Hey everyone,
I hope that you are having a good week. I am still doing great. This past week has been pretty cool. One thing that Elder Morales and I have been working on is finding more Spanish speaking people to teach. The part of Bakersfield that we are working in right now is sometimes hard to find Spanish speaking missionary work. One thing I really like about Elder Morales, is that he always speaks to me in Spanish. If we are teaching or just at our apartment, we speak Spanish. It has really helped my Spanish come along. There is something really cool in our area called a Swap Meet. They have it every Saturday and Tuesday in this huge open parking lot. Mexican people from all around Bakersfield come and set up these little booths and sell things. It is massive, you could buy anything at a Swap Meet from washer/dryer, to beds, to video games. Basically anything you can think of, they sell at a Swap Meet. The amazing part about it is that it is packed full of Spanish speaking people! So we decided to go and contact people there for a couple of hours and it was awesome. We met some really great people. We even had this guy whistle at us to come over and talk with him from about fifty yards away. He was a cool guy too, his name was Memo. He is a middle aged Mexican man who is going through a really hard time and asked us to come by his house sometime. We talked with him for a while and he is super smart too, he speaks several languages. He spoke some Hebrew for us which was sweet. We made an appointment with him for a lesson. We were bummed to find out that he lives just outside of our area. Although we won't be able to visit him, we passed his information along to the missionaries who work on the other side of Bakersfield and I am excited for him. We met some other people too, including Leticia. We were able to go by her house later that day and teach her and her three kids. I loved being able to teach in Spanish. It worked out really well.
This Sunday was great too. Yasira was sick so she couldn't come to church, but I was really impressed by Mario. When we called to ask if he could come to church and if he needed us to find him a ride, he said that he had already found one. Mario is a great guy. We talked to him at church, and he was in tears talking about the situation with Yasira. Their relationship has been struggling and he really wanted to make things right and go to counseling, but she hasn't wanted to. Mario says that as much as he hates the idea, he is looking for an apartment and might break things off with Yasira. He was having a really hard time with it though, because they have been together for a while and he really wanted to make things work. It was sad, but Mario is trying really hard to make the right decision. Mario knows that Heavenly Father has a plan for him and that everything will work out in the end. I am happy that he can see things that way. It really helps, no matter what difficult challenge you are going through, to be able to see the big picture and know that there is a plan for you. We will all have hard times, but we don't have to go through them alone. Heavenly Father loves each of us and is always there.
Well, I should get going. I hope you all have a great week. I am super stoked, I hear the high for tomorrow is supposed to be in the LOW 90's! I might even break out my long sleeves.
Much Love,
Elder Chad Thompson
I hope that you are having a good week. I am still doing great. This past week has been pretty cool. One thing that Elder Morales and I have been working on is finding more Spanish speaking people to teach. The part of Bakersfield that we are working in right now is sometimes hard to find Spanish speaking missionary work. One thing I really like about Elder Morales, is that he always speaks to me in Spanish. If we are teaching or just at our apartment, we speak Spanish. It has really helped my Spanish come along. There is something really cool in our area called a Swap Meet. They have it every Saturday and Tuesday in this huge open parking lot. Mexican people from all around Bakersfield come and set up these little booths and sell things. It is massive, you could buy anything at a Swap Meet from washer/dryer, to beds, to video games. Basically anything you can think of, they sell at a Swap Meet. The amazing part about it is that it is packed full of Spanish speaking people! So we decided to go and contact people there for a couple of hours and it was awesome. We met some really great people. We even had this guy whistle at us to come over and talk with him from about fifty yards away. He was a cool guy too, his name was Memo. He is a middle aged Mexican man who is going through a really hard time and asked us to come by his house sometime. We talked with him for a while and he is super smart too, he speaks several languages. He spoke some Hebrew for us which was sweet. We made an appointment with him for a lesson. We were bummed to find out that he lives just outside of our area. Although we won't be able to visit him, we passed his information along to the missionaries who work on the other side of Bakersfield and I am excited for him. We met some other people too, including Leticia. We were able to go by her house later that day and teach her and her three kids. I loved being able to teach in Spanish. It worked out really well.
This Sunday was great too. Yasira was sick so she couldn't come to church, but I was really impressed by Mario. When we called to ask if he could come to church and if he needed us to find him a ride, he said that he had already found one. Mario is a great guy. We talked to him at church, and he was in tears talking about the situation with Yasira. Their relationship has been struggling and he really wanted to make things right and go to counseling, but she hasn't wanted to. Mario says that as much as he hates the idea, he is looking for an apartment and might break things off with Yasira. He was having a really hard time with it though, because they have been together for a while and he really wanted to make things work. It was sad, but Mario is trying really hard to make the right decision. Mario knows that Heavenly Father has a plan for him and that everything will work out in the end. I am happy that he can see things that way. It really helps, no matter what difficult challenge you are going through, to be able to see the big picture and know that there is a plan for you. We will all have hard times, but we don't have to go through them alone. Heavenly Father loves each of us and is always there.
Well, I should get going. I hope you all have a great week. I am super stoked, I hear the high for tomorrow is supposed to be in the LOW 90's! I might even break out my long sleeves.
Much Love,
Elder Chad Thompson