Thursday, January 14, 2016

New Companion Elder Gonzalez

Church last week was SO great!! The mom and sister of Jose Manuel and Randy (two young men we are working with) came to church like they told us they would!! When we saw them walk in Elder Castillo and I almost jumped out of our seats. We were so stoked! And then one other less active guy we are working with who we have been inviting and trying to get to church for so long came!! When he saw us he gave us a big smile from across the room. It was fast and testimony meeting and bishop wanted all of us missionaries to bear our testimonies. I was more than happy to because I was so pumped up!
On Tuesday Elder Castillo and I made the most of or last day together solo because we recieved our new companion (Castillo's replacement) on Tuesday night. We were not very excited to be honest, but Elder Gonzalez (the new Castillo) is actually super awesome and fun and cool. These past days with him have been super fun and we are always laughing and having a blast. He for some reason thinks I'm like the funniest person in the world haha. Yesterday he was telling us how "We are working so hard and always busy and doing so much and there is never time to rest and it's exhausting! But these past 4 days with you guys has been the best and most fun I've had my whole mission!" So that was really cool to me because it goes to show that even though we are always super busy and doing important things (which sometimes causes us lots of stress) we still always manage to have a lot of fun together and enjoy ourselves. Working hard and being obedient doesn't mean you can't have fun. It's that while you are working hard and being obedient, you have fun along the way and enjoy what comes your way.
Elder Gonzalez worked for the East mission doing the same exact things he will be doing here in his position in the office so he already knows pretty much everything. Castillo's job to train him is like a piece of cake!
On Thursday we were in the middle of a super sick lesson and just about to blow it off the roof and explain the restoration when this super intense, anti-Mormon, filled with contention brother walked in and ruined everything. He went on a rampage of all this different stuff. Elder Gonzalez and him basically contended the whole time. They talked literally 80 miles per hour. I couldn't not pay attention for 1 second or I'd be lost. I just heard words and anger haha. I was just watching in ammusement at first, until the guy said something about how in the USA (as if he's even ever been there himself) a white guy can't/wouldn't be associated with a group of black people or be in their neighborhood. And he was talking about in modern time... So that's when I jumped in and was like "Oh really? Well what if I told you that I ran for a club track team and I was literally the only white kid on the whole team??..." And he was like "And did you get bullied?" "No, not once. In fact they always had my back in any situation and supported me for the person I was and the beliefs I had." And then he was like "well..." And then went on to some other random thing about the bible and by that point I was just like ok well we have to go cause its really not worth talking to you anymore. I was super annoyed. We ended with a prayer and they picked me to do it. The guy was like "yeah I would like to hear you pray, make sure it's a good one because I'm going to judge it." "You're going to judge my conversation with God?" I replied. "Yes." Man I was so tempted to be like "please bless this man to humble himself and stop being such an apostate." But I decided to just not add to the contention and say a solid prayer. After the prayer I looked at him and I was like "was that a good enough prayer for you?" "It was alright." He said. Luckily the whole time he was there our investigators who we were there for and having a lesson with weren't paying attention and it seemed like they thought he was a bit ignorant as well. Anyway so that was kinda a bummer.
For PDAY we went to Los Cocos for lunch at one of my converts house. Elder Gonzalez served in Los Cocos too so it was fun for him. Later on in the day we went to the church to play basketball with the young men. It was going well and we were all playing. But all of the sudden one of the kids just started freaking out and was crying and throwing a fit. He picked up a bunch of rocks and was chucking them at this other kid. We still don't even know what happened but we had to hold him down. He wouldn't calm down or stop throwing rocks so we put him outside the gate to calm down. While out there he broke a big rock so he could have little ones to throw. After like ten minutes he disappeared so we had to go look for him because he is like 10 so he can't be walking in the streets by himself. I went and ran like two blocks down and found him. I picked him up and carried him as he skwermed in my arms yelling "let me go! Let me go! I know how to get home! Greer let me go!" And I was like "I'm either going to carry you all the way back or you can walk. But I am in charge of you and I won't let you go anywhere by yourself." Eventually one of the high Councilmen  showed up and drove him back on his motorcycle. But other then that it was a fun time! Haha. 
Well that was my week. Love you guys!

Elder Greer