December 18th Weekly Letter

Hello everyone. Good to hear your all doing great. SOunds like life just keeps going on. Not too much new to say this week. 

Since getting to Roca its been quite a trip. Had an allergic reaction pretty serious along with all the other big changes in where i live and what i do as a missionary. Im glad to be out of the office and able to talk to people more in the streets and get to know memebrs more closely. 

Thats my favorite thing about Roca. The people. They are so legit. The members i have met. about 4 families are incredible. So much fun and such capos with very strong testimonies. The true success in the church around the world is the testimony of every member. So its great to be a part of this ward and get to work with such awesome people. One lady i met who is less active was really cool. Her name is hermana Crespo. She is 30 years old and has 3 kids and is divorced. But she is a professional boxer and works for the swat team in villa regina here close to Roca. She is soooo coool. She went ot mexico to compete for the womens world title in boxing. But she has a great testimony just has hit a rough patch. We will help her on her way back to the church. But she is just a cool person it was fun to visit her. I could talk about hte people here for a long time.

This week we have been focusing on our activity coming up on the 20th of december. We are going to the dowtown centro and singing in a choir christmas hymns. Our whole zone. We have 26 missionaries in the zone. While we are singing there will be about 15-20 members walking around passing out little sweet breads in plastic bags with a card of the church that says he is the gift. They are cards we were given for this month to pass to everyone. So we are very excited about that and hope to see a huge surge in references and from the results a few baptisms in the future. So thats where were at right now. Very excited as here in Roca they have never seen anything like that. 

Not too much else is going on. Im back to a pension where i have to fill a bucket up and stir my clothes to wash them it stinks. pero que va hacer. Also in our pension there are tarantulas all over hte place. HUGE spiders. I have killed 3 in just this week. The biggest one i have seen was out on the street it was as big as my hand literally. ..... ooohhhhh it gives me the heebies. BUt ihave some wicked pictures and stuff. But yeah thats been fun to watch out for in the pension.

As far as investogators go we have few right now so this week we will focus on finding. We have 2 baptisms scheduled still but thats it for now. 

Back to the pension. We have some weights in the pension and i have been working out pretty hard in the mornings. I am getting a littel back of what i lost ;)) That makes me happy for sure. But its hard to stay awake during hte day working out hard. But its worth it for sure ...

Not too much else going on. I had a hard time transitionaing and the trials will just keep coming. I have learned a lot every day out here and am grateful for my struggles. Mistakes show us what we need to learn. If we never try, we will never know. I have been thinking a lot about what the prophet said recently about how our decisions determine our destiny. So i just think about my goals in the future about persuing education, getting married in the temple, having a family, etc. And i think about what can i do to better prepare for that? I just think being the best missionary i can right now is all i can do so thats what i will continue to keepo working on. To be more obedient, to be happier and more positive, and to learn to turn to god when i am alone and find comfort from that source. 

The gospel is a beatiful thing and i know i will be blessed for opening my mouth to share the good news to everyone. Its scary still sometimes and not comfortable but just read isaiah 55;8-9 and it becomes easier to understand. For me at least. BUt i lvoe you all, the church is true, share the gospel with your friends this week! Do something to help the missionaries. This work is more important than anything else. 

Have a great week i will send some pictures!

Elder Westensee