Well it's being going alright here in my new area. It's called
Jardines, which means "Gardens". We haven't been able to teach a lot
this week, because next week, 2 more missionaries are going to arrive
here, and we're on orders looking for a house to rent for 1,200 pesos
or less per month (which is pretty difficult, because all the houses
here cost about 5 times that much due to the richness of the area).
We've pretty much been walking all day, every day the past week
searching. So far nothing, and we've searched almost every street in
our area.
We had a baptism Saturday! His name is Pablo. He's awesome. He is only
16 years old, and is already taking care of his entire family, because
his dad left and his mom is severely ill (mentally). He is doing
great. I'm positive he is going to be a strong member of the church in
years to come.
So, when we got here, the sister missionaries that lived here before
us didn't leave anything for us in the house. To heat the water here,
you have to use a gas-fueled boiler. We left 2 large tanks full for
them back in Industrial (we switched areas with them). We got here,
and the tank was completely empty. We can't even fry anything, as the
stove is also fueled by gas. We can't exactly take showers with the
water as cold as it is here, so being as genius as we are, we figured
out another way to heat the water. We fill a bucket full of water, put
an electric iron in it, plug in the iron, and wait as the water boils.
It's pretty effective. Genius, I know.
Today, being preparation day, we exercised a ton. There's a pretty
huge park close to our house, and we go there every morning to run and
use the playground for pull-ups, tricep dips, abs, and tons of stuff.
Today we straight up RAN for 40 minutes, with 20 sets of 20 second
sprints/dashes. It was pretty tough, but we got through it like men.
After, we did the P90X ab ripper. And after that we went to the zone
activity to play basketball and soccer and other stuff for a few
hours. So I'm pretty beat. As of now, I weigh 87 kilograms, which is
like 192 pounds. I actually had to go to a sewing shop to get my white
shirts resized! So far I have lost a total of 39.5 pounds, and I can't
believe I got so fat after high school! I'm staying in gold's gym for
sure when I'm getting back! Right now I'm working on getting a 6 pack.
I've got a 4 pack now, so we're getting there. All this walking to the
appointments really helps out.
We found out a little bit of why we had emergency transfers and what's
going to be happening in the next transfer (1 week from now, starting
Monday). We are here to learn the area the first 2 weeks. When the new
missionaries get here, we're gonna split up, so that each
companionship has 1 person who knows the area. More than that, who
knows. I guess we'll all find out next week. Kinda weird though,
because usually they only do the emergency-transfers-2-weeks-before
thing for a good reason, usually big reasons. We'll see what happens.
I'm gonna miss him. Elder Olvera has been a great companion, and we
get along great. He has 22 months in the mission, so he's goin home
after next transfer (in December).
Also, Sunday was awesome! Here in Jardines, we share the same building
with Guadalupe, my first area! I got to see a lot of the members
there, and there were so surprised to see me. Best of all, I got to
see Juan Nájera, who was my first investigator to get baptized in my
mission! He came dressed in one of my white shirts I gave him, with
one of my silk ties around his neck, tied just like I showed him how.
He was walking down the hall and I yelled "¡Juan!". He turned around,
saw my face, and cracked a big ol' smile. He said "¡¡¡Hermano
Riggs!!!" and gave me a big hug. We got to talking, and he is doing
awesome. He is a strong member, and strives to be active for the rest
of his life. That pretty much made my day.
Well I gotta go now. Next week I'll tell you a bit about the
traditions around here. And about The Day of The Dead.
- Elder Riggs
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