Buenas tardes family
mia!
Well it's been a
pretty crazy week, but I made it to Monday, so that's good! So last week
I was called to be a trainer and district leader, and Elder Elbaba and I were
doubled out of our area. So we spent the day saying goodbye to everyone,
had an amazing family home evening with a family we're teaching and a member of
the stake presidency, then came home and spent a ton of time packing and
getting the area all ready for the new missionaries to take over. Based
on who else was leaving in the Spanish zone, I was prepped to return to Dayton
to train mi hijito. So I wasn't all that surprised when I was called to
train Elder Adams in.... Dayton Spanish 1. That's right, I'm training my
son in the last years of my life in the place I was born! And now I will
die here. So yeah, basically this week has just been going around
visiting all of the members here and picking up all the investigators that were
being taught by the past missionaries. It kind of felt like a dream the
first few days; it didn't feel real. I was once again in the same
apartment, same car, and same area as I was when I started the mission over a
year and a half ago. Crazy! But it was so good to see everyone
again. And it was super crazy to see all of the change that's happened
since I've left. It's only been 4 1/2 months since I was in the branch,
but so much has changed! It's just been a really weird week.
Elder Adams is super
amazing! He's from Sacramento, and one week ago was in the Provo
MTC. It's brought back a lot of memories as we've gone through his first
week in the mission field... But yeah, he works really hard, has a great
desire to serve, and isn't afraid to share in the lessons, even though he's
still pretty new to Spanish. I got a super good companion.
Also in Dayton is
Elder Bradford and another new missionary, Elder Seegmiller. Turns out
that Elder Elbaba and Elder Bradford were both told they were leaving their
areas, but they both were sent right back to where they left. So I didn't
get doubled out after all.
We had some amazing
lessons, including one with a family that I was teaching when I was in this
area. The missionaries have kept on working with them, and when we went
be to see them the other day, they were in Jacob 4 in the Book of Mormon!
We had a powerful lesson about the blessings that come from reading the Book of
Mormon, and the Spirit was there very strong. We also went to visit
Martha (a recent convert who Elder Chandler and I found and started teaching)
and her husband, and we had a great lesson with them where we invited him to be
baptized. He said yes! So yeah, it's been a great week back in
Dayton!
Sunday I
had to go to a basically all-day meeting after church with the stake president,
mission president, and the zone leaders in this stake. I was the Spanish
branch rep. It was a great meeting, and it was pretty cool to see how
missionary work is viewed by the local area leaders.
I also got asked to
give a talk on Sunday.
I got up in front of all the people who I've seen basically every day for over
18 months of my mission and started my talk with "For those of you who
don't know me, my name is Elder Foote..." When Presidente Vilches
introduced the new missionaries in Priesthood meeting, he got to me and said
"El hijo prodigo ha regresado!" It's pretty good to be back.
Well, I think that's about it! Tell Ben and Jack congrats from me! Hope you all have a great week!
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| Elder Foote and new companion Elder Adams |
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| Elder Foote at Transfers |