Walking the Villa!

Let me tell you. I finally have a straight up villa in my area. The
hood in the states is like a gated community compared to this. Its
called the Ceibo. We cant be there past 6. We are always accompanied
by a member for safety. It is pretty sweet but interesting. Notice, I
have not been robbed yet. Maybe due to the fact because my companion.
Because my companion is only 5 ft everyone thinks im a lot bigger then
i am. Its rather helpful at times when pibes start walking up to us
yelling. First off my companion, Elder Aquino. I do regret something.
I started this transfer off with the wrong mindset. I thought this was
going to be a super hard transfer and difficult and id hate it. Wrong
attitude! Ya my comp is a 5ft butterball-fastwalking-argentine, but he
is great. The kid is 26 and has a real desire to be here. He works
hard and just needs guidance. I am going to learn alot this transfer
but it is going to be a good one. He is a good guy with his heart in
the right place.

Monday was a good but quick night. I got settled into our new pench
then we left to go see a couple people. It rained all night(i have
learned to love walking in the rain). Oh, ha best part. So we are
taking a bus back to our area and Aquino decides he wants an umbrella
for the rain so he buys one from a guy down there. We walk out and
opens it and it breaks in the wind. I was laughing pretty hard and got
him laughing too.

Now Tuesday. Today we went to Ceibo for a bit. I met an old couple who
have been members for 36 years. Really caught me off guard but the man
comes up to me and tells me to sit down in fron of him. He then sits
down on the ground and proceeds to shine my shoes for me. He says it
is what he does for his job and it is what he does for all the
missionaries to pay back a little bit for what they did for him. I
will say it was the best shine i have had ever. It truely that i was
definately going to get robbed after that and have to walk home
without shoes. We went through the villa looking for a couple members
and investigators and a guy stops us. We proceed to talk for a bit in
the middle of the whole place. He proceeds to tell us we are good kids
but doing the devils work. He tries for a while to get us to say a
prayer with him in the middle of the place where we hold hands and
repeat what he says...Well we got him to let us into his house and say
a prayer. We made a deal that we will repeat his prayer about us doing
the devils work if we can say a prayer first. Itwent well i guess...
Quick side note, the members i mentioned above have two dogs.
Interesting but these two dogs follow us everywhere we go inside the
villa. If we go inside a house they wait outside then continue with
us. They bark at anybody we dont know or any dog that tries to
approach us. Kind of cool.

The rest of the week passed by way quick. Everyday we somehow ended up
to come back to the pench with more food that we didnt buy. Im trying
hard not to get fat mom.

Saturday. Well we did 2 service projects that took all day. In the
morning we were building ahouse and in the afternoon we helped a
family move. It took forever!! Their old house was a small passage way
that passed 4 other houses all the way to their house in thevery back.
The passage is just barely wide enough to fit their kitchen table
through. That took a while but nothing compared to what happened next.
Aquino and I rode in the back of the moving truck in pitch dark
singing hymns for about 30 mins with everything bouncing all over the
place. We get to the new house and it is the same situation but
skinnier AND the neighbor had built a skaffelding(sp) to build up on
his house. The stories high and very very shaky. Its a good thing you
werent there mom cuz i started from the top standing on 4 by 12 pieces
of wood and lowering them down slowly. That took an hour to get down
so we could get everything in. In took two loads to get it all in and
we fixed their electricity and carried there kitchen table across the
roofs of all the neighbors houses. lol. It was a very long day.

Church was very good. We actually have priesthood now in the ward
which is nice but i learned something. Many members dont trust the
elders. I have no clue why but it looks like something we will be
changing here. Aquino and I plan to have lots of success and that wont
be happening without the members. Therefor this will change!

Quick funny story. Yesterday we were teaching a new investigator about
baptism and i learned something new. When Jesus floated down the river
and the pharohs wife found him, she had john the baptist come over and
dunk baby jesus 3 times in the water. Yes he said Jesus and not moses.
I have no clue where he learned this but it was intersting. We will
see what we can do next time.

To finish this up a little tidbit. The last week of my last transfer i
spent a lot of time thinking a couple days. I didnt want to leave my
area but i knew i needed a change. I had lost all desire to do
contacts. It sucks alot of the time. I remeber thinking to myself that
i need a companion that likes contacting so that i can rebuild the
desire to contact. Turns out another confirmation that God does know
our thoughts. I got the perfect companion for this. We contact alot
and we have found a few people through it which i think will help
alot. Once again God has blessed me in my life and i know he will do
the same for you if you just ask and believe.

Love,

Elder Martino