We are doing quite well here in Almería. I really like Elder B. He is from a little place I like to call AVONDALE ARIZONA!!! I know that is right where we lived. Right next to Glendale. He lives in Maricopa county. But he was born in South Jordan Utah. Kinda funny. We basically just switched places. He is only 8 days younger than me, but graduated in 2013. He is...different from what I expected. We dropped Chapple off at the train station on Wednesday morning and I spent the whole day with Bird and Lopez until B got there at 6. We go to the station and pick him up and make the long walk back to our piso with all of his luggage. First person I´ve met that has more luggage than I do. Anyway, the whole time he is talking about all of his amazing athletic feats and high school experiences, and I quickly realized he is very different from me. Hahaha. He literally told me on the way home, ¨hey just so you know I am super jack and sometimes I really don´t like getting up out of bed and I have a hard time having desires to work¨ and all of this stuff. He said ¨they told me back in my old area that you were gonna straighten me all out and that I wouldn´t be jack after being with you, but I am just saying it´s hard for me sometimes.¨ I was thinking to myself ¨Oh you have got to be kidding me.¨ Let´s just say I didn´t get the greatest first impression of him. We get back to the piso and he is really not shy at all. Telling me all about his fiancé and how he has kissed 29 girls but his girlfriend thinks that he stopped at #27 which is her, but that he kissed two others before he and his girlfriend TECHNICALLY started dating. I was super confused. I did not know what to think of this kid. And then he started talking about how gorgeous he thinks his face is and I was really actually amused by all of it. He is...very self confident and kind of arrogant, but he does it in a very funny way. It doesn´t even bother me. He is super loving and has no problems talking to anyone or making friends with anyone. I already know him better than I knew Chap (although I was SERIOUSLY missing Chap that first day or two, I honestly have never missed a companion like I missed elder chapple). But B and I are already really close. He is super nice, super willing to share and although sometimes I have to get on his case for stuff, he is trying really hard to be obedient and when he has the desire to work, he is a machine. He has the potential to be a great missionary. I am super excited to serve with him and help him learn to LOVE the mission!!
Life is going good here. It´s hard and we are continually finding investigators that drop us soon after, but we are doing our best. I am trying to be as upbeat as possible.
Really loving being a missionary. I can´t believe Nico is home. Time really does fly by. I am glad that I still have a good amount of time left. I am not even halfway yet. I also don´t think I want to go home early. The transfer falls two weeks before I actually left on my mission. So it would be 23 months and 2 and a half weeks. But still. I would feel a little bad knowing that I didn´t serve for a full two years. I know missionaries go home a little early for school and stuff all the time but...I dunno. I think I would be fine waiting until the next transfer which would be April 15th, but I also want to get home and get a job asap. So I am not sure what I will do. Good thing I still have a few months before I have to make any decisions. :)
So I found this lady in our ward that I thought was a less active. Turns out she just lives in a different city for six months of the year. Her daughter served a mission and now lives in Utah. She married an american and she is a professor at BYU. She teaches the return missionary spanish class that is always full and is super hard to get into. And I got to talk to her on the phone!!! She told me to sign up for her class when I got back and that she would let me in even if it is full!!! She said that since I am in Almería taking care of her mother she would help me out :) Super cool!! We walked in to this lady´s house and I saw these photos of three kids, a 19 year old girl, 12 year old girl, and 8 year old boy. I saw these pictures and I was like, those are totally active members. You could just see the light in their faces. Plus they looked way different than Spaniards. Happier. And then I saw that those pictures were american school pictures that we have to take every year. And the kids were actually smiling!! But we didn´t think this old lady was active at all. Turns out she is. Her family is super strong in the gospel and they live in Payson Utah!! Her oldest grandaughter goes to BYU and is taking her mom´s RM spanish class, even though she doesn´t leave on her mission until this summer. She just speaks spanish fluently. We actually skyped them for a little bit because the grandma just randomly skyped them while we were sitting in her house. It was kinda cool. I am just glad that I am getting into that class!!
Hearing about Clayton makes me super happy. I miss him a lot. I miss all of you. Every single one of my companions so far has come from a home where the gospel wasn´t really taught. Except for Lish. They all had good families that went to church, but the gospel just wasn´t a big priority. It is one thing to go to church every week and be a member of the church and all that, but living the gospel is something completely different. Was our family perfect? No definitely not. But I literally am overwhelmed when I think about the home that I was raised in. I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO grateful for the assurance and steadfastness of your testimonies. It all depends on the parents. We didn´t pray together as a family EVERY night, or have FHE every single monday, but you helped us to understand just how important this gospel is in our lives. And you did a pretty dang good job with fhe and family prayer. I am so glad that I know my parents are strong faithful members of the church with testimonies that burn. I am so grateful for your testimonies and for the protection that you gave to me growing up. I honestly don´t think I would be here right now had I been raised in Arizona. Thanks for getting me the heck out of that fiery furnace. Herriman is a special place and I will always consider it my home. Really my high school experience was SOOO different than what other people had. I am just so lucky. And I am going to be the best parent I can possibly be. I read about the lives of the prophets and apostles and the things that they did to help their children learn and live the gospel, and I am so so determined to teach them the things that I know. And I am going to start from a very young age. Elder Bednar would get up in the night when his newborn son was crying and hold him over his shoulder and read to him from the Doctrine and Covenants about the oath and covenant of the priesthood!!! He said that surely the newborn baby´s spirit felt the truth of it. And he would be driving with his son in the car and pretend to be an investigator and have his son practice being a missionary. That is the kind of father I am going to be. I want to teach my children to act as learners and learn for themselves at a young age that this is all true. I want them to learn how to live the gospel so that I can avoid all of the problems that come in teenage years. I know it´ll be hard and they will make mistakes and so will I, but I am just so so excited to be a parent. What an amazing responsibility.
Well I have to go.
Package, could I please have some sort of small speaker device that works with an mp3 player? Mine broke. And yes I can get cd´s and listen to them or download them onto my mp3. Don´t need gel. I have 2 full bottles. Toothpaste would be good though. Other than that, I don´t know. I love food. You´re the best.
Thank you so much for everything. I love you
elder sharp
No comments:
Post a Comment