We attend the Miami River Spanish Branch! When I was in Kentucky it was the Ohio River Spanish Branch, kind of ironic that it's in Kentucky haha.
How big is the building? What it is like?
How big is the building? What it is like?
Well, the building is a decent size, but it's really old! This is my first time in a while to have something other than a stake center. The stake president showed us the basement, and apparently there are crawl spaces through the entire building! It's pretty cool. The gym is normal, but it's connected to the chapel, the kitchen, and the baptismal font room. I'm pretty sure it was built a long time ago then added on to. There is a cool little courtyard in the middle of the building, and other than that it's pretty normal! I like it though, there are lots of pianos and it's a nice building. Different for sure, but nice. The family history center here is really small, only 2 computers. I'm still trying to figure out how to use family history better in missionary work, I believe that the people here would love it, it's just the time and resources that we need help with.
How many people attend on a typical Sunday?
Typically we get 50-60 people, and anywhere from 0 to 10 investigators, and there are also a couple families that come almost every week that aren't members, but aren't investigating. This last week, [several people] were all there with ___, who is a member, so we had a great turnout! We are hoping to help ___, her husband and 3 daughters, and ___ get baptized. They like the Church for sure, and they were all referred by their mom, ___, who is one of 3 members in her family. Her other son is a member, but is in jail for dumb reasons, and he should be out but they keep pushing back his court, but then a few of her other kids are investigating! They are super cool, I love them a lot.
What have you heard about President Monson's funeral?
Yes, we ended up being able to watch it, which was pretty cool. It's been a little weird having that while out here, because we always talk about living prophets, but it's actually been a great opportunity to testify of the Restoration, so it's been a cool experience.
Have you heard anything about Elder Uchtdorf's devotional for young adults on Sunday?
This upcoming Sunday? I don't know, I heard about one, but I'm not sure when or if we will be able to attend. It sounds like they want missionaries to attend these though, so hopefully we can! The face-to-face was amazing last time!
Do you get to watch the Tuesday morning broadcast by Pres. Nelson? Who do you think will be in the newly organized First Presidency?
I am also assuming we will get to watch the broadcast, it's pretty big news! I wonder if they will keep the Quorum of the 12 Apostles for a little while, just because I found out that's an option, right? If not, I'll make the guess that Elder Bednar will join the first presidency, and either President Uchtdorf or President Eyring will return. I'm super excited to find out either way!
So this week was awesome! We started off with an exchange with the Dayton Spanish elders, which was really fun! I will upload the pictures from that exchange next week probably, but we found a huge dead lizard!! I wanted to flip it over to get a better look, but I was too wimpy. We also had an amazing lesson with ___, and also were able to set up with ___, and then we ate with a member, ___, and were able to have an awesome talk with him. He's an amazing guy, and he is going to start progressing so he can baptize his daughter! Then, we ate dinner with the stake president and his family, it was really cool because we talked about the plan of salvation after.
The next day, we were able to visit ___, 2 referrals from Presidente Barriga who came to Church last week, and they are awesome! They are Colombians who are going to UC out here, he is getting his PhD in engineering or something like that, and she is trying to learn English and get back into school because she was a lawyer in Colombia. They have a 1-year-old, and plan on staying in the States if they can! ___ reminds me of a Colombian Robert, their mannerisms are similar. They also told us that they want to come to our Church! They really loved what they heard, and they also asked about a few things, are really interested in the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants, and they asked about coffee (Colombia is the coffee capital of the world basically), and it turns out they totally agree with the Word of Wisdom! His parents never let him drink coffee because they saw it was bad, so they already live one of the commandments that can be hard for some people! They are super cool, and we had an amazing lesson, because we decided to try teaching the restoration in a conversational style, so the transition was really smooth, and we testified powerfully! I've been working on that, and it feels so amazing to testify with every sentence you speak! I have a lot of work to do before perfecting that of course, but I have had a few moments :) It was also 60 degrees that day and the one after! It was insane, because we went from -3 to 60 in a few days haha. Then we had a blizzard and it has dropped back down to 12 or so, but it's more fun that way ;) That day we were also able to teach the daughter of Socorro, our recent convert! She invited us back to make tortillas on Tuesday, so I'm going to make sure to become a pro.
Serrano chiles taste amazing, but they are spicy!! ___ fed us again, but we weren't able to teach very much that time, the family wasn't all together so we mostly just talked about the sacrament with her.
A couple days later we exchanged again with Wilmington Spanish, which was super fun! Friday was the day it started to drop again. We visited ___, a different one from Guatemala whose wife (but novia [fiancee] really) gave us some awesome food! Most Guatemalan food is pretty amazing. Their tamales are hit or miss though. If they hit, they are amazing, but if they miss... well, we still eat them :) We also visited some of their relatives who haven't been able to come to Church for awhile because of transportation, and while we were there the phone started blowing up with texts and calls! I checked one, and it said that we were supposed to stay inside, but I looked out the window, saw some very light snow, and wasn't too worried. Then we talked to ___, a Guatemalan girl who doesn't actually speak Spanish, but she's fluent in English and Mam. She kind of speaks Spanish, but not fluently because right now there isn't really anyone who talks to her in Spanish, except us when we talk to her family. My companion did most of the talking while I responded to calls and texts and whatnot, and about 15 or 20 minutes later I realized why they wanted us inside - there was a full on blizzard! It still wasn't too bad by Utah standards, but they would rather have safe, unproductive missionaries than injured missionaries. We got permission for one appointment, but we had to cancel the rest from about 5 on, so Elder Gonzalez and I were stuck inside and we ordered pizza haha. We were the last delivery too, in Ohio if snow falls, or if it's too cold, or if the wind just blows too hard I guess, they close a lot of stuff. The kids have had 2 snow days since the beginning of the year. On one there wasn't any snow I think haha. We also couldn't exchange back that night like we planned, because apparently in Wilmington it was actually pretty bad, so they couldn't get out.
The next morning, we exchanged back and went right into an exchange with the zone leaders. They were getting a new apartment, so I basically just helped move haha. It was fun though, we went to Walmart and got all of the stuff necessary for a new apartment. Then we walked around and got rejected a lot haha, though we had a great meeting with some members that night. It was super fun overall! And I was able to learn a lot from that zone leader. It was a pretty amazing week overall, and we were able to do some great stuff! Sunday was likewise amazing, and I have grown to cherish taking the sacrament every week, there is nothing quite like it.
Also, thanks for writing as always, I thought Dad was particularly funny this week :) None of the other siblings wrote me, so if they ask about me then tell them I'm devastated, but really I'm not because email time is short this week with the holiday haha. I just want to give them a hard time about it ;)
Os quiero, [I love you,]
Elder Liddle
P.S. Sorry the email was long, I was really excited to tell you guys about some of the stuff going on though, it's been totally awesome!!!!
P.P.S. I also forgot about how we got another [investigator] at Church on Sunday, actually a different Colombian. The Lord has decided to bless us beyond what we deserve, but we're working hard to measure up to it!
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