5-19-2014

So! Adventure week!

It is crazy how fast time flies! I can hardly believe the MTC was only six weeks! It felt like a year! and I can hardly believe this transfer has been six weeks! It felt like 2 or three days!

I will probably get a new companion. In fact I will likely be transferred to a new area this Friday! But if I stay another transfer that is great too! :D

This last monday, my companion got his hair cut.

 He asked for "mas conte" on top, and they started thinning. So he tried "mas maliit" and they started thinning again. "no no! mas maliit sa taas! (shorter ON TOP)" "are you sure?" "yes! like a quarter inch shorter!" "are you SURE?!" "YES!" bzzt! they made it a quarter inch all around. he is pretty much bald. ironically, the zone leaders, ap's, and mission president all came by our house this week, and none of them got mad at him.

Then my watch broke. ugh...

Then my favorite pen broke. *sigh*

then we had an FHE with the less active family I mentioned last week. We finally figured out how to get through to them! It is important to have fun, but they needed to see it is important to us to actually teach. So we started having family home evenings, with lessons FIRST. They started coming to church! It was incredibly fun though! I think we are their favorite Elders now :D we will find out if they talk about us a lot to the next Elders!

Then we got invited to a wedding. wow. we expected to go for the lunch only, but our invite was together with the less active mentioned in the last paragraph. what we didn't know is she is very wealthy. she payed for the wedding ALONG WITH THE GOVERNOR! so, we were made honored guests, and we couldn't leave part way through. It was really nifty to hear a catholic pastor. He said hallelujia, praise the Lord, and hello?! often. it was kind of funny. He was talking about "Facebook friending" the bride and groom. However the food was absolutely fabulous. The weddings are just slightly different from some of our church's traditions, and it was very surprising to me.

as President said: "There is no such thing as free lunch."

The wedding was delicious, but I got RIDICULOUSLY sick! I was up all night being sick, and then sleeping all day. my companion occupied himself learning to throw cards and rubix cube (just so happened it's the 40th anniversary of the cube today) poor guy. He even made me an egg. I could only eat half. 

but I got a new watch!

I learned some really great things in the PMG. first, "People wont care how much you know, until they know how much you care." advice from Elder Holland. We applied this to our less active family, AND IT WORKED!

and the next thing I learned.

a man went fishing, left at 6:30 am and returned at 8 pm

he caught one fish.

another man went fishing at 6:30 am and returned at 8 pm, but he caught 12 fishes!

what's the difference here? The first fisherman left on time, but spent many hours traveling, he stopped for breakfast, and stopped for lunch, snack and dinner. all together, he spent 2 hours with his hook in the water.

the Second fisherman packed a lunch the night before, woke up early for breakfast, and ate after he came home. with traveling he spent 12 HOURS with his hook in the water.

I have really seen the juxtaposition of a very successful transfer, and a very minimally successful transfer. I will hold on to this lesson!

Thanks for all your love and support! I love emails and letters! INGAT!

Vincit Omnia Veritas

Elder A. Cook