week 16

It was a good week this week! We were able to find some people who want to be baptized so that was good! One is a man that is really interested and then there are two kids who I think just kind of got overlooked and never got baptized. The negative was that none of them came to church so we will see if thy stick with it. I don't know their names because they found them while I was on divisions with my Zone Leader, Elder Tims. We just had divisions for one afternoon and it went well, Elder Tims is a really nice guy. He works out like crazy, I did a workout with him and I think it is about time I start kicking it into gear a little bit again. We did a mountain yesterday and I was sweating and dying so much. I thought that mountain hiking would be enough, but the tortilla belly I have says otherwise haha. My companion keeps cooking really good food and taught me how to make papas fritas (french fries) so that isn't exactly the healthiest thing. But it tastes better than the poch and xut (basically dough and beans) the members give us. Not the best combination if you ask me. But we are thankful.

It has been dumping rain this week so that has been fun. We always say the more we work in the rain, the better looking our future wife will be, so I am holding on to that. Another saying is, if you drop a "lix hu laj Mormon" (Book of Mormon) your future wife gets uglier, so I have to be careful, haha.

The Multi-zone Conference was awesome! We got to watch the movie ¨Home¨ about the purple alien and it was in English! I couldn't decide if it was really funny or if I have just been without entertainment for a really long time haha. The messages were great too. One message I liked was from our Mission President, he talked about grit. He showed us this study about how the most successful people aren't always the most talented or smartest or whatever, but the grittiest, those who stick with a problem and see it through to the end. I feel bad for President, it is really hard to be a Mission President here because not only is he in charge of the mission, he is basically the Stake President for all of Coban mission. He calls the Branch Presidents and interviews them, he does the mission interviews for people leaving and coming from here. He is like President Hunsaker plus a Mission President. I feel bad for how much he deals with.

For p-day today, Elder Reed and I just poca- hopped (pocas are little stores that sell clothes.) Now we are writing, then we will buy food for the week and head back home. Nothing too crazy. There are some Mayan ruins in Piten, which is the northern part of our mission. Unfortunately we are only allowed to go sight-seeing if we have an activity, which only happens if we meet our goals. We need like seventeen nuevos (new contacts) each week and two baptisms per month, which is kind of going rough right now.

I haven't really felt homesick yet for Christmas because it doesn't really feel like Christmas to be honest. There still aren't too many decorations; some of the tiendas have lights up and some of the families with more money have lights or little pictures in the house. Obviously no one can get a tree, that would be a lot of pizto here. We didn't have a special program at church either. Church is really funny here because no one really knows what is going on, so sometimes we just do Sacrament meeting, sometimes two hours, or sometimes the full meeting, you never know until you get there.

I left the little gift with the lady who did my wash in my last area. I am happy I had something to give her, I was close to that family. I miss those people a lot, it was actually really hard to leave Santo Domingo. Elder Helton is still there, so I can email him. I also email one of the members there named Lescter. I am definitely going to go back and visit there one day.

I am really excited to talk to you this week! It looks like I can call anytime on Christmas day so that will be exciting. I'm thinking maybe around 11 or 12 my time might work the best? I want to keep the afternoon open in case we get appointments. I need to make sure I am focused and not inconvenience you guys. I already have it worked out, I will call from my house with a members phone, I just have to put however many quetz on it that I need to pay. I can't wait to hear from you and I love you guys!

 

I'm doing my best for you guys! I have a letter I've been waiting to send for about two weeks, but the post here is just awful.

Chaab' il ralankil (Merry Christmas)

 

Love, Elder Toolson