18 Months!

Well this has been an interesting week. 

And I am really relieved that it is pretty much over! It was has been super stressful! Man, I remember the days when I was able to go to sleep like a 9pm! Now I got to sleep every night never earlier than 11pm because we have to call of the zone leaders for the dats of the zone. But this new assignment is honestly the funnest thing ever! (Its really tough, but really fun!) I finally completed one of my biggest dreams! Ill explain:

Ok, I remember when I would wrestle in highschool, it was really hard on me. Well, i think its hard on everyone! But i was really determined to work hard! I remember what would really help me keep motivated were some really cool motivational speeches that you can find on youtube. (My mom is a witness of this because I would have her listen to them with me sometimes. lol) But yeah, everytime I would go running at 4 in the morning I would listen to them, opr right before a fight. They really helped me remember that I can always become someone better if I work hard. 

One of my favorite ones was one by Eric Thomas called ´How bad do you want it?´. Its really motivational! Now, when I listen to music, I usually picture in my head myself playing that song, playing it, singing it, dancing it, etc. I dont know if that is a normal thing that everyone does. So when I would listen to these motivational speeches I would always picture myself saying them to a group of people. Helping people get to get up and work hard! Anyway, so when I was assigned my new companion, Elder Akubeze, we realized something. We are both really into these speeches! We have them all pretty much memorized! haha so anyway, as the APs of the mission we are in charge of the conferences and councils of the mission. And so we are always having to prepare and teach classes. But this week was my first Zone Conference! The whole mission gets together to hear some classes, but also to hear the new assigned AP! (No pressure right?)  So we came up with the best class that we can! And it was definitely a dream come true! The class that we made was epic! It was about being the 4th Missionary. We tried to really help the missionaries do more so that they can become more. We helped them realize that they should take advantage of the mission, to use this time to really grow. So that they can finish their mission and say that they've truly changed. Not just coast. No just be an average missionary, or just an average person. We helped them understand they need to have a vision in their minds of who they can become, and they need to get up and do it! It was so awesome!! I finally got to fulfill that dream that I mentioned earlier! (I know I am not perfect, or the perfect example) But I was able to help others to achive their dreams! We were able to teach what we´ve learned and applied from those motivational speeches into the obra misional! Our class was alot of fun, we used little activities and stuff to keep their attention and to have them learn what we are trying to teach in different ways. But heres my favorite part. We really wanted to share a video with them, a video that goes along with what we are teaching. About really knowing who you are and never forgetting that, always trying to be the best that we can be. And it came to me! We used one of the final scenes of one of my favorite movies, The Lion King. The part where Simba talks to his father, and the father says that he has forgotten him because he forgot who he was. Its really good! So had the City Conference on Monday and it came out to be a complete success! (I am not saying this to boast or anything) After the conference our mission president came up to us and said ´That was incredible. I can firmly say that was one of the best classes from the APs that ive heard since ive been here!´ Im not kidding you,he said that! We were so proud of ourselves because we put in alot of work into it! The missionaries would mention to us that they loved it! 

  

And so on Tuesday we drove to the South to go to the Zone Conference which would be on Wednesday morning. But yeah, if you realize, I said Drive! I got to drive the new office truck all of the way from Teguz to the south which was about 5 hours!! It was so much fun! It took me a while to get used to driving again but it was like riding a bike! The South Conference came out pretty good too! While ive been here, there have been some huge changes that the Area Presidency wants us to change so my companion and I have really been trying to present new changes in the mission in a way where the missionaries wont get mad or anything, but so that they understand. For example, there were some changes with the dress code and what we decided to do with the other office elders is to create a funny video that explained why those new rules were going to go into effect. The mission loved the video we made!!! After they watched they all wanted us to copy that video on to their USBs. So on Thursday we were finallllllly able to work in our area. We had a lot of catching up to do in our area. The good thing is that the youth in our ward dont mind going on divisions with us. So that day we were forced to do divisions because we had to find all of our investigators! So i went out that afternoon with a young man that is going on his mission soon, his name is Larry. So I take him to a few appointments and he does a good job in helping em out! But then at night at the last hour our last appointment fell and so we had to to contact.

Im still pretty new in this area so I am still learning where I am sometimes haha. So we start contacting this one random road and EVERYONE rejects us! Like everyonnne.... it was pretty sad. And I felt pretty bad because I was trying my best to animate him to go on the mission and stuff. So i had a little prayer in my heart that something can change. So then we finished that road, he said Ahh dont worry, that road is full of people that dont want anything. There is not one mormon that lives on that street. And i look at him and I say, Yet. Always stay positive! And so then I noticed this young man coming straight toward us, and you know what? He was wearing a Patriot Wrestling sweater on! And i said, Finally! And so we go contact him, (it turns out he does not wrestle, or know English in case you were wondering) But anyway, OF COURSE he was positive! Not only was he positive, but he said that we could actually go to his house right then and teach him! And he is realllly interested in our message! It was a miracle! It really changed Larry´s perspective that we should always be positive. The Lord will always put prepared people in our paths.

We had frozen yogurt! :´)

Since I hit 18 months, the tradition in the mission is to burn a skirt! So we burnt the skirts for us that we completing 18 months and a tie for those hitting 6 months!