The last one of these I will write
from a packed Paraguayan cyber with a keyboard that doesn’t work and slow internet
and computers that crash. It’s a great feeling. Ha ha. I am very excited to be
going home on Friday night, so that will probably come through in this
email. But all-in-all, I’m doing good,
and I wish the same for all of you.
This past week had some
goodbye-this-is-the-end moments, and it really kind of hit home that it’s
coming to a close. It’s weird since this
place, Paraguay, is all I really remember. The States seems more like a dream,
and the more I think about it the more it doesn’t seem real. Strange stuff.
Anyway, it started on Monday. We got up and headed to the office. I had my
final interview with President McMullin.
It went well. He gave me some questions to fill out, and we talked about
them for like a second then we talked about how I can continue to improve and
how to make sure I don’t slide backwards.
It was all good advice. He also
told me to work on my emotions some more, and, ya, it went good. We wrapped it up talking about my sister’s
engagement before ending. It wasn’t
nearly as climatic as I imagined, but I liked it, and it went well.
After that, I had my Lion King
circle of life moment as we went back to where it all began, God’s Pan. Now for those of you who don’t remember, and I’m
assuming that’s basically everyone, God’s Pan is a restaurant where you order
food and they weigh it out and you pay.
But more significant than that, it is the location of my real first
welcome to the mission moment, Elder Staker’s goodbye party. So it seemed only fitting to have my own
goodbye party there. It went really well.
Everyone that I would have wanted to come was able to come, except for
Elder Luke. That poor guy was stuck out
in Filadelphia and couldn’t make it. But there were friends from all parts of
my mission. It was a really great
time. We ate and then spent most of the
afternoon just sitting and talking and messing around. I thoroughly enjoyed it! And then I passed out my parting gifts.
To Elder Turley I passed down the
tie that has gone several generations now.
To Elder McClelland I gave the other one of my boxing gloves. And everyone there got a tie. They seemed to enjoy it. It was one of the best days of my mission. I
was happy.
Then we did a normal rest of a p-day
until the night when we went to a FHE. That
went well, but it was annoying at the same time. It was with the Fernandez family who should
be baptized and married. But due to a
fight aren’t. So all we did was talk
about love. It went really well. The annoying part was the Hermana who refuses
to accept she was in the wrong and is playing it up for her friends. When we arrived she was her smiley happy self
and I asked her about her relationship with her husband and she said it was
good and almost back to normal. Ok,
sweet. Well, then her friends got there
and she broke down in tears and went on and on and on about her husband not
loving her. It was tough to watch and
quite frankly annoyed me. So we talked
some more about priorities and love and patience and basically everything you
can think of. Here’s to hoping it works
(they did both come to church Sunday, so there is a chance).
Then on Tuesday we had a district
meeting. I planned it out to talk about lesson 3 or the Gospel of Christ. It went really well, and I feel like I helped
them out and that they can teach the lesson better now. There was a funny moment when in the practice
I stumped the whole district and that threw them for a loop. So we broke that down as well. Then we took pictures with a little Christmas
tree and that was that.
On Wednesday, it rained and rained
and rained. So ya, that was fun. It’s
even funner in our house since every time it rains, we lose power. Which isn’t terrible, except it means the
fans are gone and our house gets hot.
Then we did some service Saturday
morning helping remove rocks from an older lady’s house. Then lunch at Pizza Hut. And then the ward Christmas party. We had chicken and rice salad. It was pretty
decent; although, they made tons way more than needed. Then we watched some skits and jokes. All in all, we had a good time. Then we also
watched Elder Christofferson’s talk from the Christmas devotional. I liked
it. One funny moment from that was when
everybody was wrapping up eating, Hermano Arguello came around with a bag and
collected everyone’s scraps for his dog.
It was highly amusing.
On Sunday, we had a normal day, and I
taught Gospel Principles. Then I
realized it was probably my last time teaching that in Spanish. Like I said, lots of weird this-is-the-end
moments. Well, that’s about it for the
week.
I want to give a shout out - best of
luck and congratulations to my sister and to Kolton Mahoney who both got
engaged this past week. I wish you the best and future happiness.
Love all you guys. It’s been quite a ride. Thanks for sticking with me. Take care.
No comments:
Post a Comment