7/28/14 - Jordon

 

Well, this week brought some interesting surprises.

I'm sure you're all wondering, so I'll be nice this week and start with transfer business. Transfers, as you know, were this past Wednesday. I have some interesting news: Transfer 16, Companion 14, Area 3 (of 7). If you aren't able to interpret what this means it means This is the 16th transfer (in the field), I'm with my 14th companion, and I'm back where I was for my 3rd area. Those of you who have been keeping up with my mission might remember this was a Spanish area. And you would be right. I have been brought back to the Queen Creek Spanish Ward...speaking Spanish. (Yes, I'm a bit excited about this.) My companion is Elder Vásquez. (See picture below.) He is from Mexico, native Spanish speaker. It makes it a little easier to speak my mission language as often as possible.

Speaking of my mission language, I have admitted in the past that my Spanish has gotten a bit rusty. It's not much different now, but it is rapidly coming back. From High School to the MTC I had forgotten mostly all of my Spanish knowledge. In the MTC, it was a bit more of a "call to remembrance" on most things plus learning what I hadn't before. During my sojourn in English, I retained most of my grammar knowledge and a good portion of the vocabulary. Now it's retraining the ear to keep up with the fast paced language, and relearning/remembering the principles/vocabulary I have forgotten, and, of course, continuing to learn what I have not learned previous.Elder Vásquez and I are hardly speaking any English with each other. It's coming quickly.

Did I ever tell you about an investigator named Angélica? Elder Macfarland and I found her and her family about a year ago when I was here last. Well, guess what...She's set to be baptized August 2nd! I was super excited to hear this. Her family is rather interested in the gospel as well, but two of them have since moved out, and the other daughter old enough to be baptized isn't ready yet, but we move forward. She'll be ready soon enough. We're excited.

A couple interesting facts. Something I've done in most of my areas, is to go through the Area Book and input/save all the investigators, formers, and potentials into my GPS. Well, I don't have to do a whole lot this transfer, cause I still have everything from last time I was here. All I have to do is input the new investigators, and update everything to it's current status. Shouldn't be too hard, right?

Something else interesting: Apparently, I'm famous in this ward. Did I ever tell you about my hair cutting experience here last year? Well, while out here on my mission, I bought some hair cutting shears. One day, while giving myself a haircut, I accidentally left off the guard on the shears. I started to cut (front to back) right in the middle of my forehead. after cutting about and inch long patch, I saw what I had done. I was distraught. Let's just say that it was far shorter than I had intended to cut it. I did what I could to fix the problem, but the damage was done. Thankfully, my calendar the next day gave me some helpful advice: "Time heals all wounds." That helped me feel a bit better. (Thank you, Mom.) Well, apparently, the ward members not only remember me, but they still remember that incident. Oh well. I think one of the "How to Begin Teaching" bullet points in Preach My Gospel is rather applicable here. "We all make mistakes in life, and these mistakes create feelings of guilt and shame. These feelings cannot be relieved without repentance and forgiveness. They can be fully healed through the Atonement of Christ." I have no shame about this experience anymore.

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Book Of Mormon Check-in:

For the moment, I've hit a temporary road block at Alma 5. The nature of this road block is rather easy to explain. As of late, any time I sit down to read, I have some difficulty keeping my eyes open. I honestly don't have an explanation as to the cause of this sudden tiredness. I haven't really been sleeping well lately. I don't know why. Perhaps the sudden over load of brain activity, trying to keep up with the Spanish. We'll see how this week goes as I readjust to the language.

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That's about it for this week. Until next time.

Con amor,

-Elder Jordon Hill