Service, Flooding, and Speaking in Church

Wow! Good luck with all that's going on! Our mission president shared that angels are messengers from God, so we are the angels! We also know that the people who have gone before us are helping us here, so basically we have mortal and immortal angels working side by side! Super cool!

For service, we have painted, and cleaned up trash. The way they paint here is very different. They sand off the old paint, and because the floor is usually cement, and it never rains, they use a water soluble paint, and don't cover or tape anything, and then they mop the floor afterwards. Pretty interesting!! On P-Day, we buy things we need, clean, study things that are interesting but not necessary, sleep, eat, sometimes watch a movie, and sometimes go somewhere. I've been able to go to Grau, which is like a street market that's massive. Other than that... I haven't been anywhere else.

My mission president is super cool! He knows a lot, and really loves us. He always wants to help us to be better! He told us that as a mission president, we are his converts. His goal is that each one of us become deeply and truly converted. We get to have interviews with him every transfer. We have one long interview with him, and next transfer, a short interview. So we are constantly in contact! We actually have long interviews this transfer, on Wednesday! I love the interviews, because we always learn a ton about where we need to improve and how we can be more consecrated missionaries!!

The flooding. Well, I'm not sure exactly how much you guys know, but I'm going to preface this with the fact that I'm absolutely fine and not affected in any way, except we lost water for a half hour in the morning. We work normal, and I feel completely safe. That being said, I've heard the the country is in a state of declared national emergency, and people are donating things to be sent to those in danger/homeless. The prices of some things are skyrocketing, because you can't get to the farms that produce limón for example. It's pretty crazy! I've heard lots of people say that it's the end of the world, that we need to repent soon, and stuff like that! But I'm safe!

This Sunday my companion and I gave talks, and they were very interesting! I talked about faith, and what I learned from this talk: http://www.lds.org/ensign/2007/09/seek-learning-by-faith.p1. It's really interesting to see how this talk applies to everything we read about faith in the scriptures! It's truly inspired! My companion talked about missionary work, and how it is a commandment. He talked about how when we receive blessings from the gospel, we naturally want to share them! So if we don't want to do missionary work, it's because we haven't really felt the blessings of the gospel. And, if we aren't receiving the blessings of the gospel, it's because of disobedience. Very interesting! He also shared a little of his story, and how his family was going through some rough times, and someone referred the missionaries to his house. It was in this critical moment that the missionaries came and changed their lives forever! It was super powerful, and in the end focused on the need to share the gospel through references to the missionaries!

I love you guys!!
-- Dallin