Magic Monday

April 23, 2012

Dear Familia,

That's cool that they finally announced our new mission president. About time.  It sounds like he will be awesome.  Anyway, this might be a shorter letter because I'm not feeling too hot today but we will see how I hold up.  If the letter just cuts off abruptly, it's because I'm in the bathroom.

Anyway, so what we did this week. We had a magic Monday night last week.  We proselyte from 6-9 on Mondays, so at six we went to the Dominicanitos house and they let us in, then their uncle came in and he was really cool and got the kids talking, plus he was interested in our message. So that in one lesson and one new investigator.  At seven we went to a guy named Eliseo who Elder Sanford fearlessed a few days before.  He seemed pretty sketchy to me and I thought he was definitely not going to be there for this appointment we set with him.  But lo and behold, he was and he let us in.  We started talking to him and he told us that back in Guatemala he was a really good Christian, always helping out at his church and everything, but when he came to America, things were really hard for him and he started drinking and now is an alcoholic.  He said he believes that God put us in his path to help him come back to Christ and he is really cool.  We had another appointment set this week with him but he had to work late. But he actually called us an hour before the appointment to let us know, which is very rare.

So for Monday that is two lessons and two new investigators.  Then at 8:30 we decided to go look up a referral for a guy named Antonio from another missionary.  He talked to him on the bus and said he was really good so we went over.  The phone number he gave us was wrong and the doorbell on his building was broken so we didn't know what to do.  We decided to just talk to people around there and see if anyone comes in or out (this isn't one of the big apartment buildings that people go in and out every five minutes either, this is one of the little ten person apartments above the little street stores).  Elder Sanford got a really good fearless from this and while he was talking a delivery boy went to the door and got in so we followed him and went to the guy's door.  It turned out great.  He and his little brother are awesome and both really interested. So in three hours that's 3 lessons and 4 new investigators.  That would be a REALLY good day on a full work day, let alone for just three hours.

Tuesday we had exchanges and I was with Elder Verhagen.  This is the first time that I was the Senior companion, it was weird.  But we started out the day by knocking into a Muslim Imam that invited us in.  He then proceeded to tell us kindly that we are going to burn in Hellfire for about an hour and a half.  I realized that we weren't going to get anything accomplished in about the first two minutes and kept trying to get out but every time I was about to say something, Elder Verhagen would ask a question and get him going again.  Wednesday we got juked out of our minds everywhere we went.  Everyone that said they would be there wasn't.  That happens a lot more here in Jamaica than it did in Midwood. Thursday we had Zone Conference which was really good.  We learned a lot of good stuff about how to teach.  Then that night we taught Delilah again and Antonio and Rolando again. They were both still doing good and Antonio said he would be at church and Rolando said he wants to go but had to work.

Friday we did the ZL exchange because Elder Sanford is the district leader.  So our zone is just a single ZL so he went with Elder Sanford to our pool and I went with his companion.  This was my first time doing English program and second time being senior companion.  But English program is weird. I am really glad I got called to Spanish.  Saturday, another day of getting juked left and right. whoo!

Sunday was a bittersweet day.  So out of the three people that gave us a definite yes on coming to church, only Delilah showed up (the other two were Antonio, and Mario, our Liberty Tax friend.  Everyday for about two week he has told us he would be there Sunday, but he wasn't, and since tax season is over, he isn't standing on the street corner handing out fliers anymore. So we probably won't every see him again.) But Delilah's mom told us that Delilah is feeling pretty scared about her baptism. So during Sunday School, we ran home and grabbed every teabag we could find to try and do a faith rocket with her.  We tested out two different types and all I got out of it was a burned hand. Then we find one more kind buried at the bottom of the box that looked more like the ones we have seen people use before, but it was the only one so it really was an act of faith that it was going to work.  It did, at the very last second and she liked it and is feeling better now.  But after that we walked twenty minutes in the rain (didn't have time to run home for our rain gear) only to get juked and walk twenty minutes back to change out of our wet clothes and get our rain gear.  Even so we all got pretty wet yesterday, which brings us back to today, and me being sick. Yeah rain! and it is supposed to rain for the next few days too! Whoo!

Love you guys

Elder Pearce