Elder Hirst Post Week 62

1:33 PM

Monday- I was really sick and we did nothing on p day. I bought a special diet of toast, rice, apples, and bananas because my mission nurse told me to because apparently they will stay inside me longer. And it worked, but it hurt so bad to eat. Before that, i hadn't eaten for 2.5 days and lost 9 pounds. So I slept basically the whole day.

Tuesday- I was able to make it to district meeting and I started feeling better. Everyone was worried because I apparently looked super skinny. We went back and I ate my special diet. Then we basically spent the entire evening resting and cleaning the apartment cuz I infected about the whole thing

Wednesday- we did end up working that morning and it went fine. We visited our progressing less active Gustavo, and things are going alright. Then that evening we had a big big miracle. We found an Bolivian/Argentinian family just knocking on some doors and they are sweet. It's just the mom and their 18 year old son and 20 year old daughter. The mom has been here for 12 years, but the children just barely arrived We taught them the restoration and even had a member present with us because another plan had failed is, and the lesson was way spiritual and these people seemed super interested. They wanted us to make sure to come back that Friday evening to teach them more. Best of all... the mom has Sundays off!!

Thursday- weekly planning in the morning. Then that evening, we met with that Bolivian girl that we had met last week, the one who I paid for her bus trip. Well we met with her in a park, she's 17 and studying to be a nurse and she was a little reluctant to meet with us at first but in the end, she did and we taught the restoration quickly and it went well. Then we had some more plans that evening, including a family home evening with a family in the ward, and we had invited another progressing less active, but this less active failed us in the end so the family home evening fell through, but oh well.

Friday- we had to wake up way early because we had some other elders staying with us that night, because one had to go early in the morning to Málaga for his residency. Well his comp, elder Grey stayed with us meantime and we had a good time in a trio. We had knocked the door of a cool Peruvian guy and later met with the ward second counselor to organize a new ward mission project going on. That evening we met with this Bolivian/ Argentinian family! They are so so cool! They said they were going to read the Book of Mormon but they didn't really understand how to, like If they should start from the beginning or what. We invited them to do that and they said they'd start as a family. Another thing, they asked when they could come to church and we told them this week. I want to quickly explain that going to church from our area is a sacrifice. We start at 9:30am and the church is about 1 hour by bus from the farthest point of our area. From where they live it would take about 50 minutes but they said they'd be up by 8:30 to take the bus and go, so it's great!

Saturday- not too much in the morning. That evening we found some less actives that hadn't seen people from the church in a couple years so they were happy to see us. Then we tried squeezing in some home teaching, which we didn't do as well this month... wasn't our fault though. 8 families is a lot! Then we had a lesson with Morrison our Nigerian member in the house of some members and they gave us dinner too. Morrison is the best!

Sunday- man me and my companion were super super devastated that morning. We called our Argentinian investigators to see if they were up and getting ready, and they told as they had gotten sick and wouldn't be able to go. Both me and my companion have been sick, so there's a good chance we infected them with something... we were way bummed. We haven't had an investigator in church from this area in almost 4 months! It's very hard to convince people in our area to wake up very early after probably a social Saturday night to take a 1 hour jam packed public bus (where you usually stand the whole time) up to an area sort of close to the church, where they have to walk an extra 15 minutes to an unknown church they've never been to and where they know nobody, and stay for 3 hours of usually these people's only day off, only to have to repeat the process to get back to their homes. Not to mention, our area is quite poor, so people don't have many resources to even pay for a bus. (It does however make me think, would I be willing to do that if i was in their circumstance? It's a good faith testing question) I mean I hate to complain because it won't change anything, but man, it's hard to get people to church here! They have to be committed! I feel this family is willing and committed to do it though, they promised they would come the next week, they just had gotten sick. So we continue working patiently and lovingly. Anyway, church went well. My companion and I taught the combined third hour of priesthood and relief society about reactivation and accompanying missionaries so it went fine.

The work is hard here, i will admit. But hey, Cadiz was hard, Ciudad Real was quite hard, and here has been hard. They've all been hard areas for their different reasons. But I know complaining and moping and groaning won't change anything, just like anything in this life. But I have come to believe that there's truly no such thing as a "hard area". It comes from our attitude and from our willingness to work and what our definition of success really is. Perhaps I've never been thrown into an area that baptizes every month, but I believe that that has nothing to do with success. Success as a missionary comes from your own faith, obedience, your influence and charity for your companion and also other people, and most of all, your attitude. I can always be improving in those things, but I believe that that's what every phase of the mission, and probably life is meant to be, an opportunity to change and grow. It is what true repentance is, a chance to change. A chance to learn. So although it's been a rough week, I'm excited for the next one. I'm not down nor do I feel in any way unmotivated. I'll have a baptism when the lord wants me to, and I'll just keep doing my part. I'm just excited to see what the best is that I can give this next week, the small miracles the lord will throw my way, and I will just love this marvelous work. It is the best!!!! I love it tooooo much!!!!