Waterfalls and Walking

This last week was a little long but there were some definate good moments. We had two days where all of our appointments fell through and we ended up walking all over the place. We taught a few really good lessons though. We had training with our mission presidents and the asssistants one day. We found out about it just a couple days before hand and didnt find out until the day before that we were leaving that day to spend the night with our zone leaders. So everyone had to cancel teaching appointments and take the bus. Our zone leaders´ apartment had their power cut so when we got there we didnt have any electricity. We spent the the night on mattresses on the floor with no blankets and hardly got any sleep. It was just cold enough so you couldnlt fall asleep for very long, but not cold enough that we were freezing. I was awake from 3 oclock on. We had a meeting with our zone leaders then we had our training that lasted all day with the assistants to the president. I could follow most of it, but I got a little bored. My companion really like it, but I felt like I was in the MTC again, which i was really ready to leave when I came to the mission field. We went and visited a really pretty waterfall nearby with some other elders in our district. All of us took so many pictures. I think I doubled the amount of pictures on my camera. We confirmed Leonardo in church yesterday. He is super awesome and is already counting down the days until he can serve a mission. 3 years and 9 months. We fasted for another investigator this last week and a few days ago he told us he wants to be baptized. We were super excited. Another one of our investigators that is having a hard time coming to church almost came yesterday. We had a good lesson with him the other day and his friends kept showing up, so we started teaching them too. By the end he was inviting everyone to church and he was disappointed when nobody showed up yesterday morning. He really wants to go to church but he doesnt want to go without a friend so he stayed home. Next week we will bring him to church though. I mentioned to my companion the other day that I really want to baptize somebody who is drunk when we first meet them. On the way home we had two drunk men come up to us and start talking to us. We will do some follow ups the next couple days. =) I managed only to put on about 5 pounds throughout my MTC experience. I was excited to lose some weight by walking up and down the hillly streets of Conjunto Habitacional, but the members stuff us full of food every lunch. Its super good food also, so it´s really hard to say no. So I don´t know how fast the pounds are going to fly off. The language was coming easier this week. I could actually see progress everyday. I can´t wait until I can talk to and understand everyone. As of right now I can follow and understand most conversations, but I can miss a detail here or there. Sometimes that changes the meaning of the conversation completely so I can get lost. Every day is better though. Well, life is pretty good. It would be better with more letters though ;). Talk you all later.

Elder Siemers