I LOVE ALABAMA

I LOVED THE VIDEOS, everyone looks so much bigger! And Thomas is WALKING. CRAZY, it’s good to hear that everything is going good down there. Things are starting to work out for the most part down here. We’re still having some problems with the ward but for the most part things are just getting better and better. The area is super fun, we have started doing a lot of work in some Project houses. The people there are sooo funny. We’re teaching these 2 old people named L and E, another lady named K, and another named H. I love them all so much. I have started to use my cards a lot more to start up some conversations, for the most part it’s just with the kids because if you come up to a door and are like "Hey how ya doing can I show you a card trick?" I think that I might get knocked over from the wind of the door shutting. :)

I have been doing a lot of personal study on my own, to try and find out what I really want to do out here and what I’m going to give 2 years of my life for. I’ve been reading my patriarchal blessing a lot this last month, I just never really put the time in to see what the Lord wants me to do and what he’s telling me I’ll get for helping him out. There’s a part in it that’s been sticking with me hard for the last few months. It goes something along the lines of "you will be blessed with a healthy mind and body to overcome trials that you run into and you will run into a lot of trials for such is the nature that you will live in, in the future" or something like that. And it’s been like really punching me in the face this past week.

We have been having a super hard time with teaching people. TEACHING, we don’t have much problem talking with people but when you start to try and teach them it’s an almost instant turnoff. It’s been kind of getting to me because I know what they can get by trying their best to live how God wants us too. I’ve felt such a difference in my life just as I put forth the effort to do my best, I’ve felt that people are more willing to talk to you if you’re just trying to help them, then if you start off with, "let’s talk about Jesus".

Everyone down here knows about Jesus, the only difference is EVERYONE thinks about him in a different way. It’s like growing up, and all your life you see the sun, and you learn about the sun, so you have an idea of what the sun in the sky is, you just might not know everything about it. Well down here EVERYONE knows about Jesus, some more than others and some what they want to know about him. And EVERYONE has been baptized AT LEAST ONCE; it’s been super hard if you’re trying to have a lesson with someone that already has an idea of what they believe if what you’re teaching is not what they were thinking.

All in all its been really hard trying to teach new people, but some of the people that are Mormon and are just less active it is very nice to be able to go and talk with them for a little and get to know them better. This week we were able to talk with a fellow named Brother B. I have gone over there around 8 times and he’s super interested in coming back to church, but his wife does not like the idea of church so much. Over the last few months she has started to open up A LOT to us, when I first met her she didn’t really want to talk with us at all about anything. But this week when we brought a team-up over to their house. The brother that we brought talked with Brother B and we talked with his wife for about an hour. She is very slowly starting to trust us more and more. There some on the best people that I’ve met in the south so far. :)

This week I was thinking a lot about home, oooo how I’ve missed home, the hours on hours on hours of playing video games and watching anime. It seemed like it was just yesterday that I was back home playing them. But I’ve grown to love being out here. If I could I would to be able to play video games and watch anime out here, but I know that if I did I couldn’t think about the people over here as much as I do. I LOVE THEM. I wish that I could talk with them as long as we had time in the day, but we can’t. After we leave of don’t get to see them for a long time I’m already thinking about when we can go back and visit them. People here are very nice, some of the nicest people that I’ve met. I’m super glad that I was able to come down here and talk with the people that I have and gotten to know them as well as I have. I’m just worried that I might have to leave and go somewhere else. It’s crazy to think that in 3 weeks I might have to go somewhere else.

I was also thinking a lot about district leaders and zone leaders. This week I’m going out with the zone leaders on an exchange. I’m staying here and going out with Elder P. He’s super funny for the little that I’ve talked with him. I was just thinking about how much good you can do as a zone leader or district leader. I wish that I could be one so that I could help out the other missionaries that I’m with. I know it’s cheesy, but I don’t have any problem being out here. I might not know a lot about the gospel, but I’m just happy to be with people and learn with them. I think that too many people over here are thinking about NUMBERS NUMBERS NUMBERS. It’s stupid; wish that when we set a GOAL, we see that it’s something to TRY for. If you don’t get it it’s not the end of the world. I don’t think that I’ve ever gotten all the numbers that we set for the week. I think that most the time we are the lowest. But it’s the people that were seeing. I’m starting to see how us coming over there has started to get people open to talk with missionaries.

I LOVE ALABAMA; I think that I’m going to have to go get a haircut this week. I know that when the sun comes out it’s going to get HOT!!!!! This week it was around 70* I felt like I was on fire, so it’s going to be a long 6 months down here ha-ha.

I LOVE Y'ALL SO MUCH

MISS YA

ELDER LANDIONO ALDANA