Gonna stay‏

SOOOOOOooooooooooooooo hey. This tuesday is yet another transfer anddddd... I am staying. Haha I'm not going to lie I am pumped to be here. I was thinking about the fact that i might leave saturday night and started tearing up and just pushed the thoughts out. Luckily I get to stay here. But my companion is going to another area. After 3 months with the turd I actually started to like him these last few weeks instead of just trying to like him. It will be fun to have a new face around here though. My 3rd companion in this area... should be a fun time.

But in thinking about this area and why it is so cool I started making a list in my head of cool things and I didn't even realize how extraordinary this ward/area is. It isn't every ward you go to where the couselors in the bishopric used to be addicted to 5 different things including cocaine. Or where your ward mission leader will tell you about the last time he had a gun to his head and narrowly escaped death by distracting the guy and punching the gun out of his hand(because it has happened more than once). (side note: I didn't beleive the story either, but when he punched the gun it went off shattered a window by him and during the fight his back got ripped up by the glass and he showed us the scars.) It is so crazy because you would never guess it by meeting with these people. They are so humble and loving and truely dedicated to following Christ that you would never guess in a million years they used to be so heavily involved in all the crazy nonsense around here. But they used to be. And they are still a pretty rough crowd if they have to be. For instance that same ward mission leader went to the cheifest crime leader and told them if anything happens to his kids or his family that people will have to answer to him. The dude is nuts really, but it is awesome. He loves doing missionary work and is always smiling, so whatevs. I am just really releived that I get to stay here and become even better friends with all of them so that after I can return to come visit them every once in a while.

I am reading in my personal study right now the record that Mormon writes about his life in the Book of Mormon, and somewhere in the 3rd chapter it talks about how he led and loved the people of his nation with all of his heart even though they were being rediculous. He talks about how he spent the whole day pouring his heart out in prayer for their wellfare and working to better their lives, and I feel like I am doing a work that is more or less like that here. The biggest difference is the people of his day were nasty and openly rebelled against God, and the people here are just lost and have no idea what their purpose is. It is way fun to hear testimonies of people that don't know how to express themselves very well because they just say what they are feeling instead of using flowery language, using words like "All I know, is when I read this book, or when I pray about it, I feel happy. And it is a happy that stays there. When I go to church on sunday, it is like I have armor all week. I want to be a part of your church. I want to feel this way forever." And I get to high five them and help them do that, which rocks.

But to throw a funny story of the week in there, my companion and I were at a house and he was having crazy diarrhea, so just when he couldn't take it anymore he asked to use the bathroom. even though he was walking calmly to the bathroom I could see his fists were cleched and he his hands were shaking because of the effort that the task was requiring, so I was already fighting laughter. THEN, milliseconds after going into the bathroom which doesn't even have a door (just a curtain) and is a whole 3 steps away from where I was sitting with the family, there was an explosion. It was so loud, and I was on the verge of losing control and laughing my guts out, but then the explosions continued. To "mask" the noise, he turned on the bathroom sink and started clapping and stomping and humming, but it didn't work. We could hear everything. It was world war 3 in there. And when he started clapping and humming I totally lost it, along with the grandma of the family. So us 2 are laughing and she grabs a roll of toilet paper and with the best intentions says "I think you'll need a bit more of this!" and throws it over the curtain at him. Man, I was crying. Us 2 and the kids. Then because we were laughing everyone was laughing. But he just kept clapping and humming and destroying. Then when he left a good 15 minutes later he acted like nothing happened and asked me why I was crying and the grandma was like "oh hunny, don't be embarrassed, but next time we'll go outside and let you finish before we come back in." trying to make him feel better. Man it was funny.

Oh and people think that I am portuguese now, so at least they think I am a native speaker, just from another country. It is like a chinese dude or a mexican speaking english with a british accent. Progress...? haha.

Welp I have to go. Lurves you alls.