Chapter 12: Fall

As my friends back home enter the fall season, I stay here in Rainy ol´ Siquirres. To keep up on the times I´ve tried to fall a few times during the week and other ended up following the trend. My first fall was on Friday, where I took a step onto an incline that, if it were in Utah, wouldn´t have been a problem, but with the climate here it had grow a slippery moss that I did not see. I didn´t get seriously hurt, but it was a bit embarrassing because we were with a member. I also fell playing fúbol, my water gun fell and broke the same day I bought it, and a member fell today and hurt his had as we were playing fútbol in the rain in the morning. To be honest, I should start using the word "Autumn" from now on. :P

My week was above average, but there was a bit of discouraging news. One of the missionaries from Rama Siquirres came home this week. He had only finished with his training and I don´t really understand everything that happened. He was in Chile and we´ve had 2 lessons with him. The good news is that he says he wants to come with us to do visits and lessons. I don´t know what happened so I´m a bit wary though. Anyway, My health is good and my atitude has been better than normal. The lessons we´ve had have also been good but the people haven´t been coming to chuch. Some of them for personal sickness, some for sickness in the Family and others don´t give a valid reason. In otherwards, we had 0 in the chapel this week and I am sad (maybe a bit angry as well). On the bright side, we had a baptism last week. His name is Jafeth and is the 9 year old brother of a recent convert. We are working with his mother now and also a family that just moved houses (still in our area), they are the Torres Family. We also had a our first lesson with the girlfriend of a member that was asking about learning more from the mormons.

I have had time in the past to explore a bit of the Mormonchannel.org and found a few mormon messages that I love. One was the other prodigal son and the other I can´t remember the name but it had to do with the Holy Ghost and it has a picture of an old radio. If you have a chance, watch them. :) Also, a personal letter from the first person to tell me which Mormon message it is that I am talking about with the Holy Ghost and old radio.

I am doing well. I getting a bit fatter, but with our cook, everyone is. :P We eat lots of rice and beans and chicken. Also there is a lot of fruit. They feed us a ton and with all the work we do, I tend to eat what they give me. I am trying to exercise, but am struggling a bit because my companion doesn't want to exercise. He enjoys his sleep a little too much. I would love to have a companion that likes to run because I miss running. Running would help me a lot. Oh, well. We play a lot of futball and I get some exercise that way. We even played futball in the rain today. It was fun :)

My mom asked me what I miss the most: apples that are cheap and watching television.

My companion is ever the same, but I´ve learned a bit more of who he is and where he comes from. Putting his story together helps me understand why he is who he is and helps me relate a bit more. In some ways it has helped our relationship as friends but in other ways it reminds me of how the Lord puts people in our way so that we can learn new things. I´ve been able to become a better person with Elder Gonzalez and also learned to take more responsibility, which is something I needed.

Have a great day!

Elder Vanderson, Banderazul, Vanderdrizzle (I'll tell ya more about my nicknames next week)