March 9

Something I was thinking about this week is that as missionaries we only really see the people who are struggling in the gospel. We had stake conference this week and I realized how many really active, happy members there are in the stake. However, we only visit the less active ones who are having problems in the church and, often, problems in their families too. It can be a bit depressing because we can see what will make them happier, but we can´t do it for them. However, we also teach a lot of investigatores who are learning about the church and whose lives are improving. However, they still need a lot of support and help from us.

I was thinking about that and also about how doctors only really see people who are sick and social workers only see families that aren´t working and a lot of other jobs deal only with the people or the parts that aren´t working out, but beyond that there are a lot of things that are going well, but that don´t need the attention. 

Anyway, here are my pictures:

First there are a lot from the last zone meeting. Elder Aguilar and Hna Aguilar are showing that they have the same last name and Elder Harris is making kissy faces because he know it drives Hna Aguilar nuts.

Then there are several blurry photos of my success in french braiding my hair. I think it came out really well, but I haven´t had the patience to do it a second time. 

This Saturday an investigator of the elders got baptised and they had me give the talk on the Holy Ghost. Actually they told me ahead of time, but I thought they were joking. Anyway, I wrote my notes on my hand during the talk on baptism and I think it all came out pretty well. I will be impressed if you can read my notes in spanish.

This week we also had intercambios with the sister training leaders, which is my opinion didn´t go that well. I got sick that morning and still don´t understand why. It wasn´t the normal stomach thing (I actually have been completely healthy this whole cambio) and I think was stress related, even though I didn´t think I was stressed and couldn´t think of any reason to be stressed. However, I learned a lot from Hna Santeco, especially about how to do daily planning better and the importance of keeping the area book more up to date. I didn´t get to show her how well I´m doing, but that really isn´t what the purpose of intercambios is supposed to be.