May 17, 2010

Semana 36 - Yuto

Hola Todos,
Sounds like you've all had a great week! Hope things turn out alright for the elder in Spokane...I guess I get to count my blessings for being in a super-laid-back pueblito! I have a few more English songs to add to my running list (I have to find something fun to do here ;) ) : "Wake me up when September ends" - Green Day; "Mambo #5"; and "Walkin' on Sunshine".
 
The big event of the week was zone conference--time is just flying!!! We got up early to catch the only bus that headed to our destination at 6:05......wanna guess when the bus finally got to Yuto? Try 8:50, almost 3 hours late!!! So we walked into conference late and had to miss about the first hour--we got there just in time for the first hourly break :P The day before conference, the zone leaders called one of my buddies in the district to organize a musical number for the conference--you really should avoid assigning a musical number the day before! Well, he called me right afterward and we decided to just sing a hymn a capella real quick. We were going to practice before conference to get it down, but...yeah I couldn't get there. So what we had to do was find another room during our 40ish-minute lunch break, practice the hymn and figure out what we were going to sing, and then we sang after one more talk! It turned out great though and we got plenty of thank-yous from President Northcutt. We then had our personal interviews with President Northcutt. He spoiled Elder Sangroni and I with tons of compliments about the work that's being done in Yuto. Apparently the progress we're seeing now in Yuto is the most that has ever been seen there! It turns out President was also considering something totally wild for my comp. He's headed to his house after 2 more transfers (in August), but he already has 4 transfers in Yuto (6 months). As branch president in a small-town place, that's plenty of time to wipe out a missionary. President Northcutt wants him to stay a little bit more, but he considers it suicide to transfer a missionary for his last transfer (it's true). He's been praying a lot to know what should be done, but nothing has come. So instead, he gave the choice to my comp--to go now, or stay till the end!!! For those that are unfamiliar, that just doesn't happen--you don't really ever get the chance to choose where you go. My comp decided to stay in Yuto--he loves it here and was already talking about how great things would be if he could stay. So it's been decided--he'll be here for 3 more months. That means a lot of things for me: I could leave now to open up time for another counselor to be trained by my comp, I could stay longer than my comp still and inevitably become the branch president, or a couple other combination of things! It's pretty crazy! We left zone conference super-excited about things. We took a bus to the exit to Yuto and had to wait an hour until someone drove us in. I finished off the night making maple syrup--thanks fam!!! :D
 
Caimancito is still seeing a lot of progress. We have had 100% entrance in every door we've approached so far! Granted they're all friends of a member that has been coming with us there, but still, they're all curious and want to hear more! We have a few showing genuine interest in coming to church too, but it still hasn't happened yet. We've seen super-interest from this 20-year-old girl, Daiana, and her 19-year-old sister, Graciela. It's a little rough for them because they're living alone essentially and they each have a kid--one of them was born 3 months early, but seems to be doing alright right now at 2 years old. They keep telling us they'll for sure be coming to church, but they still haven't made it yet. We'll keep working with them for sure.
 
I had a rather interesting discovery the other day: 3 Nephi 17:11-12 (Book of Mormon), the people are situated in a circle around their children, with Christ in the middle of them all. It's a symbol: As we find ourselves situated in the outer circle, we need to focus our attention on our children and how they act (I think of Mosiah 3:19 (again, Book of Mormon)), but also on the ultimate and perfect example--Jesus Christ himself.
 
I had a talk in church yesterday on sacrifice and it turned out super-great :) I'm starting to gather a good collection of research for various topics--I'm loving it!
Well, that's all I have for this week. Hope everyone is finishing up school well!
Love,
Elder Powell



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