Life is Good!

Things are going good for me!  Life sounds pretty normal there at home, normal stuff. Well my life is anything but normal.  What the flip is normal? I don’t remember...

You guys seem very, very happy, which puts my heart at ease, I pray constantly for my fan section (you guys) and I know the Lord is with you.

Well this week was good, we work hard every day, contacting, teaching, walking, studying, and praying. Work is consistent and tough but it’s easier than I thought it would be. We have a bunch of new investigators, Maria De la Paz, Daniel and Miriam, Jesus and Modesta, Juan Carlos and a few others, and FINALLY we got one of them to come to church! Maria De la Paz came through! It was awesome! She seems so happy and sooooo in tune with the spirit.  I haven’t seen someone take to the church this fast. You can’t find a person here that hasn’t had a rough life, especially Maria.  She lost a son, a finger and her husband over the past couple years, but she has always remained faithful in Christianity and hopefully The Church of Jesus Christ from now on.

Painting with Elder Rodríguez from Spain

We were able to do some service and paint a member's house.  

Me eating some really spicy Mexican food! 

We had lunch with a bunch of mechanics that always scream good morning and good afternoon when they see us. They’re awesome! We ate the biggest torta’s I have ever seen! I feel kind of sick because I ate so much. A torta is basically just a big sandwich, but they’re good stuff! 

Me gettin them good ole shoes polished

A drunken dude hugged me yesterday!  Oh and speaking of drunks...last night on the way home from reporting with our zone leaders some drunk dude stopped us in the street and started cussing up a storm of profanities and stuff. It was bad, and knowing me, I got pissed, and I can’t even tell you how close I was to starting something!  I know the spirit was with me because all I said was goodnight and kept walking.  Later I realized that was my brother, and that I would have felt really horrible if I had knocked him out like I wanted to.   I know that the spirit guided me, because he just needed a little help, that’s all anyone needs. It takes a strong person to turn the other cheek.  Fighting which results in violence is the easy way, and more often the wrong choice.  Don’t get me wrong every needs to fight for stuff in their life, but we just need to be a little bit smarter about stuff.

MI español esta mejorando can cada día y yo puedo hablar casi todo el día en español ahora. (Translation…My Spanish is improving every day and I can speak most of the day in Spanish now.)  I actually really enjoy Spanish and I feel super grateful that I have this opportunity to learn this language, because it’s awesome!! I can’t wait to show you what I know someday.

Our view of the volcanoes every morning!!!

I grow happier with my life everyday here, and I am learning to love.  I guess loving wasn’t really one of the gifts I was given, or maybe it was, not really sure because either way I need to exercise this gift or attribute in order to use it properly.  I have been humbled so much in my short time here!  I have had to learn to be humble because you need to be humble to learn a language and to serve a mission and if you can’t be humble you will go home real fast.

I want to share a scripture with you that I found this week that I really love!  Words of Mormon 1:7 really puts it into perspective, that we don’t need to know all things, we don’t need to be all knowing, because our Father in Heaven does that for us.  We need to listen to his counsel and serve him.  Knowing all things or at least trying to can interrupt out relationship with Him.   All he asks is that we listen, that's all.

I love you guys so so much, keep fighting the good fight!  

Love,

Elder Ted