March 30, 2011

hola family. Hows it going? happy birthday tommorow mom! Thats crazy its almost april already, I just left like 3 weeks ago. Yesterday we got to go tracking again. It was really good. I went with this elder  in my district elder eyre. He is awesome. He is great at spanish and he knows the book of mormon like nodbodys business. So I still didnt get to talk too much since he is so good and people loose interest when im taking for ever to stop thing and then speak. I talked a lot more though. The great thing though was that I wasnt totally in the dark this time. I knew what they were talking about. So if I had a comment I could say it. We got 7 refererals it was great. The first guy we talked to at the bus stop was awesome, i was blown away by every thing he said. He belived in god and jesus and has always wondered why there arent prophets today and things. We gave him a book of mormon and like 4 pamphlets. He was really interested and wanted to learn more. Everybody suprised me. they were all really intersted and eager to learn more. I didnt expect that. People in america would just be like go away I dont want any girl scout cookies. ha. After i get out of  here i get to do that full time, im pumped. yesterday we listined to a talk by elder bednar it was awesome. He said that the way we answer peoples and our questions is not by application but by the doctorine. We show them the doctorine and then find the principles in the doctorine and learn for themselves how to apply it. He said this can pertain to any instance in the world. He told this hillarious story how he gave a Q and A session at a church and this really new convert asked him if he could eat pork. He told him that if he wanted to know for himself to go do d and c 89. The guy was like okay but can you just tell me, elder bednar was like no. And this went on for about 10 times. Finally elder bednar said I recognize a pattern here, your going to keep asking me to tell you if you can eat pork and im going to keep telling you to look it up in d and c 89 and so lets call it even and you go look it up in d and c 89. I t hought that was hillarious. But the reason is  if you just tell someone that they should stop smoking and they agree and then you help them to quit eventually there just going to do it again when your gone. But if you tell them the doctorine and they understand it in their heart then they will see why they need to and do it themselves with no help. it was an awesome talk. To sum it up it said doctorine answers the question of why principles answer the questions of what and applications answer the questions of how. It doenst matter how i need to quit smoking it matter why. My espanol is getting better. I can start to conjugate without looking at the my cheat sheet. I just need to memorize more words now. Soccer is going great, I am getting so much better. I was juggling today and it was easy, i could have gotten like 30 or more. If i go to byu idaho again I definately wanna play more soccer and be a coach. I am pretty scared to go to the field next week, to has flow by so quickly i dont know what happened. I was just in provo, now i just got  here now im leaving, i know im not prepared to go to the field but who is? ill learn quickly. This morning I heard something pretty disturbing I woke up and was putting my soccer clothes on for gym and i hear a pop pop pop pop pop, then a big boom. I am pretty sure it was a machine gun then one loud shotgun. I hope everbody is alright. it was right by where we trackted. Then we heard a lot of police sirens a few mins after, so i think it really was. This place is one of the most dangerous places in the world but the missioniaries have never even been mugged here. Im going to miss my district a lot, we have grown really close. Lots of us are going to the south mission but now 3 elders are going to central. and two sisters to panama and honduras or something. I love all of them there great people. Im so great full for all of you brothers for being so nice to me and a good example, almost all of the elders from utah have an older simpling that is way inactive idk why. But im gald our family is all active. today i got some cases for my preach my gospel there sweet, i love them. There blue and the other read. We looked at some pics of guatemala in my mission last week on the coast. It is the most amazing place in the world. Forest then beach, then ocean, then a amazing sunset. I cant wait to go to the coast. Also little villages in the top of the mountains. Oh dad no I havent gotten the package, ive heard it takes two to 3 weeks to get here. So idk what will happen, I might be gone. Thanks for sending chocalate though, thats what ive been craving. For my brithday the greatest thing you could send would be some good drinks, they have drinks here that are just pure fruit drinks there sick and disgusting except for the straberry one. So i drink lots of water. And idk what else, basically just food and drinks. maybe some soft toilet  paper, ha jk. Hmm maybe a sweet pens,  or oh my shoes are torn apart my tennis shoes, but i can get some here for much cheaper actually so dont send any. you should send some pics over the email. I cant send pic here I can next week in the field though! I dont know where im going yet i cant wait to find out where. We have coast, villages, and city, and mountains, forest, everything, its the best all into one. best mission ever.