week 77

Hey! Things this week were kind of slow, we didn't really have much success with finding the people we were supposed to find and we didn't really find that many people that seemed interested. The problem with Teleman is that the Mayor of this place is a member, which is awesome because he can help the missionaries get people married and stuff, but a lot of people only show up to church to ask him for money or a job. So we get all these new random investigators in church, and then we find out they are only there to see the Mayor. 

We haven't been able to find Victor, and we got stood up like three times by the same guy who kept telling us to come by. That made me about as mad as Guatemalan transportation, that is the worst. We only use it when we travel outside our area, probably four times a week or so. We have two district meetings we are supposed to go to each week. We instruct everyone in zone meeting once a month, then they do district meeting every month to instruct their district and we go to observe. Plus divisions and interviews. 

We found one family that doesn't have anywhere to go to church so we will see how things go with them. Mario's family is kind of having trouble because their son is misbehaving a little bit, and his wife feels like that makes her unworthy to go to church or prepare to go to the temple. I tried to explain to her that if she is teaching him to do the right thing and he just isn't doing it, it is not her fault. But she doesn't seem to understand. The problem is she is really evangelica, so she thinks if one tiny thing goes wrong she needs to repent to the point she is like sobbing, so I don't really know what to do. But we will see what we can do to help her. We had a good lesson with Ronald so that was nice. He speaks both Spanish and Kekchi plus he can read, so he is easier to teach than a lot of others. He is so receptive and you can see the Lord helping him understand these things the first time we explain them. That lesson was probably the most spiritual thing that happened this week. 

Luis wasn't home the two times we tried to stop by with him so darn, but it is all good! We will keep working. This is the last week of the change. We have to work so that if I stay, we have some good stuff going, and if I go, the next elder has some good stuff going. Teleman has kind of hit a wall. But one nice thing is that our zone put like 8 new fechas (baptismal dates) this last week so March should be a big month for us! I am excited, hopefully I will be here to see that! I hope I stay another change, I have only been here two, but I don't think I will. This one flew by. I don't like it, I only have three transfers left and it feels like they are happening every other week. It is time for Elder Bos to go home, I am really bummed, I am going to miss him. And I think my time in the Polochic is coming to an end so that is kind of a bummer. I'm sure it wouldn't be too bad, I just would really miss talking in Kekchi I think. Hopefully I get moved to an area that has at least a little bit of Kekchi in it. I don't really like teaching in Spanish as much and that's probably all I would teach in. Although it is nice because Teleman has some Spanish so I am starting to get used to it. The dream is that I'd get to train, I think that might happen my last two changes. We are getting new missionaries this time, but not Kekchi speakers.

I got to do some divisions this week with a guy named Elder Garcia, he is nice and really intense. He has been out about two months and is really enthusiastic about the work. We were up in one of my old areas, Sepemac, so it was good to see some old friends there. I don't know if you remember Ramona but I got to visit her. It is a bummer because she is still living with her boyfriend so she hasn't gotten to be baptized. She has wanted to be baptized for over a year, but they need to get married. He says he wants to join the church but when the time comes to actually do something he doesn't go to church or keep commitments. It is a huge bummer. We also got to visit my favorite family in my whole mission which is a family whose dad's name is Raul so we just call them Raul's family. They always tell me after my mission I should just come back and live there. They gave us some beans and she makes the best tortillas so it was a dinner with them. Seeing them was the best part of the week. It was awesome.

Photos! These were just taken in my area...

In the last picture, I just helped a lady make tortillas. I am really bad at it. I feel like I should learn how to make homemade tortillas because it will be weird to go home and eat without them. I have even started eating noodles with tortillas! A lot of the people here don't have spoons so that is all we have as utensils. It took a while to get used to but now I feel like I should have tortillas with my cereal, haha.

Mom asked me about some of the superstitions here. One is if you scare a kid or make a kid cry you have to cut off some of your hair and they will burn it and it is all okay. I have never had to do that yet thank goodness. There are a few other weird ones but the only one I remember is that if you pass between two people that are walking, I can't remember if that means they steal your luck, or you steal theirs. And if you are sitting on the side of the road, you can't greet the people that pass by first, they have to greet you.

We are just getting food and writing for pday. Things are good but pretty hot, it was hard to play soccer haha. One nice thing about being in Teleman, is that I can just pass my pday here, no extra hiking or trucks.

My spiritual thought this week comes from my personal scripture study. I was finishing up Alma and there is a part where there is kind of a break in the wars. Captain Moroni starts making all the weak points and weak cities stronger, and then the Nephites totally wreck the Lamanites. It was dope! And I got to thinking that maybe we should try that in our own lives! If we can identify what our weak points are, and then get those stronger, Satan won't be able to do anything! Brings back what my Mission President said, he asked which commandment is the most important. Of course we started shouting out answers like "Love God and your neighbor" and stuff like that. But he told us that the most important commandment is the one that is the hardest for us to keep. 

Have an awesome week!

Love, Elder Toolson