Family! this week was super duper long. after the hike last week for pday, i totally did not get any rest, so i have been trying to cover from that and that has not worked since every other day we are hiking an hour up the mountain to Parra to work. aye. but, its been good. we have a guy named Juan Antonio who is super amazing and really wants to get baptized and has a fecha for the 5th of November. he is 17 and is super excited for his baptism, and told us that he wants us to focus on him more so that he could get baptized faster hahaha.
So, i have a few stories this week. so on Thursday, we had a crazy intercambio. at around 2:15 the AP´s showed up and wanted to an intercambio with me and one other companion ship. but it was a crazy one because it was completely random, and one of the APs, elder black, was already on an intercambio with elder wilkes, one of our zone leaders. so black went with the other companionship and wilkes, our zone leader came with us. it was a strange say. we had like 15 lessons planned and we only taught a few, partly for the fact that it was a downpour. one of our lessons, we we in a bar, and the back wall was just full of alchol and above it was a huge picture of Mary and Jesus. it was awesome. that lesson was even more interesting because she kept breast feeding (note:not weird at all. happens 5 times a day) and the kid wasn't interested so she just left it out and kept pointing it out to us...it was super strange! then, we found out that she had a 14 year old daughter who lived with her husband (also, not weird. that is a very normal age to get "married" here) and her "husband" is 32. GROSS!! heebie geebies for sure.
Then Friday we all get up (elder black and wilkes stayed the night, so there were 8 missionaries in out house haha) and we have to be to Bani (down the mountain) for interviews by 8. well, we leave the house at about 8 and put all 8 of us in the AP´s truck, not a big truck mind you. but from living here for 16 months we are all really good at fitting unreal amounts of people in small areas. we get there around 845 and then interviews start. one of our zone leaders, elder de la cruz, his interview was over an hour. more on that later. but while pres was doing interviews, one of the elderly couples, the browns, took our keys and were doing house inspections. our house was clean, since the APs were just there and all, so no worries. then, Hna. Rodriguez, his wife, was talking to us about....DVD players! that's right. every companionship now has a portable dvd `player! and we can use it to listen to church music! oh man its amazing. we can also use it to watch church movies and to help us study with the Preach My Gospel DVDs- its really awesome.
Anywho, my interview went well, i really like Pres Rodriquez, he is an amazing guy. after my district was all done, we left and got some food and it started to downpour again. we then got a call from the browns that we need to come back an pick up our keys. all the other companionship's still had their keys, so they left to catch a bus back up to Ocoa. we went back to the chapel and got the keys, and asked the browns about our house, and i was totally not expecting the answer we got. she started freaking out, saying that our toilets are dirty (ya...that's what happens when you cant flush for a day or 2 when theres not much water and we don't have toilet scrubbers) and that it was filthy in every way. not true at all! i don't understand. elder black and wilkes both thought it was way clean, and black is an AP! hna. Rodriguez then told us that we couldn't have a p day and we had to stay home and clean. we then leave and go to get a bus to Ocoa. they are usually pretty full. and its about 20-30 min between buses. one passes, and its completely full. then another, also completely full. then another. finally, after 2 hours of waiting, at around 6:15 we get on the very last bus. we had to stand up in the isle, along with about 20 other people standing. it was awful. there were so many people that i couldn't even put both my feet down. i had to have one foot on top of the other. it was insane. and its not a short bus ride haha, we got to the house at 745 at night. lets just say i was (along with my companion) pretty crabby and utterly exhausted.
Saturday we had to go up to parra again, off schedule, since we were planning on going Thursday, but it was impossible since we got home so late. Saturday was a day of lots and LOTS of walking, and reminding people about church and putting appts with people for other days. Sunday, only Juan Antonio came to church. it was lame. So i dunno if i explained another time, but we have the branch in the city, and then in parra, since its so far, there is a school that we rent out for the day and have a meeting there in the morning for the members up there, but its not an official branch, just a different meeting house. but we were talking to the branch pres and we are thinking that we are going to change the time so more inactive members can go and so that we can visit both of the on Sunday and talk to out investigators that go to both. so that should be changing in the next month. then last night, i get a call from one of the elders in my house, telling me that our zone leader, elder de la cruz, is getting demoted. pres found out that he had a personal cell phone and was stealing and saving up misison money and such, so he peaced out this morning and we have a new ZL, i dunno who it is though. ill find out tonight. I'm super happy about it though, he was in my zone in san cristobal and he is a little weenie, really, i dislike him. every time i was around him i got the willies. and i hated being DL and talking to him every night. so yay hes gone! so this morning we deep deep cleaned the house, and it wasn't even dirty like i said, but got it sparkling (literally, its a new house and the missionaries have only lived there for like 2 months or so) and then we took pictures to sent to hna Rodriguez to prove that we cleaned it. so ya, that was my week! i love you all and hope you have enjoyed my pictures, ill try and take more to send next week! love you all!
Elder MacArthur
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