I´m in Megacentro (a mall in the Capitol) for P-Day, so I dont have my camera with me. Dropboxing of photos will begin next week, then.
Wow, this week went by way too fast. We were in the capitol most of monday and all of tuesday finishing up medical testing of Elder Fr***** (who´s from Farmington, UT BTW), and then we had activities and full schedules to speed up the passage of time like crazy. Our zone (Hainamosa Stake) is having a Noche de Blanca the 19th of November (a big baptism night where we want to have 30 PREPARED people be baptized together), and we already put one of our investigators up to being baptized that night (two per companionship in the zone is the goal). Church attendance has been stable around 50 for the last couple of weeks, but there are 250-something members on record in Sabana Grande... We have our less-and-inactive reactivation work cut out for us. We also had an investigator attend both the Noche de Amistad activity wednesday night and sacrament meeting Sunday in the second week that we´ve known her: her name is R*****, she is actively involved and interested in religion, and loves to ask questions for us to answer (YES!). I have really developed a love for all our investigators and less actives here, and it pains me when they don´t make it to church or don't keep up with their reading assignments. They all have so much potential, and I am saddened that sometimes they don´t see the happiness they´re missing--especially the less active members.
We finally had time to deep-clean our house, and I feel much better about living there now. It was more than kinda bad in some areas--Elder Fr*****´s past companion , Elder S**** (who´s from El Salvador, BTW) was in his words ¨an animal¨ in some of his living and cleaning habits (ha!). But all in all, life has been amazing out here. We seem to have new investigators every day, and I feel like we could fill each day´s schedule twice over with people to visit and still not get to everyone each week. I just wish more of the lessons out here were interactive--we´re trying our best to ask inspired questions, but we´re not getting many responses beyond general assertions of belief in God and keeping His commandments. One of the lessons we´ve been teaching most out here is what faith is, because so many people here claim to have faith but they sit on it instead of letting it grow and refine them. At least most people out here are religious and active in their religions--I´ve heard stories from the capitol of how hard it can be to show people the negative influence of the nightlife and its activities on the soul, or even that people have any relation with God at all.
The fruit here is all amazing. Zapote, 3 types of Guayaba (guava), Guanabana (I don´t even know, but its delicious in a batida (think smootie - fruit with sweetened condensed milk)), Lechosa(papaya), tamarindo, carambola (starfruit), and goodness knows how much more--ALL FRESH! One of the youth we go out with a lot, E****, is trying to set me up for a day when he can have all of the fruits available here at his house for me to see and try. I swear I´ve had a batida every day--they may be somewhat sugary, but at least I´m getting my fruit!
I got to have Taco Bell today. Doesn´t taste much different than in the US, and for how little it cost I felt like a king compared to the tostadas and empanadas out in the campo (but both of those are good too). I love you all, and hope you continue to let the Spirit guide you. As you turn to the Lord and promise to give Him the glory for what you achieve, I promise you will do great things--I´ve been studying and working on humility the last week, and even in so short a time I´ve seen incredible changes in the Spirit that has accompanied our lessons.
Hasta ver,
Elder Rowe
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