Volcanic Eruption AND Tropical Storm!

Hey! Yo, family!

How did I know that you guys were going to have heard ‘bout the storm and volcano?!?! LOL! You guys sure love me (smiley face). And, thank you for the birthday shout out! Yea . . . It’s weird . . . I’m not a teenager. I’m still just a li’l kid . . . I don’t wanna be all grown up yet. I really don’t . .. LOL . . . But I’m okay with it. I didn’t get to do anything for my birthday . . . LOL . . . I’ll explain why and all that stufffff.

Thanks for all of your updates and especially the Aaliyah updates, of course. I did teach her well if she’s being that random! And, wow! The family is really doing well on missionary work! I congratulate and thank all of you!

Oh! And it sounds like the Celtics and Lakers series should be pretty dog on good.

And, as for me . . . One year in the Mission . . . Holler! It’s weird how time has kinda flown by like a hawk on the wayside. Ummm . . . I can remember everything that was happening exactly a year ago. It’s weird . . . LOL . . . But it means I’m getting’ closer to seeing you guys again!

Well, I’ll start with the boring answering of questions first . . . LOL . . . Ummmm. . . Yes, Church was canceled this week so Manuel did not come to Church. Neither did a bunch of other investigators that were committed to come! It was really a bummer that the story happened, but all of them re-committed to come this week, so I guess it’s all good. Right now, we have four baptismal dates and they are all looking strong! We’ll see if we can come through on these baptisms. I’m sure hoping we can! I really think we can, too.

Okay . . . My new Companion is Elder Martinez from El Salvador. He is 22 and is a convert of three years. He is a very, very quiet guy and is very fresh out of the CCM, so he is very uptight sometimes and tends to stress a lot . . . LOL . . . I have really seen improvement in him in the one week we have had together. He is contacting better, teaching better, talking to more people, speaking up and doing the right things on his own without me telling him to do so! Right now, he can’t sign on to his e-mail ‘cause he can’t remember his password and login. I think he’s starting to talk to the computer . .. LOL . . . But, yea, my Companion is obedient and that’s all I can really ask for. He will be a good companion and we will have success together.

I have realized a change in myself from my Mission. I have learned soooo much patience and have learned not to get mad. I’m just always chill and happy . . . LOL . . . It’s kinda cool. A car drove by a huge puddle the other day and purposely soaked us and I didn’t care! LOL! I just laughed! I definitely wouldn’t have had that reaction before the Mission! LOL!

Okay! Exciting info now! LOL! Volcano eruption! We were in a lesson and all of a sudden, we heard what we thought was rain, but we couldn’t see anything because it was pretty late. So, we walked outside after the lesson and realized it was raining black sand! The investigators gave us towels to hold over our heads while we walked home. Then, when we woke up, the streets were pureeeeeee black. It was honestly like a beach of black sand. You couldn’t see streets or sidewalks. I think we are like twenty miles from the volcano, but the ash got where we are and it got it goooooood! I guess the volcano caused like 40 deaths, but the deaths weren’t anywhere near where we live. They were all up by the volcano. The people who died weren’t being smart . . . They decided not to leave the area even though they had warnings. It was the Volcano de Pacaya. This volcano is always active throwin’ out like smoke and dust. Before this big eruption, there were earthquakes in the area that warned the people that the volcano was going to erupt, but some people chose not to leave. Pretty sad. It was a cool experience to be living here while that happened. We weren’t in danger at all . . . We just got showered by sand.

Now . . . The tropical storm . . . It was raining at 6:30am when we woke up and, when we went to bed at 10:30pm, it was still raining! It didn’t pause for even one itty bitty second! It rained aaaaaallll day and, yes, we got soaked! A huge bus splashed us and soaked us some more! LOL . . . It was, ummmmmm, fun? We got in two houses all day and they were members’ homes. People didn’t wanna let us in, I think, ‘cause of how soaked we were. I had bubbles shooting out of my shoes because they were full of water. We finally entered the house at 6:30pm (which is early) and, there, we received notice that a hurricane was on its way! We also found out that Church was canceled and that we could not leave the house at all. So, I was a li’l nervoussssss! We had to have our emergency bags ready (food, clothes, matches, etc . . . LOL). They said the hurricane was gonna hit at 5:00am, but when we got up at 6:30am, it hadn’t hit. I guess the course changed. All of your prayers and faith were answered. We were all very protected and, after the storm of Saturday, Sunday was chill and we received the okay to go to work at 3:00pm in the afternoon. It was soooooo boring to be in the house ‘til then. We went to Zusi’s house because one of her rooms was destroyed. So, we did service for her all day and did one visit more. I guess the flooding left close to 500 people dead. So sad . . . Luckily, no one from my area was killed. We are all safe and good, so don’t worry.

So, yea . . . It was a very exciting week . . . LOL . . . But not because of missionary work! LOL! It was exciting because of the weather! We were all good . . . A li’l wet, but the house is all dry so we are good! The Lord protects His missionaries! This next week will be much better with the missionary work. It was really beaten down by this weather.

Thank you for all of your prayers! Hit me up! Love you all! Sorry . . . I’m very unfocused because I’m trying to help out my Companion with his e-mail . . . LOL . . . If you have questions, let me know!

Love you all!