Week 6 in Villa Hayes

Hey familia y mis amigos!

Time continues to fly out here in the mission. I feel like I'm working and sweating all the time, but somehow it always feels like it's just been a few hours between each email session... Weird, huh?

This week was sweet -- at least as far as weather goes. Earlier this week, there was an awesome storm. We were sitting outside teaching a recent convert, and I saw some dark clouds on the horizon. "Looks like it's going to rain today," I said. Boy oh boy was I right! Those clouds moved FAST; fifteen minutes after I saw them, they were almost directly overhead. And when they were above us, the wind hit. The wind was so strong, we had to retreat inside the house of our convert (his name is S. and I think he looks like Jordan Earl). We continued to teach and... the lights went out. The wind blew hard enough that somewhere, something happened and our area lost power (later I learned that "our area" was all of Villa Hayes). After we finished the lesson, we went home and got equipped for the wet weather. (Rain doesn´t stop the work of the Lord.) After that, we slogged through the wet streets and continued to teach. It got really cool when night fell. Have you ever walked through water between 3 and 9 inches deep in muddy streets, during a power outage in South America? Let me tell you, It's a cool experience! It was a little crazy though, because, like, all the people in Villa Hayes are fans of a soccer team called "Olympia" and I guess Olympia won a game that night. Consequently, there were hundreds of cars and thousands of motorcycles driving up and down the main roads (there are, like, 2 in Villa Hayes), honking their horns and waving team flags. Yeah, that was a wild experience!

That was the coolest thing that happened this week. Aside from that, it was just ordinary day to day missionary work. We walked a lot, we taught lessons, we contacted, we went to church, and all those things. I'm starting to take a more active role in the work here, though. This week, Elder Rodríguez had me "conduct" our weekly planning session. Basically what that meant was I tried to remember the names of all our investigators, recent converts, and the less active members in our area and then I asked Elder Rodríguez what our plan was for each on of them. It was a slow process, and Elder Rodríguez wasn´t thrilled that I had to ask so many questions, but we got through it and it was great!

On the subject of taking on more responsibility, I also taught lesson 1 completely on my own! I really shouldn't have done that... haha. I guess it was a test from Elder Rodríguez and, well... I failed. haha. Here in the field, what is supposed to happen in lessons (from what I can tell) is that one elder teaches some principles and then he pauses and the other Elder picks up where he left off. My problem: I didn´t pause. In my defense, usually, Elder Rodríguez will talk, turn it over to me, I'll teach for a while, and then he'll cut in and continue teaching without breaking stride. This time, when we got to the house of our investigator, he didn't talk. He just looked at me expectantly. I got the message and awkwardly started the lesson... and kept talking... and kept talking... I paused once to see if he would start talking, but I didn't pause very long because I was worried there would be a super awkward long pause... So yeah. That was a stressful hour! But I definitely learned the lesson that Elder Rodriguez intended for me. From now on, we work as a team, and that means that Elder Rodríguez has the same expectations of me that he would have for any experienced elder. I can't use the fact that I'm new to the mission as an excuse anymore.

I don't know if I've said this before, but I love how out here in the mission, you learn one thing, or you overcome one big challenge, and then you realize you have some other big problem you need to work on. It's just a continual process of improving and getting better! It's hard, and sometimes it's stressful, but you learn, and you get better, and by the time your two years are up, you are a real man (or woman); ready to face the challenges of life!

That's pretty much all I have for this week... I think my Spanish is getting better, though! I'm having some problems with "ser" and "estar," I seem to always use the wrong one (the other day, Elder Rodríguez told me I said "Estoy Elder Fairbanks" instead of "Soy Elder Fairbanks"). On paper, or in exercises in my study books, I always know which one is right. But I guess when it comes to speaking, without the time to think about which is correct, I just use the first one that pops into my head. I'm going to be working on that a lot this week! I have hope, though. Today I got the chance to talk to Elder Moya. He's an elder from Nicaragua that roomed with Elder Fullmer in the CCM. In the CCM I asked him what he'd rate my Spanish on a scale of one to ten. Then, he said "5." Today, He said "7," So if he was telling the truth, I've made significant improvement! Hopefully, that trend continues.

I love you all! Thanks for all your love and support,

ELder Fairbanks