March 5, 2012

hey mom!
well this week was a little bit up and down. the first half was pretty good, and i had some good experiences, but then the second half just kinda tanked. not sure why things like that happen, but i guess the Lord works in mysterious ways so who knows?
so i guess i´ll start with the beginning of the week. so trev sent me a scripture or two, and they were really good. the one that stuck out the most was mosiah 23:21-22. it just talks about how sometimes the Lord sees fit to chasten and try his people, but those that put their trust in Him will be lifted up. and that´s basically how i´ve been feeling. i feel like He´s just been testing me, for what reason i don´t know, but this has definitely been a super rough change. but anyway, so yeah trev sent me that, and it helped me a lot. so that was monday morning-ish. we then played soccer and did whatever else for pday. and pday is just the best day of the week obviously. but anyway, so that night, well ok, firstly, we just had a man move in to the house next to ours, and i think he´s been a member for like 20 some odd years, but has been inactive for 20 some odd years. i´m not sure why, maybe my companion asked and i just didn´t understand, but oh well. so yeah monday night we had a little appointment with him at like 8, and we were just planning on sharing a little spiritual pick-me-up/thought, and so that´s what we did. he had a couple of little questions that we answered, but then, and i´m not a hundred percent sure i understood everything, but he asked something to the effect of why we have trials, or why life is hard sometimes, something like that. so basically it was perfect. i had just read the perfect scripture that helped me with more or less the same thing. so we opened up, i did my best at explaining, and it was just a super spiritual moment. then my companion shared something, we asked if he had any other questions, and he just said he was happy. so it was a super awesome experience.
but wait, it gets better. so now it´s tuesday, and every tuesday we have district meeting, and i´m guessing that every month we get the liahona, cause that´s what we got for the first time. i had never read one before, so i didn´t really know exactly what it was, but i casually just flipped through and it looked harmless enough, so i decided i´d read it. i didn´t get a chance to until that night, but in it was a super cool talk by Elder Bednar. it was all about tender mercies from the Lord. and so i think because of this talk, i got two tender mercies right next to each other. by reading that talk, it made me realize that the face trev sent me that scripture on the day he did, and that we had the appointment with that guy at that time, and that i could share that with someone else, was a tender mercy. and so i think the article was a tender mercy so i could realize the scripture was a tender mercy. he said tender mercies are a lot of things, but they will like uplift, strengthen, and now i´m lacking all the adjectives, but it was perfect. so i am super grateful for that little experience, it was nice to have a little spirtual break, especially for the week i had coming.
so we had divisions on wednesday, and i really don´t like divisions. but that day i got elder gutierrez again, and i´m sorry, but he´s just not a good missionary. so we go to lunch, and we were already late to this appointment, it was at 3 and it was like 3:15, so i was like hey we gotta go, and he just said no, not til 3:30. so i was already ticked. finally he leaves though, and so we´re just walking, and i decide to look backward, and sure enough he´s not there. so i´m freaking out, i don´t know what to do. so i turn around and go searching for him, and i find him turned down a different road. his reasons for getting ¨lost¨ were that we had just eaten and so he could´t walk very fast, and he doesn´t know the area so he lost me, which is complete bull. i was so mad. but whatever, finally i get him to cooperate, and we get to our appointment well over an hour late. it went pretty well, we got a very tentative baptismal date. so that´s a little exciting. but yeah, i was just mad at him the whole day, which is kinda my fault, but it was rough. the next day, he had to go to panamá city for migration things, and so we get up at like 4 so we can get there on time. and after all that was taken care of, we went to albrook mall, which is just this huge mall, just like university and stuff. but i thought we were only gonna eat and leave, cause it´s like noon, but he decided to devolop pictures and all this other crap, so we didn´t get home til like 3:30. i promised myself that if he´s ever my companion i´m coming home. ok not really, but i can´t stand him. he´s just not good. and that´s super judgemental of me, but it was a bad day.
so thursday was normal, the second half anyway. but then friday we had divisions again, but just my luck i got sick. i´ve had a fever of about 101 all weekend, and an upset stomach. so it was just a slow and rough weekend. but now it´s monday, so it´s all good. i´m feeling better, and we have cambios this week, so that´s exciting. i´m pretty sure my companion will leave, and i´ll stay, but who knows? i think we´ll get a call tomorrow about who does what, so we´ll see how that goes.
as far as the package goes, i don´t think i have anything else. i´ll be happy to get anything! so thanks a ton! actually i was thinking the juggling balls would be way sweet, i always just use rocks now, so that´s a good idea! i think that´s about all i got, i didn´t get to hear from anyone this week so i hope everyone is doing great! until next week!
much love
elder paskett