SEMANA SANTA

Monday, April 14, 2014

Well, this is officially the slowest week of the year, and its only Monday. I don´t really want to do anything this week, all the people go on vacation, and there is never anybody home. It's not fun. and its also the hottest week. So lots of sweat.

Also, shout out to Cody, he broke his thumb. So, let me know if you need a hand haha. and Mas, you are in the red card club. I never got to go there, but I imagine it ain't fun. Especially for the stupidity of the call. Erin, I haven´t even seen you play volleyball yet, so go easy with lacrosse jaja. 

Well, this last week was a lot of fun. We did divisions with two areas to work and one time with another area so that they didn´t lose citas when one of the Elders had to go to immigration. So I worked with Elder Chi, from Belize, in my area, and then I went with Elder Juarez to Hibueras, one of the sketchiest areas of the mission, and I didn´t even get assaulted!!! It was great!!! SUPER SKETCHY, but I liked it. Straight hills though, that is one this I hate about our zone. It's all hills. 

We have some investigators progressing, and we have found some new ones. I like my new comp, we work well together and its lots of fun with him. I am the third one he will have killed, but he says I am not even close to being trunky, so I guess I am not. I really don´t think I am. 

This week should be interesting, We have divisions with the aps, and interviews with pres, so ya no, lots of fun. 

We had a quick week, but it was so blurred that we didn´t really have that many really super spiritual experiences. We did teach a lesson on Saturday to a super catholic kid, and his little brother, who was more accepting. We were teaching his little brother, Kenneth, who is a lot easier to talk to, when Jonathan, his older more contentious brother, came in and just started in on us. Now, we are not the smartest Elders in the whole world, but I have read the great apostasy like 6 times, and Bruce is really good at asking questions to help people understand things, so we tag teamed it. And we watched the kids countenance change!! He started off so contentious and wanting to fight, but as we answered his questions, and told him more and more to depend on God and the answers he gives, he seemed to calm down and soften just a little bit. It was amazing to see the spirit working in him. I don´t think he will accept very easily, or right now, but he at least has listened and felt something.

Well, that is pretty much it...

Happy Easter!!

I love you all!!!

Zach

CHANGES

Monday, April 7, 2014

So, I have a new comp. Elder Bruce. My old comp is the new assistant!!! So I must have done something right haha.

This week has been super long and not very productive. Monday was a good pday, we found a new investigator at a FHE....Tuesday we got changes. I was telling my comp the whole day that he was going to be the new AP...and he didn´t believe me. I started describing how President was going to call to tell him, and how I was going to answer the phone, and He was going to ask to speak to my comp, etc. Well, later that day, we leave the house, and the phone starts ringing in my pocket. I look at Fielding and go, ¨It´s prob Pres...¨ When to my surprise, IT WAS. HOLY COW. Fielding didn´t want to answer, even though it was for sure for him, I answered, talked to president for like five minutes, and then he asked to speak to my comp. HA. I PROPHESIED IT. So then Wednesday was changes, I said goodbye to Elnicky and Elggren. Thursday was district meeting, Friday was Consejo de Lideres de la mision, and Saturday and Sunday were conference. But we found some new people, thanks to some members.  We are planning an activity for the zone-stake to find new people and involve more the members, and it looks super hopeful. This week is going to be a lot of divisions, and getting to know new elders in the zone. We have a good zone right now, after Pres. destroyed the old one. So we should have no problems. hopefully...

We spent most of the week getting to know the area for Bruce. We did bring Eddy, a lady we are teaching, to GC, and it was great, she loved it!! She said to me afterwards, ¨I felt like they were speaking directly to me!¨

I know she took advantage of conference. My favorite talk was Elder Oaks on the Priesthood. SO GOOD.

That is sort of it this week. Short letter, I know, but I have to go teach a billion people before I come home. 

I love you all!

Zach

Smells like changes and Black Water....

Monday, March 31, 2014

So, supposedly, my comp and I will be having changes this week. Sad, cuz I really like him, but happy, because I will get to know somebody else...who might just be my last comp. But we shall see. Also, Fielding might be going to the dirty, dirty south. Lucky guy.

This week was pretty good. A little bit busy, but nothing out of the usual. We have had a lot of baptisms this month, but it isn´t all great, because most of them are niños and will be pretty inactive in a few months. Cody, when you go on a mission, there will be the temptation to take the easy way out and baptize kids in between nine and twelve whose families aren´t members, but the kids come and stuff. Be careful with that. It's easy to do, and doesn´t require much effort, but its not worth it. You want quality, not quantity. So try to find grown men and families. Baptize them. And the kids that they have too. But just niños off the street?? Don´t do it. 

Honestly, The only thing worth telling is that I am super tired all the time and that its really hot. I am super stoked for general conference, and we should have some investigators there. We have found some decently positive people this week, so they should be coming to the general conference, and we should be making some decent progress with some people this week. 

We have had some really interesting interactions with the ward in the last little bit. Nobody here really does anything. Ward council doesn´t happen, nobody visits, home and visiting teaching are nonexistent in this ward, it's a disaster. So the bishop in third hour yesterday (which wasn´t even combined) talked about how to do visits. We watched a video on the good Samaritan. And the video portrayed a different side to the story than what I had thought about. In the video, I could really see, through the portrayal of the actors, the compassion in the face of the Samaritan, and I thought about how, or the thought came to me, that the Samaritan didn´t suddenly stop to help the Jew because he had an epiphany, or because he decided to do something nice for once. Humans don´t act against our nature, and being tied to the natural man causes us to act naturally in ways that are not in accordance with Gods laws. We don´t acquire habits or act certain ways without it being a result of a change, like it says in Mosiah 3-19. I had the thought, ´The good Samaritan was exactly that. A good Samaritan. and Why? because serving and having compassion was something that he did often, and not a spontaneous act. That's why the priest and the levite passed him. As Christ often taught, the knowledge of the law is worth nothing if you don´t live the spirit of it. The Samaritans were regarded by the Jews to be vile, idolatrous, and unclean. they wouldn´t even eat food that came from Samaria, such was their fear of being ¨unclean.¨ 

Not that which goeth into the mouth ^adefileth a man; but that which cometh out of the ^bmouth, this defileth a man.

So, its not what we eat, or touch, that necessarily defiles us. It was what we do. 

14 For our ^awords will condemn us, yea, all our works will condemn us; we shall not be found spotless; and our thoughts will also condemn us; and in this awful state we shall not dare to look up to our God; and we would fain be glad if we could command the rocks and the ^bmountains to fall upon us to ^chide us from his presence.

And that determines our fate in the final judgement

 12 And I saw the ^adead, small and great, ^bstand before God; and the ^cbooks were opened: and another book was opened, which is the ^dbook of life: and the dead were ^ejudged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their ^fworks.

So The Samaritan did a good work, for which he will be judged accordingly. The priest and the Levite, however, fall into a different category....

 19 And we did ^amagnify our office unto the Lord, taking upon us the ^bresponsibility, answering the sins of the people upon our own heads if we did not ^cteach them the word of God with all diligence; wherefore, by laboring with our might their ^dblood might not come upon our garments; otherwise their blood would come upon our garments, and we would not be found spotless at the last day.

My patriarchal blessing talks about how my missionary service will be a basis in my life of service in the church. I used to think that that meant that I was going to be called to serve to do missionary things all my life. I think, to a certain degree yes. I also think that this means that what I have seen in this country is an example of, sadly, how not to be a good priesthood holder. I think that my whole life, I will have these reminders in my head of what not to do, and how I don´t want the stains of their blood on my garments. I know I am not perfect, and even as a missionary I am not perfect, but for that reason Christ expiated my sins, my weaknesses, and all the things I cant fix. He truly did die for me, and for you, and for everybody else.

I love you all. 

Zach

MIRACLES

Monday, March 24, 2014

11 But behold, I will show unto you a God of ^amiracles, even the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and it is that same ^bGod who created the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are.

This week, I saw a miracle.

The zone had in total 10 baptisms this week. The sad part is that most of them were niños, But that is for another day. We spent all week worried about baptismal clothing, And we didn´t have enough. We called all the other zones in the city, nothing. We tried with our zone, nothing. Members, nothing. So Saturday morning we left to go to the centro to try and find clothes in the discount piles of used stuff. I said a prayer leaving the house, asking God to help us to find the baptismal clothing that we needed so that these people could make a covenant with Him, and be part of his church. 

 

We looked, and looked, and found nothing. I did find a new pair of shoes, since after breaking one, giving away the other, and my boots giving me heat rash, I needed another option. But that is another story. 

So I called the elders, and pretty much said, well, good luck. Find ropa (clothing).

Later that day, in talking with them, the ropa magically appeared. Members had a dress, or a skirt, or pants, or a shirt. They found an old pair in the chapel of little pants, etc. All the people that needed clothes had clothes, either to baptize or to be baptized. 

Then, we had our baptism. I can´t send pics because the computers here won´t let us. But Arles was going to get baptized at 5. We got everything set early. Even cleaned most of the church. We spent three hours scrubbing and sweeping and mopping. And then we left to get him. Another companionship of elders had their baptism in our building because their building as no font. So they were doing their baptism, when our problem presents itself. The door to the bunker, where the computer is, is a metal door with a wooden door in front of it. Like a double door. Well, some time ago, someone took the doorknob off the wooden door and put it on backwards. This makes it impossible to open the door in case of it locking or breaking. Well it locked and broke. The part that goes into the door frame came out completely of the door itself, and wasn´t connected to the mechanism inside the knob that turns. All of our baptismal clothing, cameras, everything to do the baptism, inside, and it's 10 to 5:00. We spent an hour trying to get that stupidity of a door open. We tried everything. Nobody was at the baptism, it was empty, the door was locked, I had spent all day running around and cleaning, and now this. I was ready to just explode into Spanish vulgarity. 

Instead, I tried to control myself, and went into the chapel, where I could be alone. I offered a prayer, begging God to help us. To make it possible so that Arles could be baptized, and so that we could get the door open. We had done everything possible, and all we needed was a little help.

When I got done, I walked back, and just looked at the door. I think I expected it to just fall open, or to just disintegrate, or Elijah to call down fire on it. I just looked at it. A few minutes later, our mission leader came back to the church with a hammer and a screwdriver to get the hinges off. Within 30 seconds, we had the nails out of the hinges, and I started to go to work using the screwdriver as a lever to pop the door out of place. It worked. We did the baptism, late, but it was done. Fielding baptized, and I confirmed. 

I sat that night, thinking about what had happened. I was writing it down in my journal, and just sort of thinking about how I really had witnessed a miracle. It was interesting to me to think about how the miracle happened. Take Lazarus for instance. Christ could have moved the stone, and taken the wrappings off of his face, but he didn´t. That was done manually. Christ just did the part needed of him. It was no water to wine phenomenon, no feeding 5.000, but it was nonetheless a miracle. 

Apart from that, I had another really good learning experience this week. We have had some major issues in the zone that have really ruined us all. I hate it when this stuff happens, but this time it was just incredibly out of proportion. We had the APs coming to do divisions with the zone that day, on Tuesday, and when they told presidente, he came with them. The zone didn´t know. Just us, and it was a good surprise. He ended up doing interviews with a good part of the zone. resulting from that, the two DLs that we had were bajared, (demoted) or were not dls anymore. Then two other elders from the zone got the sube....they got made dls. mission jargon. Of the elders involved, 2 are going home 30 days early, another one is on tight leash, and president lost trust in a lot of people. One of the DLs had previously been a zone leader, and that was super hard to see. After president had learned about all that was going on, after we told him everything we knew, he got this look of sadness on his face, and said, It makes me so sad that this is happening. I had higher expectations for all these elders, and it hurts me to see this happen. I felt pain watching him. Knowing that he had trusted these elders and that they had betrayed that really helped me see why its so important to be obedient, because imagine how much more the Lord must feel it when we disobey. 

Really everything else from this week was trivial in comparison. I am on a food poisoning induced fast right now, so hopefully that gets better soon. 

 

I love you all, and can´t wait to see conference!!! I have been reading a talk a day to prepare, and I love it. Also, I can´t believe that time is flying so fast. I remember when I had three months in the mission. That is what I have left. .....wow.

I love you all!!

Zach

 

Mom's note:

 

Zach doesn't remember the other door miracle because he was only about a year and a half when it happened, but his miracle of the door reminded me of my own miracle of the door.  

 

Our home in Virginia had a sunroom.  When it was warm, we would leave the door of the house open and lock the door to the sunroom.  Until this time, I had never thought to unlock the door of the house.  Zach was about 18 months old.  Certainly not old enough or tall enough to open any door, especially a heavy front door, even though he was a pretty awesome kid.  This day was warm and the door of the house was open.  I walked out of the house to get the mail.  This meant just walking thru the sunroom because the mailbox was attached to the house.  In Zach's attempt to play, he pushed the door to the house closed.  I was locked out.  I was surprised that he could close the door because the carpet was pretty thick.  I tried the windows which I knew were locked.  I tried to get Zach to open the door but he couldn't.  I didn't see any neighbors home.  I knelt down at the door after a few minutes and said a prayer.  I walked out of the sunroom and there at the intersection was a police car.  This was my miracle I thought.  There were NEVER police cars in our neighborhood.  I flagged him down, explained my dilema and took him to the front and back door.  The front door was still locked and the only way to get in was the back door by breaking the glass.  Even at that, there was a lock at the bottom of the door so getting down there would have been very tricky as the glass at the top of the door was in panes that were not very big.  Probably 10 minutes had passed by now and we walked back to the front door.  Here is my miracle.  The front door was still locked but open enough for me to push it open all the way.  I can't explain it and I know it wasn't Zach who opened the door.  Needless to say, the front door was never locked again when the weather was nice enough to leave it open.

........

Monday, March 17, 2014

This week was super anticlimactic. I did a lot of stuff ....like knocking doors, and teaching. we put fecha with Arles, for this weekend, and he is pilas as crap. He loves it. We only have to teach him about tithing and then in the water. We had stake conference this week, which was a little different than normal, but that I will explain later. 

This week was pretty run of the mill. Lots of teaching and such. We have been trying to reactivate this family that is pretty much investigator status. They have been baptized members for 35 years, and still have doubts about Joseph Smith. It's a little hard to believe that somebody who has been a member so long still struggles with that, but everyone has their challenges. 

Its also getting to be about a trillion degrees here. We played soccer today, and I about died from the heat. I was done....didn´t want to play after an hour. I was beat. We spent the day with the ward mission leader and his assistant. The assistant's mom made us lunch...we had tongue.. SOO GOOD. 

This week wasn´t that spiritual...I didn´t have many super de duper out of the ordinary spiritual experiences. I did have two things that sort of made me shake my head.

The first one was with the owners of where we live. They have a son who is 18 and supposedly sort of troublesome. I really don´t think he is, but I think it is the Mom who is crazy. Anyways, on Saturday night I was washing clothes, and heard her just going to town on him, chewing him out. To be honest, she said a lot of things that I would never ever want to hear a mom say. I got this sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, and I thought to myself, of course he doesn´t obey her, she doesnt love him...shakespeare said those who don´t show love, don´t love. All she does is just lecture him. And she is pretty brutal. Lots of swear words. I was just sick. So I acted like nothing was wrong, and went up to the roof to hang up my clothes. Poor A---- was up there, and It looked like he had been crying. There was no way to avoid him, so we started talking a little bit. I had stuff to do, but I let it all go, and just sat and talked with him.  He is finishing school, wants to be a dentist, and is just a Cody type teenager. Wants to just do his own thing. But If Cody, you switched worlds with him, you would realize how good you have it. This kid literally lives in a hell. It was good to see him go down the stairs smiling after talking and joking for a while, and I felt like he needed it, and I hope it helped him.

Then, again with this same family, the other experience. The owners are baptists, but all their family is Mormon, practically. Some years ago, the brother of the owner, who is a member, gave him a disc set of Doctrine and Covenants, and he was telling us about how they use it to teach the youth at their church....I couldn´t help but smile. He says its because we explain everything so simply and so directly, but its also relevant. And so they use them all the time. We explained a little bit about church stuff, and gave them some new discs, a liahona, and a proclamation to the world. hopefully his wife reads it. Especially the part about how a successful family is based on principles of love, respect, forgiveness, trust, etc. 

Stake conference. We had a stake conference that was a little different. It was a transmission from SLC to here. To all of Centro America, actually. Elder Martino, Elder Scott, Hermana Oscarson, and Elder Oaks spoke. IT WAS AWESOME. The best talk was Elder Scott, about the atonement. Even in Spanish, that man has power. I love his talks. And Elder Oaks was super good. He talked about how we can´t let our culture of our country get in the way of living the gospel culture, which is a BIG THING here. He talked about tithing, fasting, Sunday observance ( by the way, when God said, SEIS dias trabajarás, y harás toda tu obra, that means that if we are lazy in the week, we are breaking the sabbath!!!)  He came down super hard on the people, about how there is no excuse. Iit was super good. It makes me think of a quote by President. George Albert Smith.

 

"Within the last year, I have had the privilege of meeting and conversing on the gospel with some men who live in this community [Salt Lake City], not members of our Church. One man had resided here for twenty years, a man whose life is above reproach, a good citizen, a splendid business man, one who has kindly feelings towards our people. He told me that he had lived here twenty years, and he had come to the conclusion that we were just as good as our neighbors who are members of other churches; he could not see any difference in us.

I want to say to you, my brethren and sisters, that is no compliment to me. If the gospel of Jesus Christ does not make me a better man, then I have not developed as I should, and if our neighbors not in this Church can live among us from year to year and see no evidence of the benefits that come from keeping the commandments of God in our lives, then there is need for reform in Israel. …"

Point. Made.  If we don´t live our religion to a point that it makes people want to change, a reform is needed. And I have seen that for the last 21 months. Its something I hope to remember always. 

We are also having serious issues with problems of obedience in the zone.  It is all Latins, not to be rascist, but it is. And it is stuff that is just stupid. sleepovers, illegal divisions, etc. and it wouldn´t be so bad, or so crucial, if they weren´t our Lideres de Districto (District Leaders) that were doing it, and dragging along their brand new gringo companions, who are frankly all fed up with the crap. Presidente Smith also said, Well, with this decision, today either starts eternal happiness or eternal disillusionment. These elders are on the wrong of those two paths in the mission. I think God is preparing me to have kids that are a little rebellious, which is a scary thought. I don´t want rebellious kids...but anyways, it's a bit of a headache. Patience, Glassett, Patience.

Well, that is sort of it. I am super sore from soccer today, but it was fun. Gearing up for another week. This week is 21. Crazy.

I love you all!!!

Zach

Week of lots of stuff

Monday, March 10, 2014

This week was long, and hot. It is just getting hotter in this oven of a country, without signs of ceasing anytime soon. We are getting closer to holy week, so it just keeps getting hotter. This week we had a consejo de lideres de la mision, and then we had taller de zona. It made for a lot of trying to listen to an awesome message about the scattering of Israel and the gathering, the importance of missionary work, and all that fun stuff. We had a member of the temple presidency instruct us. WOW!  I learned stuff about my purpose as a missionary that I never knew before. He gave an awesome talk, and really helped me to see that even though people are starting to give me the....yeah, you are almost done!! It's pretty much over for ya!!! shpeel, I realized that just because my time ends doesn´t mean that the Lord´s time does. I have no excuse to get baggy....or trunky, as the rest of the world says it, because the work isn´t over. Just my part. I have been praying since zone conference that God would help me to be more consecrated, and I actually find it happening. I am barely ever thinking of home, and am super focused. sure, I have my moments, like when I notice that I get home before food expires, but those are few and far between. It's amazing to see how the Lord blesses us with what we want.

We have also been having to knock doors a lot this week. We have a shortage of investigators, and even though the prophet calls for more members, none of them really jump up and lift where they stand. They don´t realize that the work without the members doesn´t get done, or at least the efficiency is highly minimized. Dad, that was awesome that you went with the elders. Make that experience happen for others. The area 70, Elder Laboriel, came to our sacrament meeting on Sunday, which was a surprise, and he said that RMs have NO excuse not to be giving references to the missionaries. The two most important forces in the work in a ward are the ML and the Bishop. Get Bishop Allen on board with you, because if he doesn´t help you will not have a pull on the ward to be able to do much. So try to help people be included, or include themselves, in the work. My suggestion. Here is a whole different world, so I don´t know how it works there. But I do know that my life would be less stressful if the members helped. But the lord blesses us for our efforts, and I have truly seen that this week. We found people that we are teaching. I don´t know if they will all progress. Of course I want them to, and I know that God wants them to even more. But they have free will. But I will be doing all that I can to help them. We found a less active who hasn´t been to church in like 15 years, because he got baptized, and then started living with an evangelical lady who hated mormons, so he stopped going and went to her church. Deuteronomy 7:3-4, for those with scriptures handy. Anyways, he has been super corrupted by all the doctrine that they teach there, one of the most prolific and deeply rooted is that it doesn´t matter what church you go to, you can find salvation. People here believe that God won´t come for a church, but he will come for those who do his will. And even though he tries to back it up with scriptures, it doesn´t work. We talked about Ephesians 2:19-20, Ephesians 4:11-14, and all the other scriptures that talk about how there is a true church and it is the only way to salvation. Ephesians 4:5 talks about how there is only one way, and 3 Nephi 27:8 teaches us that it has to bear his name and teach his doctrine. So he tried using John 14:6, which states,  6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the ^away, the ^btruth, and the life: no man ^ccometh unto the Father, but by me.

now, that may be true, as it surely is. Eternal life is only obtained through the atonement of christ, but we also read in Matthew, 

 21 ¶Not every one that ^asaith unto me, ^bLord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that ^cdoeth the ^dwill of my Father which is in ^eheaven.

 22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not^aprophesied in thy name? and in thy ^bname have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

 23 ^aAnd then will I profess unto them, I never knew you:^bdepart from me, ye that work ^ciniquity.

I bore testimony to this man that even though people go to church, and worship God, if they don´t keep the commandments and do God's will, and make the necessary covenants, and KEEP THEM, they will be cast out from the Lords presence and there will be much weeping and gnashing of teeth. He didn´t really have a response to that. I try not to be too severe with people, but sometimes they need a good shaking. I think about how he left the gold and eternal treasure that he had for something that isn´t going to ever really bring him lasting happiness. But oh well. We have citas to visit them this week, and I hope it goes well. We could use another family to teach. And God would like them back as well. 

I keep changing fonts to keep you all on your toes. Buckle up, buttercup.

Also, I have been reading the Book of Mormon over again, by theme. I was thinking about how I know that the Book of Mormon is true, and how I always talk about Moroni´s promise, but that I haven´t actually put that promise in practice for a while. So I started praying day and night and at all study times for a renewed testimony of the Book of Mormon. I waited and studied, and waited some more, just hoping for that burning sensation, that renewed light in my life, a dream, something....and got nothing. I kept praying and studying, just waiting and hoping. Towards the end of the week, I thought about how I hadn´t received a real answer...and then I thought about, later that day, how many times this week we have been able to teach about the Book of Mormon, and then it hit me....

God has been blessing me with opportunities to teach about and bear testimony of the Book of Mormon. What better way for me to keep helping my testimony of the Book of Mormon than to bear testimony of it?! I realized again that I know that it is true, and that the ¨Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book."

I love you all!!!! 

Zach

Long week .......

So this week was super long, with not a lot to tell about. We had zone conference, which was good, but took all day. We also had an Elder in the zone who was going home the next day, and who disappeard for some of it...so I had to go look for him, but president came and helped out.  

From there, Wednesday was....I don´t really remember Wednesday. It will come to me....Wednesday we had a giant mix up with some other elders. We had to go look for a house with some elders in a really sketchy area. We were told to get off the bus at the church, so we did....and we waited, and we waited, and we waited some more...then some members came out of nowhere. Now, we were told to be at hibueras, so we got off the bus....and then come to find out that we were at Reparto, and that we had gotten of at the wrong place. So then we found the other elders, and found no house. I got pretty sunburned, and saw about six bajillion people smoking weed.

Thursday was another day of not being in our area. We had to help with houses again. 

Friday we spent all morning moving. And then nobody was home on Friday. It was rough. We did have two good lessons with important people, though.

Saturday was long. The Saturday before fast Sunday has a tradition of being a day when no investigators can see us, and nobody let's us in contacting. It also is always a bajillion degrees hotter than the other days. So it sucks. But we found a girl who is the girlfriend of the son of the owners of our apartments. And so we are going to teach her and baptize her. She just doesn´t know it yet. Our dueños (landlords) are SUPER BAPTIST. They play their crazy evangelical christian praises to god rock all the time, so I am pretty sick of it. SO I am going to baptize them all to stop having to listen to that music. 

Sunday was AWESOME, if for the sheer fact of one event. Marcos, our dad who got baptized the other week, bore his testimony. I could feel the spirit, and I know that he knows that this is all true. Dad, he also has your blue tie with flowers on it, the GAP one. He wore a white shirt with it. He is going to be a very good member with his whole family, who they want to baptize. His wife and daughter fasted with us, he can´t because he is diabetic, but he wanted to. They are awesome!!!!

Apart from that, not much else happened. There is a guy who lives close to where we work who lived a good time in the states, he got deported like five years ago, and speaks English. He got deported for dealing drugs....quality, right?? He uses more swear words than I would like to hear, but he seems to like us. Anyways, he always talks to us when we pass by his house, but he has a huge drinking problem. So we talk to him about how he needs to stop drinking and stuff, but it doesn´t really get through. Well, he disappeared for about a week, And I got really worried he had died. But it turns out that went and got himself in an AA program for a week and a half. And the first day out, he drinks. I thought, come on, dude, you gotta do better than that, and was immediately reprimanded by a thought that came to my head....He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone. Yeah. I got put in my place super quick. We are ALL sinners, and I read lately that ¨evangelizing is just one homeless telling another homeless where to get bread.¨ it was super humbling. We also talked to a member who is more or less active, named Luis McCarthy. he is super cool. He is a little nuts, but is super smart about church stuff. It's a lot of fun to talk to him, I really like him. He always asks about our families, so I always tell him you guys are good. 

And today. I went to the dentist, got my face fixed....sort of....and am just drinking in the time that is left!! I can´t believe it keeps going so fast....

P.S.  Also, forgot. In zone conference, we were being shown a slide show of the difference in between social, honorable and consecrated missionaries. I felt that I was right in the honorable zone....not bad, but not the best. And for a minute, I felt pretty good about it. The thought hit me,. Do you want to go home and say that you consecrated yourself to the Lord, or that you honorably spent 2 years in another country??? Needless to say, I was called to repent and change!!!! I am working on consecrating myself for my last four months.

I love you all!

zach

Zach, "I am captian america"

Zach, "TWO OF MY FAVORITE PEEPS IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD  Smith and Pau´u"