Buenas tardes familia,Well this week we got our new mission president! In case you don't already know, his name is President Terence L. Robinson, and he was born in Texas but has roots in Mexico and was currently living in New York. He teaches Pomology (fruit and plant biology) at the University of Cornell and his wife doesn't speak a lick of Spanish. We had a zone conference with him on Wednesday and the first thing that stuck out to me about him was that he was freaking TALL. Like 6'5'' I'd say. So I got to talk to him a bit before the actual conference actually started and he seems like a really nice, sincere man. He also spoke to us using 'tú' instead of 'usted' so that was actually kind of a nice surprise to be honest (you have to know Spanish to understand the difference). He talked to us about his goals as a mission president, his experiences he had in preparing himself for the calling, as well as talking about the Spirit and its' role in conversion. To say what I thought about him in just a few sentences would be saying that he comes off as more of an inspirational leader and father-like figure where on the other hand President Hernandez came off to me (personally) as more of a boss and formal leader. Neither one is worse than the other, but as far as a first impression that's what I was able to feel and see from him. So in other words I'm super excited and I was really impressed from what I saw from him.
This weekend was also the 4th of July so what I was able to do for it was...nothing!! Haha what a surprise. It's obviously not celebrated down here so essentially nothing was different for me here. It really just reminded me how blessed we are to be living in such a great country and how much I miss the life and culture there. I really just wanted to have a big BBQ and grill burgers and light fireworks haha.
We were able to set baptismal dates for a whole family of three! This family was definitely prepared for the missionaries to come back and visit them again because they had already been talking about fasting and going to church on Sunday. The husband Julio lost his job last week so they wanted to have a special fast and we were right there to teach them how to do it! haha. They even went to church for the first time on Sunday and the only thing holding them back is that they need to get married but they even told us they were willing to do that before the baptismal date. So as of right now we have four people with baptismal dates scheduled! This area definitely has a lot more work than the last, so it's been nice. The only thing that's been sucky lately has been the weather. SOOOO freaking hot. We came home one day just drenched as can be from the sweat, I felt like I had just jumped into a jacuzzi and then went and sat in a sauna for hours. My shirt and pants were suuuper wet, it was nasty haha!
Well that about sums up the week I had. Enjoy yours :) Love you guys
Con amor, Elder Thayne
This weekend was also the 4th of July so what I was able to do for it was...nothing!! Haha what a surprise. It's obviously not celebrated down here so essentially nothing was different for me here. It really just reminded me how blessed we are to be living in such a great country and how much I miss the life and culture there. I really just wanted to have a big BBQ and grill burgers and light fireworks haha.
We were able to set baptismal dates for a whole family of three! This family was definitely prepared for the missionaries to come back and visit them again because they had already been talking about fasting and going to church on Sunday. The husband Julio lost his job last week so they wanted to have a special fast and we were right there to teach them how to do it! haha. They even went to church for the first time on Sunday and the only thing holding them back is that they need to get married but they even told us they were willing to do that before the baptismal date. So as of right now we have four people with baptismal dates scheduled! This area definitely has a lot more work than the last, so it's been nice. The only thing that's been sucky lately has been the weather. SOOOO freaking hot. We came home one day just drenched as can be from the sweat, I felt like I had just jumped into a jacuzzi and then went and sat in a sauna for hours. My shirt and pants were suuuper wet, it was nasty haha!
Well that about sums up the week I had. Enjoy yours :) Love you guys
Con amor, Elder Thayne