[Week 7 in Matagalpa]
Hola. I’m doing pretty good. I still feel like I’m never going home so that’s great… I’ve finished my first change so that’s cool but I still have 15 more soooo… I miss you guys! (and the USA!) In general, I’m having a good time, but its super easy to be discouraged and it really is just a ton of work (and speaking in Spanish which is hard). I really miss family and friends and being able to chill and have fun. But it’s really cool to have these experiences and to live a different lifestyle. It’s super cool to be able to become friends with the people here and see them learn and grow. We’ve already baptized 3 people and they are super awesome. My favorite thing to do is to visit our progressing investigators and the members. I HATE contacting because most of the time the people are pretty rude; we’ve been ignored, called blasphemers, and people have ran away to hide from us… I’m grateful for these experiences but I still really miss home. The US seems like a paradise compared to here and I’m definitely more grateful for what I had, even though it’s hard to give it up.
Were moving into the new house today. I’m excited and its pretty cool! The balcony is super cool, the bathroom is so so, and the bedroom is huge so me gusta. Were the only ones living there, the mission doesn’t allow any missionary companionships to live together.
The work is going okay, We’ve baptized for the last three weeks so that’s cool! Our sick investigator has been slowly improving but even though he’s still sick he’s been fulfilling his commitments and he still was baptized! We have some more baptismal dates in the next few weeks but nothing for sure or anything… We haven’t been doing that much service. Its difficult because really people just want us to give them money. We’ve offered to help people with stuff but they aren’t really super interested unless we can give them money (One guy wanted to build a wall and we told him we could help and then he asked for us to pay for all the equipment and materials which we cant do, stuff like that) But we’re trying!
My companion is now DL so I’ve kinda become a psuedo-leader which stinks. We have to do numbers every night for everyone and we run the district meetings (he made me give the message today…) Also I’m no longer the newest person here in the zone!! Along with the other people that came with me, there are two new cheles, and two new latinos. When we had to introduce ourselves (based on how much time we have in the mission) I was like 7th from the last!!! The new people were so lost and I was having to translate for them and help them use the computers. And our zone just broke the record for baptisms in a month (40) so that was pretty cool I guess. I like my companion and were doing our best.
Hope everything is going well!
Elder Williams
View of the city from our new balcony
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I saw your mom post a link to your blog on FB. I’m getting a kick out of your entries. Sweet balcony, too. I know you miss the good ol’ U.S. of A. We all did. Believe it or not, some day when you have a mortgage and a job and a million things to worry about, you’ll look back and miss your mission. Keep plugging, bro. It gets easier. The language, the work, the lack of sleep. Don’t you miss clean carpet? Like, to nap on? On Sunday afternoons? 🙂 I did.