11th email (Service (and Baptism!!))

July 29, 2024

Hello everybody!

I forgot to tell you all about this last week, so I will now. Last Sunday we were walking to teach with a member and we went by a birthday party for a little boy that was firefighter themed. Before we'd passed by, they invited us to come have some soda. Before I knew it, we were sitting down with kabobs, cake, and more soda (I really don't like how much soda we're drinking). They were super hospitable to us, and they said if we needed anything, we could ask them. So that was super fun!

Now with this week, I didn't get everything done I wanted to with P-Day, but it was still so busy! One thing I was very pleased with was the Little Caesar's here. In the CCM we had Little Caesar's, but it was all microwaved and not that good. The pizzas here are still about 5 dollars! I hadn't had breakfast that day, so I got two and downed a whole one (my companion was impressed) and brought the other one back home to eat for breakfast for a few days. Normally cold pizza is really good, but this time it wouldn't keep too well in the fridge and just became cardboard in texture and taste. Oh well.

I've done a fair bit of service this week! I've been doing this thing for an investigator in a pueblo called Santa Ana, which is about a five-minute drive away from La Masica. The thing is called "chopear," which is cutting the grass with a machete. It's not as cool as it sounds. It's a lot more like weeding without making sure you're getting them at the growing point, and it was so rocky! And so slow! I eventually just started pulling them up with my hands, which was only a little faster. I finally got so frustrated that I grabbed a hoe, and went at it like I was at the Lotspeich Family Farm again. It was way faster. I did this on Tuesday and Friday, and between those two days I sweated out at least a literal gallon.

I've never thought of myself as being good with kids, but apparently the kids here disagree. I think that's where I've had my best service opportunities, and all thanks to my height! I think this was last week, but we were getting lychees (this funny looking fruit that tastes great, muy rico) with a member and some kids, one of which is an investigator. There were some they couldn't reach with the rake, but I could! So I got to get those down for them, which felt really good because I want to do something for these people, but my Spanish is still awful, so when I teach I stop every few words to look at my companion to see if I did anything bad. Also on Friday when we were chopeando (no clue if I conjugated that right), a kid somehow got his t-shirt stuck in a tree, so I got that down for him. The kids are also all fascinated with this little water droplet sound I can make, shoutout to Elder Hansen for teaching me that!

On Friday I also got to try this thing called "Pollo Chuco" that everyone's been talking about. It was great! It's basically like fried chicken with fried gineas (their equivalent of French fries, but they do also have actual french fries in some places), and vegetables. It was super good! The ward did their hamburger fundraiser, and the burgers were absolutely tiny and the horchata did not taste right and was way too thick; guess you can't sell all drinks in bags. But oh well. We did also go to a restaurant called "Sazón & Antojos." It was AMAZING! It was basically seven dollars for a double burger with bacon and four dollars for a big plate of Pollo chuco. I've got the latter saved to eat for breakfast some time. So I loved that.

Now for the climax of the email: we had our first baptism! We found out that when we couldn't find Javier, he was just at his niece's restaurant. Only three elders from the ward came (everyone else was sick or busy), and it was in the river. I got to do the baptizing. Afterwards, Javier started crying, I definitely felt the Spirit. It really is cool to be in the front lines and seeing the gospel in action.

My spiritual thought this week is from Russel M. Nelson's talk from 2005 titled "Now is the Time to Prepare." He quotes a poem on a sundial rhyming

"The shadow by my finger cast

Divides the future from the past:

Before it, sleeps the unborn hour,

In darkness, and beyond thy power:

Behind its unreturning line,

The vanished hour, no longer thine:

One hour alone is in thy hands,—

The NOW on which the shadow stands."

We really can only control what we do now, not what we have done in the past. But, what we do now determines the future. Now is the time to prepare to meet God! To report to Him all that we have done and all that we have become.

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