sorry not much this week

18/03/19 

Today was an awesome day! We got to sleep in till 6:30 and eat breakfast at 8:00. I have never felt so tired in my life haha. Everyday is new and we have been tracking down the members that live in our area and its been pretty hard because the ward directory is old and a lot of people go inactive and have moved, but we got through the list and found 25 members homes. I have been learning more and more Spanish but it is very hard haha.  My companion Elder Bustios has been forcing me to do things like answer the phone, or contact people on the street, and it is so scary but it helps a lot. I realized that you really question what you know especially when you try to teach it in a different language. But it is alright--I know that the language will come i just have to speak and put my head down and get to work. It's so much different than i thought a mission was going to be, i don't even know what i was expecting but a mission is a lot harder than i thought it was going to be. Everyday gets easier there is an adjustment period, but i am so grateful to have the opportunity to be serving a mission. I know I would regret not going. My companion and I have contacted a lot of people this week. The hardest part is the second visit people won't be home when we schedule our visit or they act like they are not home. We tried contacting this lady yesterday and she was outside her house in her rocking chair and we went to contact her and she faked that she was asleep, so we sat there for 3 minutes trying to get her attention and she kept on faking sleeping. It was really funny, i haven't had any crazy experiences yet but I am excited for what is to come. We have been trying to work with the members as much as possible, its been great! We've worked with some returned missionaries, our bishop and the ward mission leader.

16/03/2019

Today was a great exhausting day in the mission, we started out by waking up early to play soccer with the Zone at the Punchana building. We had to wake up at 5:30 and go to the mission leaders house to pick up the keys for the building then go to the building at 6:00. Then returned to do personal study; went to the bank to get money for the next 2 weeks, that took about an hour and a half. Then we returned and did the rest of our planning and studies. We followed the directory to look for members in our area but we didn't  find one member. But we did enter a casa of a Hermano named Joe we planned a visit for next week. 

11/03/19

Man is it hard but the labor blesses us so much and I know I will be blessed for working diligently. I'm putting in some pictures from when I arrived.

10-03-19 (day/month/year)

Wow today was my 1st Sunday in the Punchana ward. It's so awesome here. The people are amazing but i still have a very hard time understanding them and speaking but i am very hopeful because every day gets better and better. Our ¨Pensionista¨is super funny, although i don't know most of what she is saying. Our ¨Pensionistas¨ name is Hermana Milagros which translates to miracles. To be honest we don't know the last name so we just call her Hermana Milagros, she is the relief society president. And her husbands' name is Hermano Adan and he is our ward mission leader. Their family is awesome! Their kids are really funny and they always have fun questions about the United States and i really like trying my best to answer. They think it is so fun because my Spanish is super bad. And this week has been super difficult. It is a non stop grind and i'm just trying to keep up haha. I love it though. This is an awesome experience. i am learning so much more than i thought i ever could in such a little time. Every day seems to be better than the last, but it seems that i am always tired. Also i had the opportunity to baptize one of the Hermanas investigators which was awesome. And this was my first Sunday in the field and its really interesting haha. This Sunday we had 82 people attend the Punchana morning ward which was a really good number. Its just so different to have no english all day except when my companion needs to explain something to me haha. He's from Argentina Buenas Arreas and he's been learning english on his mission and i'm his last transfer of his mission so after 8 weeks I'll have a new companion and it'll be more learning but i actually get along with my companion really well. He push's me to do things that i'm scared to do like talk to the people or teaching in the lesson when i cant speak the language . His name is Elder Bustios, he was born in Argentina but his parents are from Bolivia. It's interesting that i thought the mission field was going to be easier than the ¨CCM¨, oh man was i wrong! I can only imagine what Elder Smith felt, i have a little experience with Spanish and he had none with Portuguese. I love being a missionary its such an awesome opportunity to strengthen your testimony while helping others develop theres. Cant wait for this next week and the things to come its exciting being apart of the salvation of souls.

04-03-19 (day/month/year)

 Today is our last day in the ¨CCM¨ and we have a lot going on today. It was bitter sweet waking up this morning and knowing its the last full day with the district and my companions. We shared a lot of scriptures about how we can better prepare for ël campo¨, and we got a little distracted because we are all anxious to leave. Any ways we all had our last class with Hermano Meza and he was awesome, but honestly the classes were pointless haha. We got through the morning classes and made it to lunch. At lunch we all sat as a district and it was awesome i realized again how much these Elders mean to me. They are all amazing. Elder Sarreas who's name is Thanos, is just a gentle, caring 6'5" beast. He is so funny and he is always including everyone and making sure that they feel included and always making fun jokes to cheer everyone up. There is a special spirit about him and i know that he will touch the hearts of those around him because of how he makes them feel. Then there is Elder Jensen, he is a ¨happening guy¨ as our district would say haha. Elder Jensen is companions with Elder Sarreas, and he is also very tall 6'4". He always has plenty of stories to go around, plenty of puns, and all around intelligent fellow. He has some pretty good stories about the presidents and other historical events. More than that his knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ is so amazing. He uses history to connect to the prophecies in The Bible and in The Book of Mormon. He just has an amazing gift of comprehension, it opened my eyes to a lot more and to take the words in these book literal. I really admire his testimony, strength and personality. Elder Ruebush, he is such an awesome, humble missionary. Elder Ruebush was the first district leader in the ¨CCM¨ and then after 3 weeks i was assigned to be the leader of the district. I could always look to him for advice or help when i didn't know what to do. Elder Ruebush is super athletic, used to do cross country running and some other sports.He would demolish everyone on the field. He truly is just a great person and i know he will do great things! Elder Hoffman of Allen, Texas. He has just the best Laugh and you can hear him from a mile away, He is super amazing at playing piano. I don't have enough time to type the rest of this so i will finish later.