week 27

Hey, guess who's back in Coban! I am here with Elder Helton so that is nice. Elder Helton is sick, but he says he is already feeling better so he should be good. Also, the nurse told me to come take another test, so I'm not sure what's up with that. I mean I am always sick but I think it is just regular stuff. But I pooped in my small cup. It is horrible. We go to a public clinic. There is just one old lady who works there, I think she is a doctor or something. It looks kind of ghetto. I have only been in two rooms so I don't really know what the layout of the building is like. We are always the only ones there so I think the missionaries keep her in business haha. She knows to send the results to the Mission Office so that is good. There are a group of us here from the Polochic, I saw Elder Kortsen, my old Zone Leader. We slept in Panzos last night and woke up at 2:30 to get here, and our bus leaves at 3:45. No big plans today, just visit the clinic, write and eat. That's the one good thing about Coban - we eat better. We always go to the plaza, it is a food court like in the States.

Divisions went really really well this week. Elder Vargas is brand new he can't really talk, but I was able to teach and understand and talk about everything we needed to so that was pretty awesome for me! I felt like the Lord was just putting words in my mouth the whole time. It was awesome! I feel a lot better about Kekchi, far from fluent, but knowing I can make it through a lesson helped me out a lot. I know Spanish better thank Kekchi because I talk it a lot more. I can pretty much teach and do anything in Spanish now, I just don't always get the all the right conjugations, but they always understand me at least. On the downside nobody made it to church this week so that was a bummer. I am on Divisions with Elder Helton until Thursday so we should have a pretty good week here. He will be coming to my area, I'm super excited! We usually have about three or four teaching appointments a day, but I feel like we could be doing a lot more.

Elder Helton is hitting six months left in the mission so both he and Elder Quiroz have been talking about home a lot lately, it kind of makes me baggy (homesick.) Oh, speaking of home, I got a care package from the Stake! That was like the best thing I have ever seen! It is really nice when I get support from people from the Stake or Ward, because I love it from you Mom and Dad, but you kind of have to because I am your son. Also, don't worry, I went and bought the blanket this week.

Dad asked about my exercise schedule. I have two days of exercises so I just switch off between those. Day one I get up and go run around the church, then I do 50-100-150 with laps in between those. Then I go back to the house and do curls, forearms, and forward raises. Day two I warm up, do ab ripper x, run to cool down, go back and do bench, bent over rows, push press, straight bar curl, forearms and forward raises. For the weights we have a straight bar with cement on either side and a dumbbell with cement on either side, I've got no idea how much they weigh, haha.

Mom asked what my favorite part/ most spiritual part/ most "I'm not in Washington anymore" part of my mission has been so far. My favorite part is definitely the trials. I know that is going to make Mom all emotional and thinking I'm great (he got that right) but I'm not. I just lived a good life before so this is a different world out here. I feel like I am finally getting ready for life. The most spiritual part is always when I am teaching, I just feel the Spirit so strong when I have the chance to teach, it is awesome! And this might not be the weirdest thing, but it wouldn't happen at home. The other day I was going to play one of the little mouth instruments I have. I sucked back air and a cockroach the size of my finger was inside the instrument, and I sucked it down my throat and I started dying. It was an adventure. I didn't choke or anything, I just kind of laughed and managed to hock it back out before I swallowed. It has been great having the instruments here, sometimes I play hymns when we have lessons. But it is better if we sing so the investigator can get the message of the song. We sing at least twice every lesson so that is always interesting.

One other unusual thing that happened this week is that I ate turtle. It was really good! Just like chicken, so we just cut into it. I would recommend it.

My spiritual thought this week comes from reading the October Conference talks in the Ensign. (The Ensign is a magazine published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. General Conference is held twice a year, the first weekend in October and April. Click this link to view messages from October Conference.) It isn't from one specific talk, but it is something I noticed about a lot of them, and it is about trials in our life. A lot of times we recieve a trial and it feels like the end of the world, but when we look at things with an eternal perspective, we realize that everything really will all turn out ok. I am so grateful for this knowledge I have and my understanding of eternal families!

I love all of you!

 

Love, Elder Toolson