Mason' Letter-- July 2, 2011

Hey familia,
 
Thanks for the pictures, they were really awesome and I loved seeing everyone. The little girls look like they are growing so fast, its crazy.

Well things here in the mission have been crazy as usual. This week was change week, so you know how that goes. I know how you feel mom, sometimes people think that things just magically happen and don't realize all the work that goes into making something happen. I never realized how much work everything was, until I started having to prepare it all. We started it off on Monday. First off we had a special lunch for the celestial zone which was Fesitranh (where I was a ZL). They baptized 41 people this month with 9 complete families. Way good. After that we had to go to the airport to pick up the new elders. the gringos got in at 6 pm and the Latinos at like 9 pm, so it was a lot of just waiting in the airport all day. Our driver this time was a different person, it was a lady. She was really cool and there was a ton of traffic so it took a long time to get out to the airport. So we took advantage and taught her a full lesson haha, she couldn't escape. But she was actually super interested and that was way cool. I hope she can progress with the sisters in her area.

On Tuesday we did the whole routine with the newbies. A few of them seemed really good, and one of them already spoke really good Spanish. We just did the training meetings with them, and that's always boring. Then we went contacting in a park like always and it went great. I love going with them and contacting because they never know what is going on haha. It's cool to see how much I've grown and how far I've come, and I love to help them feel good about themselves and start their missions on a positive note. They are always so nervous and anxious to learn Spanish and stuff. We just assure them that it will all come little by little. The Elder I went with didn't speak very much Spanish but he gave it a good try and wasn't scared

After that we got on the bus to head to President's house and a huge storm hit. I thought it was a hurricane at first. but it was pouring rain. I had never seen it rain so hard and a bunch of trees and stuff were falling over even. All the streets filled up with rain and looked like rivers, at one point a tree started floating down the street haha. But it stopped after awhile and left the city without light and a bunch of trees in the road and crashes. But we made it fine without problems. It gave all the new kids a scare. they asked me if that happened a lot. I said yeah this happens everyday don't worry. haha I think that scared them more.

Wednesday were the changes. Everyone thought I was going to leave the AP stuff and go to an area...as I did. But they were surprised to see that I stayed. I think a few missionaries are tired of me haha. Oh well. The change meeting went really awesome but it was sad because 18 great missionaries are going home. They are all my friends too. Elder Andersen went home, that was way sad. But after changes we got everyone on their busses and we got to spend the day with the old missionaries. That was the fun part.

The not fun part was getting up at 3:30 the next day to take them to the airport. This time we didn't wake up late. After saying goodbye to them all, we went straight back to the stake center where we had to have a special training meeting with all the sisters. All the ZL's have been complaining about them, so we decided to train them. It went all morning until 2 pm. It was way good and I think they learned a lot of really good stuff on how to teach. My comp and I showed them how to teach certain things, then they practiced, then a few would do it in front of everyone and we would evaluate them. It was a good meeting, but I was super duper tired. After that we had a meeting with President Veirs and planned some stuff for the change. Then the first counselor called us and needed us to rescue his family because his car broke down. So we took him to his house like an hour away, and got home late. I had never been so tired in my whole life like I was that day.

Yesterday we had to run around to all of the areas that we closed to take out all the beds and desks and stuff. We could only do 2 of the houses and it took all day. In one of the houses there was a ton of old crap, like old shoes and stuff that didn't work. So we decided to open up the house and a few neighbors went in and just took all the old stuff that we couldn't use anymore. They were really happy and couldn't have said "God bless you" more. One lady loved the pictures from the Liahona magazine that were pasted on the walls, so she ripped them all down and took them haha. It was funny. So we got back late last night as well.

Our plan today: write the fam, and rest haha. Don't worry dad, today we will relax a bit. I hope you all have great weeks. Oh yeah, great news. we were the highest baptizing mission in Central America this month (that's 2 months in a row) and we came in second place in number of families (2nd month is a row as well). The Area Presidency wrote us and they were excited about that. So are we. But we know that we can do a lot better! We need to win in number of families!!!

love Elder Mason Cardon