Proselyting Was Great!

Dear Family & Friends:

This week was so amazing the highlight being going out on Saturday for proselyting. Even though our Spanish is very poor we were able to contact and have little lessons with a ton of people. We only had 4 hours to proselyte on Saturday so we were trying to talk to everyone.

The fifth person we talked to was named Alvaro, and we met him as he was coming out of his house to leave his bottle of alcohol out on the recycle racks. Dad and Justin, you probably know what those look like. He ended up telling us a ton about his life and how he wanted to change and not drink alcohol. He did something to his back while working construction and alcohol is the cheapest thing to help cope with the pain because he doesn't have the money to have surgery or buy pain killers.

He was really interested in what made our church different and was extremely receptive to our message. He seemed to know a lot about the bible and other religions/churches but isn't currently going to one. When we gave him a Book of Mormon, he felt he had to give us a book in exchange because he wanted to pay for the book. I now have a book that is meant to improve my Spanish grammar and writing. If only I could understand what it said better! 

We ended up talking to him for close to 2 hours so that took up a majority of our time proselyting. It is so hard to understand the language. I had to have the people repeat what they said like 3 times before catching the drift of their story.

Last Thursday all the new missionaries arrived. The majority of them are really good and have a great desire to be perfectly obedient, but then there are a few that are not out here for the right reasons. It is so sad. One of my Latino companions is from Paraguay. He has been teaching us all a little bit of Guarini, but I can't seem to remember. It at all it is such a different language. His name is elder Paredes and he is so stinking good at soccer and incredibly nice. There is also a kid who grew up in Canada, but his parents are Guatemalan. He knows English perfectly and Spanish really well which helps.

The language overall is coming really well. I can't complain to much. I have only been here three weeks, but I am so surprised how much we have learned. Haha. So last Thursday some new missionaries from Provo came down after the MTC, and they hardly knew anything. I am so blessed to be here at the CCM learning Spanish surrounded by Spanish speaking people.

Yesterday we had a fast from English so we only spoke Spanish until dinner. It was so much fun. I love the language! It is incredibly hard, but it is great.

The weather, sadly, has been, in my opinion, on the hotter side, which is sad.

Love,

Elder Call