Bannon's Mission Blog: Easter Week!

March 30, 2016

This week was "Semana Santa" which is Easter here. They celebrate it for three days. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Its usually the worst week in the mission work wise because everyone is either out of town or super drunk.... But surprisingly Friday and Saturday were awesome days! I don't know how, but we managed to have some pretty good numbers last week and good lessons. Sunday afternoon was pretty terrible because the whole city was at the main park in Navarrete doing some weird tradition where they all gather at the park and burn a big doll of Judas. And they all just trashed the park and there were tons of beer bottles and alcohol left the next day... But it's okay because we had such a bomb day in church! We had so much success! We had 8 investigators in church and 3 less actives we are working hard with. We have so much potential here! We are so close to putting solid baptism dates. Elder Murray and I are working super hard and trying to be creative and find, find, find. In the district meeting this past week, I talked about how as a district leader, I am always going to push for numbers. I am always going to be competitive. I am always going to set higher goals for us all. Because if we do that, we will get better. I am really trying to make it way fun and make everything a competition. Every night when my district calls me to tell me they are home, I ask how many lessons they got, and how many with members and stuff to see who did better and then I always joke around and say something like "Ha! We totally creamed you guys in lessons with members today!" or "Dang, you guys beat us, but its okay because tomorrow we are gonna make a comeback and totally destroy y'all!" And if that means we have to leave earlier to do it, so be it. Its all about the sacrifice. So that's something I really enjoy is pumping up my district and making it like a game or a competition, not to say we have higher numbers, but because it will help us to be focused and concentrated and determined to work harder, find more people, sacrifice more, and just do all we can and go all out for our area. And we have definitely been seeing the blessings!

So quick cool little experience this week, yesterday we were walking in an area we haven't been to in our area and we walked by this huge wall of a bush. Out of nowhere we heard a voice say "Hey Americanos." So we stopped and tried to talk to the guy, but we couldn't see him well through the bush. He kept talking and told us to go talk to this lady a couple of houses down. He told us her name and that we need to talk with her. It was funny because we have been determined to receive references from people this week and out of nowhere, from some random voice in the bushes, we got one! The guy told us she needs the gospel. I tried to find a way in to see the guy's face and talk with him face to face but I couldn't find a way in. I was like, " Hey Thanks! I want to talk with you too, how do I get in?" and he kept telling me to go talk with her, so i finally did. The lady ended up being so awesome and her mom was there too and we set up a time to come back. When we passed by the guy in the bush again to say thanks, he was not there. Super weird, haha, But I thought it was pretty cool because he said it in a really specific way and we looked and looked to try and see him through the bush but couldn't. So it'll be interesting to see where things go with the lady!

Alright well enjoy general conference this week! I am super stoked!!

Love you.

Elder Greer