Week 12

Hola all of you lovelies.

My apologies, I always tell you about my week, but never ask how you are doing. How rude of me. So... how's it goin'? ..... Haha, wow that's crazy. And how are ya holdin' up? ..... Yeah, me too.

As you can see, my mental state is still in GrEaT shape after being inside for the past month. Speaking of which... Happy one month of social distancing!! WoOoOoo 🎂🍰 Time goes by so fast yet so slow. Sooo sooo slooow.

So this past Thursday was Elder Clark's birthday!! WoOoOoo 🎂🍰 It feels like just 42 days ago I first met him. We were initially going to celebrate by baking a cake and partying (doing missionary work) all night long (til we have to sleep at 10:30). However, arguably the coolest family in our area, the ❤ Ropers ❤, offered to bring us some sushi for dinner, and boy oh boy was that probably the best food I've eaten since I've gotten here. They went all out and bought us one of the best chocolate cakes I've ever tasted as well.

And to top it all off, they dropped off a 🎵KEYBOARD🎵 that was collecting some dust at their place as well. So now I will never be bored... like ever. Was it my birthday or Elder Clark's?? I don't even know! So I am super grateful for the Ropers, my area, my mission, and the mercy of God to give me the possession of a keyboard so I don't lose my mind here.

So this week completes my 6th week in the mission field, so that means we have transfers are tomorrow, and I got hit big time. Elder Clark is getting transferred as a Zone Leader to a different area in the mission. I will still be covering this area, but am moving from this apartment to a member's basement with another companionship. Because Elder Clark is leaving, I'm going to be getting a *new companion*, Elder Turner, who was also Elder Clark's trainer.

This creates a very weird family tree. Because Elder Clark was my first trainer, he becomes my "dad". And because Elder Turner was his first trainer, Elder Turner becomes my "grandpa". You following along? Aight. So the title given to the second trainer is "step-dad", sooo... my "grandpa" is going to become my "step-dad". So thank goodness this not a real family tree.

Also, the other companionship that we're rooming with will be Elder Olachea (my Peruvian companion that trio'd with Elder Clark and I this past week) and his new companion, Elder Hernandez.

So hopefully, this next transfer will be a lot more exciting with a new companion, new home, and more missionaries to spend the next six weeks with inside all day woOoOoo!!! Or hopefully this whole virus thing blows over these next few weeks and we'll be able to actually do things outside for a change. But who knows? (God does 😉)

Whelp, I'll see all you guapos next week. Stay safe. ily 😙

Elder Terry

Fotos:

1) We were asked to take a picture for a Facebook page, but that whole thing fell through, so here's the picture I guess.

2) Meal of the week: Sushi (by a landslide). "Tasted great going down; not as good coming back up" - Elder Olachea, who's probably allergic to sushi.

3) Sushi con pastel deliciosísimo. 11/10 sushi and cake.

4) Sushi squad

5) KEYBOARD WOOOOO

6) Bruh you know those birds in the morning that go "ooOOA OOOoo... Oooo... ooo..." Yeah those ones. I have always heard, yet never seen one of those gosh darn annoying birds... EVER. When all of the sudden while I was studying, I heard one, reeeallly loud. I looked out the window, and literally 3 feet from my eyeballs was that bird. I can now die in peace.

Week 11

Hola everyone!

This past week has probably been my most favoritest week in the mission so far. We saw a bunch of miracles, had some surprises, and had EASTER WOOO!

One of the biggest surprises that we had this week was that Elder Clark and I got ANOTHER COMPANION whaaaat?! Yeah! So on Thursday, we got a call from the mission president's assistants saying we were getting a third companion. A couple hours later, Elder Olachea showed up at our apartment and has made these past few days WILD!

Elder Olachea is from... get this... Lima, Perú. He's from where I was supposed to get called to, which is super cool, cause I'm learning a bunch from him about Perú, and I'm also speaking a lot more Spanish cause it's his native language, and speaks it around the apartment. So every time I talk to him, I try to speak Spanish, so I'm learning a bunch, and it's starting to flow a lot better. I'm basically a native now #latino

When he joined us, he also brought his area with him, so now all three of us are in charge of both areas. This means we have more people to teach, more lessons to teach them, and more missionary work to do!! It's a mission goal to teach at least 20 lessons a week per companionship. Normally we get about 20-25 on average each week, but this past week, we taught 41 lessons!! Gosh diddly darn this week has been a hoot and a half.

We've also seen a bunch of miracles this week as well. So now that we're indoors all day, it has been super difficult to find and teach new people that might be interested in hearing a message from us cause we can't go outside to teach. So we've been solely relying on the help and missionary work of the fantabulous members in our areas to refer us to friends and people that might be interested. Out of the blue, we received four referrals earlier in the week, which is crazy since we'd be lucky to even get just one!

Easter was also super awesome. At the end of the day, we realized that we really didn't do anything to celebrate it, pero está bien because all of our studies and lessons were centered on the life, Atonement, death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. So in that sense, we celebrated Easter exactly how it should be celebrated.

This week was awesome. It's so much fun to have another person in the apartment to talk to, and my sanity is starting to return a bit. I love you all. ¡Feliz Día de Pascua!

Elder Terry

Fotos:
1. The squad at a park to take a breather. Well it was hard to take a breather cause we have to wear masks now every time we go outside.

2 & 3. Elder Clark, Elder Olachea, and me during a lesson with arguably the coolest family in the ward, la familia Roper. (Sorry for pic quality and rotation, that's how it got sent to us )

4. Donald Trump in the Tabernacle Choir?!? These are the things you see when you actually pay attention during General Conference

5. Meal of the Week: *Borger*
Looked normal, tasted sublime
9/10

Week 10

¡Hola todos!

¡Espero que ustedes estén saludables y vivos! Para empezar, es muy importante para saber su demográfico. Entonces, hablaré en ingles from now on haha.

So more news relating to the CoronaVirus is that all of the missionaries that did get sent home this past week, for health reasons/were international missionaries, are getting released as missionaries. I got two things out of this announcement.
1. I am indeed way more grateful that I didn't get my Visa and that I'm here serving in Salt Lake, cause otherwise, I wouldn't even have my calling as a missionary right now.
2. The church is inspired to make decisions like these, meaning that they released the missionaries knowing full well that it'll take some time before this whole CoronaVirus thing blows over. So sit back and grab some popcorn, cause this might be a while 😧😩

This past weekend was General Conference, where all of the general authorities of the church, including our living prophet on the Earth today, Russell M. Nelson, speak to us about whatever topic they feel inspired to teach. In preparing what they will speak about, they pray and receive revelation from our Heavenly Father through the Holy Spirit to give us a message of guidance and hope. This was super duper cool to have this past weekend, cause we all needed a bit of guidance in our lives during these rough times.

This General Conference had a theme about the Restoration of Christ's church on the earth today. This was because it was about 200 years ago in the spring of 1820, when our Heavenly Father and our Savior, Jesus Christ, visited Joseph Smith, and through him they began restoring the fullness of the Gospel of Christ. This inciting event in our history is what led to the translation of the Book of Mormon, which gives us the doctrine and teachings we believe in today.

I'm starting to get pretty used to this new lifestyle of staying inside all day and teaching lessons over the phone, so it's definitely going to be an uncomfortable change going back to walking all day and teaching in person, whenever that day might come.

I have a strong belief that we have a loving Heavenly Father, and that we are His children. Because He loves us, he gives us prophets, to help us receive modern revelation for us in this current day. I invite you all to search for and follow the words of the prophets, whether that be from the Bible, Book of Mormon, or by looking up General Conference online, and finding their words for us in this day. By doing so you will receive more guidance and comfort.

¡Gracias a todos por todo!

Elder Terry

Fotos:

1. Between two of the sessions of General Conference, Elder Clark and I as well as our Zone Leaders Elder Merkley and Argueta got some Wendy's and then hiked up a dirt mound and ate on it. The scenery was beautiful and twas the perfect weather. We stayed longer than expected and ended up having to teach a lesson over the phone.

2 and 3. Meal of the Week: *taquísimos*
So a taquito is grammatically a "small taco" meaning a taquísimo is a "big ol' spankin taco", or in this case it's a taquito... filled with taquitos.
"I give it a 10/10 concept and a 7/10 taste. Would recommend." -me