25 January 2016

HOLY COW that was a fast transfer!!!! seriously, this one has come and gone way faster than i was really ready for.. we were just talking yesterday about a dinner we had had earlier in the week when we realized wait, that wasn't earlier in the week. that was LAST SUNDAY... like what?? that was a week ago already?? i don't know where this time has gone and it's kinda scary. well, this week was a good one. we FINALLY set up an appointment with Tatiana and Juan!! We'll be meeting with them this Friday. we haven't set an exact time yet, but she told us Friday would be good for them :) we tried to set one up with Maricel, but she is still kinda putting it off and putting it off, so maybe we'll keep trying with her..? not sure, but we'll find out soon hopefully!! also, we went on exchanges on thursday, and we went by a member from an english ward who said she had a mexican student living with her, and we get there and it's just her and her son. well after a couple minutes, Abdula comes in!! he's from... somewhere that's Muslim, and she introduced us to him a bit, and we just kinda started talking to him. well, he started asking us a couple questions like "what makes you happy?" and just not too probing sort of questions. but he said he's been to like 100 something different countries, and everywhere he goes, he asks them what they like and what makes them happy about their church, etc., and he likes learning about other religions and stuff, and he wants to learn more about ours. So we told sister wight (that's the member he lives with) that we should maybe try and have the sisters come and teach him since he doesn't speak spanish and he lives within their boundaries, but she said how he is muslim, and the muslim religion doesn't think too highly of women, so she wants us to come back and teach him... So we have a muslim investigator!! haha! so, i have a HILARIOUS (well, i think it is) story to tell... haha! so there is a member, her name done be Lulu. She has some friends who will come over sometimes while we are there and they're non-members (not to mention these people be like straight from mexico haha). Well they have a daughter who is like 14 or 15 years old (stinkin young), and at some point, Lulu had moved the conversation to the fact that sometimes missionaries will fall in love with another missionary and won't tell them until after their mission, and then they'll start dating and get married, or they'll fall in love with a member in their ward and do the same thing. well, the daughter was there during the whole conversation, and when it came time to leave, we were giving handshakes to everyone and stuff and about to head ut the door, when that daughter came up to me because i missed giving her a handshake, and when she went to give me a handshake, there was a tiny little note in her hand that she tried to pass to me through the hand shake.... funny thing, it totally failed and fell on the ground and it was like "oops..." so i picked it up awkwardly and started walking down the hallway... awkwardly.. when we got to the elevator, i read the note and it had her phone number, her name, a little "shh" on the bottom, and a little thing in parenteses on the bottom corner that said "hablame cuando termines".......... WHAT THE??? so yes, that is my crazy experience this week with the latino peeps up here.. hahahaha welp, i love you fools, and i want to say that i know this church is true, and i love being on the mission more than anything else i could've possibly done. i know that i will never regret this choice so long as i live, and i couldn't have done it without the help of EVERYONE who reads this, because i know that in some way shape or form, you made it possible for me to be out here, and "i am eternally grateful" :) take care everyone, and i hope you have a fantastic week!! love, Elder Levi Windham p.s. the way transfers are now working is this " The Assistants will notify the Zone Leaders Tuesday night letting them know who will be transferred and everyone’s new companion and new area. Your Zone Leader will in turn call each one of you and let you know if you will be transferred and who your new companion will be and your new area. You will also be notified if your new companion is from the North or the South (this will help you know which meeting to attend). So, Tuesday night all missionaries will know who their companion will be and which area they will be serving. I ask you to please make no contact with anyone in the mission once you’ve been notified. This should happen anyway since we all know there never should be no contact with missionaries outside of your area." i'm too lazy to explain how it'll work, but what that basically means is you foos ain't gone find out what happened to me until next week... LOVE YA!!!

11 January 2016

Hola uno, hola todo!!! i'm pretty sure that isn't actually a phrase in spanish, but OH WELL!! How is everyone?? I'm personally doing pretty ight if i do say so myself. till looking, as the title says, but that's ok. One can still find happiness in slower times :) so, once again, all our investigators couldn't meet this week.. It's weird because like the lessons we have had have been super good lessons and they liked everything we talked about.. hmm well, idk! we'll just have to wait for a chance to meet again and see what the delio is :P i hope and pray that they actually want to keep going but are just busy!! howeva, besides our investigators, we have our AWESOME less-actives!!! We had an amazing lesson with them on Thursday after we had dinner with them :) all 3 companionships in the spanish ward went so it was pretty cool. They made some turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, rice.. just a very good dinner :) it was El Dia de Reyes, which... has a story to it that would take several minutes to explain ;) haha! anyways, they wanted to have us all over on wednesday, but we wouldn't all be able to go, so they moved it to Thursday instead. HOLY COW that was stinkin good!!! it was the thanksgiving dinner that i didn't have on thanksgiving.. haha! but the lesson was GREAT!! We talked about temples and how eternal marriages and families work. He asked some deep questions and eventually it boiled down to "well, we don't know exactly how it's goin to work, but we trust and believe that God does, so we go forward hoping that in the eternities, everything will be figured out.." But it was AWESOME!! I think he really has a better idea of sealings and why it's important and so crucial to do :) not to mention he loves his kids and wife and future kid.. YEAH BUDDY!!!!! I love that guys a lot and they're such an awesome family :) so we tried to meet with the Munoz boys, but when we got there, they were all asleep except the 15 year old kid (who probably has the best chance of the other 2). But we just went in and talked with him for like 45 minutes or so and at the end, we decided we're gonna come back on friday and make some cookies with them :P haha! So we're pretty much just gonna stop trying to convince them of anything and just be their friends and set a good example :) that's just what some people need!! not a teacher, but a bud. and in this case, a teacher would pretty much be wasting his time :P however, to quote every Will Smith meme ever, "I ain't even mad." Besides that, this week had a lot of less-active stop bys trying to get addresses right, and of everyone who answered, they were all wrong addresses.. kind of a bummer, but we did get in one door, and they were way nice!! they asked us for our dinner calendar so they could sign up on it, so that's pretty dope :) but yeah, we've heard mixed reports about them, so we'll just see what really happens :) anywes, i hope everyone's been doing good, and i wish you all a great week with plenty of missionary opportunities!! Esta obra es mas importante que nada, y nunca van a encontrarse infeliz si aceptan la obra misional como parte de su vida :) basically just be great friends to everyone and you'll do your part!! there's even a talk about just being friends, and if that's all you do, then you'll find yourself being a greater member missionary than you ever imagined :) until next week! Love, Elder Levi Windham

4 January 2016

Hello one, hello ALL!!! We are now starting off a happy new year with.... NO NUMBERS!!! Yup, ya got it, we had just 2 less-active lessons this past week.. Thanks a LOT holidays!! haha! jk, i'm not really dying about this. It wasn't too surprising that we couldn't meet up with any of our investigators. Peeps have lives, unlike missionaries (lol), so you can't think about it too too much when they have to cancel :P BUT, we did have a pretty good lesson with both of our less-actives we've been teaching :) The first ones (and the one with the most desire) was AWESOME!!! We went in planning to teach the restoration, but that was not what he needed, and that became very apparent, very fast. Like somehow, the priesthood got mentioned, and he was just like "why can't women have the priesthood? it seems a little sexist, doesn't it?" so we went on to a long conversation about that trying to say how we each have our calling in this life, and it is generally the role of the women to care for and raise the children, and the man to work and provide for the family. Both must set examples for the children on how to follow and worship our father and heaven and follow the teachings of His Only Begotten, and raise the family together. For some reason, we were still having trouble getting him to understand it, even with his wife there backing us up and adding her own things too. Eventually, she went and Face timed her dad, who helped A LOT, and we answered all his questions and in the end, he accepted it all and understood that if nothing else, God just decided that it is that way, and we accept his judgment calls. It was a really good lesson and i left feeling even MORE love for him and proud of him for having such a desire to learn and understand more. Then yesterday, we had actually gone to en english ward to try and scope out the spanish peeps and meet just more people, and i gave my testimony in english.. haha! i for some reason just felt like i needed to bare my testimony, and lemme tell you, i had to choke back some stinkin tears.. haha! i talked about how the gospel can bring so much happiness to our lives and the lives of those we love, and i had seen such a great change within my family because of the gospel and i can see the difference between when someone actively has the gospel in their life, and when they aren't doing what they've been taught.. it was just super nice and kinda funny since i didn't know ANY of those people in that ward and i was totally trying not to cry in front of them... haha! oh well, i guess there was someone in there who needed to hear it :) Also, we taught our less-active teenagers, and i kinda threw down on them for not doing anything, and we can't keep taking our time to come and teach them if they aren't gonna do anything we tell them. I also explained that we don't want it to be a waste of time because we love them and want them to progress spiritually because we know that that's where they'll find true happiness and security in this life and the life to come, and they all said they'd read the book of mormon every day! i told them that we no longer care how much they read every day if they just read something every day.. like a verse or 2 at the least. So we'll follow up with them laterz and see what they've done since then :) anywes, the mission is just a roller coaster of annoyance, lack if desire, INCREASE of desire, spiritual progression and setbacks, searching and finding and searching for people with real intent, poaching, speaking better and worse spanish.... Just a roller coaster of everything really. haha! however, would i give it up because i get sick of it sometimes? HECK NO!!! Would i stop working completely because it's discouraging when people can't make up their minds? Naahhhh it's not worth it to stop. I know that if i (and all of us)endure those hard times and come out fighting, then we'll always be on top in the end and we'll be stronger than before, and we can look back and see where we were before and where we are now and say that we are a better person. I love you guys, and i hope you all have a GREAT new year!! take care y'all ;) Love, Elder Levi Windham