Cell Phone Woes

Dear Finn Hudsons,

Yay, they’ve got Glee here too. Elías and Vanessa are big “Gleeks” and about came unglued when Finn died awhile ago. All I had to say was, "¡por fin!" which is to say "At last!"....That was until I found out Glee was still up and running :( C’mon!

But yeah, it’s great to hear from all you guys. I hope Labor Day is super labor-y today. Thing of it here is, if you want your own labor day you can get it!  If you don’t feel like going to work today you don’t have to and there really is little to no "consebence" to it. In the words of Morrissey:  "Everyday is like Sunday"....That goes for school as well. You talk to kids and ask them, "Shouldn’t you be in school?" and they’ll say, "I would go but I told my mom school sucks so she let me stay home for the day." Some kids just have it all, don’t they?

Well, it’s been a good week in Yuto. It’s burning season right now and, basically, the entire countryside is on fire and Yuto has a nice, greenhouse effect going so it’s super hot with double the temperature because of the smoke—I SWEAR!!!!  The smoke also makes the sun super red and not bright at all, like one of those nice, polluted LA sunsets. It’s pretty cool but goodness, it’s just so hot. Milk was a bad choice!

Elías has been out and about with us to our citas. He’s been a great help and loves accompanying us. We had Gabriela all set for baptism this Saturday then yesterday got the news that district (or stake) conference is this Sunday in San Pedro so we are going to have to see what we can do about her confirmation. But she’s doing good. Keep praying for her, by the way.

In District news:  They split my district!!!! “How dare they strike the royal hand!”  I was on the phone with the Hermanas in San Pedro this week, doing nightly verification.  At the end of the call I asked,  "Is there anything that you need or that we can do for you?" and they said "Yes! TAKE THE ELDERS OUT OF SAN PEDRO!!!" I was kind of like "What the heck?" because there are no elders in San Pedro. The hermana said that because of the arrival of all the new missionaries they opened up some new areas including a San Pedro 2. I was later informed by the mission office that San Pedro 1, 2, and Belgrano will be their own district. The president said there will only be Yuto and Ledesma as a district...for now. But still:  My district is so tiny! Its better, I guess—quicker verifications, easier traveling....still. Yeah, but it’s cool. But that’s about all for the week, I suppose. ?`s

Don’t forget to tell the story of your cell phone.

Oh yeah! So totally. We had an important cita in the night with a lady name Cristal who is the best friend of Paola. Paola said they would meet us at Cristal’s house. Because there weren’t going to be any other men in the house (and the rule is that you’ve always need to have another guy there) we went to look for Elías at his house. When we got there his dad told us Elias was at Vanessa’s house which is in front of a small park. We got to Vanessa’s house, found Elias, and headed off to our cita. I went to call Paola to make sure she was at Cristal’s house and, when I went to reach for my phone, it wasn’t there. I checked my pockets—not there either. I asked my comp, Elias—no one had it. It was lost, I was freaking out! Everything was going through my mind: "I have to call my district tonight!" "I'll have to pay a lot of personal money to replace the phone!” I’ve lost all my contacts!" I was super devastated and felt so, so bad.

We were still heading over to Cristal’s to teach her but I was planning to say: "Look, I’m sorry but is it cool if we could come back later? I’m a weenie and totally lost my phone so sorry, I gotta go look for it". When we got there she and Paola were waiting for us.  When I was about to tell them about the phone a scripture just popped into my head: "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God". So I thought, "Ok. I’ll do this first then we’ll go look for the phone". As I was sitting there at the start of the lesson my mind was churning, I couldn’t concentrate, all I could think about was that phone so, while someone offered a prayer, I silently said my own personal prayer: "Please, Heavenly Father, help me concentrate. Help me help Cristal then, after we’re done, help me find the phone." When I finished I got a confirmation in my soul with an "it’s all good" feeling. There was no fear. I could concentrate. I knew that whatever happened it would be all right. And the lesson went super! It helped out Cristal a lot.

After we left we went straight out to retrace our steps. We headed over to Vanessa’s house first because I thought I may have left it there but alas, she wasn’t there so we said, "Ok. Let’s go to your house Elias." As I was walking through that park, in the dark, with a bunch of people going to and fro, I saw, in the middle of a couple of shrubs, my phone. It was in perfect condition. Kissing it I leapt for joy.  I’m pretty sure a good number of people were looking at me like "Why is that goofy Mormon kid kissing his phone?" but I had total reason: I was so happy and it was a testimony to me of two things: Number one is that God answers our prayers. What’s important to us is important to Him. He knew my worries about the phone and He would hear my prayers to help me find my phone. Second: I learned that if we forget ourselves and do His will (even if it means risking the consequence of loosing a phone) then He will bless us enormously. It was a funny little learning moment for me and one that I’m super grateful for.

• Besides the Pokebond, do you and your comp have anything in common?

Hmmmmmmmmmerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrruhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....not much. Well, kinda. Like we like the same movies and stuff.  But we are good buds.

• I’m glad Paola was called to be in Primary.  Do you ever get to teach Primary?

Nah! Like one time in Jujuy I did but no, we don’t get to teach primary too often. The primary here is like 4 or 5 kids. President Angel’s daughter and niece are always there and are the Anna and Lauren of Yuto. They remind me a whole bunch of them.

Well fambliys, that’s about it. It’s been a good week and we hope it can be an even better one this week. Pray for us, the area, investigators, and all. Have a most incredible week and enjoy your Labor Day with a bucket of the Colonel’s finest... I’m referring to Colonel Klink, of course. Thanks so much you guys. I love you. It’s all good.

Con Amor,

Russ

Member Missionary Work