What are these two gringos doing at my door?

That's definitely the look we get every day... haha

 

This was a pretty good week.  We found this pretty cool guy named David, who's been wanting to get back into church lately, and we said we'd help him.  We taught him all about the restoration of the gospel and he liked it and the Book of Mormon, and it was really cool to see the spirit help him.  It all started with an invitation to church, but then evolved into a full-blown lesson (by the way, does anyone know where the term "full-blown" comes from?  I would guess glass blowing or baloons or something, but I don't know; I've found myself a lt more interested in all the idioms we use as I've been learning spanish...) and when we invited him to be baptised, it was clear that he didn't quite get it all, but felt so good about it that he couldn't say no.  He isn't set with a date yet, but we'll be working with him to get him ready and up to speed.

 

The members here are great, and the branch presidency is really excited about missonary work, so we're going to be working very closely with them.  It's been pretty neat that just as I've gotten to every area so far, the leadership has been trying to put together a plan for more member missionary work, and since I've seen and been a part of all the plans thus far, I feel like I am well-prepared to help here.

 

In this area the spanish side seems to have been struggling for a while, so we're going to be focusing pretty hard on that for a while.  One of the biggest things, I think, is the personal commitment of the missionaries to speak spanish together so as to learn how to communicate more effectively, so we've set a goal as a district to speak more spanish together (at least three hours a day per companionship; I was doing more before, but it was in an all spanish ward with more advanced speakers).  We're also going to ask all of the branch members who know English and usually speak to us in English to just use spanish so we can better help their friends.

 

It's a bit easier to eat healthily in this area, because the members tend to be more health minded.  It seems like more of the hispanics in San Antonio are "americanized," which includes less lard in all the food... haha

 

Well, I think that's pretty much it for the week... nothing too story worthy happened. Oh!  Except one thing: while I was on exchanges with the district leader we saw an imprint of a toad in the cement where he must have gotten stuck while it was still wet.  It was a little sad, but also really really funny! 

 

There's also a custom here of carrying a stick whenever you're outside, to defend yourself from the dogs...  We don't, but it's been okay because I bacame quite the dog whisperer in my last two areas.  I can befrend most and intimidate the rest haha.

 

Anyways, that's really it.  Have a great week!  I love you! 

 

ttfn

 

Elder Katzakian

 

Transferred!!

So here I am, accross the street from one of my old areas, learning all about the stuff on the other side of pleasanton that I was so curious about.  I'm actually in a different stake than the other ward, though.  I'm back on the south side of san antonio, covering two units.  We're in the mission creek ward and the highland hills spanish branch.  I was a little worried that I wasn't going to get to serve in a spanish area again, because I had six straight transfers in spanish areas, and that's more than a lot of missionaries get.  I have really applied myself to learning it, though, which means I got to come here, and all the rest of my companions will be people that I get to teach spanish. 

 

My new companion is Elder Von Niederhauser.  Now imagine, for a moment, a little old hispanic person who doesn't speak a lick of English looking up at us and trying to say our names.  That is how I know God has a sense of humor.  It's been a blast, so far, too.  Elder Von Niederhauser (or just Elder Niederhauser) is really funny and our personalities match up really well for working together.  I've been able to make myself (with the Lord's help, obviously) a lot more open and gregarious with people I don't know, and much more quick witted, and Elder Niederhauser is also really good at that.  Additionally, neither of us is really a conversation hog, so we share pretty evenly.  It's worked out pretty well.

 

 

So yeah, we're off to a pretty good start.  I haven't really had a chance to meet any of the investigators who were already here yet, and they're also all in english, so we've been focusing a lot on finding some more spanish people, and we have an appointment with one of the old investigators tonight, and another guy from mexico we met my first day here.  The branch is on the verge of becoming a ward, so I want to kind of focus my efforts there and do some reactivation and hopefully new baptisms as well, so they can have that.

 

I've also found a kind of renewed energy that I didn't expect, so I set some goals for my physicall and spiritual growth that will keep me working at the same rate of acceleration, because I found myself kind of slowing down a little in my last area.  I've seen a huge difference even just over the last few days.  My mile time is still under six minutes, by the way ;)

 

For St. Patricks day I made some green rice, so I'll have to send the pictures.  We are going to print some off right after emailing, so those will definitely be out today.

 

In sunday school, the teacher pointed something out that I found rather humorous... He said that a mother spends the first two years of a childs life trying to get him to walk and talk, but then spends the next two (or more) trying to make him stop talking and sit down.  Just something to think about... haha.  I love y'all a ton and will talk to you next week.

 

Love

 

Elder Katzakian

 

Another week...

This week was pretty slow again.  Not too much of anything happened...  The bishop did start a new, really cool program though. It was inspired by a general authority that visited (Elder Villareal). He's trying to get the whole ward council and all the ward missionaries to go out from four to six every sunday and visit less active members.  The last half hour everyone is supposed to meet back at the church and report the good experiences to help everyone else. This week was kind of sad because just the second counselor and ward mission leader (and all the missionaries) came...  The bishop was a champ, though, and decided we'd just go for it this week and hopefully the numbers would start growing.  I know a lot of people would've just put it off until the next week when hopefully more people would come. He knows the secret to getting things done though; just do it and lead by example.  So yeah, it was a pretty good week, but there really aren't any other stories.  Not much happened in the way of finding or teaching that's worth hearing about.  Oh! Max did come to church again and is getting more and more excited!  It's been a really gradual thing, so we'll see what happens.  Also, we get transfer calls next sunday and everyone seems to think I'm leaving.  Anyways, I've got to get going, but I hope everything goes well for y'all!  I love you  Elder Katzakian