Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.
The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Psalms 46:10-11

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

More Bug Adventures!!! 6/4/2012

Hey Family, les cuento!
First off, THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR THE BIRTHDAY WISHES!!  They are very much appreciated.  I also enjoyed very, very much the one year gift! The notes and testimonies are and were VERY appreciated.  Thank you all for your love and support, it's much appreciated.  I think that people who have not served a mission cannot understand how much a simple note means to a missionary so thank you all so much.  (Obviously, Andrew did not wait until his actual year mark to open the gift! Ha ha) 

Now, adding to bug adventures.  Last week, remember how we went fishing?  WELL!  I forgot to tell y'all but part of the hike took me through a colony of straight JUNGLE ANTS!!  In case you were wondering, they do indeed attack!  If you mess up their stuff they'll mess you up.  So, I now have the privilege to say that I have been attacked by jungle ants ha ha.  It hurts like crap when they bite, especially when they get down your shirt and bite your back.  Don't worry mom, they're not poisonous or anything like that, it just hurts for a couple hours where they bite.  AND, with more buggy adventures.  I have to tell y'all what happened to me this morning because it's going to creeeeeep mom out!  Just like it creeped me out!  So, last week I bought a big bag of elotitos (They're kinda like corn nuts) and I was eating them little by little.  WELL, last night I guess I left the bag open and so this morning when I went to eat some (which is done by grabbing the bag and shaking some into my mouth) and I guess a little friend had decided to enjoy my elotitos as well because a FREAKING INCH AND A HALF LONG COCKROACH FELL ON TO MY FACE!!!!!!!!!!!! Luckily he didn't manage to get into my mouth but holy crap did I lose myself in that moment.  However, I am happy to report that I am alive and he is not.  So there's some fun bug stories from the jungle for y'all!  

Alright, moving on to more missionary things ha ha.  (however, first, as always, responding to questions) Branch council is actually going really, really well.  People are doing their assignments and their visits and everything so that's super legit.  We're also doing quite a few little things to get the members more involved in every facet of the branch (Talking on Sundays, magnifying their new callings, etc.) so everything there is going well.  Also, mom seemed worried that I had doors slammed, its a good thing ha ha.  Its an experience every missionary wants to have at least once.  That's one benefit to being a missionary is that rejection stops mattering to you ha ha.  Dad also asked how I'm liking being district leader, it's pretty... normal ha ha.  Its not a huge change, I give a message once a week in district meeting which is fun (even though our district is only 4 people so it's not so much a message as it is just talking about the work and a gospel subject ha ha) also, our phone broke and due to the fact that we're so far away, they have not gotten us a new phone and will not til next Monday (We will be in Huehue next Monday so I'll be sure to be sending pictures from there ha ha) so I haven't really been able to do too many district leadery things but as soon as I do, I'll let you know how it is ha ha.  

Now, my week (Y'all get a long email this week ha ha) First, a couple things that I enjoyed and made me laugh.  First, we got to chop wood this week!!!  I was super stoked about that because I love to chop wood but in Xela there wasn't a whole ton to chop but it seems we may have a regular chopping job here in San Antonio ha ha.  Also, there's a 5 year old kid in the branch, funny as all get out ha ha, and he said something this week that just made me lose it.  Y'all can have Nicole explain it to ya but I think the funny is lost in English.  He was playing with some kids and he tripped on a rock and kinda spun around and almost fell and it took him a minute to find his balance and as he's spinning around he just yells "Puro borracho parezco yo!" and Elder Caceres and I just lost it, this kid is 5 years old ha ha.  

Now, investigators, we have a new kid.  His name is Oscar.  He's 16 years old and he has some problems that he asked us (through his friend who is a member) to help him with and now he wants to be baptized.  Problem is, his mom doesn't want to give permission.  So we're going to talk to her this week and see what she says but he wants to be baptized (or so he tells us ha ha) but he seems pretty cool, a little shy, but cool.  Next, Pablo Vasquez.  I am pleased to tell y'all that he DID go to church last week and we hope he went yesterday too, we're visiting him tomorrow to we'll know then.  But he's SUPER positive, if he accepts the fecha were proposing, he'd be baptized on Saturday of this week, so we could be baptizing this week!  It would be completing a family and priesthood so were stoked about that!  He really doesn't have any challenges that impede him from being baptized so we're really stoked for this :)  Apart from that, everything else was nothing ha ha.  EVERYBODY here are Jehovah's Witnesses and holy cow are they hard to teach.  I've never had so many people tell me to my face that what I teach is false and that I am a liar.  It got to the point that when we visited Fidel yesterday (I think I told y'all about him last week) we knew it wasn't going anywhere so we were like, "alright, we can see this is going nowhere so please just let us leave you with our testimony that WE know that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that the Book of Mormon is true" and he cuts us off in the middle of the sentence to tell us "that's great but I don't accept it" Holy cow, weird stuff ha ha.  But a couple Testigos did visit us at the church this week (on a Thursday) and we had a very civilized discussion about our beliefs and theirs and it was cool and all of it.  They believe some weird stuff ha ha.  But, I am not in a position to judge, I just have to respect that they are just as firm in their beliefs as I am in mine and look for other people to teach ha ha.  But overall it was a very good week, I enjoyed it quite a bit, we're trying to work hard and keep the fire up.  LOVE YOU ALL!!!! Have a great week!
-Elder Westenskow

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