Good luck this week, with my cousins there and Dad gone :) I hope it all goes well.
My week was good. I enjoy being companions with Elder Wiley. We get along pretty well. It was very weird going from Tudela to Wiley. They are like polar opposites. Sometimes I feel like being companions with Elder Wiley is like being companions with myself. We are pretty similar. Elder Wiley is 23, and will return to BYU in fall of 2015 as a senior, and I will be a sophomore. He played lacrosse at BYU and he´s just a really cool guy. He´s from Seattle, which is super cool. He´s really mature. Which is kind of difficult to find in a missionary these days.
The Elche zone is doing better. I think with the change of companionships in our zone things will start improving. The companionship that didn´t ever leave their piso has started to work and their area has already seen major improvment. Hermana Flake (my favorite Hermana from the MTC) is here in Elche as well, and she is a machine and is working very well. I worry about only one companionship in my zone. But we are doing what we can. I am starting to like being zone leader for the first time. I feel like I have been living under my potential for a long time. I could have been doing so much more to help these missionaries.
I really am doing well. I love the mission. I love the Spanish language. It´s a lot better than english. I love Spain. I love Elche. I love the missionaries that I am serving with. I really couldn´t ask for anything more right now. Oftentimes during my mission I have asked myself ¨WHAT AM I DOING WRONG??¨ Why are we not baptizing? Why is our only progressing investigator going to move away for work AGAIN!!!? This is LITERALLY the 4th time that this has happened to me in this city. BUT.....I am trying not to be frustrated. Or discouraged. Elder Wiley and I had a really good week this week, and I know that we will soon have other progressing investigators. I am realizing that it isn´t about what I am doing wrong. It´s not always that. Rather, the question is: have I been doing things the right way for long enough? It´s a patience thing.
I do love it though. I am very excited for this transfer. Things are going very well. I am learning a lot. I would say it´s the best time of my mission. I think I am learning about how to really measure success in the mission. It´s not about baptisms or anything like that. It´s about how much I give and how hard I work. And how I obey. I think I am a really slow learner. Other people learn lessons a lot faster than I do, it seems like. Oh well though. I am trying.
Brigham should get his call two weeks from this wednesday. But I am wrong more than I am right. So I wouldn´t trust myself too much ;)
Mom- I think that just because we don´t talk a lot about food, you think that we don´t miss our mother´s kitchen. HA. Quite mistaken. The food here doesn´t compare WHATSOEVER to what I grew up with. Not in the slightest. Everyone in Spain thinks that ¨one eats very well in Spain¨ but it´s only because they have never left Spain. I REALLY miss your mexican food. And I really really really miss casseroles. I would love to eat black bean and pineapple enchilidas right now. I miss BBQ. Sometimes I get tears in my eyes when I think about BBQ. I really really really really miss cafe rio. I miss chiken niko. And pork chops o brien. Holy flount I would love to eat pork chops o brien right now. I also miss this other dish that I can´t remember the name of. I miss those delicious salads you used to make. I can kind of replicate it here, but it´s just super expensive. I don´t really miss a whole lot of desserts. Honestly I think my sweet tooth is going away. I haven´t had ice cream for so long. Dessert kind of sucks in Spain, and it honestly doesn´t bother me. Maybe I grew out of it ;D Who knows?? I miss normal food. Your food. That´s another reason why I don´t want to get married. I will try not to judge my wife´s cooking , but I know that in my heart I will be disappointed. Who couldn´t be disappointed?? No one can take my mother´s place.
Wanna know something funny?? I have had about half of my companions (and even some missionaries who aren´t my companions) tell me that they think that I care too much about what my parents think. Specifically my mother. They think that parents should stay out of their kids affairs, especially about relationships. I don´t really understand why. I guess we´re just a little bit different. So feel good about yourselves. Because I really do care about what you guys think. I try hard to please you. When it comes to important life decisions, your opinions mean VERY MUCH to me. And it´s evident to those who are around me, because comments are often made.
Well today we are going to have a zone p day. We will eat cookies and play card games and talk about things unrelated to missionary work.
But I really like the work. The ward is changing slowly. We are trying to align the keys of the stake president and the mission president. I love my life right now. Really- I am getting better at contacting in the streets. And we are seeing small miracles every day.
I do love this work. I can´t imagine what my life would have been like without this experience that I am having. I am immensely grateful for it. Even though it´s difficult. It really isn´t a sacrifice when looked at from the right perspective.
Well I must go. I love you all a ton. Brigham- it frustrates me so much to read about you doing the same stupid things that I did when I was your age. I wish I could give you some of the knowledge that I have obtained over the past year and a half. Just pull it out of my brain and put it into the pensieve and just shove your head into it. I feel like I will have this same sensation a lot as I parent my teenage children. So that´s something to look forward to. Not. Really though. I don´t think you´ll change your mind anytime soon. But soon you´ll give yourself realization. And you´ll probably regret your actions a bit. That´s ok though. That´s the only way that dumb people like us learn.
I love you mom. And Dad. And brothers. You´re the best.
elder sharp
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