Yes, another week has gone by. Where? I couldn´t tell you. I feel like yesterday I was sitting here, writing home the last time!
Wow, what a week it has been! With the greatest event...the companion changes! Elder Rodriguez left off to another area and here I am with my new companion Elder Perez. He, being my second companion, is called your step-dad, because you still learn a lot from your second companion as a father, but he isn’t the one who raised you from birth. He is also from El Salvador, and has 20 months in the mission!
After running around like crazy on Monday and Tuesday with Elder Rodriguez as he said goodbye to all of the investigators and members, we went to the changes meeting. It was really cool to be there and see the new missionaries coming in. I said goodbye to Elder Rodriguez as my new companion was announced, and he came over and, after the meeting, we left for Cofradia!
After the meeting, well, my companion doesn’t know this area at all, so I have had to walk him everywhere and explain everything that happens with us! It is pretty weird, and I even have to make a lot of the decisions of where to go and where to contact and who to go visit. But, he is learning. This is his 8th area, so I am sure he will catch on quickly to the names of places and where people live and whatnot. Oh, he is also District Leader for our District!
Annnnywaaaaay....we are working hard. Just waiting on those papers to have the couples married and then they can be baptized! We have the Zone Leaders hard at work to go and search Honduras for the papers of these people, they want to help us so we can help everyone else make these decisions and be baptized. It really is a beautiful system, the mission. We all work like a well-oiled machine to get everything done.
I am feeling super great about this change. Since Elder Rodriguez left, I have had to do most of the talking on the phone and with the members and investigators, and so my Spanish has increased even more! I feel very comfortable and confident at this point of speaking and understanding the people and it really helps out with teaching as well; it all just works out with the Lord!
Oh, so we all know how big a fan of Tangled I am, right? Well, here in Cofradia they sold things called "globos" the month of December. They are bags with two open ends, held together in the middle by a waxy cloth that you burn, and the "globo" catches air, and flies off! They come in basically the exact same colors as Tangled as well. Well, on the 24th of December (they did it very late, so I wasn’t awake to see it, but a member showed me a picture) the people of Cofradia launched hundreds of these globos into the air, and it was a picturesque scene straight out of Tangled...except the funny part is that here, in real life, when they reach extremely high points and run out of oxygen, the globos plummet to the ground and land on people’s houses, cars, in their yards, even on their dogs! But, I had a great time reminiscing and talking with strangers in the streets about them!
Anyway, that is about all for this week! Not too many grand or exciting things happened. Plus, I am about out of time!
Until next week! ¡Que les vaya bien!
All my love,
Elder Tinkham
