Week 8 (Campestre, Atiquizaya)

Another week has flown by and the Spanish is finally starting to have a noticeable difference with my ability to speak Spanish. I am actually understanding people really well. The thing with the fish soup is it is the lady we pay to cook for us and she usually makes just a whole lot of the food cause other people sometimes come to the house and buy the food. So it wasn’t bad because we eat at her house every day.

A picture from the area, imagine a bus ride through this on a bus that is over capacity  so much that there are more people standing than there are sitting and that people have to hang out the doors. That's our bus ride to a place in our area called Nuevo Amanacer.  

This week was another interesting week. We have 2 dates for baptisms which are both super positive. One is S….. who is going to get baptized the 8th, she came to church again and loved it. She keeps talking about the peace she feels when she reads or goes to church or when we visit. The other is a girl named G…... They are both 19 year old girls but don t worry we don’t go trying to find young girls to teach, they are both referrals. G…..’s mom was a member but she died earlier this year, and I guess the other elders here went to her house every day for a month but the family wanted nothing to do with them, also the dad left the family so it is her and her older brothers, but we went with a member who referred her to us and we went and she said she was sick so we asked if we could come in a pray for her, so we came in and started a lesson haha.

We sang I stand all amazed cause we sing hymns before every lesson, but the spirit was super strong even though it was stormy outside. And so we asked her how she felt and she said super peaceful and we just had a lesson on how she can feel this peace, and the whole lesson the spirit was there and then we asked her to be baptized and before my comp could finish the question she said yes haha. It was really cool. But I can’t wait for general conference. This is the most excited I have ever been for conference.  And I will be able to watch it in English which is good.

Also we are still meeting with G….. and he finally started reading the Book of  Mormon and he loves it haha. He was reading in Nephi when he is talking with the angel and he sees the great and abominable church. The first thing he said when we came to the house is that he is positive that it is talking about the catholic church haha he was so happy about it. It is really hard teaching him though because he knows like every verse of the Bible and is very stubborn we when he interprets them and so he has a lot of doubts still.  

He still hasn’t come to church but he seems pretty excited to go to conference though.

The past few days it’s been raining like crazy, two days ago when we left our house to go to lunch the road was just a straight up river and it was pouring. It’s crazy how much it rains here. Also we found the best smoothie place here right next to our house and it costs a dollar for a smoothie.  And they are amazing. They have this fruit called zapote which is basically an avocado but it is super sweet. That mixed with papaya and pineapple is heaven.

Everything’s going good though . I hoped you guys enjoy conference. I don’t think I’ve ever appreciated having a prophet so much as now because I realize how important it is to have someone who speaks with god, cause I see how many ways people interpret the Bible and there is just so much confusion but since we have a God who loves us so much and doesn’t want to leave us in confusion so he gave us prophets so guide us and help us.

Love Elder Blanchard