"Survive"

I'm pretty excited about all the things that are happening in Cayenne. The members are really starting to believe that this work can and will advance. Their faith is increasing...the members who speak Spanish are already there..the others are coming...baby step by baby step. As we have been committing more and more members to read the Book of Mormon and to do missionary work they are having faith promoting experiences. And the example of the Spanish members helps as well. We were able to have 22 lessons with members this week...just about every lesson we had was with a member. I was thrilled to hit that goal as I had never hit that before, or come close. However, we fell short in reaching our other goals. Repentance has been made and we will do better this week. I was especially discouraged we didn't get 70 contacts...As great as the lessons with members were this week we are deciding to shift our focus on reactivation and contacts. I love this area in Cayenne. I'm learning many great lessons here, and I know that we will be seeing success here. It's great because our branch president is great...he is young and learning, but he is willing! So onward we go

Elder Copa is doing great. He is a good missionary and a great companion. We are getting along great.

This week I had a great experience during my fast concerning the importance of our goals and the importance of reaching them. Goals are the stepping stones to perfection. We use commandments and goals to better ourselves. And as we strive to meet those expectations set by ourselves and God we sometimes don't accomplish those goals and we come up a little short. Some people become discouraged.. but at this moment it is so important to repent, and turn ourselves towards Christ and rely on his grace so that he can make our weaknesses strong. He will increase our faith so that we continue on the climb to Eternal life, instead of despairing and giving up. I wish I could just slap myself spiritually every time I get discouraged... but I know I can reach all the goals that I set and that Heavenly Father expects of me...IN life...at home, but especially on my mission.

HAHAHA. Mom, I especially liked this email from you...some good stories and some nice colorful language... well this week was incredible...it is pretty surreal to be in Cayenne...it all really feels like deja vu in learning Spanish. We are doing about 50% of the work in Spanish, and I taught about 10 lessons this week in only Spanish with a new convert, Geoffrey, as my companion. IT is hard! I don't know how Maclaine did it, but it's not that similar to French. Luckily I have some of the techniques of learning a language down already, unfortunately it's still a slow process. The headaches are starting to come back like I had with Elder Garotta, but its definitely fun. Lets see though... The Spanish folks (mainly Colombians, Venezuelans, and Peruvians) are awesome! I love them to death..i kinda feel guilty but I definitely love them more than French folk...haha not gonna lie...Harry was right in dumb and dumber...but the french are sweet too! The only problem with the Spanish is that they are all refugees and have no jobs or food...It is great because they are at such a point of humility where they thirst for the gospel(most for the restored gospel), but there are many obstacles in their way to come to church. This Sunday some of those were distance, one had a job interview, another got a job for the day that would get him a meal...so the conditions are really poor. But the truly faithful will be sorted out by their perseverance and faith during these trials.

It doesn't help though that food is extremely expensive...we have no choice but to eat two meals a day...and its usually just a bagget with stuff, or rice, or pasta. It's lame cause there are NO fruits here..the only fruit I know is one we actually found...it is good but kinda weird and I don't even know the name of it..nothing great or cool

Sorry I don't have any super cool stories this week that Tuck, Hill and Ash would like...it was a kick butt week though.