How are you? You must be super tired because I haven´t gotten an update on your lives :) Just a picture of the car you are looking at. Super cool, by the way. Definitely an upgrade from the Focus. Haha. (btw, if you don´t want the focus, I know a guy who could use a car in 12 months...just so you know).
I am doing well. I really really love my new companions. It´s the greatest trio I have ever been in. Elder Love is a stud. He is such a cool kid. He reminds me a ton of Kyle. In fact, he even graduated from Perry High School in 2013. He was in Logan´s graduating class. He knows Kyle and Logan, and his family friends with Kyle´s girlfriend Riley. Is she still waiting for him? I hope so. Elder Love is just a really awesome guy.
Elder Tudela is a mix between Nico and Nathan Eads. More like Nico than Nathan Eads. He speaks english perfectly. I like him a lot. I might be with him for three entire transfers though. Which is a long time. We get along well. He only has four months left on his mission, so I try to cut him some slack. But I really like him as a person. Tudelas is a really awesome guy. He is from Chile but lives in Sweden.
Elche is great. There is a lot of work here. The last guy that was here kind of destroyed the area a bit. He just died here and left things pretty bad. But there is work. And that´s the important thing. Our zone is a little small. We´re the second smallest zone in the mission. And almost everyone in the zone is super young. Guess what! Elder Chapple is in my zone now!! I got to see him on Friday. So that was fun. The Hermanas in Elche are baptizing a ton right now. They just had two last night, two last week, and will have two more
on the 8th of March. Two sets of Hermanas. They´re working really hard and seeing a ton of miracles. We have two fechas right now as well for
the 22 of March. M and M. M is his mother, and she is getting baptized for sure. We got here and they didn´t even have a fecha, but she is golden!! So we set a fecha with her in our first lesson here. And with her son too. He is not going to be as easy. But she is totally prepared. We have a lot of other investigators that should have fechas this week as well. There is this one member that lives in a pueblo outside of Elche called Elda. The goal is to make a branch there because lots of members live out there. That´s what President wants us to do. So we might be moving over to Elda next transfer to start working only over there. But anyway, this member is a columbian lady named I, and she is AWESOME. Probably about 30, and just the coolest lady ever. She feeds us a lot and gives us tons of references. She was called as a ward missionary yesterday. We are working with her friend right now named D. I don´t know her yet, but apparently she is ready for the gospel. This I lady is basically a gold mine. So I am super glad to be here. The members are great. Well, some of them.
I am really really really really missing Almería, when it comes to the ward. The work here is way faster than it was in Almería. But I grew so close to that ward, and they worked so well with the missionaries. This new ward just doesn´t really care a whole lot about the missionaries. Some of the members do, and I already love lots of them, but the leadership in this ward just has other priorities. Which boils my blood because the work of salvation is the Lord´s number one priority right now. But I am trying to be calm and loving instead of complaining. The bishop is nice. But he kind of just blows us off like we don´t matter a whole lot. He is a good man though and wants to work. He just doesn´t think we are super useful to him. He works with technology and the youth. Those are his passions. It´s weird because all my last bishop cared about was Family History and Missionary work. The two most important things. And our ward mission leader here is totally wipped by the bishopric and the other leaders of the organization. Which is totally different than Julio. Julio fought during ward council for more missionary activities and he helped everyone remember the purpose and goals that we have as a ward. He literally teared up and almost cried one time as he was fighting the young men´s president about having a missionary/young men activity every month instead of every three months. He was such a champ. He was the FIRST member that I couldn´t say goodbye to without crying a little. It was sad to say goodbye to him. Here...I don´t think my WML likes me or Tudela. We come here and we start trying to fix the problems that are here, and it´s making the leaders a little uncomfortable. It´s not like we´re doing anything crazy. Just asking for keys to the chapel, a ward directory, ward missionaries, and when ward council is so that we can attend. Fetch, in some wards the ZLs even go to the priesthood leadership meetings. I like the bishop better than the WML. Which is sad. The other two WMLs that I have had have been my best friends. Literally. This guy is nice, but just...I dunno. He´s willing to help us and is super nice, but I was too spoiled with Julio. Really effective WMLs are SOOO hard to come by. Our correlation meetings with the WML and missionares are utterly pointless, and yet the bishop is emphatic that our only connection to the ward be through the WML. And the ward here is also trying to put a limit on the days we can have baptisms, because they are complaining that we have them too often and waste water. Hahaha. I think it´s a little ridiculous. Obviously baptisms can be done together and we should try to plan them as best we can, but obviously baptizing is more important than water conservation. I do like the ward. It´s not Almería, but I am sure that I will come to love it. I already love most of the members that I have gotten to know.
So yeah. A few other things that aren´t very pleasant. My entire bottle of tea tree oil fell and broke as I was packing last week. So I am totally out of that. I don´t need it, but in a few months when you send another package, I would love some of that.
My camera broke. I don´t know how or why. I didn´t drop it or anything. It just won´t turn on or charge. Maybe it´s the battery? Still not sure.
(he shared a long story about an elder that he cared deeply for who has recently had to go home because of some tragic things that went on. Preston is extremely heart broken. He loves this elder very much.).
I have to go. I love all of you. I hope you have a wonderful week.
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