Nov. 27, 2017 Changes

So we finished the change this week. I feel like the changes are just going by faster and faster. Also I am leaving the area and going to have a new comp! So this week we were going to have a baptism but it fell through because the district leader was really pressuring our investigator. She said that she wasn't ready but the DL kept pushing her in the interview. I didn't like what I heard from her when she told us about the interview. I was upset with the Elder because he thought of her as another baptism another number and she is a person a daughter of God that wants to learn more about the gospel and just wasn't ready. But other than that we had a fun. We went and visited some people. Also one day we were contacting and everyone was super crazy. The first person that let us in was weird. We asked if we could say a prayer and he said No. I'm Catholic. What? That doesn't make sense? But okay? Then the next one said we were way out of what the Bible teaches. Normal answer. The next we just were trying to present ourselves like how old we are and where we are from and the lady said I don't remember when that was part of the gospel. We were like sorry??? The last one was ya come on in and it was great then we said that God has called a new Prophet to lead and guide us and he lost it. Nope. This church has to be false. God will not have a Prophet. It says in the Bible that there will be false prophets. So we said do you believe that God is the same today yesterday and forever? Yes obviously? Well then will you believe that God called Prophets like Moses Noah and Adam before now he will do the same and call a Prophet? No absolutely not! That is absurd! Who would ever say that is posessed by the devil!! Hahaha ya the people here are crazy. Also this week was Carnival. The second biggest in the world, right behind Brazil. Ya and we didn't get to go see the half naked girls or the girls just painted up. But to be honest that is all that I can say we did this week. Love you guys! 

Fotos

In the trunk of a car. 

When I took the stitches out of my finger by myself and the only thing they had was a pad to give me...

A cool place where we were contacting.

Nov. 20, 2017 Service

Hey fam! How is everyone doing? This week was successful I would say. So we have still been finding teaching and doing just about everything to help others come unto Christ and get rid of their sins with a baptism by someone who holds the priesthood authority of God. I enjoyed this week to be honest. So Monday we played softball and soccer. But the reason why we didn't write more than 10 minutes was because we let the sisters cook something and it wasn't even good but it took 3 hours to cook it.. Ridiculous. Anyways, Tuesday we worked hard and we put a baptismal date with Jesus. He is awesome and I just hope he changes his mind about a few things and changes to be baptized. You can see how bad he wants to be forgiven but he lacks a few things. Wednesday we got to go to the temple. I LOVE going to the temple. You learn so much and you just feel so close to your Heavenly Father. I enjoy my semi'annual visit to the House of the Lord. We didn' even get to go to our area after we had  left it in the morning. We got back at 830 at night and the last bus goes by at 630. I think we just barely missed it right? Haha so then Thursday we had a baptismal interview for Maria. She is going to be baptized!!! We are so excited for the 25th. Also we found a ton of new investigators. We found 8 in one day. So we are doing pretty good in all aspects of the work! We even had a service this week, well it was a really short service project because I almost cut my finger off with a machete cutting a tree down. We almost saw the bone!!! Haha so they gave me 2 stitches and even one is under my fingernail. Wow my finger really hurts. But ya! Just working hard to get those 'tisms. But ya. So that was my week. Hope you had  a great week. Love ya'll!!!

Voice recording:

Hey Fam!  What's Up?  Just clocking in from El Salvador we're in the morning right now and we're outside on our patio listening to the birds and looking at my Mango tree, the fruit that has the cashews on it, I have one of those trees at my house too.  I have a bunch of trees that don't even exist in the States here right now at my house, it's pretty cool.  But it sucks because right now we're in the season without fruit.  I have a papaya tree that has a ton of papaya on it though, it's pretty sick. But we're just sitting here, I was thinking about my week to talk to you guys.  I already wrote the letter, but like, this week up to Sat. it was amazing.  Well, Monday kind of blew, well, we had fun and everything, but didn't get to write and that kind of upset me.  But the rest of the week was great.  We honestly had a great week.  Then Sunday rolled around and no one went to church.  well, we had 2 people go to church, we had 2 people progress.  It was just really frustrating.  We have a sister that had her baptismal interview.  She is supposed to be baptized this next Saturday that comes.  I really hope it happens because I have been working so hard in this area to get another baptism and it just has not happened.    Like we are working incredibly hard to do this and I want to do what the Lord wants me to do, so it's just a little bit difficult  to get people to get baptized sometimes.  I mean, their agency, the thing is in this area right now is we find amazing people, they love it, they want to change and everything, but then they don't like to use their agency to do good things, like go to church.  Like it's really hard for me and the kid I'm training.  We're working hard and everything but we just can not find that person that goes to church that first time that we visit them.  We can not find that person that wants to be baptized.  IT is really difficult, but we'll be ok. 

This week was really good.  All except for the Sunday part.  But, I've been learning a lot in the scriptures.  President Durrant was telling us we needed to learn more about the Book of Mormon and the spirit.  I really like chapter 4 and 5 of Preach my Gospel, it really helps me understand my purpose and understand how I can help others come unto Christ more effectively.  Because I mean if I just sit there and teach them everything and they never read or they never feel the Spirit, they will never be baptized because who wants to be baptized.  Especially here, there's like a church on every single corner and there's like 3 churches on every block.  So everyone's baptized, everyone goes to church.
The week wasn't that bad.  We found a ton of NEWS this week.  Just working hard to get people to progress.  The mission life isn't the easiest thing. 
Oh and Sat. I almost cut my finger off with a machete, just so you all know.  Got a couple stitches and they put one of the stitches under my finger nail because there was nothing else to put it in.  It hurt so bad.  Still hurts.  Bleeds a ton. Always have to clean it.  Almost saw the bone.  You'll see the pictures. 
Have a good one!

Nov. 13, 2017

Hey Guys!!!! How was your week?? Mine was just lovely. I had some fun this week. First off we are in a NEW HOUSE!!! Soo happy like beyond belief. 1. The house was ugly 2. It had mold growing and not for our fault. 3. The neighbor who is the sister of the owner is CRAZY. She woke up at 5 am every single day to  throw on some music full blast and wake us up. So when we moved we left a few things that weren't ours but weren't the owner's either. But the crazy neighbor had to come in the house. She sees a box that I really thought was the owner's and picks it up then literally and I mean literally throws it on the floor and says "This isn't mine!" We honestly started laughing but we couldn't laugh at the same time. Wow it has been a joke all week long. After moving the next day we had a purification activity. Where we were all going to change and be more pure and obedient missionaries. So my comp and I are trying to be better missionaries in a few parts of the work. We are also trying to get Selena to be baptized. We are going to do her interview this week so we might have a baptism coming up. Pretty excited for that. The members still are not being all that great but the attendance is going up. So this week we also used the talk from 2006 by David A Bednar and they shall not be offended. Yes I remember this talk from when I was baptized. I still remember listening to this talk. I didn't capture all of it as an 8 year old but I remembered the part where he says that we choose to be offended. So last Monday I was looking for the talk and I sure did find it. Wow was I happy. We shared it with a few of the less actives in the ward, because almost all of the less actives are less actives because someone didn't visit them, or because someone said something mean or whatever it is, it is always the member's fault. So we shared this talk with them and they said the same thing that the talk said, Well I never thought of it that way. So there is a talk if you need one to use in your next talk in church if you don't have a topic. Also during this week I got to weld a car!!! Hahaha I was so happy. Show Jason Bingham and tell him to cut me some slack. I know I need more practice. But that was my week love you guys! 

Nov. 6, 2017 Didn't get sick!

Fried Bananas 

This week was a really good week I would have to say. We had fun worked hard and just are doing really good. We visited a ton of people this week. We even had interviews with President this week. Hahaha I told him about what happened in the ward last week and how the attendance is going down really fast... He said that he would make an appearance in one of these days that are coming closer. The assistants talked about how we have to follow more rules and be better at all that jazz. Just normal mission stuff. To be honest I love President Duran. He wants us to be the best and he pushes us to our limits I feel like. I mean he wants us to baptize every week, which is not an easy thing to do but it is obtainable. He wants us to love others as Christ loves us and told us "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" Hahaha another thing that happened is that just earlier this today we left to visit with a member and we passed by the church at 4:30 but we saw something super cool. We saw one of the counselers of the bishop and a counseler of the Elders Quorum washing their cars. I was like wow cool car wash. We asked the member why he didnt invite us? Hahha but the member likes to machete others so he sent a message to them saying can I bring my car tooo wash too? The other members were like when did you see us and we just responded what? We were visiting in Chapel super far away from the church. So just typical church leaders for ya. Wow I am just loving the mission. It is super difficult especially in these months but it is amazing. I had never thought about the mission this way but I am here helping others have a better relationship with Christ and our Heavenly Father. Sometimes I wonder what would the people do if we weren't here to teach them? Also the same question that President Nelson said in conference. Where would I be or this person be without the Book of Mormon? It is a question we should ponder many times. Not only one and done. Now here in the mission it is starting to get a little hotter. The rain is starting to go away. However, the nights are still cool well if you think 80 is cool. But the days are like 90 to 100 so ya I guess the nights are cool. Haha I am all over the place in this letter. Its because I am always tired in the night... But it is all cool. I hope you had a great week! Love you all

Your Boy,

Elder J. Lancaster