Week 20

Hola,

So this week I've been trying to be like President Giles, I'll explain more of that though in a little bit.  

This week has been a little bit strange.  Three of our investigators moved out of our area, We've started hitch-hiking, and we celebrated Mexican Independence Day.  Something that I've found very strange about Mexico is that many people are very unhappy with their way of life here.  Many people are unemployed, the standard of living here is very low, and most people in general are looking for a better life.  However, as soon as September 16th comes around everything changes.  The national colors come out, everyone is celebrating, and everyone constantly is shouting viva Mexico.  It also means that the missionaries get a ton of extra food to eat in the week.  

As for the hitch-hiking story, we've been assigned a third town to visit that's about three miles away and no bus goes to visit it.  Since we walk everywhere, this means that we can waste two hours walking to and from this town or get a ride from complete strangers.  It's been a fun experience.  It's actually extremely common here in Mexico and many people with cars are willing to help us out.  

As for why I've been trying to be like President Giles, he gave me two pieces of advice that have managed to stick in my mind since I got here.  One of them, is that while I'm on my mission, it's not about me (as for those that are reading this and/or aren't from the Harrisburg area, President Giles is the Stake President.  In other words, he's like a regional leader of the church that among other things interviews prospective missionaries to see if they are ready and worthy to serve a mission.)  This piece of advice has especially been present in my mind this week because of what's been going on in our area.  I've found that my new companions, while not entirely disobedient, like to sleep after lunch.  On one occasion, we stopped back by our house, and the consensus between the two of them was that they should take a fifteen minute nap.  At this point, the words of President Giles rang through my head, and I shared them with my companions.  I think that this got to them a little bit because after that they were constantly acting like we needed to work even harder than we were and visit more people.  They also tried to brush off sleeping as a joke, and that they didn't really want to take a break.  But I felt something change within me from that point on. I felt as if in the moments right after, the spirit confirmed that I had been tested to see what kind of missionary I wanted to be, and in that instance I passed.  For the rest of that day, I felt even more strongly the influence of the spirit in guiding us to who we needed to teach, and helping me to understand even more what my investigators were saying and what they needed to hear from me.  

That's all for now.

Elder Gooden