I´m try to answer your questions, but have a lot to say myself.
One of the highlights of this week was that I finished reading the
Book of Mormon (in English) in time for my goal to finish for the new
year. This is only the second time that I´ve read the Book of Mormon
from start to finish and it was a really great experience. We are
always asking our investigators to read the Book of Mormon and pray to
know that it´s true so it´s important to do so as well. Now I can
testify with more assurity that God will answer their prayers.
We also had intercambios again this Friday and I am Hna Hinton were in
my area for the day. It was great to teach with her and learn new ways
to teach the same doctine. I realized that I know the area better than
I thought and that I can teach better than I thought too. Hna Aliaga
and I am struggling a bit as my ability to teach my share of the
lesson changes so rapidly. We aren´t really sure how to share the time
between us and work together. Before I only talked a very little bit
and now I still stuck in the pattern when we work together, but with
Hna Hinton or when we do splits with members I can direct the whole
lesson myself and only struggle with the social bits at the beginning
and end.
However, I also really missed Hna Aliaga with the intercambio and all
the splits we´ve been doing this week. We worked a lot with the
members this week because our zone had a goal that each companionship
could have 5 lessons with members this week. We were already doing
that because our ward is more suportive than some, but we tried even
harder to get members present in our lessons and had a lot of
successs. Having a member present helps so much because they can share
their experiences and testimonies and just be the person´s friend,
more than we have time for.
Another thing I learned from Hna Hinton is to tell people, le queremos
much, a lot more, which feels awkward, but they love it. I also had to
focus a lot more on what we were doing with her because I was the one
making most of the decisions on where to go and what to teach. Thus I
did n´t have time to let my mind wander, which made me a lot happier.
As you can see from my pictures, the zone meet our goal of lessons
with members present and went to
see waterfalls in the jungle about 3 hours from here. We hiked a bit
in a ton of mud and rain and saw some water falls that were bigger
than I had ever seen before. However, I had never seen any big waterfalls
before so that isn´t saying much. It was also fun to ride in a bus all
together and talk.
I got Robert´s email with the pictures. The bookshelves look great. I
also got the three exersize videos. Thank you! They look amazing.
What you mention of investigators who like talking to us, but don´t
want to get baptised is a real problem. If they aren´t ready to be
baptised that´s okay, but they need to progress, which means accepting
and keeping the commitments we ask of them, such as reading the Book
of Mormon, praying, and coming to church. If they don´t we have to
stop visiting them, or visit them a lot less frequently in order to use
our time well.
Knowing when to drop investigators is really difficult and we try to
avoid it by explaining well when we start visiting someone that we are
here to teach and to help them come unto Christ, not just to talk
about God and religion with them and share our opinions.
All new members get our support and visits for the first year after
they are baptised. Some don´t need it very much, but we still keep
track of how they are doing.
Pets: almost everyone has a dog or two to bark at people who come to
the door and are regarded as good home protection. However, these dogs
(and pretty much all dogs) stay outside in the yard. Cats also stay
outside most of the time and wander whereever because they can climb
over fences and go through smaller holes in gates. Beyond cats and
dogs, parrots of various sizes are fairly common and I have seen one
family with a pair of hamsters and another with a pair of rabbits.
Yes, there are farms on the outskirts of the city with little fields
and some cows and sheep or maybe a pig, but none in our area. A few
houses have tiny little gardens or a fruit tree or two.
Sacrament meetings are pretty similar. There are a few hymns in
Spanish that don´t exsist in English, but very few people know how to
read music and we have to remember to explain to investigators how
verses work in music, that you read the top line of each part first
before reading the second.
Speakers are really very similar. The wards are on average smaller,
but not by that much and the ratio of children and adults is only
different in that there is no seperate singles ward, but they have
their own Sunday School class.
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