13 July 2010

Well, I spent most of my time reading dad's email which was much more exciting that writing, so this one is going to be more of a summary. (PS Dad, you can write that long every week if you want to :) )

Anyways, I was the very first missionary Pres. Ellsworth interviewed. He said he would look into extending, and didn't really give me a straight up answer for whether or not I can start researching schools, so keep an eye out for me! We haven't quite been a trio the past week for some reason or other, either because Sis. Rodio was sick, or because another sister was sick and Hna. McBride went with her companion. On Wednesday when we went to see Juan Ortega he told us that he had almost completely stopped drinking coffee and had completely stopped smoking. That was great news, because while he was sure he could stop smoking because he had done it before, he told us it would take a while for the coffee. We were surprised it happened so fast! We even took his coffeemaker from him. When Sis. Rodio asked for it he said "oh, sure, that would be great! that would really help me out." She asked if we could keep it for 3 days, until our next appt, but he said "no! you can keep it a week!"

Sidetrack but big part of my weeks for the rest of my mission - I was assigned a few weeks ago as the administrative assistant in the VC. They just made it up and I am the first one to have it so I still don't know what it entails, but mostly is a bunch of behind the scenes projects for Elder and Sis. White. On Pioneer Day the VC will have some activities so my last project was to design a passalong card for that. The weeks are flying by and as Hna. McBride keeps accidentally reminding us the transfer is almost over. I wish I could stay in this companionship for the rest of my mission.

In more sad news, Quirino, after being sober for 3 weeks, up and bought a case of 18 beers on Saturday, and another 12 on Sunday. I am grateful that I understand agency of people, because it is hard enough when an investigator we work so hard with falls back. Armando, a recent convert we work with a ton was really sad. He was the reason we started teaching Quirino and Melissa again. He has expressed to us many times his frustration because he shares the gospel but more often than not nothing comes from it. After this weekend we were talking with him and he was much more hopeful in the past. He is starting to learn those same lessons. We also know that this is not the end, that Quirino can still change and we have a lot of hope that he will stop drinking again. The saddest thing was that after 30 beers in less than 24 hours, he could still walk and could talk coherently. It is so sad that people can build that high of a tolerance to poison.

Yesterday, we got to do service in the temple. We cleaned and polished the wood in the rooms for preparatory ordinances. It was so cool, just the three of us cleaning the house of the Lord. We are going to go back and serve next week too! Last night was awesome, Mondays are some of my favorite days because we usually get tons done as a good way to end the week right before pday. We were at the VC after the temple and then just had 3 hours in our area and in those three hours we were able to fit 3 lessons, two of them member present lessons (We had to split the trio again, but I think this is the Lord's way of helping us cover more in our area even while serving at the VC right now). A lot of changes are taking place with all of the missions all over the world. We learned about them at interviews. I don't know how well they would be understood so I will write it in a letter and send it home. I will send a copy to Grandma and Grandpa Colton too, even though they probably already know, but they are the most likely to understand some of the terminology. Well, I think that is it, I still have to write president and a few others so I'll finish up here. I love being a missionary even though it still hits me hard sometimes and I am surprised that the Lord has brought me here in my life. I never imagined it but I have never been happier to be proved wrong!

Desde Mesa, con amor
Hermana Ladd