October 25th Weekly Letter with Pictures

Hello friends and family, 

I am not sick anymore hallelujah. It was a rough few days and i lost 8 pounds in the week. I will be focusing on stuffing my face to gain it back haha. Thank you all for your prayers and support i love and miss every single one of you.

I am still in the office and still financiero. The new asistant is from brazil. That makes me the only gringo in the office. It sucks cause i never get to speak english. But at hte same time i am learning spanish very well. My companion is still elde3r cardenas from ecuador. He is quiet. all he says is. pero sabe que? or but you know what? and he also says esta loco este tipo or this guy is crazy. He says that about 500 times each and thats about it haha. But i love him he is just really quiet and boring. I guess its better than othe comps i have had. But we get along great. Ever since my time as a trainer i have had good companions.

I am sad to hear byu football is getting destroyed. Taysom hill will be back next year no worries. i am excited to go to some games and study down in provo or orem at UVU. well see. I have met a lot of new friends here on the mission i hope to see and hangout with after the mission. 

I am running out of things to say here. Not much happens around here these days. Office work, then missionary work. I am in a routine for sure. 6 months straight of this routine.

I love it but its really just grinding me down. I am tired as crud. I am fighting  everyday to keep working hard.

We have had lots of success in our area. 2 things that really stand out to me are this:

Carlos. Carlos is 29 and single and has been an investigator for 1 year. We always visit him but he always makes up stupid excuses and argues about the bible and what not. We were just walking one day and i said you know what. Everyone is so rediculous rejecting us. I got mad thinking about it. I got In a mode where i didnt even care and just felt like nothing could stop me. Something told me to go visit carlos. i thought in my head are you serious right now! That guy is never going to progress. Well i finally accepted it and i was like....fine. so we went to see the classic carlos. He come out of his house and says uhhh you want to come in? i was like yeah ok. we go in. he starts laughing at us. He says i was just praying. We all started like laughing like haha hmmmm would you look at that. I said its an answer from god i felt like i needed to come here. And he says haha yeah maybe. but probably not. I was just like wow this guy is joking me right now. We just talked a bit about the guitar then shared a message about the plan of salvation. I told him at some point something that made him shut up. and stop arguing. I told him straight forward how it was and read him a scripture in the doctrine and covenants. i told him he had rejected the answers from god and that he is trying to communicate with you. He stopped everything and you could feel the spirit so strong. He started tearing up and shaking his head yes, yes i agree. Then he stopped and started laughing and saying yeah i know its right im just embarrassed. I just flat out said to his face. Just stop that. right now. i am tired of your excuses and attitude. you are doing exactlky what satan wants. i told him to repent and get baptized. He accepted and was very happy. It felt like wiht him we finally had made it over the hump o guess you could say. Now its not a question of if, but when. That was a lesson where the spirit took over and absolutely touched carlos. we are nothing as missionaries. All we have to do is be hte instruments and god will work miracles through us. so well see how carlos reacts in hte coming weeks.

The ohter story includes a guitar. There is a family in our ward who is struggling with getting to the temple as a family of 7. The dad is a litltle lost and doesnt know if he wants to do it. We went and had a great family home evening with them. After we got to play the guitar! It was us 4 missionaries for the family home evening. But i had my guitar (which i am in the process of selling) and elder da silva from brazil had his guitar. I played and sang some songs from the states for them. Then we all played  and sang some spanish famous songs. I ahve learned a ton about the guitar and play well. It has helped me find and meet new people, the guitar. Thats how we found carlos. And how we built a good relationship is through music and the guitar. 

I hope one day to take a girl out and sing to her. ;) 

Have a great week everyone. shoot me some questions. Love you all take care.

Elder Wsestensee