Monday, November 11, 2013 12:32 PM
Okay dad as a suggestion read the section in chapter six of preach my gospel on humility, humility is part of pretty much every attribute, the fountain some would say. Also there is a little section on gratitude as well. Make sure to spend at least five minutes giving thanks for your wonderful 19 year old son and how awesome he is haha just kidding. Mom from your journal experiences it sounds like you had a lot of the problems that I am dealing with, although fortunately no parasites as of yet. (I make sure I boil my water before I drink it) Elder Dodge told me that thanksgiving here is hard because it is not recognized as a holiday at all, but I’ll try to be grateful igual (as well). The struggle continues but it has been looking up lately. Thank you for your prayers I definitely felt them and the language seemed to come in a big jump this week, the Lord really does bless me each and every day and in every moment. The only thing that He wants is to bless us and He does whenever He can. I am learning a lot of things about life and about the church. I really understand why a mission is a priesthood duty to serve a mission, I am learning what it really means to be a member of the church and be a priesthood holder. I am learning to go shopping for myself, to better manage money, I do my dishes every night and am learning to keep a schedule. The scriptures and the gospel are really coming to life. It is such a blessing to be a missionary, and to live in this day and age. Go to the restaurant and have great time! I want everyone to be happy on my birthday! For that I’m going to buy some pizzas and we are going to have a little party in the pension tonight! Nothing too big but a little party. Today I got to go to capital. What a present right? It was to do some visa stuff but it was really cool. I’ll have to send you some pictures next week because I didn’t bring my converter. With our investigator Alejandra who really seems ready and seems to be progressing well we are having trouble getting her to come to church. We are finding new people and the work is going forward. Sometimes my days are hard and my patience is really tried, REALLY. But it always helps to keep a prayer in my heart. About the middle of the week I was just really frustrated and didn’t really feel like putting up with it all. I realized I hadn’t read my patriarchal blessing in a while so I turned to that and read, that mixed with some very earnest prayers helped me to overcome those feelings though. Sometimes the mission is pretty bipolar on a day to day basis. Oh I am now legal because of what we did today! This week we did some service putting a floor in a house. It was fun to mix the cement with chunks of brick and sand and water. It was hard but a lot of fun and I really enjoy doing service. We might go back and help some more with other parts of the house, people just build their own houses here, so maybe you could just remodel the house yourself dad, all you need is bricks and cement! Oh you guys need to figure out the things for Skype such as the account you will use or however that works, because believe it or not (I can’t believe it) in about 5 weeks I will be calling home. So just a little heads up. I did find some mac and cheese in the cotto and let out a pretty big yell when I found it. It was different but still tasted pretty good, and made me pretty happy last Monday night. I hope that dad gets a calling soon and that he is a ward missionary! Now that we have sisters mom and Carolyn can go with them! Oh and mom and dad when a matrimonio (married couple) goes with the missionaries that is like gold. Keep up the good work, but if you do go with the missionaries don’t try to control the lesson. That can be very hard and annoying for the missionaries and they won’t be wanting to invite you to come out with them again. Todos ustedes son capos y les amo tanto! Be diligent chicos and do much good por su propio voluntad (by your own will). I love you all very much and you help me to keep going. The transfers are coming and I feel like one of us is going to leave. You will know next Monday!
Love,

Elder Andrew