"Comida Estudantil"

We went over to a member's house to learn how to make guacamole and other "comida estudantil" or student food (i.e. food you can make in five minutes at college).  This sister is the sweetest lady!  Right now she is going through some family problems because she is trying to do what is correct over what is easy and her family isn't too happy about that.  I admire her testimony and dedication. She told us that no matter how bad criticisms with her family got, she was sticking to her decision.

Are You Personally Converted?

We made transfer goals as a companionship this week.  We have a goal to speak Spanish 24/7 this entire transfer! Wish us luck!  I'm more excited about it than my companion.

We have a bit of bad news.  One of our investigators had to move, so she is no longer in our area.  We told her to let us know when she knew her address so we could send other missionaries to her house.  We were kind of bummed because we had put so much energy into helping her get baptized, but the ward members,  through their example, have helped us see the importance of just trusting in God's timing and plan for us and those around us.  She'll get baptized soon!

Other than that, our week went fantastic!  We had zone conference this week.  I was asked to give my testimony during it. I talked about how the biggest convert in the mission should be ourselves and although that has been said so many times, it is probably the best lesson any missionary can learn.

During zone conference, the recurring theme was that how much we learn on our missions (or even in life in general) depends on how we serve.  Our President kept saying that the mission is not about us, rather it is about everyone, but us (it sounds less-confusing and cooler in Spanish).  He said that when we do everything we can to make this mission about serving others and less about serving ourselves, then we learn the most.   In turn, the mission becomes about us.  It kind of sounds like a paradox, but it is really true.  As we turn out and serve others - especially during the times when we would really rather help ourselves - we grow tremendously and we actually end up helping ourselves more than anyone else.

With that principle in the back of our minds, my companion and I went off to work.   Immediately, we had just a no good, very rotten day.  It was pretty bad.  We got yelled at by multiple people all right in a row.  By 8:30 p.m. both of us were pretty upset at just about everything.  Having gone through all our plans that day, we rode our bikes back in the direction of our car.  We were both so frustrated that as we passed some people in the street, we didn't even stop to talk to them (I know, it's bad and we felt even worse as we passed by).  Finally, when we were almost to our car, we saw a cute little family.  We both decided we had had enough of this pity party we created for ourselves, so we stopped and had nice little conversation with them.  They gave us some referrals, and we were on our way.  Immediately, we felt so much better.  The contention that we had felt disappeared by the time we made it to our car.

Man, it's been a good week......