Everything I knew about missionary work

So, this week, everything I knew about missionary work got put in a jar with Spanish and turned upside down and shaken around. Still waiting for some of the mud to settle. It may be in suspension, though...

 

Monday, we cleaned like crazy because we knew that Elder Alonso of the Seventy was coming to visit and we knew he would be checking our apartment (President told us). We cleaned so much that I got blisters on my hands from wringing out rags. 

 

Tuesday, we got up early (5:30 am) to go to mission tour and learned a bunch, on the way there (courtesy of Hugh B. Brown), at various trainings while there (including a special training from Elder Alonso and a powerful testimony is Spanish from his wife), and then also on the way back as we discussed everything we learned during the day. We were back at the apartment around 3:30pm, and we waited there for about ten minutes for Elder Alonso to come inspect our apartment. He came, pronounced it clean, and left. President and Sister Thomas also came, and Sister Thomas didn't find anything to chasten us over, so it must have been sufficiently clean (the Mission office had our apartment's carpet cleaned while we were at the meeting. That probably helped a lot).

 

Then we had about half an hour until our appointment with someone (I actually don't remember their names), so I thought we could sit down and discuss what we learned during mission tour. It was a good thing we did, because about fifteen minutes into it, the door opens and in walks Elder York, one of the Spanish missionaries, with the assistants (of whom there are currently three), carrying a bed! I was extremely confused. My bed works fine, so I couldn't figure out why we were getting a new one. I asked what was going on, and apparently Elder York's companion was going home because of headaches (he hopes to come back out, though), and Elder York is now with us! The rest of the week was kind of a blur. 

 

I'm suddenly senior companion for Gate Field Spanglish Area, learning Spanish and still trying to sort this whole thing out. I've never been so busy. We showed up at this week's district meeting without suits on because we had to rush over straight from a lesson. But we're having a blast, working our brains out, and somehow still getting in on time every night. Miracles have flowed in plenty this week as we've done our best to make it work.

In other news, I'm tired. And I think I have good reason to be. But I'm also having a great time. Elder York is another one of those amazing missionaries who just does missionary work.

 

Love, Elder Brown