Looking for people to teach

You got the information right. We are attending the Poway Spanish Branch which covers the Poway Stake, and Penasquitos Stake. So, the two sister missionary companionships cover the Poway Stake, and me and my companion cover the entire Penasquitos Stake. So far, we've been trying to find and contact all of the members that speak Spanish that attend each of the wards. We've been able to find several people, but so far, we haven't really been able to find anyone to teach. I can feel the lack of teaching wearing on me. I hate not being able to teach anything. I feel like I'm not fulfilling my purpose as a missionary unless I'm teaching something.

And this is actually the first that I've heard about any mudslide in Sardine Canyon. I'm glad that Sydney was safe, and that she came out of it alright. Were there any other people that we might know who were affected by the slide?

So last Monday, we received a referral from a member in Poway. We called the referral, and asked if we could stop by to teach him a little bit, and he said that for lack of time, he would just see us on Sunday. So on Sunday, we walked into church, and went to Gospel Principles. After a few minutes, the member walked in with his referral friend F. He's from Honduras, and was a bit eager to meet Elder M since he's from Honduras as well. They hit it off really well, and struck up a good conversation about Honduras, while I sat back and observed. 

This last week, we spent some time going around trying to meet some members and less actives, and we were able to meet several. The K family, X, H, B and N, the L family, and a couple of others were some families that we've met so far. We were even able to go do some service with the Penasquitos missionaries at a ranch house. Tomorrow is Missionary Training Exchanges, so I'm kind of hoping that I get to leave my area to go with another companionship somewhere else. I've always wanted to do that.

UGH. So. Big story. There's this member in the branch that loves to propose to every Sister missionary that comes through, so we've been keeping the sisters away from him. Anywho, our branch mission leader sets up this barbeque on last Saturday to go over to this marriage-hungry member's house. We were all kind of wary, but he told us not to worry. On top of that, the Zone Leaders wanted to come to our district meeting, and told us to move it to Saturday around the same time as the barbeque. So, on top of all of that conflicting schedule madness, our branch mission leader then tells us that he won't be at the barbeque. So, I call the barbeque off on the sisters' behalfs, and the Zone Leaders offer to bring some pizzas to give us. Then the branch mission leader calls the wife-hungry member to keep the barbeque on, which threw a triple-decker curveball at me. Amidst all of this, I'm trying to coordinate all of this information between both sister companionships, the Zone Leaders, the branch mission leader, and the creepy member dude. All of that happened within about 20 minutes Friday night, and 15 minutes again in the morning on Saturday. So that was a pretty stressful day.

On a lighter note, I was sitting there listening in Gospel Principles, and this little thing popped into my head. With the parable of the Good Samaritan, he pours oil and wine into the wounds of the Jew who had fallen by the wayside. Wine and oil were used in medicinal treatment back in those days, so it makes sense that the Samaritan would use those things. However, there's also a connection to the Gospel. Olive oil is used in priesthood ordinances. Wine is something that is a symbol of the blood of Christ which was shed for us. This kind of turned in my brain to be a connection to the sacrament, and how we can be healed from our spiritual injuries that may have caused us to fall by the wayside spiritually speaking. The sacrament is what every re-activating member desires to have in order to be clean from their sins once again. So, that was my thought for this week.

Have a great week, everyone!

-Love, Elder Crook