Week 55

Hi Everyone!

To start off by answering your questions, no we have not felt any effects of the hurricane. Aruba is a DESERT. It has rained once in the middle of the night the whole time I have been here. So the days are all super hot and humid. Ya know, serving in paradise haha.

My companion is doing good, but it’s kinda hard for him to learn the language because whenever anyone sees him struggling with English, they all say "I understand Spanish, just talk in Spanish." The problem is that if he never goes through that tough struggle phase he will never get the language. But from experience, that struggle phase is tough!! So it’s kinda good and bad for him at the same time. As for our meals, from time to time we help this member with his work of putting fish in a freezer whenever he gets a shipment too big to handle, and afterwards he gives us these frozen swai fillets that are delicious!! So apart from the exception here and there, I have been living the past 2 months on lucky charms and swai. And I love it!

 But apart from that this was a kinda slow week. We had a lot of lessons fall through and that means lots of walking in the sun. E. Carillo kept saying that we must be doing something wrong, so we took out the mission manual and after reading some of it I asked him if we are being obedient why is it still hard? This was a question I asked myself in Bonaire so I was prepared to help him. He couldn't come up with anything so I just told him that’s the way it goes. It’s not supposed to be easy or else it wouldn't be worth it. Sometimes the struggle is the part that makes it all worth it. I learned that myself while working with Vaquero in Bonaire and that was sure worth it! I told him as long as we are working hard and doing what the Lord expects of us, blessings will come. Maybe not tomorrow but they will always come. So we decided to keep working hard and have a special fast.

Anyways I'll end with a less serious story. We were biking home and we saw a massive python on the side of the road, and it look like it had been hit by a car. This sucker was over 4 feet long, so of course we stopped to mess with it. It was dark and we thought it was dead so we fearlessly went up to it and I started doinking it with my shoe. Welp that sucker was NOT dead and it jumped at me and I was caught so off guard that I just dropped my bike and jumped back. Well then my bike landed on top of it so we then spent the next 15 minutes poking it with sticks trying to get it to slither out from under my bike so that we could get home!

Have a good week

Elder Harsh

Here are a few pictures of the baptism of Vaquero.  He really means a lot to Blake.