AJ's email from 1/23/2011

alright this week was kinda a slower week overall. although time seems to be moving by very fast again seeing as how we are already half way through this change and it feels like yesterday that i got to el monte. but im happy that time is going by fast. elder vilar and i are getting along great now. we have become really good friends this last week and a half or so. and its the first time that i feel like i have a companion that will be a good friend outside the mission too. cuz i could be friends with some of my other comps too but its just not the same.

      but anyway first i want to start with a question. does anyone know a lincoln turley from mesa? cuz apparently he served here in el monte about 2 years ago. and everyone here says that i look a lot like him and that i remind everyone of him. just wondering.

      thursday something happened that was really cool. but first i have to explain something. every sunday after sacrament meeting, we have something thats called the minuto misional, where we take 5 min as missionaries and give out a book of mormon to someone in the ward so that they go out and give it to someone else.and then the next week they have to bear their testimony about how it went during the week. and last sunday we gave the book of mormon to maria, the investigator that is basically a member without the baptism. so then thursday we had a lesson with her. and told us something that surprised me a lot. apparently 2 days before we gave her the book of mormon, she had a dream. and in her dream she gave a book of mormon to  someone that she knows.and so all that she was missing was the book to be able to actually do it. so sunday when we gave her the book of mormon, she was shocked and didnt know what to think. but she did know already who she has to give it to. it shows a little of how god works sometimes.

        friday we went to a members house to spend an hour with them. their name is the familia oteiza. but apparently, its not the first time that i had seen them. i found out my first week here that this family is also family with denisse, the girl that got baptized my first week in chile over in melipilla. and i found that out cuz they had a program from the baptism and so i asked where they got it and they told me they are family. and then when we went to their house, i found out that one of their daughters lives in santiago, in the ward avenida matta. and so i was just thinking wow what a coincidence. i know pretty much this whole family now without even realizing it and in 3 different sectors. but that kind of thing could only happen in our mission cuz its so small. no where else in the world do you get to know people from the same family in 3 sectors.

       last night i got kinda sick. i had a pretty bad head cold and didnt want to move at all after 7. so we went to this member family´s house. and i have to say that elder vilar and i are like 2 sons in this family. we are in their house just about every other day for one reason or another. and we can do just about whatever we want there. its really nice. and it was nice last night when i was sick cuz the mom basically treated me like her son and took care of me. she gave me some medicine and made us some food. its definitely nice to have a family like that in the sector.

       but anyway i hope that everyone is doing good and has a good week. take care