Life at the Mission Office & Miracles

So great to hear from you! It's so fun to be here in the offices. It's a lot of work, a little stressful, but way worth it. I feel I've learned so much just in these few short weeks. 

We work a lot of times as one big companionship between us and the secretaries. We still have our proselyting commitments and lots of times we will have to go on splits between the two companionship's. I've gotten to know pretty well the other two missionaries that work here. Elder Gallagher (California) and Elder Hansen (Utah). They´re both super awesome, super intelligent and spiritual people.

Something funny actually happened this morning. We found out that in our apartment (where 6 missionaries live) something went wrong with the pipes and now the land lord had to turn off our water until the plumber can fix it. That could be in 12 days or more! So right now, we are trying to find a place to bathe ourselves in the morning. It's sorta a crazy situation.

Congrats Lily for being the first of us to be good at sports. (Lily loves playing basketball and hopes to try out for the 7th grade team next year. She also has been setting records regularly on the rowing machine at school for 6th grade girls. She is getting to be very strong. We have always joked about how uncoordinated Ben is--he has the height and size to play basketball but not the coordination to do it well. He can blame dear old mom for the that, but hopefully he can blame me for his musical skill as well. It is a good trade off.)

And William: I´m already counting down the days, haha! Happy early birthday! (William typed a few lines in the letter we sent to Ben and the main focus was his 7th birthday which will be on June 4th. He expects that everyone else is counting down the days like he is.)

So you asked me what my normal schedule is like:

6.30 awake and exercise

7.00 breakfast and bathe

8.00 Personal Study (I am basing my studies on the Gospel Principles book, daily scripture study, and Preach my Gospel; I study exclusively in Spanish)

9.00 Companion Study (Hymn {all 6 missionaries}, white hand book, back cover of Preach my Gospel ("Remember This:"). We also share what we studied, coordinate plans and lessons for the day, practice teaching)

10.00-4.00 Work at the Office and lunch

4.00 We leave if everything goes well and we don't need to finish anything else

9.00 in the house

Ben's desk

The office where Ben spends so much of his time

These last two week we only got to leave a few times. Sunday we always get to leave because we don't do office work Sundays.

This last week I went to the airport two times on interchanges with the secretaries. It's super weird to be there. I didn't have any desires or thoughts of going home, but to see people going was super weird. It has gotten me thinking that in 18 months, the same thing would be happening to me. I also found out that more likely than not, I will be arriving home the 23rd or 24th of October 2015 because of the transfer schedule. (Just a fun fact)

This week we also had intercambios (exchanges-companionship's get switched around just for that time period) as a zone. It was super stressful because there was a lot of work to be done at the offices. I knew that we had already given it all we could that day and that we needed to do the intercambio. 

So I left the desk, with a pile of stuff to do, but I just left it. I left my area (called Malvín by the way). I sent you a picture of the chapel a while ago. It's super big and pretty. That is where the offices are located, by the way. 

I went to Barrio 9 with Elder Hobbs. He is from Idaho. I couldn't help but keep thinking of all the work sitting on my desk, but I eventually got over it and just tried to have a good time. And the truth is, I had a blast! We saw a lot of miracles! 

One was a woman that I contacted by giving her a pass along card. She was not interested at first. We eventually taught her all about the restoration of the Gospel. She listened to all of it! and really wanted to know more. We set up another charla (appointment or discussion) for Elder Hobbs to go to. I think she will be awesome, and she said that her family and her have been looking for a church to attend for a while.. 

Another experience happened this morning. I went with Elder Gallagher and Elder Eraso to get our hair cut and the lady that owns the hair shop has had a lot of contact with missionaries and the church before. Her parents were investigators years ago, but it just never called her attention. She told us that she's very interested right now in her life and that she has been waiting to get in contact with us. She asked for a Book of Mormon and now wants us to pas by Monday.

So many miracles every day!

I love you guys so much!

Love you

Élder Benjamin Taylor