1.16.11 -- Huatabampo

Boo,

Well, beginning with the pictures. Our electricity once again went out, but this time it was because the circuit breakers broke. Check out my desk by candlelight. Try to notice the duality (I haven´t used that word for so long--literary reference) of Brock Samson vs. the praying hands. But we have electricity now, though. But the fridge died again. Throwing out a kilo and a half of beans and chorizo (Mexican sausage) and hand made flour tortillas hurts. Along with the milk. And veggies.

Here´s the son of one of the members of the branch. It was his birthday, and he really liked our bikes. By the way, he´s sitting behind one bike and holding onto the handlebars of another. The thing you can´t tell about the picture is that he was making a ton of motorcycle noises.

A part of our district, of all the missionaries of Huatabampo. E. González, E. Mooney, E. Tovar, and I. Read below for more details.

But anyway, the week. We have an "eternal investigator," one of the coolest people I´ve ever taught. Well, one of the nicest, anyway. He reads absolutely EVERYTHING (he read 100 sections of D&C in two weeks), but needs to feel the Spirit through his heart, and not his head. I remember feeling the same exact way before the thing that gave me my true testimony. It´s been a pleasure teaching him, but I told him straight out this week, "You need to know less and feel more." He just laughed and said, "I know, I know." We´re working hard with him and . . . well, let´s see what happens.

For some reason, when we have mutual, all of the youth want me to play soccer, but I can´t understand why. When I play, it´s like when I play basketball--everyone alse comes out bruised and I come out feeling like I confused the sport with football. But yeah, the youth want me to play, while the other missionaries hate being kicked in the shins by me. I would feel worse if they didn´t almost force me to play.

We taught a less active family this week about how to scold children when they misbehave from D&C121:41-45. I thought it was kind of strange that I was teaching a grandma and two mothers while I´m a 20 year old kid that only has experience "scolding" investigators that haven´t read the Book of Mormon, or prayed, or disagreeable companions. It´s weird how the mission teaches you. Oh, and they went to church this week. That felt good.

I got a letter from my 15 year old convert from Hermosillo last week. He´s doing great, and wants to be 18 already to go on his mission. That felt really good to hear from him.

As for other news . . . well, we had transfers this week. I was kind of surprised when E. Jarman called me in the morning to tell me the news, but E. González is going to Aeropuerto B, to help out the same ward I was in when I was in Navojoa. He´s going to LOVE it, and E. Jarman and E. Spencer (the zone leaders) are great people to share an area with. Unfortunately, I won´t get to speak with them very much anymore, because something else happened.

The Navojoa Zone has split in two, with Zones Navojoa (the city of Navojoa), and Huatabampo (which will consist of all the southern Sonoran villages--Huatabampo, Etchojoa, Villa Juarez, and Bacobampo). E. Olguin is coming out here with me to open up the new zone. It´s going to be interesting, although I still don´t understand why Pte. chooses me to do these things. We´ve got two branch presidents and three brand new missionaries out of the 10 that are here. The good news is that I´ll be going to Hermosillo every month again. So I´ll get my package directly.

I complete one year in Mexico on Wednesday. Crazy. Especially since E. Cancino, my trainer, goes home today. I´ll miss him. Good guy.

Adios.

Elder Humbert