The Talk

 Hello everybody!

This week has been interesting, in good ways and bad. Also for some reason people occasionally think I'm from China or Japan because of my eyes.

Tuesday we went contacting. A couple people in their houses saw me and made eye contact with me, but they never came to open the door.

Wednesday we went to Santa Ana and tried to invite the Vargas family to be baptized, but the mom was too busy. Back in La Masica we visited Fabiola and had lychees and green mangoes. lychees are great, but I would much rather wait for the mangoes to ripen.

Thursday we went to get money, but both of the ATMs in San Juan were broken, and the only other ones are in La Ceiba, an hour away. I was very frustrated and gave a prayer to know what to do. Before I even finished, I felt it would be alright. We were able to get out money just fine the next day. We did need to use some emergency money for the taxi ride back on Thursday though. Luckily, the driver knows us, and he let us pay after he gave us a ride home. Sometimes, I think he actually stalked us so he can be there when we need a ride. He's a good guy.

On Thursday we also did service for a member, helping him move. I got a bunch of random spare materials from that, and I killed a venomous snake and a scorpion. It would've been nice if any of us had been smart enough to wear gloves, but it was alright this time. I promised my parents I'll start carrying gloves for these kinds of opportunities.

Friday I got to get some avocados from Javier (our recent baptism), which is great. That afternoon we waited forever for a bus to Santa Ana. Once again, we weren't really able to extend the baptismal date. We tried visiting Fabiola, but she was apparently sick, according to her brother Jeremy.

Saturday was a day! I cut myself while opening an avocado and poured nearly boiling water on my hand that I had just distilled. We found out that Jeremy lied to us about Fabiola's fever when we asked him about how she was doing. That's too bad. We'd hoped he'd know better about lying since he's a member of the Church, but nobody's perfect. We also tried so hard to find Samir. He's a kid who's friends with a member of the Church. We've taught him some good lessons. We've been planning to invite him to be baptized, but he's disappeared off the face of the Earth.

Sunday was also a day. Earlier this week, we asked the bishopric to not change the songs because I work on them and practice all week, and I am not the best accompanist. The bishopric didn't change the songs, but Sunday we showed up and there was almost nobody there, including the member who usually conducts because she had (actually) been sick with a fever. Some lady who I've never seen before, apparently from the stake decided to conduct (even though she obviously doesn't know how to--I haven't seen anyone here who does) and changed two of the three songs on me! I got absolutely no warning at all, she just came up to the stand, said what hymn we were doing, and then started singing them to me as if I couldn't read the sheet music and know how they go. If you can't tell, I'm still very mad about it. Maybe it would be a little bit justified if she chose songs with easier time signatures, but she didn't even follow the time signatures, and the only one she left alone has a time signature of 12/8.

I also gave a talk in Sacrament meeting. That was enough to keep my mind off of my indignation. Bishop asked me to talk about the blessings of the gospel, I focused on blessings and responsibility of sharing the gospel. I used President Eyring's talk "A Voice of Warning" as my inspiration. It's so good. As we have been given, we too must give. We cannot just hear the gospel and say it's good, we cannot just live the gospel and not care about others. How can we be content, thinking that we are saved, but our own friends and neighbors have not been given the same opportunities that we have? One day they will know what we know, and they will remember or not if we offered them the opportunity to change as we have.

Another thing on Sunday was I got to learn how to make baleadas now. Nothing can stop me now! I just need to buy the ingredients.

Another spiritual thought is to just listen to the Spirit. This week we were helping a family get into "Come Follow Me". This week was about preparing for battles with temptation and Satan. While my companion was talking with the family I felt the impression to ask if they had had their house dedicated yet. I argued in my mind that I didn't know all the words, let alone how to conjugate the verbs. The Spirit then told me exactly what to say, and how to say it. I don't remember it now, but I do know that it was real. I know that we need to listen to the Spirit, and as we do, He will speak to us more.

Welp. That's all I've got. I hope you're doing better than I was at playing the piano. You'd be pretty bad off otherwise. Take care, and may God bless you.

Sincerely,

Élder Cobián

Sincerely,

Éld

Photos are:

Élder Patón and I after I used my engineering skills to craft a tool for picking mangoes. The hook alone was too flimsy, and the stick wasn't able to whack them off. We attached the two by first twisting the wire around the stick, and securing it with an old sock and a piece of rope.

I was lying on the ground waiting for the bus in Santa Ana, and Élder Patón decided to take a photo of it. I was startled by the light.

Unassembled baleada. I made that tortilla. All by myself (I actually needed help).