The Church is True

Not much to write this week.  We had a decent week. 8/10 investigators from last week came to church again.  The mission has told us to look for another house in our area because they are gonna split our area in half and put 4 missionaries in our branch.  Other than that, it was a pretty boring week.

I want to tell all of those who read this blog that the church is true.  I know that that is a bold statement that some of you might not agree with, but I can assure all of you that it is true and that any person who asks God with faith to know if the Church is true will receive an answer from God and be able to say with the same assurance that the church is true.

Elder Casdorph

A Full Taxi

After Carnival, and our 3 1/2 days stuck in the house, my companion decided to contract a throat infection for the 3rd time in his mission and add another day and a half in the house to our week.  Despite only being able to work a couple of days we had an insanely successful week.  We didn´t teach many lessons or find many new people, but we had 10 investigators who came to church.  I think that before yesterday, the most people that I have ever had come to church was 4 and they were all part of the same family.

The most important of all of these investigators was the familia Yelma (where the Dad has now read up to Alma 38, more than half of the Book of Mormon).  We went to their house to pick them up to go to church in a taxi because they live really far away.  We then went in the taxi (an old Toyota Corolla) to the church with the taxi driver, 3 adult investigators, a 9 yr old, a 7 yr old, a 3 month old, and 2 missionaries.  I don´t think there are many things in the world that feel much better that going to church in a taxi so full of investigators that you have to have your head half out the window to fit in the taxi.

One of the members owns a micro (schoolbus-sized public transport bus)  that he uses to help people go to and from church and with the added surplus of our 10 investigators and 2 less-active families that we helped to go to church this week, it was just as full as the taxi.  It was an awesome feeling to have so many people in church and I hope that next week we will be strapping people to the roof of the taxi to go to church.

Elder Casdorph

Dengue

This week was turned out to not be the investigator finding jamboree that I had planned.  Monday afternoon, I had some pretty bad back pain.  I ignored it of course and left at 6:00 just like every p-day to go out and proselyte. The back pain was soon joined by a strong migraine as well as pain and general fatigue in every part of my body.  It turned out to be Dengue, a common mosquito-transmitted disease here.  It´s usually described as feeling like all of the bones in your body are broken.  I can now testify that that description is a huge overexaggeration.  While it doesn´t feel like every bone has been broken, it does feel like someone has taken the liberty of punching every single bone and joint while you were sleeping.  It´s also accompanied with with high fever, lack of appetite, and a lack of desire to do anything.  For me it also meant a week-long migraine that severely hindered my ability to think and consequently, my ability to speak Spanish.  I would like to assure any worriers out there that I feel better now, and I only have the last symptom of general itchiness.  I´m told that this means that the Dengue is basically over.

Due to this, I had to rest all day Tuesday and Wednesday and the following days were part rest and part work.  I am now feeling better, however, and in this next week we will be doing the planned investigator-finding jamboree.

Despite my sickness, it still turned out to be a great week as the family that we were teaching where the dad has now read all of 1 Nephi, 2 Nephi, and Jacob, finally came to church this Sunday.  They should be getting baptized the 23 of February.

Until Next Time,
Elder Casdorph

p.s.  I probably won´t send anything next week because we are going to be closed up in the house for the 3 days of Carnival, the holiday here that is basically 3 days of drinking, all sorts of sin and craziness in the streets.  During these days, the missionaries go to church, but other than that, we don´t leave the house, not even to write some emails home.