week 54

Hey! This week was a week of mixed emotions because a bunch of my friends are leaving which is super sad (Elder Tims and Helton are the ones in this picture.) 

But I have an awesome change! I am going to be killing Elder Smart! Wow...that sounds a lot darker when people don't understand what "killing" is in the mission haha. ("Killing" means serving with a missionary on his last transfer before going home.) He is in his last change and is from Utah. We have been buddies for a long time, we were just never really in the same area. He was my Zone Leader for a few changes but I only saw him like once or twice a month. He is coming to my area. He has been a Zone Leader for a long time, so I am sure I will learn a ton from him. I'm so excited, we always have a really good time talking at the zone leader meetings. Also, Elder Bos´new area borders mine so we will see each other a lot. So I have no complaints!

This is the first time I've had an American companion in 10 months. There are still about 40 missionaries serving in Kekchi areas, but I don't think all of those know Kekchi, they might have just been in a Kekchi speaking area at some point and never learned. They are actually bringing in two new missionaries that have never studied kekchi before so I'm excited to meet them! We were all really surprised because they are brand new, and the rumor was that all of the new Kekchi speakers would be native Spanish speakers who learned Kekchi in the MTC. But we just had a really big group Kekchi speakers leave, so maybe that changed things.

This week was just a week of saying goodbye to recent converts and members for my companion. The lessons we tried to squeeze in between that kind of all fell through, so that was a bummer. We have a little girl with a fecha (baptism date), but she is not until October so we will see what happens with that one. 

Last week I had the chance to lead a xQ´ojyin li K´omon, or noche de mormon ("mormon night.") It was kind of like a family home evening but with a lot of people. They just got together and shared their testimonies. This was the first one I have been to, but I've heard about them a lot. They just asked me if I would lead. It can be at anyone's house that wants to host it from what I understand, it can be yalaq´ b´ar (anywhere.)

I also wanted to send you a picture of my little buddy that always polishes my shoes. There are so many kids trying to do this, they just run around with the little kits and are super pushy. This little guy is awesome though, so I only have him do my shoes.

The leadership meeting went good last week. Thankfully we didn't get cincho ("the belt" - in trouble.) There wasn't a single zone that met their goal so President took the nice tactic instead of cincho haha.  He mostly spoke about constantly working and being unified.

For p-day today I am just writing and then going to La Tinta to wait for Elder Smart. He was serving as a Zone Leader in Coban. I've just been eating at that comedor, they always give us chicken and beans and eggs, that is something I don't mind eating every day. I also had an amazing waffle and a smoothie this week!

Dad, my workouts are going good. Every day at 5:00 am! I get up and go do a run, there are some hills we can do sprints up and stuff like that. Monday is chest and tricep, Tuesday is back and bicep, Wednesday is shoulders and legs, and I finish with a core workout. I just don't want to go home like the Polochik destroyed me haha. Everyone is starting to get into working out in the mission, so it is kind of fun to do it with them.

My spiritual thought this week comes from the Assistants to the President's message to us at our meeting. They talked about constant working. My AP, Elder Walker, said a quote that I really like. It can apply to literally anything we do in life, he said "you can't beat a man that never gives up." So that was really inspiring. If we never give up in missionary work, we can't lose. If we never give up in studying, in working out, in life in general, we can't lose. I just thought it was a really awesome quote. 

I love you!

Love, Elder Toolson