Monday, November 2, 2015

Dad,

Dang the flu sucks. [talking about family at home all having the flu]  I haven't really been sick too much here in the field except for the normal diarrhea, lol. This one new elder got this nasty sickness, I forgot the name, but you get it from drinking like sewer water. He doesn't know what he ate or drank, but he had diarrhea for 3 weeks, nothing but water, and he lost 20 pounds. Finally, he took what we call here in the mission, the Bomb. It's two pills that basically scrape everything out of your digestive system and he's perfectly fine now, haha. 

The culture here is super cool. They go hard for "day of the dead" i don't really understand it, but everyone just gets drunk. This guy, the other day, asked us why we study the scriptures and serve missions. He basically told us we were dumb because Christ already atoned for our sins and we don't need to do anything else in this life. He was very rude and a little drunk. He said some pretty mean stuff and my companion wanted to hit him so I ended the conversation and pulled my companion away. It's a little sad, well really sad, to see people like that, so many people have such hard hearts. 

I'm doing my best, Dad, to be the best I can. I want to be 100 percent obedient so I can have the constant companionship of the Spirit in every moment. I trust God and the Savior and I want to show that through my actions by reaching the potential Heavenly Father has for me and by doing so I know I can help others do the same. 

Elder Gonzalez

Mom,

Rainy season has begun, haha. It rains for hours and it rains hard. Luckily my shoes are waterproof and I have a cheap 2 dollar, but usable umbrella. This whole weekend has been Halloween. There's hundreds of people out in the street today. Everyone is decorating graves and stuff for dia de difundos, but there's also lots of street food, but as missionaries we can't eat it. Lol, its pretty cool. Almost every food stand has a whole pig on a platter and they dish out pig meat with french fries or tortillas de papa [potato tortillas], which is just like mashed potatoes fried and covered in salt. Also tons of fruit stands with caramel apples and other candy fruits. Cool tip next time you eat watermelon, put lime on it, it's super good!!!! 

Today for p-day we played dodgeball as a zone, some of us showed up early to play soccer, but we played dodgeball with toilet paper rolls.  Instructions:  Take a toilet paper roll (not used is preferable) and fold it in half so that there is no hole in the middle, then wrap it in tape. Then throw it at someone. Super fun!!

We also played a quick game of ultimate frisbee and then my companion and I went and bought a huge family sized pizza and ate it by ourselves. 

I've been doing my 30 min of exercises every day now for about 3 months. I'm starting to get kinda buff. First we go run a mile, then we come back to the house and I do three sets of 15 wide pushups with my feet up on a chair, 3 sets of 15 wide pushups normal, and three sets of 15 pushups with my hands up on the chair, followed by abs and biceps or shoulders or triceps. I gained a little bit of fat at the beginning of my mission, but almost all of it is gone now. 

We had a super good day this past week! I'd like more like it. We did 14 contacts, we taught 4 lessons and found two new investigators and both have fetcha [dates for baptism]. I mean in writing that doesn't seem like much, but in the mission it's a lot.... Our district leader was shocked and our zone leaders even commented to us the next day in zone meeting at how hard we worked. In the mission we have lots of ups and downs, but that was definitely an up.

Hope everyone at home is doing good and strengthening their testimonies, I love you guys and our Father in Heaven loves you even more.

Elder Gonzalez