Biking it and Liking it

March 28, 2011 Well, here I am in La Paloma. Its been quite an interesting week! One of lots of growth and trust in the Lord as always, but we are super positive. There is lots of work to be done, but I´m SUPER excited! La Paloma is pretty much like a Hawaiian beach town. There are about 60 members on the records and about 30 to 35 that regularly attend. We meet in a little house that the Church rents. It even has a little sign on it. The baptismal font is in the closest church in Rocha 30 minutes away or on the beach. Needless to say its a pretty interesting place. I love it of course! My oro is Elder Castillo. If you haven´t noticed, he has the same name as my trainer. However, he´s NOT from California he´s from Peru. The majority of the members are widows. The branch president is Elder Hegerhorst. He and his wife are serving a senior couples mission. We live with them for now. They are finishing their mission this coming month. So we´ll see what happens. We have to find a new apartment to live in! Oh well, its surely an adventure! The place is really calm. During the winter months, the town pretty much shuts down except for the people that live there. They pretty much make their living in the summer then close shop. They live off of tourists. There are about 5,000 people during the winter months, and 50,000 during summer. We´ve found some people to teach and we hope will progress. The Hegerhorst´s don´t know too much Spanish so I get to help them out. They are really sweet and have grown a whole lot here. I can´t imagine how difficult a job it must be to serve a mission in that way! This last week, we just tried to get to work and do as much as we could. Even though few people live here, the area is HUGE!!!!! I got so confused. Luckily Elder Hegerhorst was able to take us around to visit a lot of the members and to show us the area. We now feel a WHOLE lot more comfortable in the area. We even have bikes! My companion is an awesome hard worker. He´s from Lima. He´s a great sport about everything and is teaching me a whole lot, despite the fact that I´m his trainer. He´s got this down already. I´m so excited for what the coming weeks hold in store. I´m super excited for General Conference this Sunday. We will be watching it from the district center in Rocha. I am so thankful for this glorious gospel. It is such a great blessing to know that Heavenly Father lives. That He loves us. That Jesus Christ came to save us from our sins, and that He has a living prophet on the earth today. p.s. CONGRATS ON YOUR MISSION CALLS MITCH AND SARAH!!!!! The mission is the best experience you will have ever had up to this point in your life. Enjoy every moment of it!