May 20^th 2013

 

This week was really interesting. We went to the mission offices on Tuesday and I got a new comp--Elder Betancourt from Ecuador-- newly arrived.  So I’m training again. Ames got a Mexican that has about 16 months and there doing pretty good. Things are going pretty good I miss Elder Ames but that’s alright. Elder Betancourt’s just kind of quiet but he a good missionary we will do good together. This pretty much secures my position here in Ecatepec for at least another change. President doesn’t put you with a new guy if you’re going to get changed right away.  Elder Betancourt is a pretty good teacher. I was super surprised. He is also very calm and humble-- a few traits that I sure appreciate. He has a hard core accent and sometimes I don’t understand what he’s saying and the members don’t either. He told me that he doesn’t want to get the Mexican accent because he is worried that he will end up speaking like an uneducated Mexican. haha that’s funny. His mom told him the same thing but he has to change his accent somehow because if he doesn’t change they are not going to understand him very well. So I told him to love the work and the people and not worry about the whole accent and to talk clearly so they could understand. I felt like if he thought that Mexicans were uneducated- that’s probably not the best way to love them. But he’s doing good. One of our investigators called us on Tuesday after finding us in the street one day and just shaking my companions hand that he didn’t want us to come by because he doesn’t like Central Americans. I was pretty ticked about that and his wife was one of the investigators that we had for the 26. So that a bummer.  Maybe I will send Elder Ames to teach him. It’s not his area but it’s the same ward so at the end of the day the information of him and his family will end up in the right ward. I think the guy is a racist or something but whatever I guess that’s all we can do. It’s kind of sad that we won’t be baptizing her for racism a problem how stupid is that.

 

Changing the topic-- my comp is a great teacher he went out with the missionaries before the mission for 2 years and was waiting for his visa for 2 weeks in Ecuador so he is teaching pretty well. That was a surprise. The other missionary I trained elder Sosa was kind of a joke he taught so funny that members laughed at him in the middle of the lesson and thought he was just joking around. It’s just because he taught super weird and really animated like really animated. Sometimes he made me laugh. Anyway  Elder Betancourt is good-- he teaches well but I don’t think he was prepared for the mission exactly because he got like 6 blisters in one day. and was walking really slow. He told some members that I walked really fast. Kind of funny. But it turns out it is his shoes that are the problem. So we went to the shoe store today and bought him new shoes with money he brought from Ecuador. Funny fact-- did you know that the official currency of Ecuador and El Salvador is the American dollar?  I didn’t know that. My comp busted out 180 bucks from his suit case and I thought "wow what American elder gave you so much money!!!" then he told me they use dollars in Ecuador how strange. So we bought him a good pair of shoes "flexi" brand they are the best here probably beat my Florshiems but not the Ecco. Eccos rock. but I’m getting by with my Florshiems.  I think the best combo for a missionary are Eccos to work in and a pair of cheaper good looking shoes to use on Sundays. That’s the best I think.

 

Things are going great. Pray for my comp-- he doesn’t like the food too much and his body is just having a terrible time adjusting.  I drained like 2 blisters on his feet for him the other night he was almost crying on the way home. He’s really hurting. Maybe I worked him too hard but he´ll adjust. It’s hard the first little while. But he’s not getting down about it hopefully with these new shoes everything will work out a little bit better. He said after putting the new shoes on that he could really tell the difference. ha-ha I bet you can I put his normal shoes on for a little while and could see why he got blisters the soles were like rocks!! ha-ha poor kid I will send you a picture of his feet there super gross! oh and we went bowling today and the 7 people we had set up for baptism this week 3 went to Ames and his companion and 4 to us but 2 didn’t show up to church and another one fell because they don’t like my comp so now we only have one. His name is Luis he is pretty cool he will be baptized this Saturday I think his kid has gone to church a few time and he is 9 we will see if we can get him baptized too. Anyway that’s the week 

 

Elder Hendricks

 

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