Week 9:

The Good 
I cannot believe that I have finished my first transfer. I cannot believe that I'm already halfway through my training. Time has flown by. I honestly love the mission 90% of the time and the other 10% I'll be honest gets pretty rough sometimes. The 90% always makes the 10% worth it though. 

This week was awesome. Last Tuesday we passed by José Ángel's place and found him getting ready to do something. He told us he was going to rip up tile at his parent's across the street to rip up tile and put in a wood floor. So naturally we took off our ties and ripped up tile for the rest of the day. It was a lot of fun. Also, for those of you who have heard of the stereotype that Mexicans put hot sauce on everything, man I can't say it is 100% true, but I will say it is a stereotype for a reason. After ripping up the tile, they cut up a watermelon, mixed 2 hot sauces on a plate with some salt, and then dipped the watermelon in the hot sauce. It was surprisingly good, but still very different. 

On Wednesday we did a blitz in the Sister's area which means that the whole district got worked for a few hours visiting people that the Sisters thought would be good for us to visit. It was awesome because there was a lady that the missionaries had stopped teaching a while back, but we went and we were the first Spanish missionaries to go contact her. She had a lot of turtles and cats and those are 2 of my top 5 favorite animals so we hit is off fairly well. If she had a penguin though, she would have been my new best friend (Sorry current best friends but you all already know it's true). We shared a scripture with her and asked if we could come back and teach her about the Plan of Salvation and after assuring her that it would be in Spanish, she said yes. It was pretty cool that there was a person prepared but we just weren't able to reach her in the right language yet. So yeah we stole her from the Sisters jaja.

Now here comes the cheese. In the Arizona Tucson Mission, cheese refers to everything that is going to happen come transfers. Where you are going, who will be your new mission leaders, who will be your companion, etc is cheese. The reason for this is that the word for gossip in Spanish is chisme pronounced (cheese-meh), so I guess some English missionary at some point in time called it cheese and it stuck. Well, Elder Medina and I are staying together here in Sahuarita. Sister Bytheway, Sister Peaua, and Elder Hickey will all also be staying in their areas and in my district which is awesome. Elder Taylor will be transferred to Vermont, stripped of his missionary tag, receive his first name again, and be celebrated by his friends and family that have not seen him for the past 2 years. Elder Burraston and Elder Penrose are both leaving (😢). The Elder that is coming to replace them will whitewash train which means that both Elders will be new to the area and one of the Elders will be a transfer greener than I am. That should be fun for them. 

The Bad

Elder Medina asked me the other day what is the worst thing about the mission so far. I told him not being with family is a hard one. A sacrifice every missionary has to make is being away from family for an extended amount of time which can be especially hard if they pass through difficult times. Not being there to support them is hard. One thing I do know is that the blessings they receive for my service as a missionary is the best kind of support I can give them at this time. 

The Beautiful 

I have never been a huge car person, but Elder Medina was a mechanic and so my car knowledge in the past 6 weeks has probably tripled. That being said, we passed by a shiny red Supra this passed week and Elder Medina made me pull over so he could take a picture with it. Even with my limited car knowledge, I could tell it was a beautiful car. 

The Funny 

So this past week we get a call from a lady that needed help moving her stuff. Well when we go there she starts telling me all about her very complicated situation in English, pausing from time to time to say something to Elder Medina in Spanish. After every time that she told Elder Ruiz something, she would translate it to me. I decided not to say anything until she was done with her whole story, so we went on like that for about 25 minutes. When she finished, I was ready to respond and so I say in Spanish, "I am going to say all this in Spanish to make it easier for Elder Medina." The look of complete surprise on her face was priceless. 

The Spiritual

Something that the lady featured in the Funny section of my email told us was that back in the 80s, while in surgery, she died and came back to life. She said while she was dead, she went to Heaven and heard the voice of her Lord tell her that time had not yet come and then she woke up again on the surgery table with the defibrillators in the doctor's hands. I asked her what Heaven is like. She got the biggest smile on her face and started telling me that it was the most beautiful place with vibrant colors, amazing smell, and above all, an overwhelming feeling of peace and love. She said that when she died, the last thing she wanted was to come back to earth. I know that there is life after death which is all part of God's perfect plan for us. I know that the next life will be a rest for the righteous and I believe that it is more beautiful that we could ever imagine. If you have lost some, be assured that they are happy, at peace, watching over us, serving God, and looking forward to the time that they will get to see us again. 

I love you guys and I hope you all have blessed weeks. Remember to be kind to everyone because you have no idea what anyone might be going through. Let me know if you have someone that needs some extra prayers.