Well this week has certainly been an interesting one. Started with the changes meeting, I got to see a lot of my old missionary buddies that are still down in Pachuca; Elder Gonzalez (my first son) had changes finally, and he told me that there really isn't anything going right back in Valle Dorado. 2 of my 4 recent converts aren't active, and they have absolutely no one else that even looks remotely promising. When I left, they started getting like 28-is lessons every week (as opposed to Elder Gonzalez's and my 40 per week). It's sad to hear that it isn't going well back there, but it really doesn't surprise me. I feel like we just need to take the missionaries out of Valle Dorado for like a year and let the members realize that they need us. Anyways, that's my rant for the week.
In the actual meeting of the changes meeting, President Egbert began announcing the trainers. One by one they all came up, and at the end, he said, "He already did it once, but I feel like he needs more practice; Elder Groesbeck is going to train," and then gave a nice President Egbert chuckle. I was soon assigned to my new companion. His name is Elder Gallegos from Oaxaca, Mexico, and he is the most anxious and excited little bugger I've ever met. I feel like he's Elder Calhoun from the Best Two Years, but even more (because I'm not lazy and disobedient). He speaks Sapoteco (some other language that almost no one speaks here in Mexico), and he knows how to solve a Rubik's Cube (he's been teaching me at night, and I'm getting pretty darn close). He's an extremely hard worker, but it does get on my nerves a bit when he tries to correct me in how we use our time when he has zero experience in the mission. "Elder, we just wasted an hour with Lauro that we could have spent contacting or teaching!" "...We were planning his baptism for next week... I think that's a little more important..." And that is literally the ONLY thing moderately bad I can say about him. One thing that is absolutely awesome is that he LOVES to contact. That's been the hardest thing in the world for me to do due to my introverted-ness, but he's not afraid to go up to anyone and be the most awkward person in the world when he says, "hey, we're missionaries!" and then looks at me because he doesn't know what to say next. It's actually really funny, and super awesome. I can talk to people, but I hate being awkward to start the conversation. Therefore, I'll let him go ahead and do the awkward part and slowly teach him the rest so we can switch places. Due to his expert conversation-starting skills, we were able to get quite a few new investigators this past week, and I set a new mission record with 53 lessons. I'll say that's pretty much the best way you can start your mission; my first week, I think Elder Hixon and I had like 21 lessons or something utterly small of the sorts. If it's one thing I've really come to learn this past week, it's that there's always something new to learn from any companion, even when they only have a week in the mission. I expect/hope that slowly but surely we'll get used to each other, and everything will go smoothly. He's a great missionary, and we'll be working hard to keep up the good work. One thing I've really been working on in this past week is improving upon my personal study time. Sometimes I feel like I'm simply reading the scriptures just to read them, but I've been taking the time recently to really study them. I mentioned last week about El Día de la Defensa (the day of the defense) which is the story of two missionaries in the US who went up against a panel of a variety of religious leaders attempting to attack our beliefs using the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctirne and Covenants, etc trying to prove that Joseph Smith was a false prophet. The two missionaries take every question thrown at them and use the Bible to prove every belief we have. Considering the fact that knowing the Bible is the key to survival as a missionary here in Mexico, it's been helping me out a LOT. I've not only been able to read the scriptures, but I'm able to read them, discern what they say, and relate them to other scriptures to answer any seemingly difficult question someone can ask. My studies have really improved over the course of these past two weeks or so, and I can tell it will help me out a lot in the future. Well, that's all I've got for this week. It's still hot, the mission is still hard, and I still love it. Iré y haré, Elder Mitchell Mark Groesbeck
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