Squirrelly Squirrel

They have some of the weirdest Squirrels here.  

This week has been one of many new experiences, I have days where we talk with potential investigators or other people we meet and I can understand maybe 1 out of every 5-10 words they say, which is great, but then I have the days where I only understand 1 out of every 30 or so, which isn't that great but I'll be speaking the language as fluently as necessary within a few months.  The first week has been pretty good we gave about 7-9 lessons, which for the area is pretty good I'm told.  We finally taught 2 new families yesterday, Angelica y Claudia.  They live next door to each other which is a great perk, and to top it off they came from the same area in Mexico, so they speak the same dialect, to me this means that when we get done with a lesson, they can talk about our lesson with one another.  Kind of like a heads up, but that way they can progress with each other.  They both have a few small children that get along with each other really well, and we have about 8-10 children in the branch about their age, so this should help them both to feel comfortable with their kids being there.  All we really need is another week or so of them progressing and getting a member to come help us every now and then with the lessons, and they would both make great additions to the ward.  Our other lesson was with an investigator's son who hasn't really participated with us before.  Ronny is 19 almost 20, so Jamie's age, and he was very open about his beliefs.  He even thought that we were Jehovah's Witnesses, because he said that we didn't believe in the Holy Spirit, which was funny. We corrected him on that and then continued the lesson.  He even promised to say the closing prayer at our next lesson with him.  Otherwise this week has been a lot of tracting and trying to find people to teach.  I'm not very good yet with the door approaches and I can only do the most basic of greetings, so I usually leave those to my companions, but I'm going to have to start getting better at that.

A lot of our members are from Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala etc...  So it gives us some great diversity. Our Ward mission leader is from Argentina (so make sure you let Hermanas Rohm, Rindlishbacher, and Miller knows so they can be jealous that I get to speak Argentinian Spanish.)  He's really nice, and he wants to work on his English while I work on my Spanish so it’s great to talk to him.  He's from Buenos Aires originally, but he says he lived in Neuquén (I think I spelled that right.)

My first Sunday was something to observe, they do their service backwards, meaning that they do Sacrament last.  We also have church at 2 so if we want investigators there for sacrament they have to stay the whole 3 hour block, which is good for them, but for investigators first coming to church, those 3 hours can be a lot.  The weather is getting really humid now, but from what I've seen of Elder Browning's shirts, I can't complain too much since we are only in the high 80's or low 90's.  Please Jolietians and family and friends, keep me posted of everything in the home front.  You can write me for free at justin.bandy@myldsmail.com

I will call this an abstract drawing.  Thank you Mallory!