But no one ever REALLY knows transfers - President Jackson sometimes changes them five minutes before they go out. But in my case, the patterns show that I´m probably leaving - no one´s ever stayed here for longer than six months. It´s fine, I won´t miss the sun, blue skies, 72ยบ weather... Ok. I´ll definitely miss some things. Gofio. The members. Their funny Spanish. According to the missionaries, this mission is really a 3-in-1 deal, cause the three main areas are just so different from one another. There´s the islands (1 zone). The North (2 zones). And Madrid (5 zones). If I ever make it to all three, I´ll be able to say if the stereotypes hold up.
This week was great. We didn´t have a chance to play soccer today. Santi and Flo couldn´t make it, and everyone else kinda flaked out... So we got up early and went to see the sunrise in the south of the island! (Hermanas´ idea. Never would´ve thought of that). But it was all covered in sand dunes - partially created by the desert climate and partially by the fact that we´re so close to Africa the sand just blew over. It was super cool. Sorry, just realized you don´t know who Santiago and Florencio are. The call themselves Santi and Flo, and sometimes we fall into that habit when we play soccer.
These newest investigators get a whole paragraph, because they´re also my favorite part of the week. Their names are Santiago and Florencio. And they are YSA! Telde has almost no YSA - I think I can count on one hand the number of menos activos and investigators who would fit this category. Which is sad, because the YSA are the future of the church - they are the missionaries, the friends to those who need them, the future leaders - and so Elder Norrell and I have been doing some focused work on these young men through the English classes we teach. First they were our friends -They are now investigating! Reading the Book of Mormon, talking with us, and of course playing soccer on P-Day and coming to English class. They´re great kids, and up until now they just were potential investigators. They also were among the six nonmembers at church (record for our time together, and record for Elder Norrell´s mission.) It definitley feels good to get some fruit out of our English classes, into which we´ve put so much effort. These classes take up a lot more time now that we decided to care about them - and whaddya know, focusing brought forth blessings. Alexander Graham Bell once said"Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus." (I definitely did not steal that quote from Dad. But it applied so well to what we´ve been up to.)
We talked to Fran this week as well - and we finally figured out the cause of his stalling progression. His girlfriend is really pressuring him to . . . do stuff they shouldn´t, chastity speaking. Almost-threating-to-break-up pressure. And Fran basically said that, although he feels like the church is true, he couldn´t leave this girl if she was going to make him choose. How said is that? The thing that´s brought more blessings into more people´s lives for EVER, he will willingly miss out on for a girl. (Now would be a good time to insert an Adam and Eve joke, but we all know that Adam did that on purpose - he got blessings, progression, the chance for eternal life, AND the girl.) We´re going to talk to him today, so I don´t know what´s happened yet with this crazy lady - but the lesson we can learn from all this is to surround yourself with good friends. Good people. People who won´t make you make hard choices like this - people who make what for Fran is a hard choice turn into an easy choice. Emma, Maren, Charles, Squid - stick to friends who make life easier. Not harder.
Love, quite possibly for the last time from an island,
Elder Stew.
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| Sunrise in Telde |
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