty. We also had talks and stuff like that about the plan of salvation, baptism, families, and auxiliaries. This temple is so beautiful and the inside is even more. We brought a couple investigators, its hard to because our area is soooooo far away from the temple. About 5 hours and about 150 km. The climate felt great because it wasn't hot over there. There were other missionaries complaining that it was hot in san salvador but I was like you guys need to go to la union to experience true heat haha. There were 1500 missionaries and investigators there. Thats almost double the last time we had this trip back on december 19. 

Next is about general conference, and no I didn't not watch it in spanish this time, we watched it in english. But I loved this general conference, it was so powerful. Being on a mission makes general conference feel like a privilege. The new news on the street was that we are getting 3 new temples in Haiti, Thailand, and the Ivory Coast. Thats so cool. I loved the talks and the ones in spanish we listened to in spanish because it was more powerful in its native language. we actually listened to the one in Portuguese and surprisingly I understood about 70 % of it. Portuguese and spanish are so similar. I liked the part where President Utchdorf started speak in german and then corrected himself haha. This is my companions last general conference, he goes home in 2 months. Hes so old. So much revelation and so much knowledge given from these talks. I cant wait till the liahona comes out. Its starting to get hard to not stop thinking in spanish because its so much easier. My mind is just use to it. 

We have this investigator who is super cholo, cholo means strong, all he does is just work out every single day. He gave us this workout video called Insanity. Its so hard but it feels great afterwards. Im starting to get chunky. I've gained about 30 pounds so far. But I was a beanpole when I started. Its true that the skinny missionaries in this mission become fat and the fat missionaries become skinny. But Ill try this out and stop eating bad food. I stopped eating chips in general because this chips here are so bad for you. 

Well thats really all for this week, thanks for all your support.

--

Moroni 8:25-26

25 Y las primicias del arrepentimiento es el bautismo; y el bautismo viene por la fe para cumplir los mandamientos; y el cumplimiento de los mandamientos trae la remisión de los pecados;

26  y la remisión de los pecados trae la mansedumbre y la humildad de corazón; y por motivo de la mansedumbre y la humildad de corazón viene la visitación del Espíritu Santo, el cual Consolador llena de esperanza y de amor perfecto, amor que perdura por la diligencia en la oración, hasta que venga el fin, cuando todos los santos morarán con Dios.