Summer/Winter

I am unable to grasp the concept of having my son living in the middle of winter right now. Is it because I have never experienced a June or July that was like a November or December? It just seems not real to me. I look at the pictures and I find myself thinking they were taken last fall. Very strange! I wonder how he will take next July/August when he comes home and goes right into our winter. That may be the longest winter of his life!




Okay. I just realized I didn´t put in a picture of my companion. Yeah, whatever.

My new companion (I went nowhere) is Elder Aguilar from Argentina. He´s an actual rocker; he had a band and everything. He´s freaking new in the mission. I´m his first companion after his trainer, which is to say he has three months and change in the mission. He´s older than I am, a little. He´s a very well put-together missionary for the time he has. He´s been a member for his whole life like me, which means there´s very little doubt or scripture he doesn´t get. We actually have to try to stay simple with people because we both know a lot. Argentines speak like Italians, but in Spanish. Elder Aguilar speaks with huge, bouncy words which make him really easy to understand. (Anyone who´s not a Chilean is easy to understand, actually. Chileans are the worst speakers ever. If you can understand Chileans, Mexicans or Columbian or Spaniards are super slow and easy.) When someone does something cool, he says "Yiiiiiiiiiiiii!" It´s already starting to stick to me.

He´s not crazy about the sector yet, but he likes the members he´s met and the leadership with whom we´ve had meetings.

This, of course, means I´m Senior Companion, even though our combined experience is a year. There´s a gringo from my group of the MTC who´s training, which is unheard of. Usually you train starting at 12 months, but the mission is so young now that they´re grabbing anyone who doesn´t do bad stuff and can walk and do contacts. The mission´s oldest group goes this change, then we´re down to a group with 16 months -almost no one with more than that. The average I would suspect is about 8 months. I´m at 9 and change, which is all kinds of nuts.

"What do you mean I´m old in the mission?"

Something like that.

I get along a lot better with Elder Aguilar than I did with Elder Silva. We are two young guys who barely know what we´re doing, but that´s also our strength - we have very few faith-breaking preconceptions. We´re seriously kicking butt right now.

I am kind of excited for the package. Not going to lie. They give us stuff every Tuesday, so I think I´ll have it Tuesday. My camera kicked it. The screen just went nuts one day and that was it. It still takes pictures, but as one cannot see anything, it is of limited utility. In other words, it´s pretty well timed. If it doesn´t arrive I may have a panic attack.

There are five steps to repentance. Well, there are five in the cool example I always use.

Reconocer
Dejar
Confesar
Restituir
Cumplir con los Mandamientos

...oh, fetch...

Recognize
Cease
Confess
Restore
Keep the Commandments

I usually put my pen in my hand and pull off a finger with each step. The purpose of the example is to show that Recognizing, Ceasing, and Keeping the Commandments only isn´t repentance - it´s a gang sign. (If you want the pen to fall out, all the fingers must be extended.)

No, but seriously, it´s a good example. You have to tell me first so I can give you some sick field-tested didactic helps!

I asked my zone leader if that feeling of having no idea what you´re doing goes away. He said, "... Yeah. Yeah, it actually does." He went on to tell me that you just go one day at a time doing whatever you can and the results result. That´s what we´re doing. And we´re seeing miracles and *bakanza all over the place. Some investigators who excused themselves out of seeing us had a large trial that involved a Blessing of Health that almost certainly saved a life, and they´re now pretty ready to progress. We found a guy the other day who had been wishing he could find a Book of Mormon to read because it had always interested him.

Oh, and my freaking watch broke. That little pin part that keeps the pieces of the band broke. It was a pretty understandable break (not to mention more injurious for me if it hadn´t), but now I don´t know what to do. The watch places here are kind of ghetto. I´m still looking for something there. Should I buy a four-dollar one so I don´t get robbed anyway$ I think I will.

I have rediscovered eggs, in other news. Can someone tell me how Dad does them$ Here they put oil in it, which I don´t like. Dad´s are so superior - what´s the deal there$

Package Package Package

Did you get that Patriarchal Blessing yet$

Package Package

Okay, that´s enough.

Love,
Elder A Conrad/Alex C Crist

*coolness, sickness