This week was another difficult week. We focused a lot this
week on trying to save the ward. We had a lot of lessons visiting with the bishopric
individually and then all together.
Family photo: (My name is really similar to planchar which is to iron. So everyone here makes that joke.)
On Saturday we had meeting with all of them
to have purposes and help encourage all of us and help us understand the
importance of leadership and unity.. and the bishop was more than an hour late.
But the meeting was good.
This week also we convinced the bishop to have ward
council meeting and he agreed. There hasn’t been ward council meeting or correlation
for more than the time I’ve been here. I think for basically almost a year, so this
is a great victory. He made the announcement about it in church yesterday, so
we are going to have our first one this Sunday.
It is really nice to see that
all of this progress is happening cause I took the initiative to change things
instead of keep feeling bad for myself with how crappy this ward is. And it’s
nice seeing somewhat of the fruits of my labor. Now for everything apart from
that was a struggle.
We had extremely low numbers this week. Right now me and my
comp are having a lot of trouble because he has a very short temper and the smallest
things will make him angry. And he becomes a new person when he is angry. He
will straight up ignore me and acts like he is five years old.
Saturday he went
the whole day without talking to me nor the investigators, nor the people we
contacted that day. Basically every other day he talks about wanting to return
home. We have a lot of long talks and this usually helps him regain his focus,
and I feel like so far I’ve done really good with keeping calm and patient, but
I’m not going to lie, it is one of the hardest things having someone just sit
there and stare off angrily while you are trying to help them and they refuse
to answer you like a two year old does. he really struggles with studying too.
Hopefully things improve a little.
The old man from the story last week told us he didn’t have
time to meet with us right now and for us to come back in a couple of months.
That was hard to hear, because the story of him I thought he was for sure a baptism.
Also we started teaching a guy who has met with tons of missionaries before, including me and Elder Rosales. He is best friends with the second councilor in the bishopric.
He has come to church more than a thousand times. Basically everyone in the
ward knows him.
The only problem is he hates the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith,
but likes everything else. So we have been focusing on helping him get rid of
his doubts. I am almost positive that this is his time. He just needs to read
the Book of Mormon, which he has not read a single page in all those years of
meeting with the missionaries. He has had about a thousand dates for baptisms
and even one time he had the interview but didn’t pass cause he didn’t believe
in Joseph Smith.
There was an activity for the priesthood in the ward. They
were all supposed to bring 2 inactive men from the ward. Well after about an hour
for waiting for people only 6 showed up. No one brought people. Me and my comp
left before the activity started because we had only planned to stay at the
activity for an hour and everyone showed up an hour late.
Four other people showed up after that. We
had an investigator who was going to try and come to the activity, but good thing
he didn’t haha. Right now everyone in the ward hates each other and the bishop.
I guess last year the ward had about a constant 150 people in assistance,
sometimes up to 200. Now we have about an average of 73 people. That’s smaller
than some of the branches here. For this reason we have been trying to save the
ward, because I don’t think the work will progress very well if the ward
continues in the direction it is heading.
In other news changes are in 3 weeks. That means Elder Hernandez
finishes his training and that I will have about six months. I still feel like
I only have like 2 weeks in the mission.
Nothing much new here though. I tried to make the tortillas
with the recipe and they turned out alright. I put too much oil in so they kind
of looked really ugly but tasted pretty good.
Hope everything is good at home
Elder Blanchard
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