~Mlazgar Missionary Moments~

Before I post AJ's email this week, I had an update on another of my Mlazgar Missionaries. On Sunday Nathan was ordained an Elder in the Melchizedek Priesthood and has begun his mission papers. He turns 19 in November, but will have his papers complete by the end of July. Nathan and AJ's missions will overlap several months. So...the adventure begins anew...
so ive decided that im gonna have to start writing in my agenda what happens everyday so that i can remember when i get here to write. cuz i always think of the things the day before and then i get here after playing soccer and my mind goes blank from being tired. but ill just have to write the things that i do remember for now.

wednesday we had a lesson with a girl that we had contacted the week before. she seemed alright but not someone overly amazing that i was really looking forward to teaching. and i was kinda right about that cuz it was tough since she didnt really understand a lot of the stuff we were saying. i dont know if it just didnt stick in her head as we were talking or she just doesnt understand things very well, but it went kinda slow. the good part though was that her sister, trinidad, was there who is a lot better. trinidad understood a lot and actually kinda helped explain some things to her sister sometimes. she seemed pretty interested in what we were teaching and gave us her address to go by her house too cuz she lives somewhere else. so i am kinda looking forward to that cita this week and hopefully she will be there. then at night we had a lesson with the gonzalez santis family. we taught the word of wisdom and it went...alright, is how i guess i would put it. they all drink tea, guillermo (the dad) smokes and says that he literally cant live without it. and they all drink a little. so we are gonna have to work on that with them a lot.

AJ and Elder Braddy

thursday morning we had a training meeting in peñaflor with president king. we learned about the spirit´s role in the conversion, the importance of prayer, and how investigators can recieve answers through going to church. that was all good but what made me happiest was seeing people there that i knew. i got to see elder braddy and elder merchan from when i was in republica. i saw elder calditaran from when i was in melipilla. and then elder sosa was there too. i was especially happy to see elder braddy cuz he goes home this change and so i probably wont see him again. and us 2 with elder leavitt were the 3 that always caused so much trouble together in republica, so we are pretty close.

Mother's Day dinner

friday was the mothers day activity in the branch so we spent pretty much all day involved with that. cuz we went to the church around 5 to help set up everything and then it started around 730 and lasted til after we left at 1030, but it was a lot of fun. before it started we had to go out with the elders quorem president to buy some of the food and other ingredientes. and since i have no idea about anything that has to do with cooking, he was laughing at me basically the whole time and kinda teaching me how to buy it all. then after we had to go to some lady´s house to pick up more tables cuz there are only about 2 tables in the entire church building. the lady owns some catering type business so she had a lot of that stuff. when everyone was there, they started off with all the priesthood singing i am a child of god, but dressed up in little hats and with their faces painted like little boys. it was hilarious. i wish that i would have taken pictures of that but i didnt think about it. then everyone ate. they had chicken with rice. the chicken was so good, and i had almost 3 full plates of it all. i was so full after that that i almost had trouble walking around for a little while. then after that, one of the guys from the branch presidency (hno reyes) messed around for a little doing some different stuff and making everyone laugh. he made some hermanas sing, others dance, and then they did a little game where a guy had to sit behind the whiteboard and pick who his wife was out of 3 hermanas. only one got it wrong, and it was hno reyes who started the game.

Maria, Nicole, Hna Susana
and son Sebastian, & Hna Aida

Men cooking for Moms

saturday we had lunch with hermana aida because almost everyone else went to the temple together. it was nice to have lunch just me and my comp with them. cuz being with all 4 missionaries sometimes can get boring. cuz elder crane and elder bloxham have a different sense of humor than elder sanchez and i and dont laugh sometimes with us and our jokes. that morning though we had a really good lesson with veronica vidal. she has been having a really tough time lately with everything. with her studies and then with her family and just other things that are going on. and so we talked a lot about how the gospel helps us change our lives and helps us be happier. and that when we do what god wants, he blesses us. and the whole time the spirit was super strong and i know that she could feel that what we were saying was true. so she committed to start reading more and trying to really know if this is the true church cuz she wants to be happier.

yesterday i was kinda sad cuz we didnt have anyone come to church. maritza didnt come cuz apparently one of the girls from her other church called her in the morning crying cuz she missed maritza in their church. cuz it had been 3 weeks since she had gone. so being a 16 year old girl, maritza felt bad and ended up going there instead. so we had to reset her baptismal date for the 17th of june. but she promised to do everything that needs to get done to be baptized that day. i really hope so too cuz it would be my last day in el monte and i would love to leave with a baptism.

but anyway i hope that everyone is doing well. i hope you have a good week, take care