This week....we didn't do much as far as teaching goes. We did however have a few good things happen this week =). First off, within a week and a half I will have a new house =). Last sunday 2 people that we didn't know sat down next to us in Sacrament Meeting and one of them started to talk with me. Turns out that they live in Chicago, but the lady was born here in San Roque. She's here visiting and she heard that we were looking for a new house and she said that she has one that she could rent us....sweet! So after church we went to look at the house. It's the house where she grew up and where her parents had lived. It looks like a grandma house but it's pretty nice for a missionary. We even have an oven and a clothes washer =). So that was pretty cool. I'll send pictures of the house when we get all of our stuff put in it (2 weeks from now).

More cool stuff. So we got what we call a "regalito", or a baptism that just fell into our hands. We were visiting a less active family that is just starting to come to church again, and we meet one of their sons who is 8 years old. The good part is that he'll be turning 9 on October 6, so he'll count as a baptism of the mission work. Him, his inactive brother and his parents all went to church last week =). 

Then the last cool thing that happened was this. So last week me and one of the Zone Leaders visited one of our investigators called Marco Díaz. He told us that he was starting classes and that he wouldn't be able to go to church on sunday because sunday was the only day that he could study the topic he wanted. We ended up teaching him the commandment of the Sabbath Day and promised him that if he really wanted to go to church and did everything he could, God would help him to be able to go to church. That was on a saturday and he didn't go to church the next day. However, this last sunday I walked into church and he was sitting there in the Sacrament Meeting! Afterwards I asked him what had happened and how he was able to go to church. He told me that on tuesday he was talking to his dad (he's catholic) and he told him that church is more important that the studies. He said that what his dad had told him really got to him. Then his wife said that she didn't want to go to church by herself for a year while he was studying. With those 2 things he decided on saturday to drop his studies to be able to go to church. Awesome! Needless to say we'll be putting another baptismal date on him this tuesday =). 

So that was pretty much our week. Not too bad I guess. 

Funny thing of the week: So if you remember me talking about Rafael Alomoto, the 88 year old almost deaf investigator. He's really funny lol. So we took him to a baptism of another ward this week. He said that he really liked it and that it was really beautiful. After telling us that he liked it he added that it made him want to dance and that the baptism would have been better if they had danced lol. He's a crazy old guy =).  

Peace out, 

Elder Black

This-n-That

HUGE Banana! 

Our meal, plain boiled potatoes, no salt; boiled eggs, no salt; tostado with salt... no drink! 

Llama attack! :)

Elder Black bathing in the "glory" of llamas...

Sorry again, but I don't have to much time to write (only 25 minutes). There's really not a whole lot to write when you're not even in your own sector much....But we don't have anyone with baptismal date right now =(. The only problem is that they don't go to church. Little poops lol. We do have 1 really awesome investigator though that goes every week...Tito! He's doing pretty good as far as the assistance goes, but he isn't reading or praying. To help him out with that I've put an alarm on my phone to remind me to call him and remind him to read. Hopefully it'll work =). As far as things with Isabel...She didn't go to church and she's still not married. I guess her and her husband don't really get along with the family well and they feel like rejects. For that reason they haven't talked with their parents to see about the wedding. The parents here are the ones who run the wedding, so they need to work through them. Kind of stinks but that's how it is...

Still waiting here for my companion....He'll get here in about 2.5 weeks....almost....But we're doing good here.

Funny thing of the week: So we had a few funny experiences this week. In Pucará, Elder Miranda's and Ramirez's sector, they have an investigator named Rafael. He's 88 years old and pretty much deaf. He's a funny old guy lol. He agrees with anything that we teach him. He's been catholic his whole life and doesn't really know how to pray. So we taught him how to pray and he asked us, "So from now on I'm going to pray like this?". Yup. "Oh. Okay =)". Then we invited him to church this week and he asked, "So every sunday I'll be going to church with you guys". Yup. "Oh. Okay =)". Then he asked us about some Virgen Mary pictures that he had and he asked if he could keep them. We told him "no, we're going to throw them away". "Oh that's fine. I just wanted to be sure". Lol. He's funny. He's always how that he can die in peace because now that we're visiting him there will be someone that'll find him when he dies. He says that he'll be with us until the death because he's commited himself to be with us until the end. So funny

Also an old homeless guy kissed my hand, and 2 drunk girls wanted us to come into their house.....uh....no thanks lol.

Today we had an activity and we went on a tour through some covered pyramids. There were about 140 llamas and they ate salt right out of your hand. Pretty cool =)

Finally, Time to Write...

Our apartment flooded!

Singing hymns while you work makes stress go away...

Hello everybody. Finally I have time to write a letter =). So as I told all of you last week, my companion went back to his house. This past week we weren't able to do very much. We had our District Meeting, Zone Conference, and I did divisions this week. We really didn't get much done because I wasn't evern here very much =). I'll at least give you an update on how our investigators are doing. 

So, now we just have 1 person with baptismal date. His name is Marco Diaz. He's the husband of an hermana that lives here. They just recently got married and now he's investigating the church. He's interested in what we do and he likes the church, the only thing is that he's pretty busy and doesn't have much time...We started teaching him about a week and a half ago. The other people with baptismal date all fell through. Not because they don't want to listen anymore, just that only one of them went to church...His name is Tito Tituania. He's our best possible convert. He now has 6 attendances and is going to church every sunday. He's also got family and friends that are also members. He's in the same boat as Marco and doesn't have much time. But I'm thinking that he'll be able to get baptized this saturday 28th. Then the other 2 people that we had....not really sure what happened. They didn't come to chruch. That, and Isabel still has to get married and we haven't been able to verify how that's going...So that's the update on our investigators. 

This week in San Roque we have 3 new investigators. We had an appointment set up with a great contact that we had at7:30pm,but she wasn't home....So we were about to go home and do our studies. As we were walking a couple of boys said "hi" to us. Normally we just say hi right back and keep going, but this time we decided to talk to them. We started talking with them  and ended up teaching them the Restoration right there in the street. They all accepted baptism too, just not a specific date. That was pretty cool. I think half of the investigators that we have are references and the other half are random people that said hi to us in the street lol. I think we need to start talking to more people =). 

That was basically everything that we did this week....We did have a service project and we helped Marco build a wall. I'll have to take a picture of it and set it to you =). We built it out of concrete blocks and I think it's called mortar...So that's what we did. We were all pretty proud of our work. 

By the way. Yes my package got here. I think everything was in it. I'm not sure if you bought the hole puncher or not, but that wasn't in there. Thanks Mom!!! Looks like Dad had a great time driving the Ferrari. It looks so awesome =). President Richardson told me that I would be training this next change which is in 3 weeks. So I'll be in trio for a good while longer =)

Funny thing of the week: I've gotten some comments that you've been missing my funny thing of the week. Sorry for letting you down fans, but I've been forgetting to do it lol. So here's the funny stuff....On sunday night (5:00am) I woke up to change positions and I heard dripping in our room. I thought what the heck could be dripping in our room? I looked around to see what it was and I saw that my companions blanket was wet and dripping at the corner. I actually that that maybe he had pee'd himself in his sleep lol. Then I looked at the floor and it was covered with water! Our house had flooded. A little surprised, I got out of my bed and walked though the 4 inch deep water to see where it was all coming from. I opened the bathroom door and one of the tubes under the sink had busted and was spraying water out like a fire hose. We quickly turned off the water and started pushing the water out of the house with brooms. We let the owners (they're members) know what had happened. They came over to the house and started helping to get the water out. We finished at around 7:30. It was kind of fun through. In the Zone Conference this friday Hna Richardson talked about stress and what we should do if we got stressed in the mission. She said that the secret was to praise God and our stress would go away. So with all the water on the floor in our house. We filmed ourselves singing a himn of thanks for what had happened. It was pretty funny. We were all standing in the water and singing hymns lol. I'm going to send President Richardson the video =). 

Well, I hoped you have enjoyed my letter. If you would like to contribute to keep supporting this program, please give money to my mom =)

Short Letter...

Hello. Just a quick email to let you know that I'm alive. Big news. My companion Elder Vallejo is getting sent to his house. Here's the reason. He was diagnosed with seizures a while ago and now he's been taking some medication that supposedly helps with that; but it has various side effects. He hasn't been talking to me very much and he doesn't really respond to anyone. Basically just acting weird. So President Richardson was talking with the doctors to see what they should do with him. Because he can't keeping going in the mission like this. So today President called me and told me that he would be going home. I'll be staying with the same missionaries that I had been with the past 2 weeks....Yup so that's what happened. I'm actually relieved =). I just hope that President gives me a good companion this time. But overall we're doing good here in San Roque. We have 4 people with baptismal date and they're all progressing.

Hasta luego, 

Elder Black

3 People With Baptismal Dates!

First off we have 3 people with baptismal date and all of them went to church! Yeah! Pretty excited. We set a companionship goal of 4 baptisms for this month and we're well on the track. We also have 4 more people that we're going to put baptismal dates on this week. I have really been able to see the progress in our sector. Even the members are noticing that things are better than they were. Super happy with the results that we're seeing.

That's our sector. I actually really like it; I think it will be one of my favorite sectors. I've been able to see a weak ward get back on its feet. That gives me satisfaction =)

Now, Elder Vallejo. Tuesday through Friday he's been whining that his leg hurts him. He called President Richardson every night to tell him that he couldn't take the pain anymore...Here we say that he was just "lamping", or putting on a show because he didn't want to work. When he had time to sit down for a bit he would start to cry and say that it was because of his leg. Don't be fooled. He just doesn't want to be here in San Roque. I called President and told him that I don't know what to do because he doesn't want to do anything and he just cries, so President talked with him seriously that he just needs to work. Since then he's stop whining about his leg and now he even walks faster than me. But he doesn't really want to talk with anybody, me or the people here. I try and talk with him and most of the time he doesn't respond. When he does he just mumbles maybe one word. When the members ask him his name sometimes he just points to his nametag. Also in the lessons he never pays attention when I'm talking and when I pass the time to him he just says a couple of things and then passes the time back to me. He's like my sidekick in the lessons =). He's gotten a bit better, but I'll try and have patience. Not sure how I'm going to do though because Elder Cruz took a lot of patience out of me =). But we'll see how it all goes. 

Looks like you guys had a good time in Las Vegas. Also, good to hear from you Katrina =). I'll also be renewing my Visa this week. That's all for now.

Elder Black