week 34: emergency change

So this week was pretty wild! I had an emergency change! About two hours after I stopped emailing on Monday I got the call, I packed Tuesday, and made it to my new area Wednesday. I'm also in a new District. I was pretty shocked and bummed, but what can you do. I'm not out here to do what I want! I got moved to the valley to finish the training of Elder Quej (pronounced like kejh.) I guess him and his companion were having problems so now I'm down here. He is from the capital here in Guatemala, he speaks both Spanish and Kekchi. He learned Kekchi crazy fast because he already knew a different language that is super close to Kekchi that I can't spell. He just finished ten weeks in the field, two more and he is done with his training. For being a trainer, there is this program called "The First Twelve Weeks" that I do, and other than that just try to be a good example. He talks about wanting to go home and stuff, but he makes up for it by being a really hard worker, so that's a good thing! 

My new area is called Canlun, and it is flipping hot! We walk about the same distance between appointments, it is just a lot flatter. I miss the mountains! This week felt like the longest week I have had since like September. We have literally nothing going for us right now haha. When I showed up I found out we have zero progressing investigators and zero fechas (baptismal dates) ...so I guess I have some work cut out for me! Things in Canlun are pretty rough, but hopefully with some hard work it will start looking up here in a few weeks! Not a whole lot to report, but we did find 32 new investigators this week. They are a bunch of families that my companion has wanted to pass by with for a while. I don't know how we are going to get them to progress to be honest, they are all either unmarried, Catholic, or both. But you never know. So hopefully something good will happen with that! My area is 100% Kekchi so that's a bright spot! Also my buddies Elders Bos, Ellis, Kortsen and Smart are all in my district so its pretty sweet. 

There is a little branch here, we get about thirty members out on a good Sunday. We live in an apartment right off the chapel. We have water sometimes, but it is so hot it dries up a bunch. Here are some pictures...

Also, surprise, I am back in Coban, so that pretty much stinks. It takes about the same amount of time to travel here as it did from my old area, we won't make it back today. Something in my blood count was low so they are checking that out again - my hemoglobin and one other thing that starts with H. They already took more blood. We will see what happens tomorrow, hopefully I'm not dying haha. I'm sure I am fine, they just want to be sure. I'm just really tired of Coban trips. I feel alright, I don't feel like I did when I was super sick, and I can work so that's a plus!

My spiritual thought this week is on patience. When I found out I had an emergency change, that was like the worst. I wasn't going to see my investigators baptized, I wasn't going to be with my companion anymore, and I was getting taken out of the mountains. I knelt down to pray that night just kind of asking when I would get a break, and I got the answer from Isaiah, that God's ways are higher than ours. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:8-9) Sometimes it is as simple as that, we don't know God's plan! Sometimes we just have to endure it well! 

I love all of you!

Love, Elder Toolson