Friday, July 11, 2014

Slow and Steady - June 30, 2014

Hey Thanks I loved the pictures and I am glad that you were able to have a great trip! Glad to hear that your efforts to get back in time for church/the home coming were worth it. It is amazing that Ethan is already back from his mission! 

I hope that Dad is getting a little time to hang out with his buddies/brothers/someone with all the girls around.  I hear he is crimping feathers or s--omething like that :) 

This week we have been going slow and steady, ish. My companion still complains a lot about his foot, and I can see that it is exhausting to go around on crutches all day. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday actually went on Companion exchanges so that I could work with the other Elders in our ward for part of the day, and I am glad too, because I was starting to get really bored/distracted from the work with all the free time. Since Wednesday night, he has started working again. We even went all the way across our area one day (Friday) to visit a non-active member, and he wasn’t there! My companion was exhausted by the end of that day. We have only had 1-3 lessons every day this week, which is discouraging with all the effort that my companion is putting in. Almost all of our contacts are started with people asking what happened to his foot :) the majority tell him to go back home and rest, but we keep going, slowly. 

One day he was super exhausted and had to sit down on sidewalk and rest, so we sat there, him looking like he was dying and me trying to fix up his crutches (the rubber on the bottom had all worn off, so I am stuffing grocery bags in the bottom of the crutches to give him a little traction. It is better than the pure metal), I am sure that we just looked so pathetic (because I FELT pathetic, and I am laughing now at the scene), and a man actually ended up offering us two free Mangonados, or Mango Popsicle. It just added to the whole experience. But I am very grateful for his kindness. I promise that there are some very good people down here :) 
The bad thing is that my companion is sleeping in, using his foot as an excuse, and it interrupts our studies.... I am trying to still get up myself, but sometimes I am torn between being super strict and seemingly un-empathetic about his foot, or letting him get the little extra rest that he needs for his foot. 

This week we also vested a non-active member, Guadalupe, who told us about his x girlfriend Rosario and daughter Joana who live in our area and are also members. So we visited them too. We did not have a single investigator go to church this Sunday, (Not even Damian and his family, a family of six who are super interested) but Guadalupe, Rosario, and Joana, as well as Joana´s boyfriend (also a non-active member) and his sister ended up coming to church after forever! We also had another youth, Carlos, come with us too. Even though we did not have success with our investigators this week, we had success in reactivating a few members (6 in total)!

Today we just ate an awesome meal with a super active family, (there aren’t many here, sadly), family Galabiz, I say awesome because not only did we have fruit, but vegetables! I have been craving them lately. Most of the food here is tortilla, meat, rice and beans. It was a nice change, steamed vegetables and Watermelon as well :) Now I am super full, and we are going to make hamburgers with a few investigators, Damian and his family, and I don’t know if it will fit! My companion bought everything, the patties, buns, cheese, avocados (yes, they are delicious on hamburgers), and ham (they actually put a slice of ham in their hamburgers here, hence ''ham''burgers). He wouldn’t let me pay for anything, and I was blown away by his generosity. He said that it’s something his father would do, whom he really looks up to. Damina recently lost his job, too, so it means that much more. I hope that it turns out :) as well as our service project planned tonight; painting another house ;) 
Thanks for all the support and love from home. I am at least trying to be the missionary that you paint me to be. 

I love you all, and hope that you have a great week :) 

Love, 
Elder Hayden Redford


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