Yesterday we had stake conference. President Chavez and his wife came. I look up to them so much. I love them. They are incredible and just know how things work. I don’t know if you guys know, but Pres Chavez was in the Seventy before being called to be mission president.
Anywho, in the conference Patricio Alarcon and Victor Rebolledo were sustained elders :) :) Then after the conference we baptized a future Elder :) First, Elder Poma and I were a part of the ordaining of Patricio and Victor. It was very, very sweet. After this we went and changed for the baptism. I baptized Matais. He’s 10 years old. It was funny.... this kid was flailing like a fish when he went down into the water.... he let go of his nose and just started to flail. (ha, ha) Lucky he was a little dude so I could control him easily enough. We just reactivated his mom and sister. His dad doesn’t want anything to do with us, but I pray that Matias will keep progressing in the Gospel until the time he goes on his mission.
It is the most incredible feeling knowing that you’ve changed someone’s life and the generations to come. To this point all of our baptisms are remaining firm. There are 2 that scare me a little bit. But its really, really good that our converts are firm for as long as they have been because usually a lot drop out after 3 weeks after their baptism. We have also reactivated a few people. Officially reactivated only 7 but there are a lot more that are close to being 'officially' reactivated. It is such a blessing to visit those houses. The thing is we haven’t found those people going through the ward list. We found them walking in the street or knocking a door that we felt we should knock.
I’m sad because I don’t think I have much more time here. I think I'll be transferred in 3 weeks. I’d like to do a lot of things for the ward before then to help strengthen the foundation of things, if you know what I mean.
What more?
They play soccer here like we play basketball. At home we get together with all our old friends to play basketball at the church. They get together with all their old friends to play soccer on the basketball court at the church. The court isn’t inside, its outside - out back.
Yesterday we shared with an evangelical pastor. Crazy guy. I was talking with his wife outside his house and she was saying, “No, no we have our church”... then he opened the door and said, “Come on in!!!” Looking back, it’s like the mouth of Hell opening up and wanting to swallow you. This dude was smart... he knows a lot of things... but he just doesn’t know what he was talking about. We'd try to talk about Christ and he’d talk about Paul... then we’d start to talk about prophets and he’d say, “Don’t talk to me about men... talk to me about God our Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost.” Then he’d start to say... “Oh but Paul... Paul was a true apostle of God... he was a real man.” We fought too much with him, but we didn’t fight in a doctrinal way, if you understand me. We didn’t bible bash, but we bashed. It wasn’t the best use of time. Oh and his prayers. I want you guys to understand, I’ve been in a lot of houses. I’ve been a part of a lot of prayers. I’ve been a part of a lot of WEIRD prayers, but when this man prayed it struck fear into the deepest part of my soul. He was yelling and his voice was so powerful.... and before we left I said, “Can we pray before…” and he said, “Yea, but this time standing up"... he was standing up praying (slash) yelling before I even had time to get out of my chair! Like I said... I’ve been a part of a lot of weird evangelical prayers here... but this one was crazy.
So we know for sure that we will have 4 missionaries in this sector next cambio, I just don’t know if I’ll be here or not. The Assistants already brought the stuff for the other companionship. It would make sense that I stay and open the new sector, but I don’t think that I will.
Something else. I haven’t talked about my Spanish for a long time. Honestly, it’s not where I thought it would be. I thought I’d be doing better. The problem is, I never have time to study. I can’t even look up words in the dictionary. I don’t have time. Because of that, I’m losing my English vocabulary... honestly. I have to get the definition of a word from someone speaking Spanish so I understand what it means, but I don’t know or can’t think of the way to say it in English. When I talk... some people still don’t understand everything I say... but I just talk and talk anyway. You’d think that would be good that I talk and talk and talk, but its not. I’m forming bad habits in my speech. My accent is still bad. Please pray a little harder for me :))))
How was the Christmas devotional? They showed it here in the stake center, but at 10 at night, so I wasn’t able to see it. Oscar, Adela and family went though... I think Santiago went too. I’ll have to ask them how it was. I told them they had to go because my family would be watching it at the same time in the USA.
Please tell everyone to send letters. I love to hear news from home/Utah/USA.
-Elder Pitcher
