Week 20

July 1, 2013

ehh, my week was okay. not a whole lot of success but we worked hard.  I talked to the president this morning, he stopped by and had to talk to the owners of our house, and he told us that he's proud of us and knows that our area is very difficult. our area was closed for a year or so. so that's why we had to start from scratch. i believe i told ya'll that there were two bad missionaries here before but that wasn't the case. we opened the area!!! i guess thats my lack of Spanish in my first week here! haha and he told us that when you open an area the success is always down. Like a good year or so until the baptisms really start to come! so that made me feel better about the situation! other than that my week was normal. we worked hard and taught 9 lessons. so that could be way better. but we did find about 4 new  people to teach! so we will see. i spoke again in church yesterday! haha it went well! i spoke for 10 minutes and all i took up there was my scriptures! haha im getting betting at the writing talks thing!! 

Dad:

That's pretty cool! That's one thing you really learn as a missionary is how to give talks.

I know it can be tough and you can feel down when you feel like you are not having success. I'm glad you got to talk to your mission president about it. Hopefully, that makes you feel better. Remember, "how great shall be your joy if you bring but ONE soul unto Christ".  That soul might not be baptized by you but you very well might be the one who plants the seed. Always remember that the success of your mission is not determined by the number of baptisms. If you do, you will be extremely disappointed. Just keep working hard. I know that you are and I am so proud of you.

Kyler:

yeah i have to remind myself of that everyday. i think being a baseball player helps. haha we always fail! 

but yeah we are going to continue to work hard! we have one more month together so we are going to make it count!!! 

Dad:

How do you know that you only have one more month together?

Speaking of baseball - TG is playing up in the 18u WWBA. We are 2-1-1 right now. They play at 2:00 today. Tomorrow, they play a team from the West Coast. They are all committed to colleges like UCLA, Arizona, Nebraska and such. They are kicking everybody's butt so it will be interesting to see how we match up.

Mom and the other kids are at the beach with Humps, Nugents and the Princes. I'm really jealous. I'm sure you are too. Don't get trunkie thinking about it. :)

Kyler:

I'm already trunkie thinking about it haha just kidding. 

well its rare that you stay with your trainer for more than your training and i finished that last transfer. 

so more than likely at the end of this transfer we will split up. 

thats awesome!! i hope they pull off an upset! they cant be nervous! they just have to expect to compete. gosh , i miss that so much you have no idea. i want to play so bad when i get home.

Dad:

How are your other investigators? You had a dad and his daughter that were coming to church. Are they still interested or did something happened there?

If it's meant to be, you'll play! There's no question you got the talent to play somewhere. Things have a way of working out. Any pictures this week??

Kyler:

thats was part of my disappointment...they are moving to the zone next to us....so we have to refer them. its okay! i think we are going to baptize a 11 year old boy this Saturday. that will be nice. he comes from a less active family of about 7 years who i love! they've been coming to church the past month so we are working on reactivating them and keeping them there!

yeah i keep telling myself that. 

no pictures. i have to buy an adaptor for my memory card because my USB isn't working.

Dad:

So now that you are not training anymore, what are your days like? You probably don't have the extended morning training sessions, do you?  Are you able to get out and start your days a little earlier?

Kyler:

yeah! we don't study until 12:30 anymore. we study until 10:30 and leave by 11! its a whole more work but i dont mind it! 

Dad:

Hey -  do they have siesta's there? Nap time? When I was in Chile, depending on where I was, a lot of the stores would shut down during the mid part of the day to go home to eat and rest. Do they do that there? Any new foods that your trying? Do you guys get to do anything fun on P-days?

Kyler:

no siestas!! haha i wish! 

yeah we usually hang out as a zone and do some sort of activity. today we are going bowling!! I'm excited! I havn't been since my last night home with all the family!!!

Dad:

That girl in Grandma's ward left for the mission field a few weeks ago. Grandma gave her a package or money to give you. I can't remember. But she said she would leave it at the mission home once she gets there. I think she is in Peru right now.

Are you okay money wise? How does that all work? Do you get a certain amount at the start of each month?

Kyler:

yeah that works! I'll talk with the secretaries and figure all that out.

yeah im fine! we get about 85 dollars each month. so I'll go pull that out after this. i made a budget last month and it worked! I ended up with about 20 Bolivianos left...that's about 3 dollars.

Dad:

Bowling?? Wow - I wouldn't think they had that there. How many are in your zone? And don't forget about the spin on the ball that I taught you! ha ha

By the way - I don't know if Mom will be on. She said she doesn't get very good reception where they are staying. So, it looks like she may not get on today. I talked to her last night and she wanted me to let you know of course the usual. How much she loves you and how very proud she is. We can't begin to tell you how awesome it is to have a missionary. Our house has truly turned into a HOME because of it.

Kyler:

okay dad i have to go! tell everyone hi for me!! thanks for talking! i love and miss you all so much but i really am starting to fall in love with the work so don't worry about me!! tell mom and the kids hello and that i hope they are having a great time without me! i hope you all have a great 4th of July! I'll be sweating and knocking doors while ya'll are at the beach and playing baseball! haha take that!! sorry ya'll cant be me!! haha i love you! until next week!! 

Mom:

{I wan't able to get on while he was online, but I wanted to let him know I was thinking about him}

Sorry I missed you today. I know you will not get this until next week, but I just wanted to tell you much I love you and miss you! Thank you for your wonderful example! I am so proud to call you my son!

 I LOVE YOU!

Love - Mom