Week 19: homemade pizza's that made the fire alarm go off during my video call home!

This was the first week with my new companion Elder Flores! He is a great missionary and has his quirks like we all do, but I'll talk about that later. This week was great and we fiiiinally set a baptismal date with Alen! Alen is the cousin of Manfred that we have been working with this past month, and he is progressing a lot! He's the same age as me and he likes to listen to the Beatles.
Anyways, this week was a rollercoaster, and here are some of the interesting things that happened:
Tuesday
We woke up super early to haul Elder Barahona's suitcases about a mile to where an Uber was waiting to take us to the offices in San Jose. In San Jose, I saw Elder Remy (my MTC companion) and my new companion!!!!! His name is Elder Flores, he's from Mexico, and he's more than a foot shorter than me. Then, right before we had to leave, I went to pick up a few agendas and out of the corner of my eye I saw a familiar face. Is was CLAYTON (my cousin)!!! I got to go say hi for a minute and it was super brief but fun:

and then that night I taught Elder Flores how to make pupusas!

Wednesday

Today we had our district meeting and it was super weird and way more serious because we lost Elder Thacker, López, and Barahona in the Transfers. Elder Flores was leading and it was much more formal than what I was used to, but at the end of the meeting we went to the piano and sang hymns from the children's hymnbook and that lightened things up a bit. Later in the day we went to Alen's house to give a lesson and invite him to be baptized. This was my first lesson with Elder Flores, and I really like the way he teaches. He is super powerful and direct, and isn't afraid of extending invitations like Elder Barahona and I sometimes were. In the end, Alen accepted the invitation to be baptized Nov 9th and confirmed Nov 10th!!!!!!

Thursday

Today was rough because we had plans to visit some people in Tobosi, but I couldn't remember how to get to their houses and I don't have the help of Elder Barahona anymore. I got off at the wrong bus stop, and we walked and walked and walked completely lost until I recognized a building and was able to find my way to their houses, but by then it was too late to actually have a lesson. So basically it was a mini adventure and the upside is that we got to know some new parts of Tobosi. At home we made quesadillas because Elder Flores missed them from Mexico and hadn't eaten one his entire mission! I forgot to take a picture of them

Friday

Today when we ate lunch with Hna Andrea she gave us a TON of pineapple. And it was the sweetest most delicious pineapple ever, but the problem is that you can only eat so much pineapple before your mouth starts saying please stop please pleeeease. But it was just too yummy. then Hna Andrea googled why pineapples hurt you mouth and in fact it's not because of the citric acid! Pineapple has this enzyme called bromelain that digests protein. So the reason pineapple hurts to eat is because bromelain is literally digesting the skin inside your mouth. Fun fact of the day

Later we went to Alen's house again and taught him (and his grandparents because they were there) the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity. Fortunately all three of them were super receptive and committed to living both commandments. 

Saturday

Today was kinda weird cuz something unplanned happened. We did our morning studies, ate lunch early because the Hermana had something come up, and then on the way home Elder Flores asked to use the phone to send President a message. That turned into a call, which I didn't hear because he kept distancing himself from me and speaking softly. I was already concerned about him and then he told me that we had to go to San Jose to meet with President right now. It wasn't until after this whole experience that I figured out that it's because he has depression. I'm glad that I know this now because now I can help him with it. We didn't have dinner planned so I bought him a burrito at this place called Monchis and wow that was the most delicious place I've ever eaten at. 

Sunday

Sacrament meeting was really good and I got to help Hno Poras (the guy with Parkinson's) play the piano. The highlight of the day was the ward family night activity that we went to. We watched the first book of Mormon video and discussed it and then played some games. One of them was the cookie-on-your-forehead games and Elder Flores actually got it!

Monday- Today we made homemade pizzas with the zone leaders and they turned out like this:

Quote of the Day:  Subway Experiment I guess it's more of a story of the day, but I want to look at it in a gospel aspect. Too often there is so much going on around us that we don’t stop to hear the Spirit talking to us. The Spirit is just like Joshua Bell… it is beautiful and amazing.  It will inspire and lift us when we are down, but we MUST stop and listen.  We must not be so busy that we can not see and feel the power and promptings that the Lord will give us in our lives.

Take some time today and make sure you stop and listen to the beautiful music the Lord is making in your life, and have a GREAT week!

Elder Hilton