Well, today I got to go to Toledo and checkout all the sweet swords, shields, armor, old cathedral, and fortress / museum. We were able to find this one shop that is super missionary friendly and make The Sword of Laban and Captain Moroni´s Sword from the Book of Mormon! Me and my companion broke down and bought ourselves each a sword and sent them home in the mail. I bought
Other things that happened this week we baked cookies for a lot of people this week to help establish some better relationships with our new investigators. I also got to eat some Ceviche from Ecuador and also Papa a la Huancaina from Peru! They are my two favorite South American dishes I have had thus far. Ceviche was some shrimp in like a lemon broth with some pico mixed in and rice. Papa a la Huancaina is like potatoes with almost like a mild flavored curry sauce stuff over the top. They were both delicious!
I received my first few awkward "besos"... the way people greet each other by kissing each other on the cheeks. Technically we are supposed to try and always shake peoples hands and the members know but the people on the streets do not. So there has been this one girl we have ran into a couple times this week and she gets super offended if we don´t greet her with besos. My trainer just told me to do it if the person is acting offended... unfortunately we ran into this same girl in 3 different Metro stops in our area 3 different days this past week. I do NOT like this way of saying hello.. talk about awkward! haha.
Me and my comp ran our fastest 2 mile run this past week with both miles being just a little over 6 mins each. Also, we called up the girl that ran away from home and she answered the phone! My comp talked with her for a good 10 mins and we may have the opportunity to meet with her this next week. We mainly just let her know that her family and us missed her very much and we were sad she decided to leave. We also helped her family clean their new apartment that they are going to be moving into this upcoming month. The situation is pretty much the same and we are just trying to help out the family any way that we can.
We had a CRAZY spirit guided lesson this last Saturday. Me and my trainer were walking doing some pass bys of people that used to be investigators. While we were walking through the streets he wanted me to practice teaching the Plan of Salvation with him randomly because it has been one I have struggled with in Spanish. We practiced for a good little while walking from place to place and when we finished we got to an apartment that had one of our areas old investigators in tears because her close friend back home in Peru past away. We were able to visit with her and share a spiritual uplifting message about the Plan of Salvation and she really enjoyed having us stop by. We are going to be making cookies for her and stopping by this next Wednesday to visit some more.
Anyways, I was a little stressed out this week because I am trying to take on more responsibilities in our lessons, making calls, and contacting in the streets but things are good. I am loving this opportunity to immerse myself in this culture, meet amazing people, and share my testimony of the gospel. I have felt my gospel knowledge and testimony grow sooo much on my mission and it has been a great experience. I feel homesick sometimes when we have lessons fall through or when we have a slow day but I am hanging in there alright. I miss you guys all so much and hope you guys are all doing awesome!
Love,
Elder Saltzman
