Elder England: Trying To Think And Say What Christ Would

Got a hamburger today from this food cart - It was delicious!

Hello!!!

This week was kinda crazy a little all over the place, okay probably not as crazy as the flooding in Colorado, but a lot of stuff happened. Last Monday night we had tortas fritas you probably don't know what that is cause I didn't know what it was, but they are like these pastry kinda tortilla things. Anyways they're delicious especially with dulce de leche! But, we made those with Juan Pablos family and wow we seemed to be like part of there family, Pablo the dad said that we are always welcome in his house. So we we're way hyped about that, well we went back on Saturday with a member (actually our ward mission leader) and it didn't go as great. We were really trying to show them that going to church is such a blessing, and they just didn't seem that interested. And yeah none of them but Juan came to church. It's weird cause having a member at the lessons brings a whole different spirit, usually for the better. But I don't know - it just felt like bringing someone into Pablos house that he didn't know was a little weird for him. Pablo turned back into the same shy not really interested guy that we met the first day we met with Juan. But I really have faith that we can help them recieve this gospel.

Okay about the rest of the week. On Tuesday morning, I went on my first interchange with Elder Bastidas from Peru. It was a really different experience to see how another Elder goes about doing things, but we had a great day and talked to a lot of people. He is an oro too, he has one more month than I do haha. But at least he knew Spanish or we would have been in big trouble! I actually talked more than I do with Elder Marroquin, which was really good for me. I need to tell Marroquin to force me to talk more!

On Thursday Elder Marroquin and I went to Montevideo just to spend a day in the city, I'm not really sure if it was aloud but it was fun! Haha not! We did go to Montevideo but it was for a meeting with all the oros that are in my group. It was so fun to see these guys that I had been so close to in the MTC. And to see that they are all doing so well. I know that I'm going to be good friends with some of them after the mission. That whole day was fun, and I got to have another interview with President Newsome. It went so great, it was really short but it went really well. I can see a relationship starting to form... CHACHING! He really is a great guy, and you keep asking me to tell you about him and I haven't. Okay I think that he and Hermana Newsome are from Virginia, but they moved around a lot. They were highschool sweethearts haha but I don't think that they even wrote each other while he was on his mission. I'm not sure how many kids they have, but I know that they have a 13 year old son that is living with them now. I still don't know him that well, but there is a little something about him. It's funny that Mace was talking about Ti Voglio Bene, cause I feel the exact same way! I feel like I can relate to Riley in a way now. I tried sharing the story with the "Three Musketeers" I live with - but none of them know English. Then I had a thought - hey this story is all about a mission president, so why not share it with my President. So I did, I haven't heard anything yet but I told him that if he had any spare time that he and Hermana Newsome should read it.

Those two things sound like the highlights of my week, but looking back they really weren't. We had a couple lessons this week, where I felt such a strong spirit that was stronger than anything I had felt before. One of them was with a women named Alejandra. We have actually taught her the first three lessons, and she has a baptismal date for the 28th (Soph dogs B Day!!!!!!!!). But I think it was Friday, she was not feeling well. We went over in the evening but she is a single mother of three kids, and we didn't have another male so we couldn't go in. But we returned with a member named Tomy, he is such an awesome guy! Anyways we just starting talking about how she was doing, and she starting crying. There was some silence but then all three of us just bore our testimonies to her. It really was such an amazing experience. It was not a very long lesson, it really wasn't even a lesson, but at the end she asked me to pray. I can't even describe what I felt, and really don't even remember what I said. But I was just trying to think and say what Christ would have thought and said in that situation. Wow I really just can't even explain what I felt, but I know what I felt and I don't think I'll ever forget that.

This week really was great, It's great to hear from all of you. And Wow a Japanese student, that is going to be so awesome! Mace sounds amazing! Dad thanks for sharing that email with me, my Spanish is really bad but I think that I understood most of it.

I love you all more than you will ever know

Elder England